Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks and condo towers an improvement on the car-dependence of sprawl?The award-winning journalist Charles Montgomery finds answers to such questions at the intersection between urban design and the emerging science of happiness, during an exhilarating journey through some of the world’s most dynamic cities. He meets the visionary mayor who introduced a “sexy” bus to ease status anxiety in Bogotá; the architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan hill towns to modern-day New York City; the activist who turned Paris’s urban freeways into beaches; and an army of American suburbanites who have hacked the design of their own streets and neighborhoods.Rich with new insights from psychology, neuroscience and Montgomery’s own urban experiments, Happy City reveals how our cities can shape our thoughts as well as our behavior. The message is as surprising as it is hopeful: by retrofitting cities and our own lives for happiness, we can tackle the urgent challenges of our age. The happy city can save the world--and all of us can help build it.

    And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that's easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at. Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities. Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.

    The real estate collapse, the economic downturn, burning out on 12-hour workdays – many people are rethinking their ideas about shelter – seeking an alternative to high rents, or a lifelong mortgage debt to a bank on an overpriced home. Homes on land, homes on wheels, homes on the road, homes on water, even homes in the trees. There are also studios, saunas, garden sheds, and greenhouses.There are 1,300 photos, showing a rich variety of small homemade shelters, and there are stories (and thoughts and inspirations) of the owner-builders who are on the forefront of this new trend in downsizing and self-sufficiency. You can buy a ready-made tiny home, build your own, get a kit or pre-fab, or live in a bus, houseboat, or other movable shelter. Some cities have special ordinances for building "in-law" or "granny flats" in the back yard. There are innovative solutions in cities, such as the "capsules" in Tokyo.If you're thinking of scaling back, you'll find plenty of inspiration shown by builders, designers, architects, dreamers, artists, road gypsies, and water dwellers who've achieved a measure of freedom and independence by taking shelter into their own hands.

    Heatherwick is known as one of the greatest innovators of our era, and for the first time, this publication provides an inside look at the creation and development of his projects. It answers the one question always asked of Heatherwick's work: How did he do that? The book covers the studio's complete output over more than fifteen years—some 170 projects—including designs large and small: zippered bags that can be expanded to five times their size, a bridge that rolls open and closed, the in-progress one-million-square-foot mall in Hong Kong and glass bridge in London.

    One of the most celebrated living architects, Ando is best known for crafting serenely austere structures that fuse Japanese building traditions with Western modernism. His minimalist masterworks-geometric forms clad in silky-smooth exposed concrete-are suffused with natural light and set in perfect harmony with the landscape. In these highlights from lectures delivered at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Architecture, Ando candidly describes his experiences as a largely self-taught practitioner, tracing his development from an early interest in the traditional building craft of his native Japan through his political awakening in the turbulent 1960s to his current stature as one of the world's foremost architects. In addition to exploring his aesthetic influences and working process, Ando offers students a road map not only for maintaining professional integrity, but also for becoming effective agents of change in the world.

    This is the first comprehensive treatment of the architecture of Bernard Tschumi. Part monograph, part architectural theory, and part story, the book narrates a three-decade journey through a personal history of architecture and architectural ideas, intertwining theory, practice, and hypothetical projects with forty built works. From Tschumi’s many written works, such as Architecture and Disjunction and The Manhattan Transcripts to such renowned projects as the Parc de la Villette in Paris, major concert halls in Geneva, Switzerland, and in Rouen and Limoges, France, a high-rise in Manhattan, the Vacheron Constantin Headquarters in Geneva, the Paris Zoo, and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, the book presents a profusely illustrated tour through the work of the architect, set in the context of a rich history of architectural ideas. Written for the layperson as well as the specialist, the book is an entertaining narrative about the condition of architecture today.

    K. Ching into a single volume Introduction to Architecture presents the essential texts and drawings of Francis D. K. Ching for those new to architecture and design. With his typical highly graphic approach, this is the first introductory text from Ching that surveys the design of spaces, buildings, and cities. In an easy to understand format, readers will explore the histories and theories of architecture, design elements and process, and the technical aspects of the contemporary profession of architecture.The book explains the experience and practice of architecture and allied disciplines for future professionals, while those who love the beauty of architecture drawing will delight in the gorgeous illustrations included.Overview of the issues and practices of architecture in an all-in-one introductory text Includes new chapters and introductory essays by James Eckler, and features more than 1,000 drawings throughout Professor Ching is the bestselling author of numerous books on architecture and design, all published by Wiley; his works have been translated into 16 languages and are regarded as classics for their renowned graphical presentation For those pursuing a career in architecture or anyone who loves architectural design and drawing, Introduction to Architecture presents a beautifully illustrated and comprehensive guide to the subject.

    Places" Jonathan Meades has an obsessive preoccupation with places. He has spent thirty years constructing sixty films, two novels and hundreds of pieces of journalism that explore an extraordinary range of them, from natural landscapes to man-made buildings and 'the gaps between them', drawing attention to what he calls 'the rich oddness of what we take for granted'. This book collects 54 pieces and six film scripts that dissolve the barriers between high and low culture, good and bad taste, deep seriousness and black comedy. Meades delivers 'heavy entertainment' - strong opinions backed up by an astonishing depth of knowledge. To read Meades on places, buildings, politics, or cultural history is an exhilarating workout for the mind. He leaves you better informed, more alert, less gullible. "Everything is fantastical if you stare at it for long enough. Everything is interesting."

    Select details of their life and work, from their refined designs to to their innovative experiments, and even including images depicting the everyday poetic moments of their lives, and are shared here in this exhibit within a book.Inspired by Charles's immersive and original slideshows, in which he expertly selected and grouped images together that communicated information in an aesthetic, direct, and accessible way, this book strives to visually created the Eameses' life and work by taking the viewer through a delightful joruney, focusing on their "beautiful details."The packaging design of the "Eames: Beautiful Details" slipcase is a pattern inspired by the triangles and colors of one of their most inventive, if lesser-known, designs for children, simply called, "the toy." It also pays homage to the patterns they used on their well-loved House of Cards. The Eameses brought a sense of humor and joy to everything they created, and the design and layout of the book aims to convey that spirit in a visual feast for the eyes.It is a testament to the Eameses and the lasting value of good design that their Eames lounge chair, created in 1956, endures today as perhaps the most recognizable and coveted piece of mid-century furniture design. Their experiments in technological innovations, like molded plywood and fiberglass, resulted in such classic pieces as the bent plywood LCW and DCM Chairs, the Molded Plastic Chairs, and the Aluminum Group; all of which are still in production by Herman Miller.Likewise, Charles and Ray designed and built their own home in 1949 in Pacific Palisades, and it is still revered as a landmark of modern architecture. Built as part of the Case Study program in California, sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, it was one of the earliest experiments in pre-fab construction, using off-the-shelf industrial parts. But unlike the austerity of much of modern architectural design, their factory-like shell was lovingly lived in along with their personal collections of folk art, treasures from their travels, and everyday objects refreshingly displayed with affection and without pretense.In exhibition design as well, "Mathematica: A World of Numbers ... and Beyond, 1961," for IBM is considered groundbreaking as an interactive, educational, and experiential way to communicate the wonder and magic of math. Similarly, their seminal film, Powers of Ten, 1977, expresses the mathematical concept of multiplying to the tenth power, in a very direct, simple, and powerful way.

    How to Make a Japanese House presents 21 lessons in how to design a single-family home from three decades of architectural practice. From the Western perspective, in which more space is better space, small interiors may once have seemed undesirable, but Japanese architects have long excelled at overcoming the limitations of building in densely populated areas and creating brilliant effects of spaciousness with minimal square footage. As urban areas across the world grow only more dense in population, a knack for the economic handling and design of domestic space has clearly established itself as a key virtue of contemporary architectural practice. Through a rich array of research, interviews, drawings and photographs, How to Make a Japanese House demonstrates that Japanese homes present a radically different way of thinking about architecture, and provide inspiration for dwelling on a smaller scale.

    Seventeen conversations with practitioners from the fields of architecture, policy, activism, design, education, research, history, community engagement and more, each representing an emergent role for designers to occupy. Whether the civic entrepreneur, the double agent, or the strategic designer, this book offers a diverse spectrum of approaches to design, each offering a potential future for architectural practice.With a foreword by Dan Hill and interviews with Steve Ashton, ARM; Bryan Boyer, Helsinki Design Lab; Camila Bustamante; Mel Dodd, muf_aus; DUS Architects; Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang; Reinier de Graaf and Laura Baird, AMO; Conrad Hamann; Natalie Jeremijenko, xClinic; Indy Johar, 00: /;Bruce Mau; Arjen Oosterman and Lilet Breddels, Volume; Todd Reisz; Wouter Vanstiphout, Crimson; Matt Webb, BERG; Marcus Westbury, Renew Newcastle; and Liam Young, Unknown Fields

    But in recent decades, while our buildings are technically better--more sturdy, more waterproof, more energy efficient-- they have also became progressively more sterile, rarely providing the kind of environment in which people are emotionally nourished, genuinely happy, and deeply contented. Using the example of his building of the Eishin Campus in Japan, Christopher Alexander and his collaborators reveal an ongoing dispute between two fundamentally different ways of shaping our world. One system places emphasis on subtleties, on finesse, on the structure of adaptation that makes each tiny part fit into the larger context. The other system is concerned with efficiency, with money, power and control, stressing the more gross aspects of size, speed, and profit. This second, "business-as-usual" system, Alexander argues, is incapable of creating the kind of environment that is able to genuinely support the emotional, whole-making side of human life. To confront this sterile system, the book presents a new architecture that we--both as a world-wide civilization, and as individual people and cultures--can create, using new processes that allow us to build places of human energy and beauty. The book outlines nine ways of working, each one fully dedicated to wholeness, and able to support day-to-day activities that will make planning, design and construction possible in an entirely new way, and in more humane ways. An innovative thinker about building techniques and planning, Christopher Alexander has attracted a devoted following. Here he introduces a way of building that includes the best current practices, enriched by a range of new processes that support the houses, communities, and health of all who inhabit the Earth.

    These operative verbs abstract the idea of spatial formation to its most basic terms, allowing for an objective approach to create the foundation for subjective spatial design. Examples of these verbs are expand, inflate, nest, wist, lift, embed, merge and many more. Together they form a visual dictionary decoding the syntax of spatial verbs. The verbs are illustrated with three-dimensional diagrams and pictures of designs which show the verbs 'in action'.This approach was devised, tested, and applied to architectural studio instruction by Anthony Di Mari and Nora Yoo while teaching at Harvard University's Career Discovery Program in Architecture in 2010. As instructors and as recent graduates, they saw a need for this kind of catalogue from both sides - as a reference manual applicable to design students in all stages of their studies, as well as a teaching tool for instructors to help students understand the strong spatial potential of abstract operations.

    The City on the Strait. The Arsenal of Democracy. Detroit is the city that put the world on wheels. Once the fourth largest in the country, its streets were filled with bustling crowds and lined with breathtaking landmarks. Over the years, many of Detroit's most beautiful buildings--packed with marble, ornate metalwork, painted ceilings and glitz and glamour--have been reduced to dust. From the hallowed halls of Old City Hall to the floating majesty of steamships to the birthplace of the automotive industry, Dan Austin, author of Lost Detroit and creator of HistoricDetroit.org, recaptures stories and memories of a forgotten Detroit, giving readers a glimpse into some of the most stunning buildings this city has ever known.

    Fifty projects are featured in detail, ordered according to the way in which different light conditions have imparted particular qualities on the buildings. Henry Plummer treats his subject from a uniquely authoritative perspective in which his words resonate directly with his artfully taken images. Books that give a true sense of the magical light that have shaped great buildings are rare: this is a publication to savour. Nine chapters present established icons, newly discovered gems and contemporary masterworks, according to the way in which different light conditions have imparted particular qualities to buildings. Among the buildings featured are Arne Jacobsens town hall in Arhus, Denmark, Alvar Aaltos Villa Mairea in Finland, Klas Anshelms Malmo Konsthall in Sweden, and many others. Each chapter features an introduction, which traces the nature, quality and cultural history of that aspect of light.

    Buildings and the cities they inhabit have become infrastructural – mobile, monetised networks. For the world’s power players, infrastructure space is a secret weapon, and the rest of us are only just beginning to realise.If Victor Hugo came back to give a TED talk, he might assert that architecture, which he once claimed had been killed by the book, is reincarnate as something more powerful still – as information itself. If this space is a secret weapon, says Keller Easterling, it is a secret best kept from those trained to make space – architects. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs in economics, the social sciences, informatics and activism are developing what might be called spatial software as a political instrument to outwit politics as usual.

    Every architecture student examines the Swiss master's work. Yet, all too frequently, they rely on reproductions of faded drawings of uneven size and quality. Le Corbusier Redrawn presents the only collection of consistently rendered original drawings (at 1:200 scale) of all twenty-six of Le Corbusier's residential works. Using the original drawings from the Le Corbusier Foundation's digital archives, architect Steven Park has beautifully redrawn 130 perspectival sections, as well as plans, sections, and elevations of exterior forms and interior spaces. These remarkable new drawings-which combine the conceptual clarity of the section with the spatial qualities of the perspective-not only provide information about the buildings, they also help students experience specific works spatially as they learn to critically examine Le Corbusier's works.

    The book includes innovative and inspirational projects from monuments and churches to stations and cultural spaces, by some of the best architects of the last 100 years.

    In continuous use since it opened in 1912, the market is among the oldest municipally owned and operated retail food arcades and one of only a handful of such places left in the country. The book chronicles the history of this notable landmark and all it offers consumers and culinary aficionados. Written by two well-known Cleveland food writers, the book takes readers on a nostalgic tour of the market building, outdoor arcades, and into the lives of many vendors and market families who are the true foundation of this historic public space. The volume is rich with many rare, and until now unpublished, vintage and contemporary photographs, and images that provide a delightful armchair tour of this magnificent landmark, which is a must-see destination for food lovers.

    The volume is organized in a series of chapters based on key architectural themes--space, time, matter, gravity, light, silence, dwelling, ritual, memory, landscape, and place--with an introductory essay for each chapter that includes a wide variety of historical examples from around the world followed by more in depth analyses of key buildings that further exemplify the theme of a particular chapter. By combining a broad historical sweep with a jargon-free architectural study of space and the direct experience of architecture, this volume will  be a unique introduction to architecture as a timeless and  enduring art.

    This is true both physically (built on steep slopes, the city has no ground plane) and culturally (there is no concept of ground). Density obliterates figure-ground in the city, and in turn re-defines public-private spatial relationships. Perception of distance and time is distorted through compact networks of pedestrian infrastructure, public transport and natural topography in the urban landscape.Without a ground, there can be no figure either. In fact, Hong Kong lacks any of the traditional figure-ground relationships that shape urban space: axis, edge, center, even fabric. Cities Without Ground explores this condition by mapping three-dimensional circulation networks that join shopping malls, train stations and public transport interchanges, public parks and private lobbies as a series of spatial models and drawings. These networks, though built piecemeal, owned by different public and private stakeholders, and adjacent to different programs and uses, form a continuous space of variegated environments that serves as a fundamental public resource for the city. The emergence of the shopping malls as spaces of civil society rather than of global capital— as grounds of resistance— comes as a surprise.This continuous network and the microclimates of temperature, humidity, noise and smell which differentiate it constitute an entirely new form of urban spatial hierarchy. The relation between shopping malls and air temperature, for instance, suggests architectural implications in circulation—differentiating spaces where pedestrians eagerly flow or make efforts to avoid, where people stop and linger or where smokers gather. Air particle concentration is both logical and counterintuitive: outdoor air is more polluted, while the air in the higher-end malls is cleaner than air adjacent to lower value retail programs. Train stations, while significantly cooler than bus terminals, have only moderately cleaner air. Boundaries determined by sound or smell (a street of flower vendors or bird keepers, or an artificially perfumed mall) can ultimately provide more substantive spatial boundaries than a ground. While space in the city may be continuous, plumes of temperature differential or air particle intensity demonstrate that environments are far from equal.

    He explores the urban consequences of what Conservatives privately call the progressive nonsense of the Big Society and the localism agenda, the putative replacement of the state with charity and voluntarism; and he casts an eye over the last great Blairite schemes limping to completion, from London 's Shard to the site of the 2012 Olympics. Crisscrossing Britain from Aberdeen to Plymouth, from Croydon to Belfast, A New Kind of Bleak finds a landscape left to rot and discovers strange and potentially radical things growing in the wasteland.

    No style, no building type is ignored, making this volume a true compendium of what anybody interested in buildings today needs to know. From well-known figures such as Zaha Hadid, Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA fame and Thom Mayne of Morphosis, to rising stars like Joshua Prince-Ramus (REX) and Sou Fujimoto and on to less-known architects who are the “stars” of tomorrow, like the Indians of Studio Mumbai, the Norwegian Todd Saunders, the Burkinabe Diébédo Francis Kéré, and the Colombian Giancarlo Mazzanti, or the Chinese architect Li Xiaodong, they are all here and many more as well. Don’t miss this opportunity to see the best of what architecture has to offer… Now! For anyone interested in the zeitgeist and building design in the 21st century, the Architecture Now! series is an essential work of reference. Easy-to-navigate illustrated A–Z entries include current and recent projects, biographies, contact information, and websites.Featured architects and practices include:2012Architecten, 24H Architecture, Effan Adhiwira, AFF Architekten, al bordE, Aparicio + Donaire, Ron Arad, Birk & Heilmeyer, Odile Decq Benoît Cornette, FELIX-DELUBAC, Foster + Partners, Sou Fujimoto, Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, Manuelle Gautrand, Frank O. Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Hapsitus, HplusF Architects, IA+B, Arata Isozaki, Jakob + MacFarlane, Diébédo Francis Kéré, Kengo Kuma, Li Xiaodong, LIN Finn Geipel Giulia Andi, Luis Longhi, LOT-EK, Gurjit Singh Matharoo, Maurer United, Giancarlo Mazzanti, Morphosis, Neri & Hu, Neutelings Riedijk Architects, Ryue Nishizawa, Jean Nouvel, Bassam El Okeily, Olson Kundig Architects, Carlos Ott, Muti Randolph, rare architecture, REX, Fernando Romero, Todd Saunders, Savioz Fabrizzi, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates, Studio Mumbai, Terrain, Undurraga Deves, UNStudio, Urbana, Various Architects, Vo Trong Nghia, Isay Weinfeld, Changki Yun, Peter Zumthor

    They are for the most part disguised behind sober facades but their riches within are astonishing.There are many architectural wonders, among them Robert Adam’s 20 St James’s Square and William Burges’s Tower House. Several – including Bridgewater House with its Raphaels and Titians – have held great art collections.These are houses that hold extraordinary stories: half the Cabinet resigned after breakfast at Stratford House; and on 4 August 1914, at 9 Carlton House Terrace, then the German Embassy, young duty clerk Harold Nicholson deftly substituted one declaration of war for another.Great Houses of London opens the door to some of the greatest and grandest houses in the world to tell the stories of their owners and occupants, artists and architects, their restoration, adaptation and change.

    From the mysterious Great Pyramid of Egypt and Turkey's exquisite Hagia Sofia, to the splendid palace at Versailles and Frank Lloyd Wright's graceful Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, "Great Buildings" explores the world's most stunning buildings and other iconic architectural creations in fabulous visual tours.The history of each building is explained, from the commissioning to how they were built, and is supplemented with 3-D cutaway artworks and pullouts of the exterior, as well as key details of the interior.With features on prominent architects, construction and style, "Great Buildings" is a comprehensive and excellent introduction to architecture's greatest achievements.

    Salt Spring Island, one of the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada, offered him a place to create the kind of architecture that responded to its surroundings, and Schubart-designed homes populate the island. Built of wood and glass, suffused with light, and oriented to views, they display characteristic features: random-width cedar siding, exposed beams, rusticated stonework. Over time, Schubart's homes on Salt Spring Island came to be considered uniquely Gulf Islands homes.This inviting book offers the first introduction to the life and architecture of West Coast modernist Henry A. Schubart, Jr. (1916-1998). While still in his teens, Schubart persuaded Frank Lloyd Wright to accept him as a Taliesin Fellow, and his year's apprenticeship in the master's workshop taught him principles of designing in harmony with nature that he explored throughout the rest of his life. Michele Dunkerley traces Schubart's career from his early practice in San Francisco at the noted firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, to his successful firm with Howard Friedman, to his most lasting professional achievements on Salt Spring Island, where he became the de facto community architect, designing more than 230 residential, commercial, educational, and religious projects. Drawing lessons from his mentors over his decades on the island, he forged an everyday architecture with his mastery of detail and inventiveness. In doing so, he helped define how the island could grow without losing its soul. Color photographs and site plans display Schubart's remarkable homes and other commissions.

    Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis: Intensities presents twenty new built and speculative projects ranging from small installations to interior home and office transformations to large cultural institutions and urban renewal plans. The firm's signature drawings and process shots reveal the methods behind their remarkably diverse works.

    Known for the beauty and purity of his work, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built remarkable houses, skyscrapers, museums and multi-building campuses. The clarity of this architecture belies the diversity of Mies's interests, which included philosophy and science as well as design, and Detlef Mertin's rigorous and accessible text gives the reader both a clear description of all of the most important buildings as well as the intellectual contexts for their design. The book will illustrate all of Mies's work with over 700 images, and will be a highly desirable object; the large format and generous extent allows for the reproduction of all the photographs, drawings and details essential to understand Mies's work.

    Packed with diagrams, tools, and tips, it cuts through the complex mass of technical data and legislation that faces the designer, and distils all the key guidance into a single reference that is quick and easy to use. Pointing to the facts, figures, and performance data that are most important, it includes:Succinct guidance on all core sustainability topics Concise explanations and reference to the latest legislation and codes Invaluable checklists Handy tools that allow you to quickly estimate the values relevant to your design Design guidance, technology, building science, and best practice.Twelve sections guide the designer from the fundamentals through to the building details themselves. From future-proofing for a changing climate to rainwater harvesting, retrofit, and zero-carbon technologies - the Pocketbook has got it covered.Written for architects, as well as engineers, planners, clients and developers, this handy new pocketbook will help the professional designer to meet and exceed sustainable standards.

    It provides an introduction—written in clear, reader-friendly language—to issues that arise at every stage in the practice of architecture. For architects starting or building their own practice: Why do I need a written agreement with my clients? Why do I need insurance? How do I organize my firm? For seasoned architects considering retirement: How do I transfer ownership in my company? How can I benefit from the good will I helped to build? For students who want to learn more about the practicalities of starting out: Why is it important to have a license? Isn’t it enough to have a degree in architecture? What are my rights as an employee? It also addresses the perennial questions that concern architects: How do I protect myself from being sued? How do I protect my intellectual property rights in my work? and much more.Law for Architects identifies the legal issues that lurk in every corner of your design practice and helps you figure out what questions you need to ask.

    On each edition, ARCHINESIA will choose a main issue to be explored in detail. The main theme of this edition is "Architectural Award, Competition and Exhibition".In addition to the aforementioned reports, we also review the built projects of Indonesia's famous architects, such as DCM, Antony Liu, Andra Matin, and several other architects. The international projects that we review in this edition are 21_21 Design Sight by Tadao Ando and Hoki Museum by Nikken Sekkei. We also present a number of upcoming projects which will give a glimpse of the future of Indonesian architecture.This cornucopia of information places ARCHINESIA Bookgazine as a must read publication for architects in Indonesia and Asia.

    Whether musing about their inspirations (a blank sheet of paper, the sun hitting the side of a building), expanding on each other's thoughts (on materials, collaboration, clients, and constraints), or dishing out a clever quip, architects make good copy. The Architect Says is a colorful compendium of quotations from more than one hundred of history's most opinionated design minds. Paired on page spreads like guests at a dinner party-an architect of today might sit next to a contemporary or someone from the eighteenth century-these sets of quotes convey a remarkable depth and diversity of thinking. Alternately wise and amusing, this elegant gem of a book makes the perfect gift for architects, students, and anyone curious about the ideas and personalities that have helped shape our built world.

    A technical pioneer and one of the 20th century's most important architects, Niemeyer has designed close to 700 realized and unrealized buildings and, most notably, was the architect for the principal monuments in Brasilia, his homeland's futuristic capital city and his undisputed major masterpiece. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture Series features:an introduction to the life and work of the architect the major works in chronological order information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts and plans)

    "Modernism In-Between" explores the historical "in-betweenness" of Yugoslavian modernism and the strategies architects used to mediate different--sometimes directly opposed--concepts of culture and architecture. Surveyed here is a wide range of topics, from city building and state representation, to the typologies of everyday life. Also discussed is the work of Yugoslavia's leading architects, who transformed their in-betweenness into a new quality: Edvard Ravnikar's seamless blending of such varied influences as Jo e Ple nik, Le Corbusier and Otto Wagner; Bogdan Bogdanovic's war memorials, which filtered deep-seated cultural archetypes through the lens of Surrealism; Juraj Neidhardt's efforts at forging a modern identity for Bosnia based on the vernacular Ottoman heritage; and Vjenceslav Richter's neo-avant-garde experiments, which provided some of the most convincing representations of Yugoslav socialism. Wolfgang Thaler's photographs document these and many other achievements."Yugoslavia is certainly the most miraculous of the "defunct countries" of the recent past: although it started to disintegrate more than twenty years ago, its past appears more modern than the present of many of its successor states, not only in an aesthetic but also in a more general, intellectual sense. Or is it a mere Fata Morgana of our senses, based on a selective perception? This book gives an answer that is supported by a careful analysis of a vast material, and not by an elegiac meditation on tempi passati. It shows a remarkable will of the architects to associate themselves with the program of modernism, but "floating" in an in-between, mediatory condition rather than fully embracing its ideology. This relationship to modernism meant broader horizons and the rejection of any concessions to the spirit of the province-while at the same time not shying away from its mythologies. Even if we accept that the past is not available to us in its immediacy, the texts and images in this book can conjure the power of the vision of a modern culture that was not monolithic, but open, generous, challenging, and inspiring; it had all the qualities that provincialism lacks, rejects, and wants to erase."--Akos Moravanszky, Professor of Architectural Theory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Author of "Competing Visions: Aesthetic Vision and Social Imagination in Central European Architecture""Lucid and compelling, written in a fluent style, this meticulously researched book, with its full array of beautiful photographs, is a landmark study of a place and time that produced stirring and original architecture. It is a convincing and insightful portrait of the era and a major contribution to our understanding of the broader history of modernism. In the end, the Yugoslav state was a failed political experiment, but in cultural terms-and especially in architectural terms-the attempt to make something 'in-between, ' to find a new 'intermediate' aesthetic, led to great innovation and discovery. What one sees in these pages is revelatory, a still mostly unknown building scene of striking power and freshness."--Christopher Long, Professor of Architectural History, University of Texas at Austin, Author of "The Looshaus"

    Hawkins Ferry is the definitive resource on the architecture of Detroit and its adjacent communities, from pioneering times to the end of the twentieth century. Ferry based his impressive volume on thirteen years of meticulous research, interviews with many prominent architects, and hundreds of photos commissioned specifically for the book. Ferry revised The Buildings of Detroit in 1980, adding the Renaissance Center and other modern works, and this re-released version presents the revised edition adding only a new foreword by John Gallagher.The Buildings of Detroit spans from the early 1700s, when the city was a fur-trading post in the wilderness, to its more contemporary position as the capital of the automotive industry and a major industrial city. Along the way, Ferry offers glimpses of the log cabins of early explorers and soldiers, the Victorian mansions of lumber barons, and the Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills residences of motor magnates. He traces the development of new building techniques that gave rise to the American skyscraper and the modern factory. Ferry details all of downtown's landmark buildings, including many that are no longer standing, and visits fascinating neighborhood structures like movie theaters, hotels, shopping centers, and apartment buildings. In each chapter, readers will meet the visionary architects and clients whose foresight and initiative helped shape the fabric of one of America's great cities.The Buildings of Detroit also includes a selected chronology, maps, references, notes, an extensive index, and 475 illustrations. Previously out of print and difficult to find, this re-released classic will be treasured by Detroit history buffs and architectural historians.

    As one of the period's most prolific and celebrated architecture photographers, Korab captured images as graceful and elegant as his subjects. His iconic photographs for master architects immortalized their finest works, while leaving his own indelible impact on twentieth century visual culture. In this riveting illustrated biography-the first dedicated solely to his life and career-author John Comazzi traces Korab's circuitous path to a career in photography. He paints a vivid picture of a young man forced to flee his native Hungary, who goes on to study architecture at the famed École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before emigrating to the United States and launching his career as Eero Saarinen's on-staff photographer. The book includes a portfolio of more than one hundred images from Korab's professionally commissioned architecture photography as well as close examinations of Saarinen's TWA Terminal and the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana.

    The book will feature all of their work to date, a collection which includes commissions for Vitra, Alessi, and Cappellini amongst others and will open with an introduction by Anniina Koivu, editor of Abitare magazine. There will be ten themed chapters, each exploring a different aspect of the Bouroullecs' career, an illustrated catalogue detailing all their designs and interviews with key figures and collaborators discussing their work.

    Roman and Williams’s style honors craftsmanship, the use of natural materials, and the overlooked in unexpected ways. Their understated, glamorous sensibility is imparted in Manhattan’s Ace Hotel interiors and restaurant The Breslin, The Standard Hotel, with its iconic Boom Boom Room, and the Royalton lobby. For such popular restaurants as The Dutch, the duo created environments with textured backdrops that reference a rich past with a contemporary sensibility. Their innovative work has captured the attention of firms such as Facebook—they recently completed its campus food hall—and their residences for celebrities such as Ben Stiller and Gwyneth Paltrow are equally imaginative. This book surveys the firm’s prestige projects, presented with Alesch’s architectural hand drawings and sketches and detailed views. Also included is their loft and Montauk home, which serve as design laboratories, and a collection of furnishings and fixtures.

    Chronologically arranged, this large-format book gives each iconic building its own double-page spread featuring an exquisite watercolor illustration and clearly written descriptions, facts, and features. These vibrantly detailed pages are filled with people, animals, and other objects that help bring the buildings to life. A detailed appendix includes a timeline, a world map that points out where each building can be found, and an extensive glossary. Children will enjoy poring over this book--and will come away with a fundamental understanding of not only the most common architectural terms, but also of how the built world has evolved marvelously over time.

    There Wharton wrote some of her best-known and successful novels, including Ethan Frome and House of Mirth. The house itself, completed in 1902, embodies principles set forth in Wharton's famous book The Decoration of Houses, and the surrounding landscape displays her deep knowledge of Italian gardens. Wandering the grounds of this historic home, one can see the influence of Wharton’s inimitable spirit in its architecture and design, just as one can sense the Mount’s impact on the extraordinary life of Edith Wharton herself.   The Mount sits in the rolling landscape of the Berkshire Hills, with views overlooking Laurel Lake and all the way out to the mountains. At the turn of the century, Lenox and Stockbridge were thriving summer resort communities, home to Vanderbilts, Sloanes, and other prominent families of the Gilded Age. At once a leader and a recorder of this glamorous society, Edith Wharton stands at the pinnacle of turn of the twentieth-century American literature and social history. The Mount was crucial to her success, and the story of her life there is filled with gatherings of literary figures and artists. Edith Wharton at Home presents Wharton’s life at The Mount in vivid detail with authoritative text by Richard Guy Wilson and archival images, as well as new color photography of the restoration of The Mount and its spectacular gardens."The Mount was to give me country cares and joys, long happy rides and drives through the wooded lanes of that loveliest region, the companionship of dear friends, and the freedom from trivial obligations, which was necessary if I was to go on with my writing. The Mount was my first real home . . . its blessed influence still lives in me." —Edith Wharton, 1934

    How well we learn is directly linked to where we learn. In our digital age, an enormous amount of information is easily accessible. Against this background and because lecture-style teaching is no longer popular, knowledge is inevitably passed on differently now than in previous times. Today, the spaces in which we learn in various phases and situations throughout our lives have to look differently than those in the past in order to meet our current educational needs. New spaces promote learning by inspiring us, providing us with helpful tools, and facilitating opportunities for productive cooperation and the exchange of ideas within groups. Learn for Life is a diverse collection of inspiring architecture and spaces that support progressive and collaborative models of acquiring knowledge. In addition to new interpretations of traditional places for learning including kindergartens, schools, universities, libraries, and educational centers, the book also features commercial buildings whose architectural innovation is redefining our understanding of what it means to develop professionally in offices, corporate headquarters, conference rooms, convention centers, and laboratories. Also included are more experimental projects such as flexible, informal, and temporary installations and exhibits that offer further perspectives on the rapidly evolving topic of how best to learn in the new millennium. The examples presented in Learn for Life also show how color, light, and the organization of space as well as playful elements and surprises can be used to support learning. In short, the work presented in this book makes clear that the creative use of architecture and interior design not only provides a new physical framework for acquiring knowledge, but also revitalizes and advances the process of learning as a whole.

    One key to his success is his remarkable sensibility: in a life spent almost constantly on the move, he is always looking for patterns, details, textures, spatial arrangements and coincidental moments that can inform his work as an architect and designer. Since acquiring a digital camera, Pawson has amassed over 200,000 snapshots. The anthology of nearly 300 images in this book has been carefully culled from this massive visual diary, and each picture is paired with an illuminating caption.

    If you already have a working knowledge of 3ds Max basics, this official guide will take your skills to the next level. Detailed tutorials cover all the latest features of 3ds Max. From modeling, texturing, animation, and architectural visualization to high-level techniques for film, television, games, and more, this book provides professional-level instruction on 3ds Max.Those who are proficient in 3ds Max basics can take their 3D animation skills to the next level with this Autodesk Official Training Guide Offers industry-level training, with diverse tutorials that showcase techniques used in actual animations for games, film, TV, and architectural visualization Covers modeling, texturing, animation, visual effects, and high-level techniques as well as all the latest features of 3ds Max Also recommended as a preparation guide to Autodesk's 3ds Max Associate and Professional exams Mastering Autodesk 3ds Max will help intermediate to advanced 3ds Max users develop and sharpen their skills in this popular animation and effects software.

    Often referred to as a "surrealist" architect, Fujimori designs buildings that stand on stilts, rest in trees, support plant ecosystems and rise from the ground at vertiginous angles. This unique approach perhaps stems from Fujimori's early career as a successful architectural historian; he accepted his first commission at the age of 44. Buildings completed since then include teahouses, museums and private homes, known by names such as the "Dandelion House," "Charred Cedar House" and "Too-Tall Tea House." This publication explores Fujimori's career with models, drawings, architectural plans and photographs. Also documented is the construction of a teahouse designed for the garden at the Villa Stuck in Munich.

    Spuybroek returns to the insights of the great nineteenth-century art writer John Ruskin, for whom beauty always comprises variation, imperfection and fragility. Spuybroek argues that these three concepts not only define relations between humans and their designed products but between all things: "sympathy is what things feel when they shape each other." Spuybroek then compares five twinned themes in Ruskin--the Gothic and work, ornament and matter, sympathy and abstraction, the picturesque and time, ecology and design--with later philosophers and theorists such as William James and Bruno Latour. "If Spuybroek, like Ruskin, does not shake your design and aesthetic concepts," writes Charles Jencks, "you haven't understood him."

    Covering visits by the Kennedys, astronauts, Elvis, as well as real kings and emperors, Berger's account includes forgotten history, such as recalling that back in the ‘60s, an upcoming comedian named Bill Cosby hosted a daily radio from the Needle. The Space Needle, which began as a doodle in a hotel in Stuttgart, Germany, became a 21st-century symbol that has thrived, for most of its life to date, in the 20th century. “Even if one has never been to the top, its presence on the skyline tells a story each and every day, whether it seems to hover like an alien ship landing on top of Queen Anne, or has lost everything but its slender legs in the gray clouds, or catches the brilliant light of a summer sunset. Day to day, in ways great and small, it is truly ‘a tower unique and inspiring.’”

    Ambitiously designed community buildings, faceless mass housingdevelopments, and a monumental emptiness are the definingfeatures of Pyongyang - a city of three million inhabitants risingfrom the rubble to which the Korean War reducedit in the 1950s.This architectural guide to the capital of the Democratic People’sRepublic of Korea has two parts comprising a total of 368 pages.While Volume 1 offers a selection of images and informationon nearly one hundred buildings in Pyongyang provided by thePyongyang Foreign Languages Publishing House and presentedhere without further commentary, Volume 2 sets this materialwithin its architectural and historical context.The Guide offers unprecedented insights into the capital of what is probably the most isolated country in the world, ruled in the third generation by a “first family” stubbornly upholding its own brand of stone-age communism.

    Some even said her work was unbuildable. Yet over the past decade she has completed numerous structures including the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati (which the New York Times called 'the most important new building in America since the Cold War'), the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany, and the Central Building of the new BMW Assembly Plant in Leipzig. Today, Hadid is firmly established among the élite of world architecture, her audacious and futuristic designs having catapulted her to international fame.

    Perhaps no other architect hasbecome so synonymous with the aesthetic style of a city.Gaudí Pop-Ups celebrates the unique style of this visionary architectwith pop-ups of some of his most famous creations. The inventive paperconstructions of Courtney Watson McCarthy bring these spectacular worksto life in a new and fascinating way that enables us to further appreciatethe genius of Gaudi.

    The emphasis is on passive low-energy principles, and the rules of thumb cover all the design fundamentals from site and location to orientation and form, peppered with some which will help the designer to think 'outside the box' about the design process itself.

    It explains some of the ideologies and perspectives that form the foundation of Korean architectural tradition and outlines the history of Korean architecture. It offers a brief introduction to the basic elements, construction process, structural anatomy, and materials used in Korean traditional architecture.The work also highlights ten of Korea's best-known and most significant traditional buildings. Korea's early modern architecture--a period from colonial domination by Japan into the mid-20th century--is also examined.

    This new attention to the life of the things we make is changing the way design is practiced at every scale and will be at the center of discussions about architecture, landscape architecture, and product design in the twenty-first century.Projects nominated by an international collection of designers, curators, critics and thinkers were selected to create the best possible sourcebook of the most exciting and original green designs at all scales, from eyeglasses to landscapes and from motorcycles to skyscrapers. The result is an inspirational survey of the enormous amount of innovative work being done in this field, as well as a directory of products, ideas and techniques for both designers and consumers.Filled with projects that are built and in production, Vitamin Green provides a lively and inspiring visual definition of the term 'sustainable design', showing people what really can be achieved today.

    The guidelines were developed by the NKBA to reflect the current industry environment, future trends, consumer lifestyles, new research, new building codes, and current industry practices.Featuring 31 Guidelines for kitchens and 27 Guidelines for bathrooms, the book is meticulously illustrated in full color with plans, sections, and perspective views to show planning recommendations and code references and requirements, as well as Access Standards that consider the needs of a range of users. Additional features include:Newly revised planning guidelines for kitchens and bathrooms that reflect the 2012 International Residential Code (IRC) and the ICC A117.1-2009 Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities StandardsMetric conversion of measurementsHandy spiral-bound format permits easy, quick reference in the field

    In contrast to the reconstruction of the European city that was popular at the time, they developed the figure of a polycentric urban landscape. However, the manifesto really began to exert an effectbeginning in the 1990s onwards, when the focus of the urban planning discourse turned to the examination of crises, recessions, and the phenomenon of demographic shrinking. This critical edition contains a previously unpublished version of the manifesto by Rem Koolhaas, as well as interviews with co-authors Rem Koolhaas, Peter Riemann, Hans Kollhoff, and Arthur Ovaska. Introductory texts explain the developmentof the manifesto between Cornell and Berlin, position the work in the planning history of Berlin, and reveal its influence on current approaches.

    Now "Architecture of Density“ comes in a new edition as a stand alone book.Focused on the specific visual elements Michael Wolf has depicted high density living in one of the world’s most crowded cities like nobody has before. For ›Architecture of Density‹, Wolf fashioned a distinctive style of photography. He removes any sky or horizon line from the frame and flattens the space until it becomes a relentless abstraction of urban expansion, with no escape for the viewer’s eye. Wolf photographs crumbling buildings in need of repair, brand new buildings under construction covered in bamboo scaffolding, as well as fully occupied residential complexes. Wolf’s disorienting vantage point gives the viewer the feeling that the buildings extend indefinitely, which perhaps is the spatial experience of Hong Kong’s inhabitants.Alert observers can also spot many traces of life on the facades, caused by inhabitants and users.Description credit: http://peperoni-books.de/tokyo_compre...

    The text provides readers with a close look into individual artworks and an analysis of the methods of architectural design KEY TOPICS: Understand and analyze individual artworks. Identify and interpret key monuments with essential data. MARKET For those interested in learning and understanding Baroque and Rococo Art.

    When the ancient landof Persia was conquered by the Arabs, its people embraced Islam but strovealso to retain their own language and culture. The merging of influencesresulted in a distinctive artistic style that spread through the Middle East.This book follows a historical path across the Iranian world and examinesthe artistic legacies of great rulers and their dynasties, from the rebirth ofPersian art under the Seljuqs to the magnificent structures built by Timur-iLang in Samarqand and the cultural flowering that occurred under the Safaviddynasty and beyond. Palaces, mosques, madrasas, and mausoleums display amesmerizing decorative complexity, with form and ornament combining tocreate an indivisible whole. Spectacular polychrome tiles, intricate brickwork,curling arabesque motifs, and calligraphic inscriptions attain a transcendentbeauty, designed to reflect both the temporal power of the rulers who commissionedthem and the heavenly glory of creation.

    People have tackled seemingly insurmountable obstacles, including vast canyons and mountain ranges, to design and construct these amazing passageways. Bridges and Tunnels: Investigate Feats of Engineering invites children ages 9 and up to explore the innovation and physical science behind structures our world depends on. Trivia and fun facts illustrate engineering ingenuity and achievements. Activities and projects encourage children to learn about the engineering process and to embrace trial and error.

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    Recognized in his prime as one of the nation’s most sought-after architects, Stone’s vast and prestigious workload brought prosperity on a scale rare in architecture in his time; after the death of Frank Lloyd Wright, some supporters thought Stone seemed destined to take the place of his personal hero and close friend as the great national architect. But Stone also drew divergent reactions. Such International Style buildings as his Museum of Modern Art (1935–39) in New York City, an austere, unornamented volume, won critical approval; in contrast, his monumental postwar architecture—the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (1958–71) in Washington, DC, among the best known—exposed popular tastes by offering a broader definition of Modernism inclusive of decoration. Enhanced interest in Stone’s architecture has been spurred by the reconsideration of a number of his buildings. The former Gallery of Modern Art (1958–64) at 2 Columbus Circle in New York City, which was lost to a near complete makeover, stimulated vigorous and at times contentious discussion that made evident the need for an objective reassessment. His legacy—of giving form to the aspirations of the emerging consumer culture and of reconciling Modernism with the dynamism of the age—is established in Edward Durell Stone: Modernism’s Populist Architect.

    The Complete Visual Guide to Building a House takes a different, step-by-step approach, with full-color drawings of every step in the building process from laying a foundation through installing the finishing touch on a newel post. Combining the expertise of builder John Carroll and the engaging drawings of illustrator Charles Lockhart, this book is a complete course in residential carpentry and construction from the voice (and hand) of experience.

    Bursting with great ideas and innovative solutions, it is a must-have for design students and architects who want to stay in the vanguard of their profession.

    Their histories are peopled with strongwilled men and women—from the notorious General Tam Dalyell of the House of the Binns, who served not only the Stuart kings but the czar of Russia, to the first Duke of Queensberry, who built one of the most sensational castles in Britain, to a love match worthy of the "auld alliance" between the Earl of Stair and his French-born countess.Each house also represents a landmark in Scotland’s architectural history, ranging from the early seventeenth to the early twentieth century. The cutting-edge classicism of William Bruce at Balcaskie, the sensational French château–inspired Drumlanrig, the splendor of William Adam’s baroque at Arniston, and the sublime Palladianism of his sons, the Adam brothers, at Dumfries House, are a roll call of architectural genius. The Victorian passion for all things Scottish is displayed in Lochinch Castle, a bravura example of the Baronial style, bristling with turrets, bartizans, and stepped roofs. And Robert Lorimer’s beautifully crafted reconstruction at Monzie at the turn of the twentieth century reveals him as a major talent who synthesized European and purely Scottish styles, expressing, like his fellow architects in this book, a uniquely Scottish sensibility. The architectural revelation is matched by the houses’ sensational settings, which merge the historically designed gardens and landscape with the unparalleled wildness and vistas of Scotland.But, as author James Knox writes in his lively, insightful text, "The glory of Scottish country houses is not just their architecture but their contents, which add layers of personality to the interiors." As Knox guides the reader on an intimate tour of the houses, he recounts their fascinating histories and profi les the colorful, often eccentric, lairds, lady lairds, clan chiefs, and nobles who have called them home. And James Fennell’s masterly photographs, which rely solely on natural light for effect, capture the distinctive atmosphere of each residence. The Duchess of Buccleuch’s boudoir at Bowhill is a frenzy of chinoiserie, needlepoint, and silk tassels. At Ballindalloch, the Macpherson-Grant tartan carpets the entrance hall and Victorian paintings of the family’s prized Aberdeen Angus herd—the oldest in Scotland—adorn many a room. The motto of the Munro clan, "Dread God," is emblazoned throughout Foulis Castle—on china, wall plaques, not to mention the clan chief ’s bonnet. All of these cherished houses are chockablock with memories of the past, from swagger portraits to sporrans, from vintage photographs to ancient weaponry, from curling stones to fading chintz. Some are also treasure houses, not least Dumfries House, saved from the auction block by a consortium headed by the Prince of Wales, which boasts an unrivaled collection of documented Chippendale and Scottish rococo furniture.The Scottish Country House will enthrall anyone with an interest in Scotland, history, architecture, or interior decoration—all wrapped in a compelling narrative of past lives and taste.Praise for The Scottish Country House:"If you like historic homes, this book is for you. It's filled with beautiful photos of historic Scottish castles and grand estates." -Design*Sponge“Who can resist a beautiful chateau set in the lush green countryside of Scotland? I, for one, cannot. In James Knox's new book, he focuses on ten standout examples of Scottish country living. With each house, he details the history of the establishment, and follows through to how it stands today.” —Home Design with Kevin Sharkey “This book, filled with lavish photography by James Fennell, profiles ten outstanding Scottish castles and mansions, from sprawling Walter Scott-type baronial spreads to elegant neoclassical, Adam-designed treasure houses. . . . This book makes one want to get on the next plane for Edinburgh.” —Art of the Times “I just had the pleasure of reviewing The Scottish Country House which confirmed that this fall is turning out to be an exceptionally good season for design books. The Scottish Country House features ten Scottish houses and castles from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, spanning a range of architectural styles. Almost all of the houses are inhabited by the original families who built them, and each has a fascinating story to tell. As you might expect, the interiors are rich and layered with vintage photographs and portraits, ancient weaponry, taxidermy, and Chippendale and Scottish rococo furniture, all of it beautifully photographed by James Fennell.”—From the Right Bank blog “I have recently read a book (and yes, I read it cover to cover!) that now has a prominent place on my library coffee table - The Scottish Country House, by James Knox. . . . The book is a fascinating read. . . . [and] the photography in the book is incredible; James Fennell took the pictures that illustrate the 10 Scottish country houses profiled in the book (I spent hours poring over the pictures—each picture has dozens of interesting details).”—Things That Inspire blog “Vicariously experience Scotland's ruggedly beautiful vistas and striking architecture with James Knox's The Scottish Country House. Knox collaborated with photographer James Fennell (remember his work from The Irish Country House?) who was determined to shoot only in natural light.”—Style Court blog

    Today, it is the improvised home to more than 750 families living in an extra-legal and tenuous squat, that some have called a "vertical slum."Urban-Think Tank, the authors of Torre David: Informal Vertical Communities, spent a year studying the physical and social organization of this ruin-become home. Richly illustrated with photographs by Iwan Baan, the book documents the residents’ occupation of the tower and how, in the absence of formal infrastructure, they organize themselves to provide for daily needs, with a hair salon, a gym, grocery shops, and more. The authors of this thought-provoking work investigate informal vertical communities and the architecture that supports them and issue a call for action: to see in informal settlements a potential for innovation and experimentation, with the goal of putting design in service to a more equitable and sustainable future.

    Unlike other architectural dictionaries, the reader doesn't have to know the name before looking it up. An original and accessible take on the architectural dictionary, this book takes you on a visual tour of the buildings and structures around us.

    The landscape - when it has a well-thought-out shape and character - gives a home much of its character and satisfaction. In The Private Oasis, two of New York's leading landscape architects, Edmund Hollander and Maryanne Connelly, guide readers through a series of remarkable landscapes and gardens, explaining how to apply their techniques, no matter what the size of the reader's property. Since founding Edmund D. Hollander Landscape Architect Design in 1990, Hollander and Connelly and the more than a dozen landscape architects on their staff have designed hundreds of residential landscapes, from the palatial to the somewhat more modest. Every landscape, they believe, has a story to tell. The aim of the landscape architect, when working with the homeowners, the site, and the architecture of the house, is to decide what that story is, and see that it is told well. You can't plant whatever you want, wherever you want it. You can't rearrange the earth arbitrarily. You have to respond to the makeup of the land and its water flows, its vegetation, wildlife and other features using that knowledge to fashion a living landscape. That was a key precept Hollander and Connelly learned from the pioneer of ecological planning, Ian McHarg, and it undergirds all their thinking. Hollander and Connelly marry factors from nature to an understanding of human ecology. Says Connelly: "The solution is always driven by who will be using the landscape and how they will be using it." The Private Oasis focuses on built elements in the landscape including the entry, seating and gathering places, outdoor dining, swimming pools and water features and tennis courts. It is lavishly illustrated with over 1000 color photographs. A successor volume will focus on plantings. Together, the two volumes will give readers a comprehensive orientation to the making of residential landscapes.

    They help us to understand the relationships between people and the environment at all scales, and to consider the active roles individuals, groups, and social structures play in creating the environments in which people live, work, and play. These readings highlight the ways in which space and place are produced through large- and small-scale social, political, and economic practices, and offer new ways to think about how people engage the environment in multiple and diverse ways.Providing an essential resource for students of urban studies, geography, sociology and many other areas, this book brings together important but, till now, widely dispersed writings across many inter-related disciplines. Introductions from the editors precede each section; introducing the texts, demonstrating their significance, and outlining the key issues surrounding the topic. A companion website, PeoplePlaceSpace.org, extends the work even further by providing an on-going series of additional reading lists that cover issues ranging from food security to foreclosure, psychiatric spaces to the environments of predator animals.

    However, it is not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that the notion of composition becomes truly associated with architectural conception, notably under the influence of Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand and his statement on the Marche a suivre dans la composition d'un project quelconque [Procedure to be followed in the composition of any project]. The concept quickly erodes during the twentieth century, with the adoption of neutral architectural devices, the use of aggregative processes, and the adoption of "objective" operations, all of which can be understood as an attempt to move beyond compositional principles.In Composition, Non-Composition, Jacques Lucan invites his readers to consider this novel historical perspective of architectural theory. The author describes the interaction of ideas that often clash with one another, with some that fade away as others emerge, thus offering invaluable keys to understanding contemporary architecture. Although this book is primarily addressed to students of architecture, it will also appeal to architects, historians of architecture, as well as to the interested public.

    This is the first book to examine Gesner’s architecture, tracing his career from 1945 to the present and opening the doors to 15 of Gesner’s intriguing homes, all located in or near Los Angeles and built in the 1950s and 1960s. An insightful and revealing text accompanies new photography by Juergen Nogai along with historical photographs and Gesner’s own drawings, floor plans, and blueprints drawn from his remarkably rich archive. Gesner’s utterly unique, often eccentric and unorthodox designs are outside the canons of doctrinaire modernism, yet he is undoubtedly a Modernist, and one whose romantic, quixotic nature has caused his truly extraordinary body of work to be overlooked by many—until now.Praise for Houses of the Sundown Sea:“Harry Gesner’s life story is so exciting that a new monograph on his work reads like a John Buchan tale, or the next Laura Hillenbrand project, instead of the usual jargon-infested coffee-table book about a venerable architect.” —New York Times<!--StartFragment-->"As soon as design junkies get a glimpse of Gesner's soaring creations, they're sure to be wild about Harry." —Los Angeles Times Magazine“The stories about [Gesner] life’s adventures are almost as glorious as the nature-inspired homes he builds, and both are detailed in an about-to-be released coffee table book” —The Huffington Post<!--StartFragment--> "A compelling mix of prose and photos" —Los Angeles magazine

    They solve design problems directly…. That simplicity, upon closer examination however, is revealed as great complexity. There is a subtle mastery underlying what appears to be natural creations.” Born in Matosinhos, Portugal, in 1933, Siza created his own practice in Porto in 1954, and he has been a Professor of Construction at the University of Porto since 1976. The architect can fill shelf afer shelf with his awards and prizes to-date: He received the European Community’s Mies van der Rohe Prize in 1988 and the Praemium Imperiale in Japan in 1997, the 2009 RIBA Gold Medal, and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. He has built a large number of projects in Portugal, and worked on the restructuring of the Chiado area of Lisbon following a devastating fire in 1988. Siza designed both the Portuguese Pavilion for the 1998 Lisbon World’s Fair and the 2005 Serpentine Pavilion in London in collaboration with Eduardo Souto de Moura. He completed the Serralves Foundation in Porto, 1998, and the Museum for the Iberê Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2008. As for all previous TASCHEN architect’s monographs, this book was realized in close collaboration with the architect and includes a full catalogue of his work to date.

    Typically a perspectival image that can be understood without any knowledge of architectural drawing conventions, the rendering derives power from its accessibility to a wide audience-hence its crucial role in design competitions, client presentations, press releases, and other such public forums.While these architectural visualizations are certainly nothing new, advances in software and hardware have enabled renderings to be made faster and more realistic than ever before. This presents both an opportunity and a challenge. On the one hand, design concepts can now be tested and conveyed with an unprecedented degree of visual accuracy. Conversely, whether through omission, extreme dramatization, or even intentional fakery, architects now have the ability to realistically depict the impossible. Furthermore, both clients and public are beginning to expect photorealistic imagery even at the earliest stages of a project, when supposed 'realism' can oftentimes belie the fundamentally speculative nature of design. Given the importance of these images in mediating between architects and the people they ultimately serve, CLOG will critically assess the state of renderings today.

    Writing to architects, artists, priests, and all who see the urgent need for renewal, Stroik begins this compilation of essays by reemphasizing the nature and purpose of the church building. He then considers how the Classical Tradition can inform contemporary churches, analyzes the impact Modernist philosophy has had on architecture, and concludes by looking forward to renaissance and renewal. Along the way he gives principles of design, myths of contemporary sacred architecture, advice for priests, and analysis of the architectural ramifications of the theology of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Over 170 photographs and drawings of exemplary historic and contemporary churches fill the pages of this instructive and inspiring work. When asked about Stroik’s impact on catholic church architecture, noted architectural historian and professor Denis R. McNamara commented, “The Church Building as a Sacred Place not only highlights the ideas and motivations behind today’s flowering of classical architecture, but also gives hope and inspiration for those ready to see new churches that can be handed on proudly to future generations who will thank us for giving them a place to worship which lifts up their hearts to God and teaches that it is right to give Him thanks and praise.”

    Featuring the work of renowned architects from around the world, this book presents 49 of the most recently completed and influential concrete designs for both residential and commercial architecture. Each project is presented with color photographs, site plans, and sections and elevations, as well as numerous construction details. There is also descriptive text, detailed captions, and in-depth information for each project. A bonus CD-ROM contains all the drawings as printed in the book, in both EPS and DWG (generic CAD) formats.

    

    Today, it is everywhere—in our roads, bridges, sidewalks, walls, and architecture. For each person on the planet, nearly three tons of concrete are produced every year. Used almost universally in modern construction, concrete has become a polarizing material that provokes intense loathing in some and fervent passion in others.             Focusing on concrete’s effects on culture rather than its technical properties, Concrete and Culture examines the ways concrete has changed our understanding of nature, of time, and even of material. Adrian Forty concentrates not only on architects’ responses to concrete, but also takes into account the role concrete has played in politics, literature, cinema, labor-relations, and arguments about sustainability. Covering Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, Forty examines the degree that concrete has been responsible for modernist uniformity and the debates engendered by it. The first book to reflect on the global consequences of concrete, Concrete and Culture offers a new way to look at our environment over the past century.

    The result is a clear and easy-to-navigate guide to identifying the key styles of western architecture from the classical age to the present day.

    In their simplest form, these are personal thought experiments. However, embracing advanced computer simulations means engaging a network of specialized people and powerful machines. In this book, Yanni Alexander Loukissas demonstrates that new tools have profound implications for the social distribution of design work; computer simulations are technologies for collective imagination.Organized around the accounts of professional designers engaged in a high-stakes competition to redefine their work for the technological moment, this book explores the emerging cultures of computer simulation in architecture. Not only architects, but acousticians, fire safety engineers, and sustainability experts see themselves as co-designers in architecture, engaging new technologies for simulation in an evolving search for the roles and relationships that can bring them both professional acceptance and greater control over design. By illustrating how practices of simulation inform the social relationships and professional distinctions that define contemporary architecture, the book examines the cultural transformations taking place in design practice today.

    This is not a technical handbook, but rather a guided tour from one end of the globe to another where sustainability has become both chic and indispensible. Solar panels and double glazing are taking a dent out of the high cost of energy. As always in the Architecture Now books, you can discover the latest realizations of established stars like Peter Zumthor and Bernard Tschumi, but also catch up on the rising new generation of architects, from Korea to Vietnam, from Los Angeles to Berlin. Green Architecture Now! 2 is the only place where a tunnel of flower pots by Olafur Eliasson and a Waste to Energy plant with a ski slope on top by BIG come together with a bang. Text in English, French, and German "

    His interest in minimising the length of paved road to number of houses served, and 'greening' the ubiquitous mechanistic bye-law suburb of the late 19th century provided motivation for defining a general theory of design, which under pinned Garden City principles. Nothing Gained by Overcrowding emerged as a principle which was to have a revolutionary impact on housing and urban form over the next 50 years.Unwin's theory had developed with his work, but the origins can be found in two earlier and less well known publications. On the building of houses in the Garden City' was written for the first international conference of the Garden City Association, held in September 1901. The following year he published the Fabian Society Tract Cottage Plans and Common Sense, in which he took first principles, 'shelter, comfort, privacy', and drew out general criteria and specific standards. Housing had to be freed from the bye-law strait jacket. This would sweep away 'back yards, back alleys and abominations ... too long screened by that wretched prefix back'.Republished here for the first time together, with an introductory essay by Dr Mervyn Miller, these three papers make clear the development of Raymond Unwin's theories of planning and housing, theories which were among the most influential of the 20th Century.

    Accompanying the biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the United Kingdom in more than 40 years, this catalogue features a rich array of painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre and installation, ranging from the school's Expressionist beginnings to its pioneering utopian model of uniting art and technology in order to change society in the aftermath of the First World War. Exemplary works from such Bauhaus masters as Josef and Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, L�szl� Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gunta St�lzl are presented alongside works by lesser-known artist masters and Bauhaus students. Through a range of specially commissioned essays, Bauhaus traces the life of the school from its founding by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919 to its relocation to its newly built campus in Dessau in 1925 under the direction of Gropius and then Hannes Meyer, and finally its brief period in Berlin, under the leadership of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and through its dramatic closure in 1933 by the Nazis. The catalogue also includes a series of original writings by Bauhaus artists, drawn from previously published texts and personal correspondence.

    Issue of CLOG magazine devoted to the single subject of the National Mall in Washington DC.

    From the foundations of accessibility and aging to the practice of designing interiors, products, housing and transportation systems, all aspects of this growing field are explored. Covering best practices examples to demonstrate the value of universal design as both a survey of the field and reference for researchers, "Universal Design" is sure to be constantly at the fingertips of all types of designers.

    However, most developers, architects, Information Technology managers, and platform owners have only been exposed to the basics of resource-oriented architectures. This book is an attempt to catalog and elucidate several reusable solutions that have been seen in the wild in the now increasingly familiar "patterns book" style. These are not turn key implementations, but rather, useful strategies for solving certain problems in the development of modern, resource-oriented systems, both on the public Web and within an organization's firewalls.Table of Contents: List of Figures / Informational Patterns / Applicative Patterns / Procedural Patterns

    London Bridge Tower, also know as the Shard, was completed in July 2012, though it opened to the public in 2013. With its 306 meter height, the Shard is Europe's tallest building. Conceived and implemented as a vertical town, the tower is a shimmering, lively presence in London's skyline. This volumne is an account of the story of this astonishing project, from its first design hypothesis and inception, to the amazing duilding site and the final grand opening. The volume presents a wide and exclusive choice of Renzo Piano's sketches, prospects, plans and sections of the building, working models, prototypes and photos from the site, along with direct accounts of those who took part in this extraordinary adventure. A text by Renzo Piano in first person tells the behind the scene story of a building that is already a landmark in the city of London.

    He is truly an architect whose sensibilities represent the widest range of this and earlier centuries." Such was the description of Renzo Piano given by the Pritzker Prize jury citation as they bestowed the prestigious award on him in 1998. Whereas some architects have a signature style, what sets Piano apart is that he seeks simply to apply a coherent set of ideas to new projects in extraordinarily different ways. "One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time, it is like life starting all over again," Piano says. "Like a movie director doing a love story, a Western, or a murder mystery, a new world confronts an architect with each project." This explains why it takes more than a superficial glance to recognize Piano's fingerprints on such varied projects as the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan, the Tjibaou Cultural Center in Nouméa, New Caledonia, The New York Times Building in New York, the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland, and the Morgan Library in New York.About the Series:Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture Series features:approximately 120 images, including photographs, sketches, drawings, and floor plans introductory essays exploring the architect's life and work, touching on family and background as well as collaborations with other architects the most important works presented in chronological order, with descriptions of client and/or architect wishes as well as construction problems and resolutions an appendix including a list of complete or selected works, biography, bibliography, and a map indicating the locations of the architect's most famous buildings

    It highlights the work within Suffolk and Nassau counties of a roster of twenty-five internationally renowned architects—among them Wallace Harrison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer, Edward Durell Stone, Richard Neutra, William Lescaze, Gordon Chadwick for George Nelson, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Paul Rudolph, and Richard Meier.Caroline Rob Zaleski’s research on the work of key figures in twentieth-century architecture; the relatively unknown aspects of their production; and their associations with clients, artists, and politicians is complemented by more than three hundred striking archival photographs, specially commissioned new photography, and plans. Zaleski documents the development of exurbia and the rise of visionary structures: residences for commuters and weekenders, public housing, houses of worship, universities, shopping centers, and office complexes. In this part architectural, part social history, she explains why modernism was embraced by Long Island’s civic, cultural, and business leaders—as well as by those who wanted to settle away from the city—during an epoch when open space was prime for development. An inventory of important architects, with their Long Island commissions by date and location, complements the main text.

    His proposal for a high-rise city, where leisure, labor, and circulation would be vertically integrated, both frightened his contemporaries and offered a trenchant critique of the dynamics of the capitalist metropolis. Hilberseimer's Groszstadtarchitektur is presented here for the first time in English translation. The propositions assembled here encourage us to reconsider mobility, concentration and the scale of architectural intervention in our own era of urban expansion. This is the second title in the GSAPP Sourcebooks series.

    From Frank Lloyd Wright to Antoni Gaudí to Frank O. Gehry to Shigeru Ban and all the best stuff in between, it's all here. The chronologically organized chapters put it all into perspective, illustrated by hundreds of large-format photos as well as a plenitude of drawings and floor plans. The biographical appendix covers all of the century's greatest architects, including today's new talents. An indispensable reference work and an absolute must for all lovers of architecture!

    The most thorough behind the scenes stories ever told about Themed Entertainment design at America's favorite destination resorts - Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Tour, Spectacular Las Vegas and more.Legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr, as Principal Designer for hundreds of Themed Entertainment projects, takes the reader behind the scenes:Learn how Disneyland developed the first Monorail in America.See how Universal Studios Tour Animated King Kong came to be.A Pirate Battle Show and Sinking Ship in Las Vegas - how did they do it.Get the story of the animated Abraham Lincoln at the NY World's Fair.Meet the team behind the Los Angeles Olympics Flying Saucer.And so much more…

    Many of these great mammoths of domestic architecture were unsuited to the changes in economic and social priorities that followed the two world wars, and rapidly became extinct. Those that survive, however, provide tangible evidence of the life and death of an extraordinarily prosperous age. Originally published in 1980, long out of print and now thoroughly revised and reillustrated, this book recounts the architectural and social history of the era, describing the clients, the architects, the styles and accoutrements of the country houses. The people who could afford them - the Carnegies, the Astors, the Leverhulmes - had grown rich by exploiting the new economic opportunities of the age, and the houses they built in the years before the First World War reflect the desire for two contrasting ways of life. The social country house was the setting for the opulent world associated with Edward VII. The romantic country house was simpler, more genuinely rural, for those who wanted to be in closer contact with the countryside and the vanishing rural crafts, or who wanted an idyll of the past that did not suggest the world of the motor car. These traditions lost coherence after the war, and the period ended with a number of spectacular, and often eccentric, houses. Some of the most remarkable were those that not only replicated the look of old buildings, but used genuinely old materials and even incorporated whole Tudor buildings moved from other places. Clive Aslet writes of the immense changes in the way country houses of this period were lived in and used. The shortage of servants, aggravated by the First World War, spurred numerous developments in the technology of the country house - vacuum cleaners, washing machines, telephones and central heating were called upon to replace the army of servants who never returned from the trenches or the factories. Interior decorators, becoming increasingly in vogue, developed the style Louis Seize into the last word in Edwardian chic. Gardens came to be seen as integral to the concept of the country house and reconciled formal planning with informal planting. This fascinating world, so popularly depicted in Downton Abbey, can now be viewed from a new perspective. The Edwardian Country House will enlighten and entertain all those interested in glimpsing the lost life style of another age.

    It also pays homage to the meat-packing industry, railcar construction, and mail-order business—industries that once drove the Chicago economy but have since moved on. Listed by date of loss, this collection traces a nostalgic path from the time it was known both as the Windy City and Porkopolis, and presents an astonishing range of vanished Chicago from the lakeshore mansions of the rich and famous, to communities built up by the city's immigrant workforce. It also includes photographic page spreads of Chicago trains, the village of Pullman, White City, Riverview Park, lake steamers, the Illinois Theater, Comiskey Park, Palmer House, the 1871 fire, and Grand Central Station.

    It travels the shifting terrains of architectural invention, where new spatial devices on a variety of scales--from the handheld to the inhabitable--reveal previously overlooked dimensions of the built and natural environments. From philosophical toys and ironic provocations to a room-sized kinetic mechanism that models future climates, these devices are not merely diagnostic but creative, deploying fiction as a means of exploring alternative futures: landscape futures, terrestrial scenarios for which we have no other guide.

    This is a no-nonsense and engaging introduction on how to do it.' Kevin McCloudThe Passivhaus Handbook is an essential guide for anyone wanting to realise a supremely comfortable, healthy and durable home with exceptionally low energy costs. Passivhaus design focuses on getting the building fabric right, to achieve ultra-low energy consumption in the most cost-effective manner. The approach is relevant to a wide range of building types and climates.Passivhaus methodology can be combined with elements of other building standards, such as the UK’s Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), or with other sustainable building goals, such as a commitment to using low-impact or natural building materials.Whether you are building an extension, retrofitting your house or starting from scratch, and whether you are new to low-energy design or already have some experience, this book will help you navigate around the potential pitfalls and misconceptions. It brings together current thinking and best practice.The book includes:A clear explanation of the underlying building physics and terminology. Detailed information on key elements of Passivhaus: avoiding air leakage, designing out thermal (cold) bridges, moisture management and ventilation strategy.Practical advice on setting up a project, including developing a motivated project team.A discussion of economic considerations and the policy context in the UK.As pressure on global resources increases and energy prices continue to rise, the Passivhaus approach, proven over 20 years, meets the challenge of ultra-low-energy building for the future.

    Green design and general green awareness is a major concern today, and looking at the work of Wright in this context is both timely and instructive.

    Its success, says Kevin, is due to 'good old-fashioned story telling; of joy and sorrow, torment and triumph, expressed tangibly in the making of a building'.To celebrate fourteen glorious years of film-making, 100 editions of Grand Designs Magazine, 100 separate programmes and ten years of hosting the Stirling Prize, Kevin now delves into the archives to highlight his favourite projects. The Best of Grand Designs charts where domestic architecture has come from, and is moving to, in the first decade or so of a new millennium. And it places people at the centre of the stories of these buildings.Each project is supported by beautiful photography, building plans and Kevin’s own personal analysis, together with commentary from his long-time collaborator, Isabel Allen.From the off-grid ecological approach of woodsman Ben Law in Sussex to the quirky experimentalism of Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till’s straw bale house in London, Kevin demonstrates how Grand Designs continues to contribute to television history and why it provides an important legacy for good house design.This deluxe iBooks Author edition offers a dynamic ereading experience and contains special features such as interactive floorplans and photo galleries.

    Straightforward shots chronicle the same buildings over the years, or travel the length of a block, facade by facade. Other sections collect vintage Coke signs on variety stores or garage graffiti.Full Frontal T.O. features over three hundred gorgeous photos of Toronto's messy urbanism, with accompanying text by master urban explorer Shawn Micallef.Patrick Cummins has photographed Toronto's built environment since 1978 and has worked as an archivist in Toronto since 1986.Shawn Micallef is the author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto and a senior editor at Spacing magazine.

    Computational Architecture offers an overview of digital tools and techniques, such as twisting, lofting, triangulating, drilling, knotting, and framing, that were used systematically to explore spatial, structural, and geometrical conditions, leading to the emergence of abstract prototypes.

    At a time when environmental awareness is of growing relevance, the overriding aim is to understand a history of architecture as a history of weather and thus to consider the weather as an architectural author that affects design, construction and use in a creative dialogue with other authors such as the architect and user.Environmental discussions in architecture tend to focus on the practical or the poetic but here they are considered together. Rather than investigate architecture's relations to the weather in isolation, they are integrated into a wider discussion of cultural and social influences on architecture. The analysis of weather's effects on the design and experience of specific buildings and gardens is interwoven with a historical survey of changing attitudes to the weather in the arts, sciences and society, leading to a critical re-evaluation of contemporary responses to climate change.

    Taking pages from books of nature, art, and architecture, Fletcher provides visual designers of all art forms and disciplines with geometric methods for composing harmonious spaces and places. Fletcher shares her professional knowledge and experience by offering practical techniques for design applications, including step-by-step elementary and advanced drawings for producing proportional schemes with a compass and rule; commentaries on geometric symbols and useful theorems; definitions; and etymologies of essential mathematical terms. A highlight of the book are Fletcher's original studies that analyze harmonious proportions in world-famous art, architecture, landscape design, and other compositions. These include the South Rose Window at Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris, Andrea Palladio's Villa Emo and Teatro Olimpico, a Stradivari violin, Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, Beatrix Farrand's garden courtyard for the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, the illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels, a Louis Sullivan stencil for the Chicago Stock Exchange, and Eero Saarinen's North Christian Church.The desire for harmony is universal among all cultures. In Infinite Measure, we rediscover a fundamental starting point for designers of all ages and skills: the simple act of drawing with a compass and rule as Frank Lloyd Wright famously taught his architecture apprentices at Taliesin and Taliesin West can sensitize the designer to the rich subtleties of spatial harmony and proportion, no matter how one ultimately chooses to express it.REVIEWS "The book will surely be appreciated by those architects and architecture historians interested in the relationship between architecture and mathematics, whose research is devoted to the study of geometrical diagrams and patterns of architecture of the past. We know from the historical literature that architects relied on chosen numbers, proportional ratios and chosen shapes to impart beauty and harmony to their projects, because the mathematicians themselves considered these numbers, ratios and shapes to be beautiful, meaningful and symbolic. Nevertheless architectural treatises hardly give any practical indications on how to manipulate these mathematical objects in order to achieve the fixed goals. The book Infinite Measure unveils many clues to the process of creating a geometrical pattern. The multiple constructions, the number of variations, the creativity, the infinite possibilities, will inspire researchers and, hopefully, designers." - Nexus Network Journal, March 2015"Infinite Measure by Rachel Fletcher is a fascinating book teaching artists how to design in geometric harmony with art, architecture, and nature. The discussion is based on the ancient knowledge that symmetry and proportion are evident in every form of nature and these are relational. The same geometric figures can be found (and are often quite obvious) throughout the history of all art objects, including architecture, pottery, design, paintings, etc. The ratios of dynamic symmetry, which are mathematically expressed, are the basis of the drawing exercises in this book and red bullets indicate each step. The book sound complicated because it dissects and explains almost everything you can think of, but the excellent teaching walks the student through each step until a thorough understanding enables intelligent design in any medium. This book should be a MUST for any art student, and you will feel satisfied when you gain this valuable, timeless understanding, which opens your eyes and mind to all you see everywhere. EXCELLENT!!!"Bonnie Neely, Amazon Top Reviewer, 2013/09/26"Infinite Measure: Learning to Design in Geometric Harmony with Art, Architecture, and Nature is a 400 page compendium in which geometer and theater designer Rachel Fletcher (New York School of Interior Design), Rachel Fletcher provides visual designers of all disciplines and art forms with geometric methods and techniques for composing spaces and places harmoniously. Organized into two major sections (Geometry's Shapes and Symbols & Composing Space Plans) readers are presented with a wealth of diagrams illustrating geometric design concepts of balance and proportion. A unique work of impressive scholarship, "Infinite Measure: Learning to Design in Geometric Harmony with Art, Architecture, and Nature" is an important and strongly recommended addition to professional and academic library collections, as well as the supplemental reading lists for art and architecture students."Midwest Book Review"(A) comprehensive geometrical journey under enlightened guidance. This is an impressive book that presents extensive scholarship in a completely reader-friendly way.. . . Rachel Fletcher's new publication, Infinite Measure, is a wide-ranging book that defines geometry s presence in the natural world, tracks the history and evolution of geometry from before the classical period through to the present day and presents a comprehensive and impressive body of knowledge simultaneously philosophical and practical. It explains the grammar of geometrical construction, from the initial simplicity and unity of the circle, through gradually more complex constructions that lead ultimately to sophisticated geometrical overlays defining proportional relationships in the natural and built environments. The emphasis throughout is on proportion and how the individual elements of a design should relate to one other, and to the whole, in a proportionate and visually harmonious way."Timber Framing"