100 of the World's Best Houses Review

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(More customer reviews)Although this book has more than a handful of great contemporary homes, we get only a teasing glimpse of each of them. The author would have been better off reducing the number of houses covered, and doing a more in depth coverage of each of them. The book could have been improved by calling it, 25 or 50 of the worlds best houses, and doing a more comprehesive spread on each house. The few pictures we get of each house are of good photographic quality, but the scene selections and angles the houses are shot at, don't give the best representation of them. I have seen several of these same houses in other publications (books or magazines) and have seen them shot from better angles. Another complaint, but this one is subjective, is that, for me, there were too many "woodsy" houses in the book.
I realize that this is only my opinion and taste, but for me, I like my contemporary homes very minimal and sleek, and with a touch of industial in the mix, with no sign of wood. There are a few like that in the book, but the majority of them are mostly wood based.
I did purchase and keep this book, feeling it had enough fresh ideas to merit keeping it. Again everything is relative, and compared to most other contemporary architecture books, this ones a keeper.

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Features 344 pages of spectacular designs from around the globe, includes breathtaking full-color photography and explanatory drawings and floor plans - all complemented by the book's chic, modern designPrevious edition sold more than 60,000 copies worldwide!An international bestseller featuring superlative contemporary houses redesigned in a chic, compact form, 100 of the World's Best Houses is sure to appeal to the general public and design connoisseurs alike.Created by an impressive selection of architects, there is an incredible variety of architectural styles represented here - from exquisite urban villas and resplendent country homes, to sprawling ranches and breathtaking beach houses. The picturesque surroundings of these homes are often as remarkable as the houses themselves.Featuring exciting contemporary houses from some of the greatest architects, including Hugh Newell Jacobsen (Buckwalter House), Daryl Jackson Architects (Jackson House), Glenn Murcutt (Southern Highlights House), Kisho Kurokawa (Residence), Eric Owen Moss (Lawson-Western House), Ray Kappe (Shapiro Residence), Harry Seidler Hamilton House), Steven Ehrlich (Canyon Residence), Sean Godsell Architects (Carter/Tucker House), Rick Joy (Tyler Residence), and Alberto Campo Baeza (De Blas House). Many of this these inspirational structures are accompanied by detailed plans.

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Prefabulous + Sustainable: Building and Customizing an Affordable, Energy-Efficient Home Review

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(More customer reviews)I'd like to weigh in specifically on the comment stating that this book is about Euro style houses. In full disclosure, I designed one of the buildings in this book, but far from slanting my opinion, it puts me in a better place to address some of Pixel's thoughts. The book covers a design of ours, built in Lawrence MA, one of the poorest communities in the state - the poverty rate is more than three times the state average and double that of the rest of the US. Our mission was to create a capital "A" Affordable house that was also stylish, healthy and energy efficient. Modular was one tool we used to get us there, among many others. I personally feel that the genius of this book is that it has BOTH Euro (perhaps expensive) houses AND houses like ours that were constructed at well below the regional average cost, despite its desne, urban infill location. If anything, the spectrum of styles and price points illustrated here shows folks that "green" does not have to look like anything in particular or cost any more than a "normal" house. I think painting innovative, sustainable housing and this book with one big brush "misses the boat".


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Light and Color in the Outdoors (Light & Color in the Outdoors) Review

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(More customer reviews)This deeply perceptive book changes our own perceptions of all kinds of light and color events in the outdoors. You will never see the same way again outdoors. Some examples involve elementary optics (which explain the visual phenomena) but nearly all the 278 short chapters can be appreciated by the visually alert reader. My favorite examples include dappled light, rainbows (there are always two), and differences between relected and transmitted light in seeing leaves and grass. The Dover edition is fine; the Springer-Verlag edition is better with its excellent color photographs.

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A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Cess Center for Environmental) Review

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(More customer reviews)My fascination with Christopher Alexander's work began with "The Timeless Way of Building," but increased tenfold upon discovering his inexhaustible classic, "A Pattern Language." At over a thousand pages (I think,) "A Pattern Language" is an encyclopedic study of what makes buildings, streets, and communities work -- indeed, what makes environments human.
Alexander and his co-authors present us with over two hundred (roughly 250) "patterns" that they believe must be present in order for an environment to be pleasing, comfortable, or in their words, "alive." The patterns start at the most general level -- the first pattern, "Independent Regions," describes the ideal political entity, while another of my favorite patterns, "Mosaic of Subcultures," described the proper distribution of different groups within a city. The patterns gradually become more specific -- you'll read arguments about how universities should relate to the community, the proper placement of parks, the role of cafes in a city's life. If you wonder about the best design for a home, the authors will describe everything from how roofs and walls should be built, down to how light should fall within the home, where your windows should be placed, and even the most pleasant variety of chairs in the home. An underlying theme of all the patterns is that architecture, at its best, can be used to foster meaningful human interaction, and the authors urge us to be aware of how the houses we build can help us balance needs for intimacy and privacy.
They admit that they are uncertain about some of the patterns -- they indicate their degree of certainty using a code of asterisks placed before the pattern. For each pattern, the authors summarize the pattern in a brief statement printed in boldface, and then describe it at length, drawing upon a variety of sources to give us a full sense of what they mean: these "supporting sources" include an excerpt from a Samuel Beckett novel, papers in scholarly journals, newspaper clippings, etc. Most patterns are accompanied by a photograph (many of them beautiful and fascinating in their own right) and all are illustrated by small, casual hand-drawings. Taken together, "A Pattern Language" is an extraordinarily rich text, visually and conceptually.
As I said in the header of this review, "A Pattern Language" has changed the way I look at buildings and neighborhoods -- I feel like this book has made me attuned to what works, and what doesn't work, in the human environment. I'm constantly realizing things about buildings and streets that this book helped me see -- things that make people feel at home, or feel "alive," in their surroundings, or conversely, things that make people uncomfortable. And the book makes me think differently about life because it showed me how our well-being depends so much upon the way our buildings fit, or don't fit, us as UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS.

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Landscape Gardening in Japan Review

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(More customer reviews)This is classic book but very instructural. Not much photos but gives you idea and makes your mind do the work. If you are into Japanese Culture then this is highly recommended.

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Landscape Gardening in Japan was first published in 1893 by Josiah Conder, a British architect, urban planner, and teacher, who had come to Japan in 1877 to serve as a professor of architecture at the forerunner of Tokyo University and as a consultant to the Ministry of Engineering. A man of wide interests, Conder was encouraged by the warm reception given his 1891 Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral Arrangement to undertake a book on gardening. In preparing the present book, he relied not entirely on his own observations but consulted, and "freely borrowed from," some of the most reliable Japanese sources available at the time, the oldest dating to 1633. The resulting book is the product of a Western, Victorian perspective with access to Japanese authoritative texts. Conder's study of the Japanese landscape garden led him to conclude that it represented universal qualities that could be applied to gardening anywhere. In addition to a discussion of these broader truths, the book is so finely detailed and so richly illustrated that it still serves today as a guide to modern garden-lovers, whether of a practical or a theoretical bent. The present volume combines the original study with an additional volume of photographs of famous gardens that was published shortly thereafter and entitled Supplement to Landscape Gardening in Japan. The interior of the book has been redesigned and the text newly set for easier reading and viewing. The book has a new Foreword by Azby Brown and an Afterword by Terunobu Fujimori, providing background information on Conder and putting his accomplishments into perspective. Jacket Illustration: Yokuon-en Zenzu (detail), National Diet Library. The Yokuon-en garden and villa was constructed by Matsudaira Sadanobu around 1794. (See Conder's description in Chapter 1 under Yoku-on-En.) The present illustration is a copy of an original bird's-eye view commemoratively painted in 1842 after the garden's destruction by fire in 1829.

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Light Revealing Architecture Review

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(More customer reviews)Any spatial experience is intimately connected with the experience of light. The author has very articulately described this phenomena in architecture, using four major themes - where light helps with a physiological EXPERIENCE, gives a building FORM, defines and enhances SPACE, and thus gives it MEANING. This is an excellent book, well written and has a good association with all aspects of lighting, studied and explained with the help of a wide range of buildings and architecture. It makes a very strong (and convincing) argument, for all designers to pay attention to the importance of light while planning and designing their spaces or buildings.

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"The extraordinary range of architecture [presented by Millet] coupled with the author's lucid presentation of light as a rich and evocative part of design is central to what architects do, or ought to. This book fills a vast need for the design profession." -- M. Susan Ubbelohde, University of California, Berkeley "Marietta Millet takes us through ancient and contemporary buildings in a manner knowing and gracious, with a combination of universal principles and local details that informs and delights. This book will be a splendid contribution to the literature on lighting." -- John S. Reynolds, University of Oregon Published By John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

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The Getaway Home: Discovering Your Home Away from Home Review

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(More customer reviews)Great book with excellent ideas for a second home. It's a pleasure to just sit down and read it.

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The Scandinavian Garden Review

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(More customer reviews)It is spring here in Norway, and the perfect time for gardening. We moved last fall to a 25 years old house with a huge garden, and now we are looking for new inspirations everywhere.
Many of the garden books I find are from a climate much warmer than the one here in the middle of Norway, so reading about grapes, olive treas, huge flowering plants in huge terracotta pots only makes me dream about Italy France and Spain. But then I found the fantastic book about Scandinavian Gardens by Karl-Dietrich Buhler.
Buhler has travelled in the Scandinavian countries and is writing about special and remarcable gardens he has met on his travellings.
The book start with a story of a little boy, actually Buhler's own son, chasing wild gooses, and this reminds Buhler of Niels Holgerson's fantastic travels written by the Swedish Selma Lagerløf. And then Buhler takes us on a travel almost as fantastic as Niels Holgerson's one.
The gardens we meet through the book all has their own charm. Very often when you find a book trying to describe the best gardens, you are taken to the big, public ones, but in this book, together with some of the public garden we also visit some of the quite small, private gardens. We meet the owners and can read about their work of planning and maintaining the gardens.
The book has lots and lots of charming and outstanding pictures. A joy to own, a joy to have on a coffee table, or the garden table. Not as a decoration only, but as a book to look through and get inspiration from when you have washed your hands after hours of garden work.
Britt Arnhild Lindland

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Scandinavian landscape and garden design is original, sophisticated and poetic. Powerfully architectural, with an emphasis on geometry and sculpture, it is an evocative and romantic tradition. The Scandinavian enthusiasm for outdoor living, making the most of the endless summer daylight hours, has meant that garden designers are particularly innovative in treating gardens as outdoor rooms or extensions of the house.Karl-Dietrich Bühler has an unrivalled knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the gardens of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. This book focuses on the best gardens of the region, both the small jewels produced by amateur gardeners and the gardens designed by world-famous landscape architects such as Carl Theodor Sørensen and Andreas Bruun. With the aid of full-color photographs and plans, he describes elegant town gardens, and country, woodland and coastal gardens that are carefully designed into their landscapes.

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Total Design: Contemplate, Cleanse, Clarify, and Create Your Personal Spaces Review

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(More customer reviews)From the lush photographs, it's obvious that Clodagh's usual design client is not the likes of me (a student). The photos and text detail the author's design process for people such as Robert Redford and recording studio executives, who naturally have somewhat larger budgets than my own, and live in fabulous penthouses in Manhattan and have guest homes in California.
The photos of the homes are a bit intimidating, but the author's attitude is not. She seems to genuinely want every person's home to be as beautiful and functional as possible, working within the boundaries of location and budget. And even if your own preference is not for the rather minimalist, Zen-like look she favors, her design principles are adaptable to any style.
Toward that end, her workbook at the end of the book is great. It is basically a list of questions to ask yourself during the redesign process, and takes into consideration things like a home office and childrens' needs. I found it especially useful during my move to a new apartment. Asking these questions helped to solidly define what I needed in a home, and consequently narrowed down my choices to a manageable number.
My only minor criticisms are of the layout and the feng shui. The text is frequently interrupted with pages of lists and the author's thoughts on color, which makes for rather disjointed reading. And the author relies very heavily on feng shui, which is baffling is you're unfamiliar with it, as I am.

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