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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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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