No comments about Mosaics - West 8.

1 comments about Contemporary Urban Planning (8th Edition).

1. This book gives a broad spectrum of what to expect in the planning field, but there are a few flaws. One is that the book is not written for the technocratic planner, it is written for the beginner or someone who is not going to make planning their career. But this book will give the beginner a broad basis to start from and for this I do suggest the beginner to read this before they choose planning as a career.

No comments about Modern Architecture A-Z.

5 comments about Cottages by the Sea, The Handmade Homes of Carmel, America's First Artist Community.

1. If you're into Carmel like I am, you'll love this book, perfect to browse through when you get sentimental and miss Carmel and it's beauty... I keep it at my coffee table, so guests who've never been there can look, ooh and ahh, and daydream of what it might be like to go there. Nice and thoughoh, <--sp? but yeah, it's a great, great book, definately buy, if anything just for the pretty pix.



2. I keep this book nearby, like a bouquet, to look at from time to time for the simple pleasure of it. The pages convey not only the
   architecture of a period and place, but the personality of an era.
   This is a companion book; to be cherished forever.



3. I'm not sure how attractive this book would be to the general public. For me, it reveals the stories behind many of the houses I grew up with. As a Carmel native, I enjoyed learning the stories and histories of many of our local homes. The photographs are nicely done, and the text tells the information in an interesting presentation. I do wish that a local map had been included, to help pinpoint the location of some of these homes.



4. I am an architect. I live near Carmel and have a special fascination for these houses. Applause to the author. There are lots of beautiful photographs and the history is facinating. I would always like to see more diagrams, interesting details and floor plans, especially for the house called "Hansel". However, this is an excellent book, the best one available on the subject.



5. I opened this book as one would a box of expensive hand-crafted Belgian chocolates and savored each page. The photos are luscious, the text tart and logical. Interior and exterior views of cottages and Jeffer's stone tower remind one of European villages.

   Sarah Susanka's "Not So Big House" and "Creating the Not So Big House" are both good, yes, but nothing in them sets off the same resonate sensation as seeing "Cottages by the Sea." This is what real homes can be: shelters for the mind, body and spirit, places of rest, security and inspiration.

   I'd write more, but excuse me---I'm booking a trip to Carmel.

2 comments about Georgian Architectural Designs and Details: The Classic 1757 Stylebook.

1. I don't think balance, proportion and line can be taught. You either have it or you don't, but it definitely can be cultivated by exposure to construction challenges and real-world building. Swan practiced architecture based on a journeyman's experience with high 18th century design. His elevations are balanced and pleasing and his moulding details are sophisticated, stately and restrained. This is a must-have book for anyone who enjoys classic design or who wants to understand balance and restraint.



2. This is a very useful book for those interested in the nitty-gritty of Georgian architecture: floor plans for houses of various sizes, drawings of ornamental bridges, and architectural details including designs for whole walls.

2 comments about New Classicists: Ken Tate Architect, Selected Houses Volume Two.

1. good and nice book unfortunately it wasn't properly protected and it arrived a bit damaged like some of the other books that came in the order
   Hope next time I receive an order with better handling and shipping



2. The projects shown are extremely well executed.
   
   The book combines photographs and drawings in a way that allows the reader to actually learn something about residential design.

4 comments about American Farmhouses: Country Style and Design.

1. this is a very nice and informative book anybody who likes country and primitive will surely enjoy this book



2. I grew up in California agriculture and the houses selected for this book bare little resemblence to Western farmhouses. All the houses are from east of the Mississippi, mostly East Coast and very old. There is one Texas farmhouse from the Civil War era.
   
   It seems that the design strategy of the owners has been to restore the old farmhouse ambience with older style elements. In California we try to reach the ambience of the farmhouse but with modern elements and techniques. If this is your objective then the book is still interesting but it won't give you much direct inspiration.
   
   I rate it three stars because the author forgot that the western US has its own farmhouse style and we happen to be American also. A more appropriate title would have been "Colonial American Farmhouses".
   
   - jim



3. This book could revolutionize and galvanize traditional country decorating, much like Mary Emmerling's American Country did when it was first published. If you buy only one decorating book, this should be it. Not a bad photo in the whole book. I am thrilled with it!



4. As a devotee of country style and an admirer of farmhouses around the northeast, I found this book to be charming. A cross between a coffee table book and a reference guide, it's the kind of thing you can pick up and peruse easily without having to read straight through. It's refreshingly useful-with just enough historical information for the nonacademic. I learn something new every time I refer to it. Yet it's lovely to page through, which also makes it a great Christmas gift for anyone who loves country style. The nicest thing of its kind to come on the market in a while.

1 comments about Palladio (Architecture).

1. Hats off once again to Taschen for assembling such a comprehensive, affordable and beautiful book on the work of this great Italian architect.

3 comments about Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation.

1. Weizman begins his introduction by telling the story of the founding of Migron, a Jewish settlement built on Palestinian land in the West Bank. Convincing the Israeli military to build a cellular antenna, settlers first hire a single 24-hour guard. The guard is followed by his family, followed by five more families, and "by mid-2006 it comprised around 60 trailers and containers housing more than 42 families: approximately 150 people perched on the hilltop around a cellular antenna" (p. 2).
   
   But Weizman is not content to recite the facts of Israeli occupation. His analysis draws heavily on post-structuralist thinkers like Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari. Covering everything from Israeli architectural aesthetics, checkpoints and border terminals, to the Wall, Ariel Sharon's conception of depth security, Israeli urban warfare doctrine and targeted assassinations, he repeatedly penetrates the surface of his extensive empirical research, locating the social narratives which give birth to these phenomena.
   
   He is primarily concerned with charting what he calls the "elastic geographies" of the occupied territories (p. 5), a continually modifying frontier in which architecture and space become both a form of power and a conceptual way of understanding the political issues at stake.
   
   Some issues he tackles are well worn, but by combining his extensive fieldwork as a consultant for B'Tselem with a robust theoretical approach, he still brings interesting insight. In a series of chapters covering Israeli settlements, checkpoints and the construction of the wall, he exposes not just the extensive control of Palestinian society, but also the way in which Israel's sense of security has come to depend on a conception of the territories as a malleable and vulnerable space. The spread of these control mechanisms in Israeli society, he claims, constitutes a "cognitive and practical system that sees the physical separation of Jews and Arabs, and the total control of Palestinian movement, as an important component of Jewish collective security" (p. 155).
   
   Some of the issues, however, are less well known, such as his analysis of Israeli archaeology, architecture and landscape. He shows how city planning and architectural policies have attempted to make Jerusalem "an exhibition-piece of living biblical archaeology" (p. 29), drawing on Palestinians as "fossilized forms of biblical authenticity" (p. 43) while simultaneously seeking to reduce their contemporary presence.
   
   Weizman's strength is in the way he hits on two registers at once. His section on Jerusalem connects in a straightforward way with Israel's sustained attempts to minimize the Palestinian population in the city, and to visually and ideologically "unite" the Jewish suburbs with the historic city. But it also taps into the enduring manifestations of the contradiction between Zionism's secular modernism and its ancient biblical promise.
   
   Above all, "Hollow Land" doesn't just explain Israel's spatial practices of occupation. It explores the way in which Israelis' and Palestinians' self-understandings are deeply embedded in these structures. This is Weizman's contribution. While some may feel his work is too abstract, this is where the "cycle" that so often takes the blame for this conflict is found. Weizman is painting a picture of how we have lost ourselves within the conflict, and what it might mean to find a way out.



2. Hollow Land is very throughly researched and Eyal Weizman is clearly passionate about his topic. The book provides an interesting perspective on a widely discussed topic.
   
   The author is an Israeli, which gives him access and a through knowledge of the issues that many other authors lack. He is an activist and artist working on Israel-Palestine issues. He is also an architect, all of which gives him a unique perspective on the whole Israel-Palestine conflict. His descriptions of Israel's architecture of occupation shows his deep familiarity with the facts on the ground.
   
   His interest in architecture some times took the book in directions I was not interested in, such as the history of the selection of the architect for Ma'ale Adumim. However in general this provided a fresh perspective, and new information.
   
   The author clearly has strong opinions about his subject, but that does not interfere with the narrative. Hollow Land will interest anyone who cares about Israel-Palestine issues, as well as anyone interested in modern occupation. Hollow Land is also an example of a well written, throughly researched book that should server as a model for other authors.



3. Weizman's analysis of the articulation (division, consolidation, dimensionality, etc.) of space as a primary expression of political power is highly original in approach, full of extraordinary insights, and provides a powerful moral argument against the occupation of Palestine. While some writers theorize about this sort of thing, Weizman's application of highly refined ideas to concrete practices demonstrates a kind of eloquence and courage that is rare in discussions of Israel and Palestine.
   
   I think Hollow Land is an intellectual masterpiece.

2 comments about High-rise Manual.

1. This is a great book for anyone interested in high rises because it includes information on every topic required. The book tackles various subjects such as development, management, site, soils, structural design, facade, building systems and fire protection. in general, it is a great resource book and i highly recommend it!



2. This book features great technical information and is very thorough. I was hoping for a few more floor plans showing the design of cores and their relation to floor plates. Nevertheless, very useful to have.