Design and Construction Books

This book is far from typical. It is well written and has a strong theme about the economic and environmental imperative of natural building with local materials. Gibbs and Smith typically publish pictures books with writing that is secondary to design. This book has both great writing and great pictures. And it will challenge any homeowner, builder or designer to rethink conventional building norms. Well done.

My wife & I are planning to build our own timber frame home in the Pacific Northwest. This book really helped out with our design and material selections. We have had the pleasure of touring both of the author's homes in Idaho and were impressed with the personal touches in each one.

hovey has taken the case study aspirations to a new level. brave enough to tackle all aspects of building, his construction sense is visible in amazing structural simplicity. beautiful photos and good summary by kent.
i wish there was another book featuring his multi-family buildings.

The photos are priceless in this book, really captures the work of Hovey. The desert never looked so beautiful and the architecture that fits right in without imposing on the environment.

There are plenty of books on home renovation, but very few on modern renovations and additions for older homes, and fewer still that have the quantity of examples, images and floor plans that this book has. In this book the additions and renovations are contemporary whereas most of the homes are older and more traditional. At 228 pages with 300 photos, editors Il Kim and James Grayson Trulove have the space to present these unique American makeovers in detail. New American Additions and Renovations is intended for the professional community of practitioners and clients but will appeal to any fan of architecture.

This book brings together twenty-five additions/renovations. Most of these projects are what I term avante garde, or object like home additions, meaning that the new portion of the building relates to, but does not necessarily match the existing building. It is interesting to compare and contrast this book to Taunton Press' "Design Ideas for Great American Houses - Additions" which features more conservatively designed seamless additions - also an excellent addition sourcebook.

Most of the projects are designed by seasoned and up and coming young architects. In most cases there is a display of exceptional rigor, which makes these projects very unpredictable. Most projects employ superb craftsmanship. The book's large format makes a beautiful presentation of these projects. As the owner of an architectural firm that does a lot of additions, I found this book to be a great inspiration and highly recommend it.

The New American Dream is a marvelous pictoral essay presenting a well argued thesis for the superiority of small spaces. The breakdown of the book into sections which focus on specific aesthetic merits that small houses and apartments can provide is
extremely well articulated. It is so refreshing to be able enjoy a book on design that has a text worthy of its photographs.

I bought this book at Strand Bookstore in New York because of the beautiful photography and details the author included about each featured home. I love that there is a movement (apparently) towards smaller homes. I'm originally from Houston, and the disgusting scale of houses in the suburbs is such a contrast to the wonderful buildings featured in this book.

The only problem I had was I felt that most of the dwellings featured were second homes. I would like to have seen more primary residences.

I can't think when a new decorating book excited me as much as this one. I buy a lot of decorating books, but New Classic Style is so chic yet so helpful all at the same time. The premise, which is carried out stylishly by the photos, involves mixing classic furnishings from all eras and genres to create "personal" style. The book is so what I'm all about and what I see my friends doing. I've never seen a book on how to create your own mix before.

This is a great book if you are looking for new ideas for your home and you don't want to spend a fortune. Also a great book if you want to NOT do what everyone else is doing!

We bought this book because Mr. Baker is on the short list of architects we are considering for our new home. It is a very beautiful and educational book, with comprehensive pictures of the exteriors and interiors of many lovely homes of all styles. It has helped me greatly in deciding what I like and do not like - I have spent hours pouring over this book and will spend many more I am sure.

I also purchased Bill Harrison's book at the same time and it is not nearly as good as this one, although Mr. Harrison has designed many lovely homes too. Mr. Baker's homes, for the most part, seem to be homes you could actually live in - cozy and warm, even though many are large. Lots of close ups of the details, and even some landscape plans as well.

All in all, a very good purchase!

If a book can be elegant, this one is, the images are crisp and vivid and the text is very informative. The book is very thorough, though never pedantic, you are educated not lectured. If you any interest beautiful new homes or just enjoy beautiful books, then I can imagine you being disappointed. Highly recommended.

Most books on management can be pretty well understood by reading the first chapter. So often the subsequent chapters just embelish the concept and can be skipped. But this book keeps going with practical insights that will help leaders in our industry get and keep good people and get and keep good clients.

"The new book The New Competitiveness in Design & Construction is seminal. The writing style is entertaining while keeping the content first rate. I'm actually shocked that an architect could write such a book!" James Auld, Vice President, Morganti Construction Management

When I looked at the cover of this book I saw what I expected, a very modern house fairly small house in a heavily forested setting. Then I turned to the first page of the introduction and pictured was the country home of the Eleventh Duke of Marlborough in 1722. His home, called Blenheim Palace, was not moden, definitely not small and incidentally was the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. Next to it though was the tiny cabin used by Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond.

The book is organized into four chapters with houses separated by style. The styles he features are:

Organic -- homes made to fit in with the surroundings. This includes both a sensitivity to the site and landscape but also to building materials: stone, timber, adobe.

Verhacular -- Powerful and beautifyl homes that fuse vernacular references and ideas with contemporary demands for open-plan living and flexible spaces.

New Modern --Where new materials and technology bring in innovation with engineering challenges but still preserve a respect for their rural surroundings.

Experimental -- Where anything goes. Well away from the restrictive covenents, building codes and other pressures of society, these are homes that stretch the limits of thematic, structural and let the country be one of the great laboratories of architectural change.

This book provide great photography and descriptions with a selection of houses from around the world.

Impressions on the title alone, the name of the book is initially a little misleading; the term "country house" conjuring up imagery of a vanished way of life of servants and English manors rather than a building type. However, the contemporary image on the cover and the 208 pages throughout the book powerfully re-affirm that all of the houses featured are simply new and in the country.

Bradbury presents 30 case studies which span 4 continents in an attempt to highlight good rural design and celebrates how architects worldwide have sought to reinterpret and reinvent the genre of the country house in a contemporary fashion. He does this by breaking the book into 4 thematic chapters; choosing to categorize the case studies into topics such as organic, vernacular, new modern and experimental.

Most case studies featured have a devoted 6 pages of text each accompanied by large colour pictures. Plans and sections are also included with a majority of the case studies which adds to the further understanding of the buildings.

The chapters follow an introduction in the book that provides a concise synopsis on the history of the country house, charting the development of country houses worldwide from Blenheim's Palace to Throreau's hut. It further enriches this topic by analyzing the notion of the country house and the symbolic weight that has been associated with it throughout literature and historical connotation, from the `sprawling classical country house' to the more modest modern inspired `bucolic retreat'.

I suppose that by publishing this book Bradbury is trying to argue that contemporary design of this building typology can achieve good outcomes and perhaps was conceived in response to Britain's strict and archaic planning laws that make it hard for this design to be possible.
Bradbury also places a strong emphasis on ESD principles and a presents a romanticized relationship with the landscape. This book has been targeted at a mainstream audience that possess an interest in architecture or design. It is quite similar to the glossy publications with titles like Small Spaces, Poolside Architecture etc. that profile a genre in housing.

Bradbury has written a number of books before regarding architecture and his writings are concise and intelligent, yet easy to follow. With so many examples being provided around the world, it is questionable to say how representative a sample this is of the contemporary country house for the scholar, but considering there are few publications profiling the genre at present it is a very good start. It is easy to be seduced by the chosen collection of inspiring projects from some of the world's best architects.

Samuel Chamberlain was one of America's preeminent photographers during the early and mid 20th Century. He is conspicuously and sadly forgotten today. I use the word conspicuously because if you every see his work as originally published he no doubt would leave you intrigued. That's putting it mildly. I think his greatest passion and love was the rural New England setting. It is amazing how his black & white photographs could actually capture the colors of the New England foliage. One can feel the sun shining through autumn colored leaves. I find that remarkable and that is what has intrigued me and has sent me on a never-ending quest to locate copies of his originally published books. If you do become intrigued, you must locate copies circa the time of the original date of publication. I am not an expert on printing techniques and papers, but I do know that his original works were usually printed on a bright white matte finish paper, which reproduced the photographs as close to photograph paper as was possible. When you see photographs in a newspaper, they look as though they are made up from a series of dots, which they are. I believe what you are seeing is a sample of the dpi or dots per square inch. With more dots per square inch definition and tonal qualities are increased. With Chamberlain's original publications, one does not see any dots. The photographs are vibrant and have to be seen in person to be appreciated. I have seen one of his old titles back in print recently, "The New England Image." I own a first printing, which was bound and printed by Conzett & Huber, Zurich, Switzerland, 1962. Actually this is one of Samuel Chamberlain's best-known books. The first printing is a work of vitality and art. The new edition is so poorly printed that it makes the photographs look entirely undistinguishable from the originals. The latest printing of "The New England Image" in fact makes Chamberlain's photographs look very mundane, commonplace and "undistinguished." As an extension of his New England subjects, which were often composites of nature and typical historical and uniquely New England structures, he also turned his lens to Colonial American architecture and interiors. Actually, that was another hallmark of Samuel Chamberlain. Later in his life he did some shooting in color. You can find a quantity of his color work in books on Cape Cod circa 1968. I do recommend this book because if you are unacquainted with Chamberlain will possibly gain some appreciation for his work. Again modern printing techniques do not do justice especially for black & white photography the more that I think about it. I think the main thrust of technology today is the perfection of color reproduction. How unfortunate that is for Samuel Chamberlain and for future generations.

Samuel Chamberlain was one of America's preeminent photographers during the early and mid 20th Century. He is conspicuously and sadly forgotten today. I use the word conspicuously because if you every see his work as originally published he no doubt would leave you intrigued. That's putting it mildly. I think his greatest passion and love was the rural New England setting. It is amazing how his black & white photographs could actually capture the colors of the New England foliage. One can feel the sun shining through autumn colored leaves. I find that remarkable and that is what has intrigued me and has sent me on a never-ending quest to locate copies of his originally published books. If you do become intrigued, you must locate copies circa the time of the original date of publication. I am not an expert on printing techniques and papers, but I do know that his original works were usually printed on a bright white matte finish paper, which reproduced the photographs as close to photograph paper as was possible. When you see photographs in a newspaper, they look as though they are made up from a series of dots, which they are. I believe what you are seeing is a sample of the dpi or dots per square inch. With more dots per square inch definition and tonal qualities are increased. With Chamberlain's original publications, one does not see any dots. The photographs are vibrant and have to be seen in person to be appreciated. I have seen one of his old titles back in print recently, "The New England Image." I own a first printing, which was bound and printed by Conzett & Huber, Zurich, Switzerland, 1962. Actually this is one of Samuel Chamberlain's best-known books. The first printing is a work of vitality and art. The new edition is so poorly printed that it makes the photographs look entirely undistinguishable from the originals. The latest printing of "The New England Image" in fact makes Chamberlain's photographs look very mundane, commonplace and "undistinguished." As an extension of his New England subjects, which were often composites of nature and typical historical and uniquely New England structures, he also turned his lens to Colonial American architecture and interiors. Actually, that was another hallmark of Samuel Chamberlain. Later in his life he did some shooting in color. You can find a quantity of his color work in books on Cape Cod circa 1968. I do recommend this book because if you are unacquainted with Chamberlain will possibly gain some appreciation for his work. Again modern printing techniques do not do justice especially for black & white photography the more that I think about it. I think the main thrust of technology today is the perfection of color reproduction. How unfortunate that is for Samuel Chamberlain and for future generations.

this is a book i really need, but i cannot get it in China.

Definitely a must-have book to help you decorate your home, especially your kids' bedrooms. Inside this book, you will find many great ideas of decorating the bedroom with limit of space. I always think that the idea of bunk beds are suitable for them living in apartments or duplex apartment. But I changed my mind when seeing this book. I like the idea to harness the stairs of bunk bed as a cupboard. Voila! It can be a storage to keep toys and many other things.

This book presents so many beautiful pictures and its design neatly prevent you from boringness to look at it again, and again!