3 comments about Pocket Guide to the ADA: Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities, Revised Edition.

1. The Table of Contents of this book is nearly indentical to the "Code of Federal Regulations" issued by the Justice Department and provided free of charge to anyone who asks for it. But at roughly 6x9 inches, it doesn't fit in my pocket. So if the pocket thing is important to you, I highly recommend this book!



2. This little book is easy to carry around and contains all of the ADAAG info you could ever need! I've been using mine for 2 years and would be lost without it! Thomas Schmokel - ADA Consultant



3. Are you tired of tracking down the office copy of the ADA standards? Is the only copy within the workstation of King Tornado? Get your hands on this little number. Keep it by you at all times. I have used this reference guide for two years now and it has saved me a lot of time. This is a very easy to use condensed version of the state issued ADA guide. It is accurate and reliable and it does not have to go back to the office library. And don't let the words "pocket guide" scare you off, this is not a brochure, it is a book. It's just smaller and smarter, not to mention lighter than the stardard issue. So get a grip on ADA, pocket size.

4 comments about The Architect's Studio Companion, 3rd Edition.

1. Well written, easy to read and comprehend. Great for a student to begin development of a project.



2. This book offers a great way for architecture students to get a handle on some of the issues related to building design. It deals with basic issues of construction including structural systems, mechanical systems, and code considerations. It gives "rules of thumb" and basic descriptions which are great for preliminary design. For example, if you need to roughly size a truss or floor system during schematic design, go the appropriate section for the system you are using, and you'll find handy charts for basic sizing. This is a great book for students who need rough "guestimates" for studio projects.



3. Having this book is like having a half-dozen of the best engineering consultants at your elbow-ready to answer any question that may come up during design. It reduces all the complex technical issues in building design to simple formal elements of know size that are easily merged into the architectural design process. A must-have for professionals and students alike!



4. As an Architecture Student this book has come in very hand. It gives many details of design guidelines and is a wonderful resource book to own.

2 comments about Light Structures - Structures of Light: The Art and Engineering of Tensile Architecture Illustrated by the Work of Horst Berger.

1. This is a book positioned at exactly the right level for someone interested in the concept of building with tent like features. While there are several such structures in the US and around the world, the best known is the new Denver airport. Here is a building concept that offers considerable advantages to conventional design, not the least of which is an entirely new concept in modern architecture that in turn goes back to the days of tents.
   
   The author has been involved in many, if not most of the dramatic structures built using these new techniques. While this book has somewhat of a missionaries dedication to these roof structures, it rather makes sense.
   
   This is not a book designed for engineers, it is a book designed for the concept phase. This is what an interested buyer might use to talk to an engineering firm to tell him what he wants. This is a book that an engineer might use to understand what the customer wants before he gets deeply into the software and the design.
   
   I really liked the book. I only have one argument with the author. As a very frequent flyer for many years, the new Denver airport may have a very nice roof, but the airport itself sucks. It's the worst airport I habitually used.



2. a wonderful, accessible and personal journey through an understanding of the basis and historical development of tensile membrane structures by a world renowned engineer-designer and teacher. through historic examples and his own contemporary projects, prof. berger allows the reader to grasp a scientific understanding and aesthetic appreciation for these unique structures.
   
   a must book for all architects, engineers and anyone who desires a better comprehension of light weight structures.

5 comments about Places of the Soul: Architecture and Environmental Design as a Healing Art.

1. Are you looking for a book that recognizes the need for designing buildings to meet lofty sustainability goals, but that also places human needs on an equal or superior plane? Do you look at new mechanistic buildings of steel, titanium and low-e glass and wonder how it's possible to feel inspired, or even comfortable, when you're in them? If you answer yes to these questions, then perhaps you would benefit from reading the second edition of Christopher Day's book, Places of the Soul, Architecture and Environmental Design as a Healing Art (Grammarians might suggest "as Healing Arts").

   Day wrote the book in 1988, long before the birth of LEEDS, to address his perception of a growing lack of concern about human needs for variety in the form of spaces, the connection of spaces to nature and natural processes, and craft in the production of habitation. From his concerns one would assume that he was a student of the work of Christopher Alexander, particularly "A Timeless Way of Building". However, he moves beyond Alexander in citing the results of empirical studies that support his theses.

   In the chapter Architecture: Does It Matter? Day discusses how good design adds value, increases productivity, reduces health care costs, and accelerates healing. He cites the work of Dr. Roger Ulrich that demonstrated faster healing of patients in ICU's with views of nature. Important to architects struggling with limited budgets is the cited research that demonstrates how a 6.5% increase in productivity can justify a building four times as expensive!

   This book takes a broad-brush look at regionalism, vernacular architecture, the art of architecture, human and planetary health, quality versus quantity, making spaces livable, and even design as a listening process. Responding to criticism from clients that listening is a problem with some architects, the National Architectural Accrediting Board has made a recent change in its student performance criteria that emphasizes listening as a required skill.

   From listening, Day moves to making buildings with soul, building as a health-giving process, silence and peace in architecture, and the creation of appropriate spaces for children. He concludes with an important chapter on the urban environment, the conflict between sustainable values and urban pressures, the needs of urban life, cities as places for people and for life, and whether eco-cities might be utopian or practicable.

   Places of the Soul is an excellent primer for students of architecture seeking a balance between design for sustainability and for human needs, between a mass-produced machine aesthetic and one that includes hand-craftsmanship, and between sterile mind-numbing sameness and invigorating variety. It is illustrated with photographs and drawings of buildings and places in Great Britain that, while relevant, could be supplemented with more recent global examples. This book raises challenging questions about the buildings and places we will design and build, and the affect they will have on us as people and as a society.




2. My God, I was forced to read this book for a construction management class at a four-year university in the United States and struggled through every minute. I don't know what was more frustrating, having to read this dull-minded and repetative junk or reading four words at a time because for whatever reason the prestigious author, Christopher Day, was forced to go against conventional thinking and put two columns on each page. This was hands down the worst book I have ever read throughout my life. The guy is hypocritical of everyone who lives in an ordinary house and works in an ordinary job in an ordinary office building. Sorry Mr. Day, but most of us don't have the time and monetary security to write a 200-page book regarding soulful places. We just trudge off to work everyday in our non-biologically inducing office buildings. A bunch of junk!



3. A bit wordy and repetitive, but some of his ideas are first rate. The pictures are really nice too.



4. This is a seminal piece of work, that I would recomend for anyone involved with homes and living spaces, (I think that means everyone!) There is much wisdom in this book, and it is as much a book about how we live as it is a life philosopy book.
   Best book I have read about our 'third Skin'



5. PLACES OF THE SOUL is a very satisfying, powerful look at how the architectural environment makes an impact health, thought, and especially spirit. Mr. Day's writing is beautiful, drawing the reader through ideas of space, light, structure, environment, location and intention. Reading it was both inspiring and informative. An elegant book about an important subject.

No comments about Site Planning & Design: ARE Sample Problems and Practice Exam (Architect Registration Exam).

No comments about Building Systems: ARE Sample Problems and Practice Exam (Architect Registration Exam).

2 comments about Concise Townscape.

1. Too concise. Had to get copies of pictures left out from previous copy.
   
   Dorothy Ramsay



2. If Gordon Cullen's book 'The Concise Townscape' were required reading for anyone entering an architectural education, the level of discourse on design would skyrocket. Cullen puts to words and images some of the more intangible qualities of space that nevertheless affect how we view our surroundings. It is, in my opinion, a categorization of experiences... discussing things like 'serial vision' (the progression of visual experience as one moves along a path) 'outdoor room and indoor landscape', 'looking into enclosure', 'viscosity', etc. etc. This book is more than a dictionary or thesaurus of spatial terms, however. It is primarily a book on experience- getting to the heart of how a space actually feels; how it is occupied, how it CAN be occupied, and what are the qualities that make it that way. If read for what it truly is, it renders the current fashion of architectural pornography rather silly.
   
   And this, my friend, is where its true strength in Academia comes into play. Sexy renderings only take one so far, but your design professor has most likely read this book. Understanding Cullen's work will bring the discourse up, and move your work beyond a visual one-liner.
   
   But that's just my opinion, and I could be wrong.

No comments about Unit 20: Bartlett School of Architecture.

No comments about Programming, Planning & Practice: ARE Sample Problems and Practice Exam (Architect Registration Exam).

1 comments about On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time.

1. This book provides a fresh new approach on how architects and/or designers should view the use of materials. The ingeneous approach on how the natural weathering process of materials can be a phenomenon that may enrich a material's physical property, provides a great insightful approach for a 'responsible' use of materials in architecture. This book is a MUST read for all those architecture students that have a great interest in materials.