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Not Bad Book Reviews
Just got given an English imprint third edition 2007 by Sue Roaf called Ecohouse. Co authors Manuel Fuentes and Stephanie Thomas. Published by architectural press out of Elsevier. A very thorough technical guide to design considerations from the ground up and including 25 case studies from all around the world. Some of the digital images are low pixle quality but the technical drawings are still understandable and the text covers the topic in depth. 479 pages including the small but adequate index.
Also, Atmospheric Ecology for Designers and Planners by William P. Lowry, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold New York. Lowry's from the Faculty of Landcscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the Uni of Pennsylvania's Faculty of Forest Science Oregan State Uni and retired from the Faculties of Ecology and Geography, Uni of Illinois, Urbana. It is VERY thorough on the topic of climate, bio-climate and meteorological sciences as it effects the built enviroment. As a preliminary it covers how to construct your own solar radiation, geometry and sun path tables which is essential information to understand even if you don't mind paying another consultant to do it for you. Where I find it interesting is that these are explained in full next to the climate geography of small and large scale situations; information that must be taken into account when designing placement of windows and ventilation, orientation and so forth in relation to site, materials and other structures etc. It's an atmospheric ecology course under one cover. 433 pages including a very thorough index.
Also, Atmospheric Ecology for Designers and Planners by William P. Lowry, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold New York. Lowry's from the Faculty of Landcscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the Uni of Pennsylvania's Faculty of Forest Science Oregan State Uni and retired from the Faculties of Ecology and Geography, Uni of Illinois, Urbana. It is VERY thorough on the topic of climate, bio-climate and meteorological sciences as it effects the built enviroment. As a preliminary it covers how to construct your own solar radiation, geometry and sun path tables which is essential information to understand even if you don't mind paying another consultant to do it for you. Where I find it interesting is that these are explained in full next to the climate geography of small and large scale situations; information that must be taken into account when designing placement of windows and ventilation, orientation and so forth in relation to site, materials and other structures etc. It's an atmospheric ecology course under one cover. 433 pages including a very thorough index.
Comments
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I found this on a discount table with a slightly damaged dust jacket, but otherwise it's a high quality production.
New Trends in House Design by Carles Broto i Comerma. Printed and published in Spain with no date or isbn no. but it can be found through info@linksbooks.net.
About 52 houses from all over the world listed by architect and page no from the UK to Argentina and Japan, USA to Germany and New Zealand. Norman Foster, Rem Koolhas, Kunihide Oshinomi & Takeshi Semba, Bowes Clifford& Thomson etc, etc. No two house by the same architect and about four to ten pages per project. Basically georgeous photos, A short discourse by the designer and a few floor plans or elevations or details. That's it. Fantastic piece of coffee table porn. -
This book is reviewed by Emma Tom in the The Australian Book Review Dec 5th 2007. Not having read it I can't vouch for it but Emma Tom has a great turn of phrase, and she praises Elizabeth Farrelly for hers in Blubberland: The Dangers of Happiness.
Here is a smidgeon from the Sydney newspaper columnist Farrelly who also has a PhD in Architecture. "For your standard sensitive architect type, a half day in (the Sydney suburb of) Kellyville can cause deep existential despair. Not just depression. Despair. Despair of the go-on-without-me type.It's not just the vast McPalaces themselves, set bloatedly cheap-by-jowl along what passes for street. It's the heartbreakingly, wrist slittingly obvious fact that this - this - is what people like."
And a piece of Emma Tom's eulogising. "She leaps between eras, genres and media; between Socratic philosophy and Doctor Who; between Friedrich Nietzsche and Ian Thorpe; between vagina dentatas and Americas first fully enclose shopping mall. And most of the time it all makes perfect sense. Particularly powerful is her arguement that if a green settlement pattern was designed from scratch, "the product would not be suburbia, or urban villiages, or Greek fishing towns or even, say, Barcelona. It would be Manhatten... the greenest city on Earth"
I am looking out for this one. -
Anyone else got some great architecture books on their desks and shelves that they could share the details of?
Love to see some titles put up, even out of print ones.
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