Interior Design Books

A must have for all Designers interested in understanding how products are ultimately judged within their context-by thier effectiveness and usefulness.The six levels of Design Caplan outlines is a great measuring stick for all disciplines of Design and Engineering.

This outstanding book is said to be aimed at design students, professionals, or anyone else who could benefit from af uller appreciation of the design process. And yes, I have to agree, it is.

More important to me however is the presentation in this book of the essence of what design is all about. This is the kind of book that the financial people behind a new big hotel should read. It is the book that a product development engineer should read before he starts working with his industrial designer. This is the book that nearly any business manager from marketing, to engineering, to sales, should read.

The first time I travelled to Scandinavia I was struck with the simple elements of design that they do so much better than we do in this country. Simple things like the design of hotel doors, no more expensive than what we do here, just better.

And the sub-title, 'why there are no locks on the bathrobe doors in the Hotel Louis XIV' -that's a great story, it makes such eminent sense. A special problem, a great design, see page 179.

We're building a spanish revival eco home and this book was indispensable to us. We incorporated many of the ideas into our current construction. And it reminded us of a lot of details we had forgotten

CALIFORNIA REVIVAL: VINTAGE DECOR FOR TODAY'S HOMES covers a new movement in indoor-outdoor design which blends vintage furnishings, paintings and decorative arts from the Spanish Revival period of the 1920s to 40s. Over five hundred color images with captions and historical text covers pottery, furniture, murals, ironwork and more in an excellent survey of the decor and its incorporation into interiors ranging from homes to public buildings. While this could have been recommended for California collections alone, it's reviewed here for its wider appeal to any in-depth art or architectural library.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Aside from the fact a reader will gain new appreciation for the Larssons and their art, a reason to purchase this book is that it is gorgeous. Good paper, excellent color reproductions, a nice heft. If you admire Larsson and Scandinavian culture, this book is a "must have."

I ordered this book sight-unseen as a gift, and thought "well, I like Carl Larsson's paintings, I'll get one for myself while I'm at it." I'm so glad I did! I realize that, before reading this delicious book, I had never really "seen" a Carl Larsson painting before. I didn't know that all those happy Swedish ninteenth-century domestic watercolor scenes actually documented Larsson's home and family, and I had no idea that his wife Karin was the creator of the fabrics, co-creator of the furniture and equal partner in what is not only a beautiful and original home environment, but one that has influenced interior design to this day, a hundred year later.

The text is written by different experts. I am not really sure that I come away from it with much sense of the Larssons' personalities in a detailed way, but the work speaks for itself and I consider this book to be more than just a valuable addition to my art library, but also as a great read and, even more -- a great "look".

Where was this book published? That is what I was asking myself after seeing this book at a local bookstore. As an avid collector of interior design/architecture books, I was stunned to see the quality of the photographs in the pages of the book. Some of the designers I have never heard of, but others are very respected individuals in their profession. I initially thought the $45 was a bit steep, but after owning and enjoying this book for the last couple months, I must say it is a very worthy purchase. Even the Design Diva Perla Lichi is in this book! Buy it, you won't be disapointed.

I didn't expect this book to be the beautiful publication that is is. I read a very favorable review of the book in local paper, so I decided to buy a copy for myself. I was very surprised by the editorial quality of the book. I am bilingual and the writers of this book are top notch, in both languages. The book is in english and spanish, which I love because I know both languages. The photographs are really stunning, and give some remodeling ideas as well. In fact I recently moved into a new home and I use some design ideas from the book! I loved reading the projects about the interior designers in this 2000 version of the "Design" series coffeetable books. I am sure that if you purchase this book, you'll be very happy with your purchase. According to the book, there is a DESIGN 2001 coming later this year, along with an ART 2001 book as well. I look forward to these releases with great anticipation. Meanwhile this book replaces my previous home design book on my coffeetable.

After having read this book, it was the perfect introduction the Southern Architecture and Decorative arts prior to actually seeing Charleston face-to-face. Mr. Savage gave lecturers on this very topic in my classes as well as site, which had been complimented by his book. It is artfully written and with care describes the details often ignored by many travel writers, art historians and even restorers! One almost feels as if they can hear the author reading it aloud. Bravo.

This really is a beautiful book, especially for someone who's not familiar with Charleston. Most of the photographs are wonderful, with a lot of detail not seen in other books about Charleston. I'm probably spoiled, but I could have used about 40 more pages...but when you're talking about Charleston, a 5000 page book wouldn't be enough. Really a wonderful book to add to any Charleston collection.

As an architect, I work closely with clients to build their dream home. This process begins with concept design and progresses on to the design development phase. This is when Chicago Luxury Home & Condo becomes an indispensible guide for my clients. It allows them to quickly and easily research and select the multitude of shelter industry resources in the Chicago area - builders, interior designers, landscapers, home furnishings, kitchen & bath, etc. This book helps my clients envision their new homes holistically and allows them to take an active role in the creation of their home.

Wanting to build my own new home has been a long-time dream. But where and how do you start? Picking up this book allowed me to not only find architects, builders and craftspeople, it also gives great tips about what to look for in planning. Beautiful photography and illustrations gave me lots of "what if" ideas. Highly recommended and at a very reasonable price!

This book is at the cutting-edge of today's modern Chinese interior design. The selection of the featured projects covers a wide range of style. Generally speaking, the majority of these projects are great works (except for one HK house). I have personally been to several of the places featured in this book. The text and the pictures captured the beauty of these places and provided rich information about the cultural values behind decoration and designing. Simply put, this is a high quality book. I can feel that the authors are really serious about the content and have done a lot of research. If you like Chinese style and modern decoration, this is definitely an excellent source.

written by obviously one of the region's foremost authorities on Chinese design and interiors having been in Hongkong with Elle Decor and other excellent publications for many years, Sharon Leece knows her way around the traditional feng shui and new leanings of the China elite as well as the western expat with a home and heart in Asia. Creative and informative text and fabulous photos take the reader on a trip into another world of China Decor uptil now unseen but sure to be come a trend worldwide. Check out her other China interior books for even more wonderful shots of lush and lavish spaces.

This book is a recent publishing success of an experienced author, Professor Knapp, and comprises part of his series on Chinese traditional and modern architecture. It offers a wealth of new information and illustrative material (photographs and drawings), based on original research conducted predominantly throughout the eastern and south-eastern coast of the Chinese mainland and in Taiwan. The publication is well-arranged into two main sections which are further sub-divided into separate parts; the sub-chapter titles speak for themselves - please consult the table of contents. Some concrete examples of still-living traditional ritual folk practices are examined, as well as translations of ritual chants which are analyzed in detail. As for me, this is the most interesting part of the first section. The second major part of the book, Section II, "In Pursuit of Good Fortune" (pp. 79-171), consists of very interesting four essays dealing with concrete Chinese efforts to attract good fortune, longevity, wealth, health, business success and other desirable qualities to the house and house owner's family. The authors directs our attention to various manifestations of this eternal Chinese desire for happiness; he also gives us a comprehensive overview of various methods of how to obtain it. As he rightly stresses, the majority of traditional building ornamentation is "positively" determinated, i.e. it is meant to summon good things, and only a minority is directed toward warding off evil spirits. Many pages are dedicated to the so-called New Year pictures, prints, papercuts, calligraphy and the other forms of folk art, all of which employ metaphor, allegory, and word-play, based on the homophony of the Chinese language and the structural principles of its written form. It must be stressed that all parts of the text are informative and well documented. Worth mentioning as well is the fact that the Chinese characters are typed directly in the text, which is clearly organized and thus very useful for Sinologists. To sum up, the book is warmly recommended to all students of Chinese architecture, folklore and living traditions, as well as to all of you who make plans for visiting China, especially Chinese coastal regions.

This book is a recent publishing success of an experienced author, Professor Knapp, and comprises part of his series on Chinese traditional and modern architecture. It offers a wealth of new information and illustrative material (photographs and drawings), based on original research conducted predominantly throughout the eastern and south-eastern coast of the Chinese mainland and in Taiwan. The publication is well-arranged into two main sections which are further sub-divided into separate parts; the sub-chapter titles speak for themselves - please consult the table of contents. Some concrete examples of still-living traditional ritual folk practices are examined, as well as translations of ritual chants which are analyzed in detail. As for me, this is the most interesting part of the first section. The second major part of the book, Section II, "In Pursuit of Good Fortune" (pp. 79-171), consists of very interesting four essays dealing with concrete Chinese efforts to attract good fortune, longevity, wealth, health, business success and other desirable qualities to the house and house owner's family. The authors directs our attention to various manifestations of this eternal Chinese desire for happiness; he also gives us a comprehensive overview of various methods of how to obtain it. As he rightly stresses, the majority of traditional building ornamentation is "positively" determinated, i.e. it is meant to summon good things, and only a minority is directed toward warding off evil spirits. Many pages are dedicated to the so-called New Year pictures, prints, papercuts, calligraphy and the other forms of folk art, all of which employ metaphor, allegory, and word-play, based on the homophony of the Chinese language and the structural principles of its written form. It must be stressed that all parts of the text are informative and well documented. Worth mentioning as well is the fact that the Chinese characters are typed directly in the text, which is clearly organized and thus very useful for Sinologists. To sum up, the book is warmly recommended to all students of Chinese architecture, folklore and living traditions, as well as to all of you who make plans for visiting China, especially Chinese coastal regions.

Dr. Ellis, research professor of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is outstanding in this volume, as he is in all of his books. He has brought more credit back to American theologians. He is well respected in Europe (mostly Germany where he studied) as well he should be. This work is unbelievable. A must for any pastor, preacher, teacher, or general student of the Bible. A word of warning, this is not for the casual reader of the Bible, though some of Dr. Ellis' books are written for lay people, this is not one of them. Have a background in formal theological education (such as Greek, Hebrew, Theology, etc. . .) or have a very good ability to look up words in a dictionary. This book is nothing less than stupendous. If you care at all about academic study of the Word, this book is cheap! You must buy it. Sell any books you have to get it! Also, buy his book "The Making of The New Testament Documents" it is more money, barely, but a good buy too!

In Christ and the Future in NT History, professor Ellis brings under scrutiny some of the most controversial areas in NT studies. The two major sections of his book, dealing with christology and eschatology, collect Ellis's previously published articles on a number of highly disputed issues among NT scholars, such as: the perennial question of the historical Jesus, Christ's use of the Old Testament, the christology of John, Jesus and the resurrection, the intermediate state and the final destiny of the wicked, Pauline anthropology, and prophecy and tongues in the NT history. The book ends with an insightful section on the dating, the historicity and the canonization of the NT documents. Finally, the author tackles also with the foundational question of the relation between the Word of God and the Christian scriptures. Exegetical insights, historical background details, theological arguments and philosophical presuppositions, all of these make up a book that will be more than sure much discussed (and debated) in the years to come. This is due (if for no other reason) to the fact that Earl Ellis offers not only well informed and very articulate arguments, but especially because of his original perspective on quite a number of such issues. To mention only two of them, take Ellis' original view on the intermediate state in 2 Cor 5:1-10, and his treatment of the NT doctrine of hell. Such "departures" from the so-called "orthodoxy" (?) place him in a minority (yet growing) camp among those Evangelical scholars who reject the Greek based body-soul dualism as well as the notion of an unending punishment of the unsaved. One needs only to hope that in the near future, professor Ellis will come up with a more refined and popular version of his articles, (and at a more decent price!), so that the fruit of his research will impact not only the scholar but also the interested layperson.

Cezar R Luchian, MA in Religion student, Andrews University Theological Seminary

_Claiming Knowledge_ by Olav Hammer is an examination of some of the esoteric developments within belief systems within the West ranging from Theosophy (of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, for example) to New Age belief systems. The book includes a vast array of material from various beliefs which have arisen in a post-Enlightenment West which increasingly experiences the pressures of globalization and decline, c.f. Spengler. Much of the esoteric material presented within this book consists of belief systems which offer a reaction to modernity (either by looking directly back to a distant past or a vanished culture or civilization, attempting to import systems of knowledge from distant cultures, in particular the East, or by attempting to merge ancient belief with modern day science and rationalism). Olav Hammer's book is full of details about these various belief systems and offers much of comparison and contrast between the unique systems ranging from the Theosophy of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky carried on by Annie Bessant, Charles Webster Leadbeater, and Alice Bailey, the Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner, the psychoanalysis and depth psychology of Carl Gustav Jung (with precursors in mesmerism), the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) of Elizabeth Clare Prophet, the experiences of occultist and psychic Edgar Cayce, various attempts to merge science with the occult through spiritism and the opposition of spiritism and "skepticism" (of the various skeptical societies, for example), attempts to merge modern day Darwinian evolution with esoteric belief, and attempts to merge modern day physics and cosmology (in particular Quantum Mechanics, but also the Theory of Relativity) with various esoteric beliefs, New Age philosophies ranging from those of _The Aquarian Conspiracy_ of Marilyn Ferguson to _The Celestine Prophecy_ of James Redfield, and various New Age beliefs about crystals, auras, chakras, and personal growth and transformation through healing. Much of what is presented here falls into categories. For example, often lost civilizations and distant cultures are used as sources of tradition for constructed esoteric and New Age belief systems. These include lost civilizations such as those of the legendary Atlantis or ancient Egypt and Tibet, as well as distant cultures such as those of the Orient or even the Native Americans, Aztecs, or Mayans. Also, various forms of healing are discussed frequently within the book. These include methods often excluded from the mainstream Western medical community. A particular case is that of the Indian medical doctor Deepak Chopra who offers a system of New Age healing and healthy mindedness. In many ways, much of these methods of healing can be related to the discussion of the "Religion of Healthy Mindedness" found in some of William James' works (in particular see _The Varieties of Religious Experiences_). In an attempt to re-enchant science, which is believed to be fallen from the Naturphilosophie of the 18th century to pure materialism and rationalism, many have opted to incorporate occult philosophies as well as vitalism into physics or biology. In particular, the author makes an interesting discussion of the Quantum Theory, relating the standard, but inferior, Copenhagen interpretation of the collapse of the wavefunction to some of the alternatives. At the far extreme opposed to the Copenhagen interpretation stand such ultra-idealists as Fritjof Capra and Gary Zukav (arguing that reality is in fact consciously constructed, often surpassing the idealism even of such early proponents as Bishop Berkeley and incorporating Oriental and Eastern mysticism into their interpretation). Much of New Age belief hinges on the idea of a coming Aquarian Age and an end to the Age of Pisces (perhaps, the Age of Pisces, that of the fish, is indeed the age of Christ - Christ of course being symbolized as the fish by the earliest Christians in the catacombs, c.f. _Hamlet's Mill_ by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechand.) In many ways, the New Age movement is similar to that of the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment, with an emphasis on individual experience. Thus, the author will provide several case studies including details of healing practices, Jungian psychotherapy, past lives therapy, and reincarnation as useful interludes emphasizing individual experience. Within medicine the school of Anton Mesmer is important for its role in the discovery of the unconscious, later formulated explicitly by Eduard von Hartmann, a disciple of Schopenhauer. There is much more contained in this book from what has been laid out here, and the book offers a complete bibliography including many of the different movements which have played a unique role in shaping modern day esoteric belief systems. The author contrasts etic and emic historiography, demonstrating how what the particular belief system offers as its own history or traces as its own tradition may not always hold up under the rigorous standards of scholarship from within the academy. Still, I believe that much that is present here is indeed uniquely valueable for any student of religious beliefs, alternative beliefs, hidden or lost knowledge, or with a general interest in the esoteric, the occult, or the modern day New Age.

For an alternative perspective on the New Age movement, written from a somewhat reactionary point of view, with basis in the Traditionalist school of Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon consult the work _The System of Antichrist_ by Charles Upton.

This book has the potential to empty American public libraries of half of their holdings. If you believe that the key to a better world is through "feeling good," as Wayne Dyer claimed in his PBS Special, then this book is for you. If you believe that modern reincarnation, reiki, feng shui, aromatherapy, and chakras are based on ancient wisdoms of trial and error research, this book is for you. If you believe that the energy of the body is based on science, this book is for you. If you believe that quantum physics unquestionably supports mind science theories that the world is nothing more than an energy field, this book is for you. This book will hit you hard, but it will present you with facts about your spirituality that must be addressed if your movement is to survive.

The New Age Movement is one that is largely ignorant of its own tradition. Hammer presents a cross-section of its history and its primary experiential basis for knowledge which provides a semblance of congruity to a very diverse and flamboyant body.

Depending on your viewpoint, the New Age is either an opening or a closing of the eyes. This book will help you decide with striking revelations regarding the histories of beliefs that shape the movement.

A book to be celebrated, and a book to commission many likeminded studies. The book should be regarded as a genesis. Let the research begin. The esoteric tradition of our age has made too many unanswered claims.