5 comments about Green Roofs: Ecological Design And Construction.

1. Perhaps some of the previous reviewers liked it because they use it for inspiration when designing at the very high visual level -- because really, this book is about pictures.
   
   There is no useful information in the book about the design or construction of green roofs (except a couple of pages in passing).
   
   Want to know more about how to design and construct using membranes, insulation, drainage, soil and gravel? Then look elsewhere.
   
   Want to know more about how to design and construct a green roof on a new versus and existing building? Then look elsewhere.
   
   How about planning the maintenance needed for a green roof whilst at the design and construction phase? Again look elsewhere.



2. Compared to the wealth of books on the subject in German and Japanese, there has yet to be a single good book in English. This book has nice pictures, but it doesn't even attempt to touch on the detail required to fully understand this subject adequately to qualify people to specify and actually implement Green Roofs. [...].



3. GREEN ROOFS: ECOLOGICAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION advocates the construction of 'green roofs' which can reduce energy demand and protect wildlife, packing in a survey of buildings and communities already using such roofs to their advantage. Some forty case studies of these projects pair color photos of roofs around the world with discussions of sustainable development and project management: thus practical applications appear alongside environmental advocacy. Experts also discuss technical requirements and history, which will please working architects. An excellent survey of working green roofs and their appeal.



4. As a very vocal proponet of green or living roofs I love this book. I believe that Mr Collum, previous reviewer must have just looked at the pictures. Pages 9 through 23 tell very well why we should have green roofs. If you are already an advocate or a newbe to green roofs, this book is for you. There is not a lot of technical information here but it gives the bare bones. If everything you needed to know about green roofs was here you couldn't lift the book. This book is ment to inspire you to get behind green roofs and advocate them in your neighborhood.



5. This book has lots of nice photographs. That is all. The technical section consists of two pages which state that a waterproof membrane is needed between the roof structure and the soil. There is no information of a technical nature in the book. I wonder why use up the earth's resources for no value. An absolute waste.

5 comments about Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens: Design Principles, Aesthetic Values.

1. I first found this book over twenty years ago and have not found another that comes close to giving the reader as comprehensive an understanding of Japanese garden design. At first, I read the book from cover to cover. However, because of its depth it is best to re-read the book (the second and all subsequent times) in sections. A more thorough and complete understanding is achieved.
   
   It is true that this book is not an easy read. However, it has always been an enjoyable and enlightened one.



2. This book is too dense for my needs. If you need to read liquid platinum about Japanese gardens, go for this book. If you need a quicker hitter, go elsewhere.



3. I have, over the years, collected a number of books on the art of Japanese Gardens. Most rely on glossy photos and provide very little written content on the complexities of Japanese garden composition. What sets this work apart is its depth and focus on unraveling the underlying design principles and its intent on providing a deeper understanding into the art of Japanese gardening. If you were looking for a purely visual reference I would advise you not purchase this book. If however you were searching for a scholarly study in the design aesthetics of Japanese gardens, I would give this book my strongest recommendation. Slawson begins with his experiences as a master gardener's apprentice in Japan and ends with a full translation of an ancient gardening manual used by Buddhist monks. Each page overflows with background, details and inspiration. He urges and inspires you not to transplant an existing garden design, but gives the reader the foundation to evolve a plan reflective of your own individual location and taste. By clearly dissecting the aesthetic principal behind Japanese garden design, the book succeeds in creating a truly inspirational guide. Have a highlighter and note pad ready from the first page of the acknowledgements to the comprehensive bibliography.



4. Of all the books we consulted, read, and reread before we began to design and create our own Japanese-style garden -- really, just a small front yard of a rowhouse on a pretty street on Capitol Hill -- Slawson's book was the most useful. Why? Not because it's easy reading! Understanding what the author is trying to say requires careful and slow reading (and rereading) of almost every sentence. It's effort well spent! Unlike so many pretty-picture books about Japanese garden design, which amaze the reader with their photos but leave him/her dumbfounded as to how one would go about designing a garden from scratch (as opposed to merely copying some handsome garden pictured on one of the book's pages!), Slawson's book unlocks -- to the persistent reader -- the fundamentals (secrets, if you insist) of what makes a garden Japanese. As the preceding reviewer already pointed out, this essentially boils down to being able to express one's own experience and impression of nature. Once you're at this stage, the selection of rocks and other materials and their harmonious placement in the space at hand, is almost a piece of cake. (OK, it's still a lot of work to implement one's design, but at least you know what you're supposed to be doing!)

   In case you're wondering about the outcome of our design effort: we've gotten lots of praise from neighbors and from total strangers, from American and from Japanese friends, for our little Japanese-style rock garden. And everybody who looks at our front yard gets what we were trying to express artistically! I have no doubts that we could never had this type of success without having had access to Slawson's remarkable book.




5. I purchased the hardcover of this book in 1988. I read it cover to cover immediately. I used the rock setting techniques described by Slawson "hands on" in my landscape contracting business in Boulder, CO. I found it immensely useful.

   A number of years passed, nearly four of them spent in graduate architecture school studying formal geometries, history, architecture as a verb.....architecture with a great big capital A.

   Yet, I did not fully appreciate the book until recently. I dusted it off when I was hired to set 2 semi-truck loads of stones. I reviewed it and found that my studies from it ten years earlier had indeed made an indelible impression upon me. The seemingly daunting task of composing 50 tons of boulders in an aesthetically pleasing manner was made much easier thanks to Slawson's studies. His book was more useful than 3 1/2 years of architecture school. Believe me, read it and get your hands dirty. Work with big stones, the dirt. It is the real work.

   You will likely find the book "thick" in the sense that at times, each sentence is filled with succinct words. You may find yourself re-reading sentences to understand. Better graphic descriptions could have helped here. In particular the sections comparing Arnheims "Art and Visual Perception" with compositional arrangements, proportions and general japanese garden aesthetics are excellent. It is in these sections where one begins to understand how intelligent japanese garden design is. It fully engages the haptic sense as well as one's psychology.

   Slawson makes many important notes and observations about the making of Japanese gardens. Yet he also points out that Japanese gardens evolved in Japan because of particular conditions of culture and nature. He points out that the teachings would not necessarily recomend "copying" these teachings in other region with climates different than those of Japan.

   Slawson gives us an excellent resource to consider Japanese "teachings" in composing gardens, for example, in the desert southwest (USA). A garden influenced by the desert southwest would simply not fit in Japan. Yet, if you make the "teachings" your own you could create a japanese influenced garden.

   Similarly, many Japanese garden copies in America don't fit. With the exception of the Portland Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon.

   I recomend the book because I continue to turn to it year after year. The sign for me of a valuable book.

   Patrick Healy

No comments about With People in Mind: Design And Management Of Everyday Nature.

2 comments about Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories.

1. "Landscape Narratives" is a source book for screenwriters searching for thematic ideas. As writer and director, it helps me to decode places as textual landscape of my stories. Inspired by the readings I have written several short films, mostly dealing with the way fictional characters react to landscapes. Chapter 4 discusses time-altering devices found in landscape: jump cut, flashback, fade etc. plot structuring techniques also used in film. It is a joy to reread this classic book as would a traveller journeying home.



2. Potteiger and Purinton team up in what in essence is a cultural geographic survey of the American Landscape. The anthropologic influence of nature is explored. Chapters deal with broad topics such as restoration ecology and urban renewal, and each is seen through the an intensely personal lens. This is a bit of a breath of fresh air, given that similar books in this genre are more about the author's personal philosophy than the true impacts of man's manipulation of nature. Fortunately the Potteiger and Purinton's lens is filtered through the eyes of real characters, characters rich in personality and chalked full of lore.

   The book targets the academic but is quite readable to the layman.

4 comments about Drawing the Landscape.

1. This book serves as a comprehensive reference for ways of thinking about drawing, applications of different media, the creative environment, drawing exercises, creating textures, shadows, and trees, composing the drawing, perspective drawing, plan, elevation, section, axonometric and isometric drawing, drawing the figure, and layout.



2. Wonderful book! We're currently using it in our beginning studio class. Sullivan has a wonderful sense of humor, good skill building exercises and really good graphics. Highly recommend it for anyone wanting how to draw the landscape.



3. i was looking for a book on this subject, the writer the publisher, it all looked perfect. but the book is soooo boring, after reaching a long way into the book you waste your time on artists rooms and clubs!! really! then when we finally start, it is like for ever, the process seems so slow... the book ofcourse is full of the writers own sketches which might not appeal to every one. what you might find here, at this price, you'll find for sure in more cheaper and more focused more useful books. i wouldn't recommend it personally.



4. Chip Sulivan's step by step instruction guides the reader to see the underlying structure in each of his renderings. This insight reviels an efficient method of organizing profesional quality landscape plans. His more informal sketchs show how to quickly get a feel for site illustration.

   As a landscape design professional, I recomend this book to my peers and to those new to rendering the landscape. I am confident that after studying this text, anyone would be able to better comunicate their designs.

No comments about 1000x Landscape Architecture.

5 comments about Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design.

1. I have a library of gardening books and this is by far one of the best I've seen in years. Good design features; good advice. The only thing I would have enjoyed was a little more detail to the actual planting layouts. You won't regret buying this book.



2. Perhaps going into it...I expected too much!
   
   As a Landscape Designer I'd heard of him often, seminars, lectures etc. but somehow the book wasn't anywhere near as good as I'd hoped.
   
   I'm certain I would have enjoyed the book more if I didn't spend so much time wrestling with the layout. Mr. Hayward goes into great detail about landscaping concepts on a particular project & would generally end up referring to related photos or figures that were often many pages ahead. The going back & forth got really old after awhile...not to mention,extremely frustrating. I think any reader generally appreciates seeing the photos being referred to on the page they are explained.
   
   My other negative about this book was that so much detail seemed to be spent on specific projects that it seemed the author was more preoccupied at times with his clients project & describing things that often weren't even in the photographs or seriously helpful to a designer wanting to learn more. A more preferable approach in my opinion would have been to not fuss about specific client details but glean from the projects the essence or core principles applied & present them in a straight forward, generic fashion.
   
   After reading the entire book slowly & carefully, I would honeslty have to admit I'd hoped to find a vast wealth of practical & easily adaptable gems. Instead I only came away with very limited amount of useful information.
   
   I have not read any of Mr. Hayward's other books..so I may check them out in the library first before buying...perhaps they might be far superior to this one. I still hold to my opinion that he's a brilliant designer...however that doesn't necessariy make him a great writer!
   
   A book I found to be much better is The Landscape Design Answer Book by Jane Bath...



3. This book changed the way I look at landscaping. I have an oddly-shaped lot with both sunny and shady areas. This book has you get out your plot plan (something I never thought of!) and mark those areas and take a "whole yard" approach to your landscape. The advice is flawless, the pictures gorgeous. You will definitely want to add this to your library if you garden at all.



4. While I have several book shelves devoted to serious garden design, this is the book I always pull down and loan to my neighbors and friends. When they say " I would really like to do something with my side yard. I have to block out the new neighbors!", or " You know how bad my front walk looks I want to rip it out and redo it. What can I do to convince the kids to use it and not cut across the grass?" I say "Let me lend you a great book that will really get you thinking in the right direction". The advice is practical, logical and perfect for the weekend warrior. My copy of Your House, Your Garden has a waiting list for borrowing so I am buying a second copy!



5. This book has just been chosen by The American Horticultural Society as one of the five top garden books for 2004.

5 comments about Landscape Construction.

1. I'm glad I decided to buy this book, despite its high price. Having just recently become a landscape designer/contractor, it proved invaluable many times in the course of our company's first big job. For example, the sections on stone paving were very helpful when we were building a flagstone patio, as they helped us select the best foundation and edging materials.
   
   I like the way the book is arranged, i.e. having a large section on paving, beginning with materials and site preparation for paving in general. This is followed by a chapter on each of the specific paving materials, such as concrete, unit pavers, dry laid stones, mortared paving, and granular paving.
   
   The extensive section on retaining walls, which I am about to take advantage of in our next job, is arranged similarly.
   
   This book is the industry standard. It is used as a text in City College of San Francisco, and it is also listed as a resource in the California Contractor's State License Board's Study Guide for the Landscaping (C-27) License Examination.
   
   So if you want to do landscape construction, I highly recommend this one.



2. This book is full of incredible and professional information related to Landscape Construction. It's not meant to be a DIY book you'd get from Home Depot or Lowes. This book is meant for students and professionals wanting to learn best practices regarding Landscape Construction. Amateurs, landscape designers and architects can gain some valuable insights, too. We used this book as our textbook in the various landscape construction classes I took, studying to be a landscape designer.



3. I found clear concise information on this subject rare until discovered Mr. Sauter's Landscape Construction. There is a host of Better H & G / Sunset books available, but those are really idea/coffee table books written for the weekend warrior. If you really want to know the best-practices and standards for the industry, this is the reference for you. Great for the student and pro alike.



4. Just another really expensive textbook with no real information provided. The Better Homes and Garden series has much more how-to information, great photographs, and ten percent of the cost too.



5. I found this book to be very thorough and detailed in its approach to a variety of landscape construction issues. It has detailed pictures and diagrams that illustrate the processes and make it easier to understand. The information is up to date, easy to read and a great learning tool for the student, professional or hobby person. As a landscape student, I find it a great resource book.

1 comments about Practical Ecology for Planners, Developers, and Citizens.

1. This is an interesting and articulate book for both the specialist and the general reader who cares about a healthy world. It is of significant practical value while at the same time it presents a coherent background of information on which to base action.

2 comments about Groundswell: Constructing the Contemporary Landscape.

1. The book is filled with a series of exceptional projects in dealing with the transition between the interior and exterior space and the multiple ways of ground sculpturing. The projects are displayed with photographs, renderings, and drawings which further explain plan and section design. The book is inspirational and a great reference material.



2. A great collection of different planning straegies. Provides unique and refreshing solutions for designing different urban hardscapes, mostly in the U.S. and Europe. It is also well put together and well thought out.