Reviews (3)

Home, or something like it
Young people today aren't keeping to the small-town or suburban lifestyles of their parents. They're going to the cities to rent studio apartments. Once there, they're likely to end up moving into family-size spaces.

City planners and administrators are taking this back-to-the-cities trend into consideration. They're trying to make city living appeal to young future owners. One way is by business building up a neighborhood around it, in brownstones; floor-through flats; high-rise apartments; lofts; offbeat converted places such as autoshops and stables; rowhouses; and townhouses.

Likewise, architects are thinking about the loss of peace, privacy and quiet that usually comes with city living. They're coming up with designs that meet young needs for shelter and express young personalities. The result really is personal space inside, even with such impersonal space outside as "shadowy" concrete buildings.

This is done by clearly-defined lines, hand-worked materials, soothing planes, and unusual details indoors. It's also by putting in balconies and terraces and opening up roofs and windows to light and views onto deliberately planted small, green spaces. Similarly, not much space inside looks bigger, for example, by using the same materials in and out, such as cedar flooring, fencing and decking.

THE NEW CITY HOME even brings working spaces inside, while keeping them attractively and cleverly separate from living spaces. In one case, for example, the outside has cottage-style clapboard cladding for the first floor. Indoors, the kitchen and living spaces have a cozy look, what with simple cabinetry, low ceilings and boldly painted colors. The second floor has plywood panels on the outside. Inside, spotlights, skylights, and high ceilings show the upper level to be for work.

What if the two can't always be separated, as in bathrooms or kitchens? Space isn't clearly personal or work, if it brings in universal design. This means, for example, lever handles to doors and faucets, rocker-panel light switches, and textured non-slip flooring.

Leslie Plummer Clagett's book is organized and written in an understandable, user-friendly way. Her choice of illustrations works perfectly with what she says. This practical help to city living is rounded out with Elizabeth Franklin's THE FRANKLIN REPORT, NEW YORK CITY 2003: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO HOME SERVICES.

One of the best in this class
I've browsed about twenty different contemporary interior books, and I've found this to be most interesting and slightly more inspiring.

One piece of advice: I don't think any of the contemporary interior books have as much variety as one might expect. Make sure to browse the physical books before making a final decision - don't base you decision on these reviews alone. I've done this with many book on interior design and I've been disappointed.

Wonderful
This book has wonderful photography and covers a broad range of city homes including renovations and lofts. The style of this book is modern and contemporary. Very nice ideas! ... Read more

Book Description

"It is a pleasure to see a work that situates the Situationists. Sadler has performed a necessary and welcome corrective to our understanding of this strange but endearing crew." -- Adam Sweeting, American Book Review

"This concise and clearly written work shines light on. . . this intriguing and increasingly influential `hidden' avant-garde." -- John Held, Jr., San Francisco Bay Guardian

From 1957 to 1972, the artistic and political movement known as the Situationist International (SI) worked aggressively to subvert the conservative ideology of the Western world. The movement's broadside attack on "establishment" institutions and values left its mark upon the libertarian left, the counterculture, the revolutionary events of 1968, and more recent phenomena from punk to postmodernism. In this book Simon Sadler investigates the artistic, architectural, and cultural theories that were once the foundations of Situationist thought, particularly as they applied to the form of the modern city.

Simon Sadler searches for the Situationist City among the detritus of tracts, manifestoes, and works of art that the SI left behind. The book is divided into three parts. The first, "The Naked City," outlines the Situationist critique of the urban environment as it then existed. The second, "Formulary for a New Urbanism," examines Situationist principles for the city and for city living. The third, "A New Babylon," describes actual designs proposed for the Situationist City. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

...
I can't say I enjoyed this at all. Unles you're heavily into aesthetics and understand most of the avante-garde terms, you're not going to make any sense of this. The book was overly pretentious and I couldn't burden myself to finish it. It's not at all what you'd expect, and the synopsis is misleading.

Get the book Guy Debord and the Situationist International instead. Guy Debord was part of the Lettrist International, which founded alot of the psycho-geographical ideas. I guarantee it'll be a more interesting read than this.

Longing for the ludic
An excellent book, within the constraints the author sets for himself, to deal primarily with what could ahistorically, but reasonably be called "situationist" architecture and architectural theory. There is no doubt the book makes bored, sensitive fellows like myself want to go out and do something to keep these insane transformational ideas alive and working in culture. I'd love to have a list of all the other bored people, we could have a big party. ... Read more

Book Description

This book provides a simple but comprehensive framework for the emerging academic discipline of urban design, from its origins in Europe and America, to contemporary issues of imagery, finance and marketing in an age of globalisation

There is currently no contemporary textbook for urban design that includes a general history and theory of the subject.

Internationally, urban design is more and more becoming a core subject taught in architecture schools. The AIA (US) and the RIBA (UK) both require undergraduates and graduates to study the urban dimension of architectural design. On a wider scale, in Europe, the EU is developing a common architectural curriculum, which includes an urban component for under-graduates. The situation is similar in schools across Asia and Australia.

Aimed at both students and teachers, this book provides a simple and accessible framework, from the origins of urban design and the main techniques developed to deal with the design of fragments of cities, to participatory planning processes, codes, imagery, finance and marketing. Finally, it proposes an innovative vision of contemporary practice based on the work of leading actors and projects in the field.

• This book is set to become the key textbook at undergraduate and graduate levels
• It is written in an accessible and direct tone, and highly illustrated with many colour and black and white diagrams
• It includes a general history and theory of urban design and provides an up-to-date account of contemporary urban conditions

Praise for Recombinant Urbanism:

"Documents a major intellectual advance…eagerly awaited by academics and practitioners all around the world… should become a standard text for schools of architecture and urbanism." Leon Van Schaik, Innovation Professor of Architecture, RMIT, Australia 

" …both unique and instrumentally positive.  The book is the result of many years of research and writing, and is a small masterpiece in urban studies.  It has already proved its worth in the teaching of urban studies, at Columbia, the AA, the Bartlett School, and Cooper Union, to mention only a few of the universities where Dr Shane has had a powerful influence...It is, indeed, one of the very best manuscripts I have read in the field in the last few years."  Anthony Vidler, Professor and Dean, Irwin S Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union, New York, USA

"I can say without hesitation that I fully endorse Grahame’s work…the issues it covers are highly topical and such a book would indeed be widely read by architecture students, urban designers and planners." Colin Fournier, Professor of Architecture &Urbanism, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, UK

"Of great necessity for undergraduate and postgraduate students, scientists and professionals in urban planning and design [This] publication will certainly inspire work with city models in a wide range of practice." Henrik W Jensen, Associate Professor in Town Planning, Aarhus School of Architecture, The Netherlands

"A very important book.  Shane … has made legible and sensible the reams of recent urban discourse for a general college reader. Because of this labor-intensive effort, this book will be accessible by undergrad architecture programs as well as graduate seminars in urban design and planning. Additionally there is a big interest in UD and UP theory in ecology and social science now, and because of Grahame’s generous writing style the book will cross over to these other disciplines. … I can also speak to the international interest in this book; … again Shane has made important urban theories and thinking more widely available to an international student audience. … The legacy the book will have (will be in) convincing people that the design of cities matters, not in the overbearing and over-controlling sense of new urbanism, but in reinforcing the multiple possibilities of contemporary life.   Brian McGrath, Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture, Columbia University, USA ... Read more

Book Description

In Global Cities, scholars from an impressive array of disciplines critique the growing body of literature on the process broadly known as "globalization."This interdisciplinary focus enables the authors to explore the complex geographies of modern cities, and offer possible strategies for reclaiming a sense of place and community in these globalized urban settings.

While examining major cities including New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, and Hong Kong, contributors insist that the study of urban experiences must remain as attentive to the material effects as to the psychic and social consequences of globalization. Accordingly, essays explore the implications of global culture for architecture, cinema, and communication—but do so in a way that highlights the importance of the spaces between such metropolitan centers.These locations, the authors argue, serve as increasingly important "frontier zones," where a diverse set of actors converge and contend for power and presence.Such a perspective ultimately adds nuance and meaning to our understanding of the heterogeneous urban landscapes of these global cities. ... Read more

Book Description

Urban Transportation Systems is a complete guide to the types of transportation available to communities together with the technical tools needed to evaluate each for given circumstances. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An Excellent Presentation of Urban Transportation Options
This large volume (big enough to hold a heavy door open) provides an excellent overview of the transportation options available to cities. By including discussion of cars, taxis, motorcycles, and jitneys--along with the full range of public transit modes, walking, and cycling--it offers a particularly balanced (and frequently opinionated) presentation of the range of options. Indeed, the author's unique sentiments, which flavor the volume, make for a more enjoyable read than the usual transportation planning text.

(As a past and present student and protégé of Dr. Grava, I may be a bit biased, but this endoresement comes unsolicited.) ... Read more

Book Description

As the first comprehensive encyclopedic survey of Western architectural theory from Vitruvius to the present, this book is an essential resource for architects, students, teachers, historians, and theorists. Using only original sources, Kruft has undertaken the monumental task of researching, organizing, and analyzing the significant statements put forth by architectural theorists over the last two thousand years. The result is a text that is authoritative and complete, easy to read without being reductive. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Hanno-Walter Kruft, History of Architectural Theory
Excellent survey of architectural theory. Especially rich chapter on German XIX century theory. Weak connection to the contemporary theory (much better done by Nesbit and Hayes). It has a very useful set of illustrations at the end of the book. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Three centuries ago, the Los Angeles River meandered through marshes and forests of willow and sycamore. Trout spawned in its waters and grizzly bears roamed its shores. The bountiful environment the river helped create supported one of the largest concentrations of Indians in North America. Today, the river is made almost entirely of concrete. Chain-link fence and barbed wire line its course. Shopping carts and trash litter its channel. Little water flows in the river most of the year, and nearly all that does is treated sewage and oily street runoff. On much of its course, the river looks more like a deserted freeway than a river.

The river's contemporary image belies its former character and its importance to the development of Southern California. Los Angeles would not exist were it not for the river, and the river was crucial to its growth. Recognizing its past and future potential, a potent movement has developed to revitalize its course. The Los Angeles River offers the first comprehensive account of a river that helped give birth to one of the world's great cities, significantly shaped its history, and promises to play a key role in its future. ... Read more

Book Description

This unique study examines how North American architecture had been 'transplanted' elsewhere during the twentieth century. ... Read more

Book Description

"Brilliant.... Anthony Vidler is a conceptual conjurer of formidable skill." -- J. Mordaunt Crook, New York Times Book Review

The Architectural Uncanny presents an engaging and original series of meditations on issues and figures that are at the heart of the most pressing debates surrounding architecture today. Anthony Vidler interprets contemporary buildings and projects in light of the resurgent interest in the uncanny as a metaphor for a fundamentally "unhomely" modern condition. The essays are at once historical and theoretical, opening up the complex and difficult relationships between politics, social thought, and architectural design in an era when the reality of homelessness and the idealism of the neo-avant-garde have never seemed so far apart. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

When an alliterated one-liner just won't do...
"Brilliant...Anthony Vidler is a conceptual conjurer of formidable skill." - J. Mordaunt Crook, New York Times Book Review

"The Architectural Uncanny presents an engaging and original series of meditations on issues and figures that are at the heart of the most pressing debates surrounding architecture today. Anthony Vidler interprets contemporary buildings and projects in light of the resurgent interest in the uncanny as a metaphor for a fundamentally "unhomely" modern condition. These essays are at once historical and theoretical, opening up the complex and difficult reltionships between politics, social thought and architectural design in an era when the reality of homelessness and the idealism of the avant-garde have never seemed so far apart."

"Anthony Vidler has proved himself among the most lucid of contemporary architectural historians,always writing with vigor and clarity, and allying perception with structure...There is wit, intelligence, and a host of shrewd observations." - Peter Blundell Jones, Architectural Review ... Read more

Book Description

This book on urban design extends and develops the widely accepted 'compact city' solution. It provides a design proposal for a new kind of sustainable urban landscape: Urban Agriculture. By growing food within an urban rather than exclusively rural environment, urban agriculture would reduce the need for industrialized production, packaging and transportation of foodstuffs to the city dwelling consumers. The revolutionary and innovative concepts put forth in this book have potential to shape the future of our cities quality of life within them.




Urban design is shown in practice through international case studies and the arguments presented are supported by quantified economic, environmental and social justifications.

* Is THE first book on urban agriculture for architects, landscape architects and urban designers
* Presents concepts with the potential to have an immense impact on the future shape of cities
* Includes over 200 images providing readers a clear visual idea of this pioneering subject ... Read more

Book Description

New parks are often created on disused industrial site such as La Villette in Paris or Citroen-Cevennes in Duisburg-Nord. Widely admired they are an integral part of public planning policy as they lend towns character while simultaneously fulfilling ecological and social needs, and, not least, they increase the value of property and land.

This volume presents a range of examples, from the smaller town park to the larger country parks on the periphery of the city. Taken from individual issues of Topos, the examples include Tapiola in Finland, the Museums garden in Santiago de Compostela, Parc de Bercy in Paris, Park Juan Carlos I in Madrid. This selection of well-known and also lesser-known European parks will provide an informative overview of the function of green spaces in towns today. ... Read more

Book Description

"Jacobs has been working on this classic -- there's no other word for it -- for a decade. Jacobs rightly believes that good cities are made of good streets and that we're rapidly losing our talent for creating them. He measures and draws many of the worldÕs great streets, from Pittsburgh to Beijing. He describes changes in the street pattern of cities like Boston, where a square mile of downtown contains 100 fewer blocks than it did a century ago. . . . A thoughtful, sane, informed and very personal book, aimed primarily at professionals but readable enough for anyone interested in the subject." -- Robert Campbell, Boston Globe

Which are the world's best streets, and what are the physical, designable characteristics that make them great? To answer these questions, Allan Jacobs has surveyed street users and design professionals and has studied a wide array of street types and urban spaces around the world. With more than 200 illustrations, all prepared by the author, along with analysis and statistics, Great Streets offers a wealth of information on street dimensions, plans, sections, and patterns of use, all systematically compared. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Walking in Thought
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.

Attention urban planners, designers and urbanists!
This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in the study of urbanism.

essential to any urban planner or architect
This book showcases some of the greatest streets in the world. Not only does it provide examples of great streets but it speaks about the criteria of being "great". The drawings are very nice as well, and this book would make a great addition to any architect, planner or travel enthusiasts' library.

If you're an Urban Planner or a World Traveler...
...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. ... Read more

Book Description

There is a huge amount of interest in the future of the planet and how architecture and design can contribute to this.

This book considers the ecological design of the city and includes ideas and best practice examples of ecological architectural and urban design around the world.

The tone of the book is extremely accessible as it demonstrates how small changes in one area of the world can have impacts elsewhere. It gives an optimistic view and leaves the reader fascinated at the intricacies of the planet's ecosystems and how architecture and urban design can affect it.

• Examples range from Ladbroke Grove solar city in London to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Copenhagen, Curitiba, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Helsinki, Portland Oregon, New York and New Delhi
• It is an extremely well rounded book with a balance of focus across history and around the world
• It is set to be a complete and comprehensive work on this popular area
• It is written by one of the leading figures in this field

Reviews (1)

An urban future?
Cities People Planet
Liveable Cities for a Sustainable World
by Herbert Girardet; Wiley Academy 2004, pp 296 £ 20
Review by Judith Ryser


Herbert Girardet is well known for his relentless campaigning for a sustainable world.Through films, exhibitions, books, speeches and built examples he gathers arguments and evidence to rally people to his cause and make their contribution "to make a difference".This book is no different.He postulate a revolution of `future proofing' cities and especially megacities which are environmentally voracious.Ever the optimist he believes that solutions shown in his 95 case studies will proliferate and convert the resource gobbling urban monsters into tame liveable and sustainable places.Widely travelled he has incorporated many of his own pictures which are impressive as usual and should make readers pose to reflect on their own wasteful behaviour.

His proposals are imminently sensible.Reducing waste to zero, using increasingly scarce water with care, producing food near the places where it will be consumed and resorting to renewable energy sources is possible as many proven technologies exist to work in that direction.He accepts that other movers and shakers have different views and tend to dismiss what they consider the scaremongering of the green warriors.In his book he tries to deflect such opposed views by conceding certain aspects without withering on the essentials.For example he agrees that tall buildings can be ecological, not New York skyscrapers though, or worse still, bad copies scattered around the mushrooming megacities in the developing world.His model is Ken Yeang's eco-tower surrounded by urban agriculture and open spaces to have fun.

He shows more generally how new technologies had a direct impact on urban development, good or bad, having turned "London into the great pioneer in unsustainable development".However, his belief in appropriate technology is boundless.Relentless city growth turns cities increasingly into dependent systems facing global competition.It also breads a worsening geography of inequality.Combating urban poverty has become an urgent priority.Despite efforts and international funds, only few experiments such as Lerner's Curitiba have managed to make these megacities in the developing world liveable."Developing a sustainable relationship between people and planet while transforming local environmental conditions in cities is one of humanity's greatest challenges.." One way forward is to conceive cities as eco-technical systems and improve them by reducing their ecological footprint and taming traffic with good public transport and shift to cycling and walking.

Most serious urbanists are familiar with the eco-arguments about sustainable cities as well as the evolution of cities over the past 2500 years.However, Girardet's potted Eurocentric version of urban history with a cultural and environmental focus is a useful reminder.He concludes that continuity of human settlements in Europe as well as in the Far East relies on their good relation with their hinterland.The chapters on the various ecological design solutions constitute a handy reference compendium of successful applications at both the building and urban design scale.

Desirable as it may be, an eco-city needs yet to be designed and realised, possibly as a real life laboratory to test the claims on both sides.Who would finance such an undertaking though?Meanwhile, Girardet discussed partial results at a smaller urban scale.As an urbanite himself he is convinced that with the right attitudes and with the help of politicians and other enlightened activists cities can become the beacons of a culture of sustainability.Immaterial gray power, the knowledge and ingenuity of city dwellers are expected to create new masterpieces of human creativity.In his view, EcoPolis which has rediscovered its own bio-region is possible by 2020.Sustainability Planning has helped it along and a new aesthetic emerges from energy efficient zero waste buildings surrounded by green spaces for recreation and growing food.Actively involved citizens are not foregoing their living standards.They are merely changing them to more worthwhile ways of life, drawing on their locally funded entrepreneurship in environmental technology.Green collar workers can sell their ecological ware in local markets and community spirit is prospering.Curitiba style environment universities for the young can open their minds.They will become active participants in eco-change, building on best practice examples collated by numerous NGOs through the UN Habitat Best Practices and Local Leadership programmes accessed through global digital networks.Who does not hope that Girardet's vision will come true?Cities have always been in the forefront of innovation, but they also harboured among the worst poverty and physical conditions and the question is can ecocities come about without a negative price to pay?


Judith Ryser, CityScope, London November 2004


... Read more

Reviews (1)

excellent introduction to how residential streets evolved
This books describes the history and evolution of residential streets in the US and Britain. It remains very objective, until the last chapter when the authors push for the shared streets concept. As a transportation planning professional, I found it very informative and compelling. It did the impossible: it changed my mind on the value of cul-de-sacs. ... Read more

Book Description

For the first time ever, the classic and contemporary approaches to urban theory have been brought together in an introductory text. From the foundations of Weber and Simmel to the contemporary work of Manuel Castells and the Los Angeles school, Urban Theory and the Urban Experience traces key developments in the idea of the city over more than a century, revealing the often unacknowledged debt that empirical and theoretical perspectives owe each other. Documentary, literary, and cultural sources bring theories to life, while hands-on studies and analysis of alternative ideas, such as "the garden city" and "the new urbanism" round out what is sure to be a key text for years to come. ... Read more

Book Description

Architecture and Language examines one of the central themes in the history and theory of Western architecture. Seeking to understand how language provides a model for understanding architecture, the essays in this volume both celebrate the diversity of the language-architecture analogy and assess its theoretical implications in the light of the diverse historical circumstances that produced it. The chapters examine the connections between style and nationality, vernacular and "official" languages, the importance of Latin in giving the architectural profession a literate and cultured status, and the influence of architectural description on perception and design. ... Read more

Book Description

Written by an internationally recognized flexible housing advocate, THE ADAPTABLE HOUSE provides specific design approaches and techniques that facilitate flexible design--both on the inside and outside--making it simple to alter a dwelling layout, demolish partitions or build new ones, upgrade heating systems, change the location of stairs, etc.

The book is divided into three logical sections: the first sets the stage for adaptibility, the second outlines relevant principles, and the last shows their actual application.Packed with floor plans, drawings, photos, and charts to fully and clearly illustrate his suggestions, THE ADAPTABLE HOUSE includes detailed coverage of:

* Interior layouts and room configurations
* Exterior elements such as roofs and facades
* New building materials and methods
* Easy add-on and remodels
* Single-family and multiple dwelling housing

THE ADAPTABLE HOUSE is a master blueprint for those interested in creating homes that can be quickly, easily, and inexpensively redesigned to meet the dynamic nature of the occupants' life.

Author Avi Friedman believes that rather than being unchangeable, physical environments should be designed and constructed to easily adjust to the evolving lifestyle of their inhabitants.A home, he contends, should be structurally flexible enough to adapt to changes such as children "leaving the nest," elderly relatives moving in, or the need for home office space. ... Read more