5 comments about Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques (Natural Building Series).

1. organized, complete and very helpful! i am now building a house from earth bags and i use it much! everything it sais works!



2. This is our "go-to" book for very practical descriptions and diagrams of process and procedure. We are planning our new house, and are incorporating elements of off-grid solar/wind power, rainfall catchment, passive ventilation, and high-mass wall construction.
   
   Nothing beats a hands-on experience, and if you can visit either the CalEarth site in California, or the Earthships site in New Mexico, you should. You get a much better understanding of the process of earthbuilding, and also of the finished product. Then, as you begin to plan to build, gather all the information you can. "Ceramic Houses" will give you great information on design principles and on philosophy; the Earthship books by Mike Reynolds give primo information on the plumbing and electrical systems, and in particular on rainfall catchment.
   
   "Earthbag Building" however, remains our mainstay. Hunter gives such good detail, and provides excellent resource lists for materials, and also lovely line diagrams that are very clear and easy to follow. And to truly make her the Queen of Bag Building, if you e-mail her a reasonable question, she answers!



3. I first checked this book out in the local library. It's a wealth of information, so I went to Amazon and bought two copies. I can recommend it highly to anyone interested in exploring this form of construction.



4. This is a must book for anyone who is considering to undertake the task of building an earthbag structure. There are many tips and suggestions, the result of long practical experience, that will help the inexperienced builder to avoid many: "if I only had thought of this earlier..." moments.



5. Earthbag building, a method developped by Nader Khalili, is a wonderful innovation in building. It means that a building be built from materials found on site, even if those materials are too poor for rammed earth or mud brick. I've already used the techniques in this book to detail two public buildings! The trick is now to convince the structural engineer and councils...

1 comments about Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture.

1. This book is mandatory for the library of any architect or student of architecture. It is the point from which any discussion of Modern Architecture could begin. I am hard pressed to think of a notable architect Conrad has neglected to include in this handy little book. From these pages I have seen generated a good number of arguments and debates on the state of architecture today. This is a small price to pay for such a wide array of ideas, both good and bad.

2 comments about Chinoiseries.

1. Chinoiseries This book is full of so many architectual chinoiseries that I never knew existed. One wants to remove the print pages from the book for framing. I stayed transfixed on the illustrations of each page and it is as if I were transplanted into a chic fantasy world. The style and the colors are awesome. I found it difficult to read about each particular structure as my eyes kept being diverted to the illustrations. I had some reservations about ordering this book as I did not need another coffee table book; however, the quality that is found among the pages makes this a must-see for the artist in all of us.



2. If you're into Chinoserie at all, this is a beautiful addition to your design library- that is, if you can refrain from cutting up the book to hang the pages on the wall. I couldn't, and now I have a beautiful graphic collection of framed panels from this book over my living room sofa. I'm buying a second copy of the book just so I can keep one to read. The text accompanying each structure is great reading- I especially loved seeing Marie Anoinette's merry-go-round from Versailles.

5 comments about Hotel Design, Planning, and Development, New Edition.

1. This book is filled with rules of thumbs,tables,charts, and drawings to help any architect to design any type of hotel. I can say after reading this book, one will walk away with a general knowledge about the hotel industry and how to design a hotel.



2. I was assigned to teach at the Master Degree class on "Facility Management" subject focusing on Hotel Facility. I have gone through several books regarding hotel design. I think this book is the best of all. Any designer who reads this book back to back will certainly understand the whole concept. It is not only about how to design the hotel as an architecture piece, but the reader will also understand the hospitality business. This book also covers the design and management issues of related topics such as "Restaurant", "Entertainment Venue" in the hotel. It is the 'must have' for all architects who want to design a hotel efficiently. It can also be a good book for anyone who is in the hospitality business and currently in charge of renovating or upgrading the hotel space; or the hotel's representative who need to communicate with architects or interior designer. This book can be the great tool to evaluate the result of the hotel construction project or even to 'correct' it. The tables and formulas for space calculation in this book are easy enough for anyone to understand. This book can be of great use to all building design professionals. It can also be a valuable one for any people who is interested in hotel business.



3. The work of hotel design and planning is different from other architectural works; it requires an indepth understanding of hotel business. Therefore, the hotel architecture became one of the toughest job for architects. (Another job is the hospital architecture.)
   
   However, this book proposed design guidelines for a hotel fit to the business pattern. First, it explains various types of hotel properties. Second, it shows not only design guidelines for facilities but also planning approach methods for location selecting and size determination. Finally, if you read this book, you can consider efficient management system of the property from the early phase of design.
   
   Among numerous books on hotel architecture, I think this book is the most outstanding resource.



4. I am an Interior Design student and found this book very helpful in completing a hospitality design. It provides a breakdown of the areas of the hotel, the different types of hotels, and the type of customers that use them. It really helped me in laying out the floor plan. There are also some awesome color pictures of fabulous hotels in the world. I highly recommend for anyone interested in hospitality design.



5. This a book that be should always be close to you if you work in the hotel development industry.

2 comments about House Beautiful Colors for Your Home: 300 Designer Favorites (House Beautiful Series).

1. Great book with beautiful colors and suggestion on how to use. Well worth the money.



2. I love the color pages that appear every month in House Beautiful. This book contains much of that information in one handy location. The book is divided by rooms as well as color families and color inspirations. There is also a very good index. I am a Realtor and often help my customers with color selection. This book provides some great visuals plus the name of the paint color and manufacturer. The photos of the rooms also can give you some excelling decorating ideas.

5 comments about The New Bungalow Kitchen.

1. We recently remodeled the kitchen in our 1927 bungalow. We were a bit lost early on, finding only occasional examples in the dozen or so kitchen books that we used. This book offers details of 17 bungalow kitchens of many shapes and styles, and one (#13, if you're interested) provided the inspiration for our design.



2. What a joy to pick up a book and see photos of lovely kitchens in my size -- meaning, not McMansion. I am so disheartened by all the kitchen porn featuring 48 inch ranges under huge hoods behind islands with seating for six! Though the book specifically references the bungalow style, the photos and narrative describe how the Colonials and Tudors evolved early in the century, and there is plenty of visual and descriptive information applicable to these styles too. I especially liked the emphasis on finding ways to use authentic materials and styling while incorporating modern appliances, from lighting to cooking and even surfaces. The earlier book, Bungalow Kitchens, took on a very proscriptive voice, for example, absolutely banning in-ceiling spot lights. New Bungalow Kitchens, by contrast, is much more ecumenical, recognizing it is no sin to want to acknowledge and utilize the best of the current offerings, and provides real guidance on how to accomplish this without blatantly violating the period aesthetic. There are lovely kitchens in both dark stained and light painted finishes. It seems the author has a few favorite kitchens that were pictured over and over throughout the book. But the ones he chose certainly bore up well in their close-ups. I got several ideas that I can actually use, in fact, probably more ideas than I can actually use.



3. A beautifully illustrated book full of good ideas for kitchen design.
   While the focus is on bungalow-style, much of the information could be applied to kitchens in any style home



4. Lush photos, sparking ideas for kitchen designs in arts-and-crafts bungalows, and crisp writing make this book a valuable tool for any bungalow owner contemplating a kitchen redesign. Even if you don't own a bungalow, the photos are worth the price of the book.



5. We finished building our new Craftsman home a few months ago. This book was very helpful in determining how we should create a kitchen that looked like it belongs in a bungalow, while keeping with modern conveniences. The chapters cover every detail from top to bottom, wall to wall, and there are beautiful photos that help you visualize each point. This book would be helpful for new homes like ours, and also for restorations. It shows how you can bring bungalow style to your home without it looking outdated and old. For me, this book was much more useful than "Bungalow Kitchens" by Jane Powell, which is more for the obsessive bungalow restorer. Peter LaBau shows you how you can utilize modern materials and conveniences in a "bungalow" way.

4 comments about Great Streets.

1. i love the drawing styles and methods presented in this book. i recommend it for anybody who loves buildings and great streets of our world.



2. This wonderful book consideres the civic street from many perspecitives and describes it with poetic attention. The author has spent days on these great streets and brings careful measurement and observation to his carefully crafted text. If everyone planning streets and highways in America read this book and visited one of two of these great streets, it would enable a huge improvement.

   This book studies the street not from the simple American perspecitve of high velocity traffic sewar, but from the realities of a place to hang out. eat lunch, shop, socialize, people watch, court, celebrate and be. The read how these places work in this book is to realize how much our desperate focus on the automobile costs us.

   Buy this book and photocopy some of its illustrations for your next public hearing on town planning.




3. This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in the study of urbanism.



4. ...this is a reference book in the sense that it mentions so many important and peculiar streets in the world, many of which, I'm sure, you've heard about or possibly even visited. Mr. Jacobs' accounts of his own travels and his feelings while strolling down those streets could even put this book in the travel journal caegory, complete with beautiful sketches by the author himself. Not only the sketches, but the technical and historical information, (like street dimensions, the schematic comparison of several different city plans worlwide and the decline of once great streets) establish this book as a constant source of information for Architects and Urban Planners, as well as students.

   I could clearly recognize the Traveler, the Urban Scholar and the Artist in Mr. Jacobs as I took a stroll down these great streets through the drawings and heartfelt passages of his book.

No comments about Roots of Home: Our Journey to a New Old House.

5 comments about Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter.

1. Reading this made my son and me want to build, build, build. At the same time, the book achieves something else: the way people make their homes shows something very intimate and moving. This collection of photographs, drawings and stories shows how closely related the art of building, the art of art and the art of living are. This is one of the rare occasions where I would like to thank the authors.



2. followed by several days flipping through again and again, searching for my favorites...beautiful pictures. I could have done with more "on the road" pics and less (what I would refer to as) "normal" houses...I can see those kinds when I look out the window...but that's just a personal preference....I wish he'd take all the extra stuff he said he had and put it on a website or publish another book. I'd buy it!



3. MUST HAVE FOR ALL couchpotatoe MALES, and anyone who has dreams! This is such a fantastic book: inspiring and creative and so marvelous to see so many passionate people out their DOING THEIR THING! Get up from your desktops, ladies and gentlemen, stop the online dating circus and do something satisfying: BUILD YOUR OWN SHELTER. Lord knows I want to after pouring through every inch of every page and these great photos and life stories. Thanks, Mr. Lloyd!



4. this book is even better then the other books by Lloyd Kahn, and i didnt think that was possible. The photographs are outstanding, the text interesting, informative, and captures thoughts, people, homes and places of times past, present and some that look futuristic! This book is for anyone who has a passion for architecture, and culture. a great coffee table book.



5. This book is absolutely stunning. I spent hours poring over the pictures. It's mostly pictures of creative, unique houses people have built, with a few stories about builders' experiences and techniques.
   It will put into perspective the amount to which we have limited ourselves when it comes to traditional housing. It shows how a house is not just shelter, but art, expression, and passion as well.
   This will inspire you!

5 comments about Bungalow Style: Creating Classic Interiors in Your Arts and Crafts Home.

1. My wife and I appreciated this detailed book and incorporated many ideas we found in our new (old) residence



2. I was very excited to get this book as we plan to incorporate some craftsman style elements into the 1970s bungalo we're buying. The interiors in the photos were not terribly attractive and leaned towards kitschy. Unless you want to turn you house into a museum to 20th century cheasiness, don't buy this book.



3. This is a good book if you are looking at remodeling a craftman type home or if you are planning to build one. I did like some of the idea's and the pictures.



4. If you are planning any kind work where you are going using allot of wood this is a great book, it is full of ideas. The photos have great detail. One of best books I have on Craftsman/Arts& Crafts interiors.



5. So you've bought a bungalow--now, what do you do with it? Maybe it's a fixer-upper; maybe it's too small, or doesn't have enough storage space; maybe you're just not sure what kind of furniture to get. This book is a great start toward deciding where to go next. Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, it shows not only many of the features by which you can tell an Arts & Crafts house when you see it (I was surprised to learn that the big old foursquares such as my grandparents lived in for 40 years are included in this classification), but gives actual ideas carried out by other homeowners, even unto before-and-after floor plans. The author's advice is thoughtful and well suited to the houses she writes about, too. And if you just like to look at pictures of vintage American homes, this would be a good volume to add to your collection.