Kingston Wm. Heath Ph.D., "Vernacular Architecture and Regional Design: Cultural Process and Environmental Response"

Architectural Press | 2009 | ISBN: 0750659335 | 216 pages | PDF | 28,5 MB

A governing principle of sustainable architecture is that buildings need to reflect upon and respond to the environment they are placed in. Through a series of international case studies, Vernacular Architecture and Regional Design re-examines vernacular architectural theory and looks at what gives buildings a sense of place.

The book equips the professional architect with the tools to realise socially responsible principles as part of the design process. The case studies of contemporary architects' work provide real examples of how the study of vernacular architecture can contribute directly to practice in sustainable design. It considers architecture and design as integrated social processes, not just technical or aesthetic exercises, thus showing how local building traditions can become part of a wider architectural and social fabric.

Vernacular Architecture and Regional Design will appeal to professionals around the world in the fields of architecture, architectural heritage and urban design.

* A series of international case studies demonstrates the place of vernacular architecture in the design process for a wide selection of contemporary architects' work.
* Offers a clear analysis of the vernacular building tradition, placing architecture in its social context.
* Introduces a new, socially and environmentally inspired approach to sustainable design.

The Architect's Guide to Running a Practice [Architecture / Design] by David Littlefield

Author:David Littlefield | Publisher:Architectural Press | 144 Pages | 2004-12-28 | ISBN-0750660996 | PDF | 5.9 MB

This is your essential one stop shop for information on starting and running a practice. Case studies and advice from practitioners, big and small, run alongside outlines of all the key topics, to give you an insight into the problems and challenges others have faced when setting up a design business. Accessible and informative, this handbook is the ideal first point of reference when starting a practice.
Architects have many different reasons for setting up in practice; equally, there are many ways of running your own business. This handbook helps you consider whether or not you should set up on your own, examining issues such as financing, office space, recruitment, IT and workingo ut a business plan. Some architects want to stay small, while others have ambitions to grow into large businesses. Some grow big accidentally. And then there are those who pick and choose their work carefully, and even turn down undesirable contracts, while others will grab at everything possible. This book woudl explore these different models and illustrate how different kinds of practice develop into successful businesses.
Importantly, the book will stress that these issues are crucial - you may be the best designer in the world, but unless your business is well managed you will fail. On the other hand, some successful architects spend a lot of time looking for new work and attending to management issues, rarely finding the time for design work. This book would illustrate how architects have struck a balance between these two extremes.

Peter Coleman, "Shopping Environments: Evolution, Planning and Design"

Architectural Press | 2006-10-11 | ISBN: 0750660015 | 472 pages | PDF | 176 MB

Shopping centers have become the most common of shopping environments and have influenced the make-up of cities around the world. However, in recent years, the enclosed "mall" has evolved and diversified with new types of retail environments that were developed to better suit their locale and meet public expectation.

This design guide has over 600 illustrations that present the core values and considerations that make a successful retail center: location, catchment user needs, as well as access and layout. Covering everything from site master planning to the essentials of public facilities and the technical systems, this is essential reading for architects of contemporary shopping centers.

A series of international examples showcasing different types of shopping environments are included to cover the wide range of designs that have occurred in recent years. From the "out of town" mall to retail parks and mixed use town center developments, the best of contemporary design is illustrated to provide both practical information and inspiration.

* A unique and inspirational guide to shopping centre design
* An international range of full colour illustrations explore the key contemporary issues in retail design and planning
* Packed with essential technical information and design detail

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Part 2

Frank Lloyd Wright (Treasures of Art) by Rh Value Publishing

Publisher: Gramercy | Number Of Pages: 80 | Publication Date: 1999-08-17 | Sales Rank: 870562 | ISBN: 051716115X | PDF | 59 Mb

The importance of the architect to the quality and character of any society is not usually as widely regarded as it deserves to be. While every past civilization is, to a considerable extent, recognized and judged by its architecture, its creators are in general little known or revered; it would seem as though the buildings which are of such importance to our lives have spontaneously appeared as if by magic. Civilizations are more widely evaluated by their literature, music, painting and sculpture and other useful artefacts, while architecture is merely taken for granted.

In this century, however, where great and far-reaching developments have occurred which require examination and justification, architects have come to be regarded with a mixture of interest, suspicion and sometimes dismay. All this has served to transform the interest of the general public in architecture and the architect is beginning to be appreciated and valued.
When they have great strength of character, lucidity of exposition and, in the view of the media, an interesting personal history as well, they have become publicly recognized figures of social importance. None more so than the subject of this book whose personality and achievement has, unlike many of his peers, dominated the first half of this century. With such figures as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, he is recognized as a creative architectural genius. His singular individual achievement, as a native-born American, was to gather together the strands of American historical architecture and create a corpus of work which is both modern and essentially American.

Frank Lloyd Wright's career, sometimes tragic, sometimes tempestuous—at all times creative—has been examined and re-examined in numerous studies and articles both during his lifetime and since his death in 1959 shortly before his most famous and notorious Guggenheim Museum in New York was completed. And his life continues to demand re-examination as the progress of architectural philosophy inspires dramatic stylistic change. This concise consideration of his life and work offers a careful analysis of this complex, powerful and confident personality as well as the architectural legacy left behind by him.

Landscape Architecture 2009 / 02
American Socity for Landscape Architects | 2009 / 02 | ISSN 00238031 | PDF | 124 pages | 52.6 MB

Books on nature in Southeast Asia is another area in which Select Books has slowly established a niche in. We were approached by National Parks to help to manage the books gift section in the 2008 Singapore Garden Festival. It was a good experience for us, and we've gone on to establish a respectable collection of book on nature and gardening. Here is a list of our popular books on nature in Southeast Asia:

• Raffles' Ark Redrawn: Natural History Drawings from the Collection of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles by H.J. Noltie. An illustrated catalogue of the 123 colourful natural history drawings of the Raffles Family Collection, acquired by the British Library in 2007. In February 1824, Sir Stamford Raffles and his wife Sophia set sail for Britain on the Fame, with the collections made during his years of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. These included two to three thousand drawings, priceless Malay manuscripts and living animals, including a tiger specially tamed for the trip. Tragically the ship caught fire with the loss of all the collections. During the next ten weeks until the next boat sailed, a Chinese and a French artist managed to replace about 80 of the drawings that, with earlier drawings, including some made on the Malaysian island of Penang for the East India Company surgeon William Hunter, form the core of the collection.

• Private Lives: An Exposé Of Singapore's Mangroves edited by Peter Ng and Wang Luan Keng et al. The immense ecological importance of mangroves is increasingly being recognised by planners but perhaps not by the general public. Singapore has already lost 90% of its mangroves. Scientists and photographers have worked together in this study of the inhabitants of the remaining 10%. The need for replanting and diversity of endurance of the many inhabitants of the mangroves is made clear. The many parts they play in the maintenance of ecological health even in today's largely urban situations are highlighted. With colour photographs, scientific identification data, bibliography and index.

• Pitcher Plants of Borneo by Anthea Phillipps; Anthony Lamb and Chien C Lee. All the 36 species of pitcher plants currently known from Borneo are covered in this lavishly illustrated second edition. There are detailed accounts of each species, written in an accessible style and including quotes from the works of old explorers and collectors. The non-scientific but informative style of the first edition, published in 1996, has been maintained, whilst new species have been added, and information and taxonomy updated. With excellent colour photographs, references and index.

• Brighten Your Life With Orchids: A Beginner's Guide to Growing Orchids in the Tropics by Eric Simon. A former officer of the Selangor Agriculture Department, Eric Simon is these days a horticulture consultant and an orchid show judge. He has more than 40 years of experience with orchids under his belt. In this fully illustrated handbook, he gives orchid fanciers a chance to successfully grow their own vandas, dendobriums, cattleyas, phalaenopsis, oncidiums and terrestrials. He offers instructions and advice in layman language on orchid type, growing conditions, propagation methods, fertilizers, potting, pests, and other crucial factors for getting the best out of orchids in a tropical climate.

• A Photographic Guide to Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by G. Davison and Chew Yen Fook. The forests and coastline of Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore are home to a fantastic and vast array of birds, and offer many outstanding and easily accessible birdwatching locations. This text is a compact, easy-to-use bird identification guide designed to suit any birdwatcher visiting Malaysia and Singapore. It features thumbnail silhouettes, two regional distribution maps showing the best birding localities, tips on birdwatching and information on bird biology and behaviour. A total of 252 species of the commoner and more conspicuous birds from a wide range of habitats are featured.

Books on nature in Southeast Asia is another area in which Select Books has slowly established a niche in. We were approached by National Parks to help to manage the books gift section in the 2008 Singapore Garden Festival. It was a good experience for us, and we've gone on to establish a respectable collection of book on nature and gardening. Here is a list of our popular books on nature in Southeast Asia:

• Raffles' Ark Redrawn: Natural History Drawings from the Collection of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles by H.J. Noltie. An illustrated catalogue of the 123 colourful natural history drawings of the Raffles Family Collection, acquired by the British Library in 2007. In February 1824, Sir Stamford Raffles and his wife Sophia set sail for Britain on the Fame, with the collections made during his years of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. These included two to three thousand drawings, priceless Malay manuscripts and living animals, including a tiger specially tamed for the trip. Tragically the ship caught fire with the loss of all the collections. During the next ten weeks until the next boat sailed, a Chinese and a French artist managed to replace about 80 of the drawings that, with earlier drawings, including some made on the Malaysian island of Penang for the East India Company surgeon William Hunter, form the core of the collection.

• Private Lives: An Exposé Of Singapore's Mangroves edited by Peter Ng and Wang Luan Keng et al. The immense ecological importance of mangroves is increasingly being recognised by planners but perhaps not by the general public. Singapore has already lost 90% of its mangroves. Scientists and photographers have worked together in this study of the inhabitants of the remaining 10%. The need for replanting and diversity of endurance of the many inhabitants of the mangroves is made clear. The many parts they play in the maintenance of ecological health even in today's largely urban situations are highlighted. With colour photographs, scientific identification data, bibliography and index.

• Pitcher Plants of Borneo by Anthea Phillipps; Anthony Lamb and Chien C Lee. All the 36 species of pitcher plants currently known from Borneo are covered in this lavishly illustrated second edition. There are detailed accounts of each species, written in an accessible style and including quotes from the works of old explorers and collectors. The non-scientific but informative style of the first edition, published in 1996, has been maintained, whilst new species have been added, and information and taxonomy updated. With excellent colour photographs, references and index.

• Brighten Your Life With Orchids: A Beginner's Guide to Growing Orchids in the Tropics by Eric Simon. A former officer of the Selangor Agriculture Department, Eric Simon is these days a horticulture consultant and an orchid show judge. He has more than 40 years of experience with orchids under his belt. In this fully illustrated handbook, he gives orchid fanciers a chance to successfully grow their own vandas, dendobriums, cattleyas, phalaenopsis, oncidiums and terrestrials. He offers instructions and advice in layman language on orchid type, growing conditions, propagation methods, fertilizers, potting, pests, and other crucial factors for getting the best out of orchids in a tropical climate.

• A Photographic Guide to Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by G. Davison and Chew Yen Fook. The forests and coastline of Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore are home to a fantastic and vast array of birds, and offer many outstanding and easily accessible birdwatching locations. This text is a compact, easy-to-use bird identification guide designed to suit any birdwatcher visiting Malaysia and Singapore. It features thumbnail silhouettes, two regional distribution maps showing the best birding localities, tips on birdwatching and information on bird biology and behaviour. A total of 252 species of the commoner and more conspicuous birds from a wide range of habitats are featured.

Mohamed Boubekri - Daylighting, Architecture and Health: Building Design Strategies

Architectural Press | 2008 | ISBN: 0750667249 | Pages: 160 | PDF | 14.70 MB

Daylighting, Architecture and Health examines the relationship between natural light in buildings and human health, considering both psychological and physiological issues and bringing together a range of research in the field.

As we are becoming increasingly conscious of global warming and pushing towards energy efficiency in buildings, the book examines the question of daylighting from the perspective of the health of building occupants. It gathers and reviews all the latest and pertinent medical and architectural research related to natural light, or lack thereof, and its effect on people.

* Documents medical research findings which establish a link between light quality and health
* Considers design strategies for increasing daylight in buildings
* Develops understanding and awareness of the importance of natural light in buildings

Daylighting, Architecture and Health: Building Design Strategies is a timely and essential text for professional architects and all others concerned with the effects of daylighting on health, architecture and building design.

* Outlines appropriate design strategies for increasing daylight in buildings
* Demonstrates a link between light quality and health and explains the importance of natural light in buildings
* Brings together the latest medical and architectural research on this important topic

Travel, Space, Architecture (Design and the Built Environment)

Jilly Traganou | ISBN: 0754648273 | PDF | 353 pages | April 2009 | 8 MB


Cultural theorists have, over the past few decades, examined the role of travel in spatial definition, and have noted its significance in the constant exchange and interaction between cultures. Whilst travelling has also been the subject of architectural research, particularly concerning the work of internationalist architects of the early 20th Century, deeper issues of travel, such as mapping, displacement, foreigness and otherness, have been largely neglected in architectural theory. This book brings architectural thinking in line with the cultural theory debates and argues that, rather than architecture being 'rooted' to place as has traditionally been asserted, border crossing and cross-cultural encounters have always been a prevailing paradigm of the spatial conceptualisation, representation and production of space. It brings together case studies ranging from those between Japan and Europe in the period of early modernity, to central Europe and the Mediterranean within the framework of modern architecture, and to the USA and the European East in the cold-war era, unveiling (mis)readings and exchanges that are embedded in subsequent cultural productions. It also addresses the influence of globalization on contemporary urban design and architecture, examining the impact of immigration on metropolitan environments and the spread of signature architectural practices throughout the world. In doing so, "Travel, Space, Architecture" promotes an original understanding of architecture as a practice concerned with a realm much broader than that of building, and of the influence of travel on designing and producing spatial conceptions and forms.