Reviews (8)

Inspired me to change my major
I picked this book up for some fun reading two years ago, and wow! Did I get more than I expected! As an educated individual I knew a lot about the new directions in contemprary music, and I often dreamed of uniting my love for physics and architecture with my musical talents. This book is a fascinating and well designed introduction to the kind of developments in contemporary architectural/musical circles. These projects discussed in PA-16 are some of the first of their kind, and something I am excited to follow up on in my own lifetime. And it's dedicated to John Cage! I reccommend this book to anyone who is at all curious about architecture or contemporary music. It is always refreshing to learn about people who are pushing the boundaries of our imaginations, whatever the topic.

"New music will be answered by the new architecture- work we have not yet seen --only heard." (John Cage).

PA16 + Space Calculated in Seconds
Read simultaneously Marc Trieb's 'Space Calculated in Seconds' with Liz Martin's PA16. Both books are elegantly written and designed for those willing to delve-in and consider the possibilities.

A book needs a book !!!!
In the begginning i was impressed by the title but disappointed by the quality of its material besides the font is very bad and hard to read , very small sketches hard to see , and the ideas exploration is not accomplished ,so never start with this book for this subject ....

Maybe you are missing something?
For me, this is a thoughtful 80-page booklet touching, with a big broad-brush stroke, on some very intuative and evocative ideas on interdisciplinary work framed around ideas of time and space. To expect a book in the successful Pamphlet Architecture series to be an end all exhaustive study of any given subject is like looking at Time or Granta magazines renowned fiction writings and comparing it to a 500-page Dostoevsky novel - both are equally valid views of the world, but to compare them is like comparing apples to oranges.

To cover such an intensive topic in a paperback series format with the aim of bringing interest to a subject that is not explored by many in contemporary theory; to have a current look at an age old topic for students to use as a springboard for research; and for over five years to be rated #18 on amazon.com's bestseller list is quite an accomplishment. I encourage all to keep thinking and writing - taking a chance.

Hats off to the young authors the Pamphlet Architecture series supports!

Am I Missing Something, or Is the Book Missing Something?
As the title suggests, I was hoping for a book with a thorough symbolic analysis of the connection between architecture (the design of elements in space; or the configuration of space) and music (the design of elements in time; or the configuration of [the experience of] time). Instead, this book offers some mostly affectatious studies on obscure ideas. If your goal is to find a book which presents ideas as of how to explore the architecture+music marriage, I personally would recommend you look elsewhere.

Some of the projects are intriguing, granted, but perhaps I expected the kind of book which is yet to be written. In any event, this one was not worth the money. ... Read more

Book Description

"Planned with impeccably correct intentions, built with improperly low-wage labor, and sold on the basis of improbably lavish guarantees, Celebration would be put to the test time and time again. . . . True to the ethos of the blockbuster box-office hit, would this town deliver on the promise of its business plan or its community plan? Or would it sidestep all expectations and play by a different script?"

Scholar and iconoclast Andrew Ross set out to answer these questions by spending a year living in the much scrutinized, and often demonized, Celebration--the picture-perfect town that Disney is building for 20,000 people in the swamp and scrub of central Florida. Lavishly planned with a downtown center and newly-minted antique homes, and front-loaded with an ultra-progressive school, hospital, and high-tech infrastructure, Celebration would be yet another fresh start in a word gone wrong. Yet behind the picket fences, gleaming facades, and Kodak moment streetscapes, Ross discovered genuine, complex, and often surprising truths.

In this compelling, eye-opening account, based on his personal encounters and on several hundred hours of interviews with residents, employees, and county locals, Ross records what went right and what went wrong in this latest version of the American Dream. Diverse in background, Celebration's pioneers were united by a desire to escape the cheerless isolation of suburbia and reconnect with the neighbors. They were also dazzled by the Disney brand name and expected much more than they got. The Celebration Chronicles recounts their often unruly struggles to build a community in the face of adversity: shoddy construction, typecasting by the media, Disney's skittishness about negative publicity, and friction with the working-class county of Osceola. An acute observer in the controversial school, Ross takes us to the front lines of a superheated battle of wills between educators and townspeople.

What does Celebration reveal about the state of contemporary culture? Is this model town a cause for celebration or alarm? Can we entrust the public interest to giant beneficiaries of the marketplace like Disney? One of our shrewdest social commentators, Ross brilliantly places this planned community within the context of the New Urbanist movement to combat suburban sprawl and restore public life to the nation's increasingly privatized landscape. Powerful, wide-ranging in its analysis, The Celebration Chronicles is a provocative account of the inner life of a new American town. ... Read more

Reviews (24)

A gripping discussion of Celebration's early development
Andrew Ross is hardly the kind of person for whom Celebration was built. He's single, he has no children, and he's apparently an educated intellectual with an abiding love of urban life. Nonetheless, he has done a very capable, skilled job in The Celebration Chronicles. Accurate coverage of the origins and early life of Disney's town required research and synthesis of the huge number of disparate elements - for example, architecural history and Disney's plans for its corporate future - and Ross has risen to the challenge in almost every way.

He does an especially good job - not surprising, for a college professor - of describing and analyzing the parents v. school war that had such an incredible influence on the town's development. Ross covers the external and internal politics, the education theory, and the human details of the school, as well as the many other, varied factors that fed into the battle.

The book also displays the results of the author's wide-ranging, thorough research. Ross appears to have entered into every social circle that would have him and even a few that wouldn't. He attended every town meeting, even those where he was the only resident present. He visited many residents and talked with the full range of social groups. He even carefully documented every rumor that blossomed on the flourishing town grapevine - that chapter makes for humorous reading indeed. All of Ross's research means that this book provides a very clear picture of the range and diversity of the residents and their lives in Celebration.

The book does founder a bit in the places where Ross's own leanings become too clear. His opinions - which, I'm grateful to say, are generally quarrantined in their own sections and chapters - about the town's issues are just what you'd expect from a hugely liberal educator without children. In the famed school battle, for example, his sympathy and empathy is all for the teachers and the lost innovative instruction paradigm. He appears totally incapable of understanding the parents' viewpoints, so his personal opinion is unbalanced.

Overall, though, this is a well-balanced, well-written, well-researched book. Considering the depth and complexity of the topic, this is an astounding work. Absolutely worth reading and owning, even if you'd never in your life consider residing in a place like Celebration.

A little too scholarly for me
I live in Florida and have visited Celebration several times. Although apparently much has been written about the town, I had not been exposed to it and was quite anxious to read this book. I note this because a reader is going to need a high level of interest to make it through Dr. Ross` opus.

Much of the book is written in a very scholarly (read boring) fashion. Although the book covers all that one would want to know about Celebration, it also covers in great depth subjects that while they relate, cause the narative to bog down. Keep your dictionary handy while you read as you will certainly be faced with words that you have never seen before!

It also bothered me that Dr. Ross` biases came through strongly in a number of areas especially the school. Most people, and especially the Celebration parents, were not ready for the totally non traditional (original) plan for the school. Dr. Ross seemed to come down on the side of the innovators, and I got the impression, looked down on the customers- the Celebration parents. But then when considering the source Dr. Ross notes that only two male residents sported earings, he being one of them.

The book does well as an in depth reasonably balanced depiction of the town. It does not do as well as an entertaining read.

an engaging discussion on the American dream
Andrew Ross's, The Celebration Chronicles, is a scholarly interpretation of the neo-traditional ideal and how it manifests itself with the development of a Florida community. From the onset of the book, it appears as if Celebration is everything that the Disney executives had envisioned and everything that the residents had hoped ---- but is it?

Ross, however, delays peeling back the town's veneer and instead takes us on a sight seeing tour of Celebration ---- along the way we can see palm-lined promenades, a beautiful lake, neo-traditional homes and stately designed commercial/residential buildings. The author, respectfully, gives deference to the key architectural styles ---- Anglo-Caribbean, Low Country and St Augustine. Ultimately, our travels along Market St take us to the town square and we feel somehow that Disney has delivered.

Then the serious questions begin and the reader becomes privy to a host of controversies ---- shoddy home construction, the prohibitive cost to live in Celebration, conflicts over the educational agenda of the K-12 school and a questionable commitment to social and ethnic diversity.

Ross's observations may reflect an intellectual detachment. But the reader will discover that the book has its share of levity and amusing anecdotes. He notes, for example, the following ---- rumors of gypsies taking up residence and a resident heard to say, "What we need are a few drunks around this town."

This book is a serious study. Forewarned ---- you won't find the vanity-fair critiques so pervasive in glossy journals and travel tabloids. What you will find, though, are the author's lengthy observations that attempt to explain all the factors ---- both positive and negative ---- that impact life in the community of Celebration. Eventually the book evolves into a valuable lesson on urban history and social science. I, as a reader, found the process of getting to this eventuality fulfilling and I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in these topics.

Boring Read about an elitist community
Reading this book was like watching paint dry....I moved to Celebration in 1998. At first I was charmed by the Disney connection, distinctive house designs (for florida anyway), the nice, well kept streets.

Fast forward several years....

Celebration now has a -- TERRIBLE -- reputation in the central florida area for being snotty and elitist. It's is a shame what has become of Celebration. Someone should write a book about that.

Intersting
I had the chance to visit Celebration this spring on a trip to WDW. I found the book interesting and inciteful in learning more about this community. I believe readers will get a very well written account of life in this community at its inception as well as Ross's take on this community. A good read. ... Read more

Book Description

Why save architecture? This book offers a critical foundation for preservation and the management of change.

The Architecture of Additions examines the impact of new building on important existing architecture and suggests answers to the questions of how one building affects the meaning of another and how they should affect each other when one of them is protected in the public interest. 400 illustrations .AUTHORBIO: Paul Spencer Byard heads the Historic Preservation program at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (3)

New Yorkers' changing perspective toward demolition
Max Page discusses how the notion of demolition has fit into New York public policy over the decades. The topics of the eight chapters are, after an introductory chapter: the work of the Fifth Avenue Association, a critique of Jacob Riis' views on slum clearance, the controversy over saving the old City Hall, the history of the Museum of the City of New York, policy regarding trees in parks and along streets, a critique of Stokes' multi-volume "Iconography" treatise, and the symbolism of the children's book, "The Little House." The book has over 70 illustrations, mostly period photos of streetscapes and key buildings.

Parts of the book are fascinating, especially Page's critique of the writings of Jacob Riis, the 19th century Danish-American writer and reformer. But as the list above demonstrates, many of the topics of this book are simply too esoteric and remote to be of interest, even to a devoted enthusiast of New York history.

Urban legend
Dr. Page has created a dynamic, readable exploration of the history of design and construction in what is arguably the modern world's greatest city. His vivid descriptions and insightful analyses are complemented by a treasury of remarkable photographs and other illustrations. This extremely readable, intelligent book is an indispensible resource for anyone who claims to truly know the Big Apple.

For ALL of us living in fast-changing places
I took two stories from Creative Destruction.

As a native New Yorker, I found this book a wonderful and thorough analysis of major and minor events that changed New York. These events are not simplified; Max Page tells a story that includes the conflicts and interdependency of commerce, preservation, and progress.

As a San Franciscan watching my newly-adopted city go through dramatic changes, I am given guidance and insight into the effects of such turbulence. Max Page helps me identify shortsighted actions as well as deal with inevitability. At the very least, I am more aware; at best, I am a better citizen.

For ALL of us living in urban areas going through fast changes, Creative Destruction is great reading. ... Read more

Book Description

For more than a decade, architects and students at the University of Washington have been working with squatter communities in Mexico, migrant laborers in eastern Washington, and Indian reservations of the inland West as well as communities in Cuba, India, and Africa to provide housing, schools, clinics, and other vital structures. Led by Sergio Palleroni, these pioneering design/build programs have combined innovative architectural training with cross-cultural immersion, social activism, and environmental science, using design skills and hands-on construction projects to confront poverty and urgent social problems one building at a time.

Studio at Large documents the international and regional community studios organized by Palleroni and his colleagues, typically held in intensive ten-week builds in marginalized communities. Involving community members and students, these studios promote maximum use of recycled or inexpensive, locally available materials, as well as lighting and energy systems that reduce utility costs and promote resource conservation. They serve as models for making architectural education relevant to urgent social problems, helping communities mobilize indigenous resources and social capital to develop creative problem solving skills and long-term sustainable practices that protect rather than erode cultural identity, dignity, and stability. By linking sustainable design to active community participation, by demonstrating the interdependence between the way the first and third worlds live, and by making the whole process into a pedagogical experience these design/build programs bring home the lessons of global interdependence in a vivid and durable way. ... Read more

Book Description

A comprehensive architectural guide to modern churches throughout Europe, this book looks at the finest examples of Christian sacred buildings built within the latter half of the twentieth century. Organized geographically, it features nearly 150 buildings from twenty countries, each with its own double-paged spread. Numerous photographs and plans offer an in-depth perspective of each church, while convenient and accessible maps help readers create their own itinerary. In addition, the volume also takes into account developments in the Central European region from the Czech Republic to Croatia, home to outstanding church architecture. ... Read more

Book Description

The Power of Place is a well-timed, well-reasoned call for fusing history and the environment to create a more democratic and inclusive interpretation of the places in which most of us live and work. Ms. Hayden greatly strengthens preservation with arguments that give the historic environment a critical dimension beyond beauty and rarity." -- The New York Times Book Review

Based on her extensive experience in the urban communities of Los Angeles, historian and architect Dolores Hayden proposes new perspectives on gender, race, and ethnicity to broaden the practice of public history and public art, enlarge urban preservation, and reorient the writing of urban history to spatial struggles.

In the first part of The Power of Place, Hayden outlines the elements of a social history of urban space to connect people's lives and livelihoods to the urban landscape as it changes over time. She then explores how communities and professionals can tap the power of historic urban landscapes to nurture public memory.

The second part documents a decade of research and practice by The Power of Place, a nonprofit organization Hayden founded in downtown Los Angeles. Through public meetings, walking tours, artists's books, and permanent public sculpture, as well as architectural preservation, teams of historians, designers, planners, and artists worked together to understand, preserve, and commemorate urban landscape history as African American, Latina, and Asian American families have experienced it.

One project celebrates the urban homestead of Biddy Mason, an African American ex-slave and midwife active betwen 1856 and 1891. Another reinterprets the Embassy Theater where Rose Pesotta, Luisa Moreno, and Josefina Fierro de Bright organized Latina dressmakers and cannery workers in the 1930s and 1940s. A third chapter tells the story of a historic district where Japanese American family businesses flourished from the 1890s to the 1940s. Each project deals with bitter memories -- slavery, repatriation, internment -- but shows how citizens survived and persevered to build an urban life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Drawing on many similar efforts around the United States, from New York to Charleston, Seattle to Cincinnati, Hayden finds a broad new movement across urban preservation, public history, and public art to accept American diversity at the heart of the vernacular urban landscape. She provides dozens of models for creative urban history projects in cities and towns across the country. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The Power of Place in Planning
The Historical Perspective:

Hayden is an urban historian; she is concerned with the interpretation of historic places, people, movements and events. She specifically writes about woman's and ethnic histories in urban places. The Power of Place documents both a preservation project and the history to be preserved.

Hayden is involved in a relatively new movement of historians and geographers who are reexamining the use of space by society. Her geographic-historical perspective is reflected in many contemporary scholars, including Michael Dear, Jennifer Wolch, David Harvey, and Henri Lefebver.

Relevance to Planning and Urban Design:

Planners involved in historic preservation should understand that the historic preservation of the architecture and histories of multiple classes, ethnicities, and genders is important. Urban renewal and economic development is a powerful tool that can cleanse the landscape of any references to past inhabitants -- their struggles, lives, and uses of place. As we see with the Biddy Mason wall, good design can acknowledge the existence of previous uses even if no structure remains. With this in mind, there is a considerable amount of history yet to be acknowledged with appropriate monuments. So Hayden defines the power of place as: "The Power of ordinary urban landscape to nurture citizens' public memory, to encompass shared time in the form of shared memory".

A must read for urban planners involved in historic preservation.

Nuanced Spatial Critique
Dolores Hayden's book, The Power of Place, is a comprehensive guide for anyone whose goal is to engage in an examination of spaces and places. It retains a historical perspective that allows the reader to apply the places focused upon by Hayden to his or her own specific spatial examination. While she focuses specific attention on the Los Angeles area, I found her work compatible with any examination of spatial use or spatial history and contextualization. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the power of place. ... Read more

Book Description

* An ideal textbook for Urban Transportation Planning
* Incorporates major legislation (ISTEA, CAAA) and other developments that affect transportation planning
* Presented in a convenient tabular form
* Contains effective figures and tables ... Read more

Reviews (1)

State of the art transportation planning text
Urban Transportation Planning is well written and well organized. Complicated modeling techniques are explained in detail. The process flow charts and bubble graphs simplify complex relationships between transportation, land use, planning and politics. Strengths and weaknesses of different modeling strategies are discussed in detail.

Extensive chapter bibliographies are useful for students and professionals seeking detailed discussions of topics covered in the text. ... Read more

Book Description

Everyone from the professional to the layperson is affected by what a designer proposes for the development of parklands. The entire community has a stake in the results. Dahl and Molnar enable the reader to experience the aesthetic and functional aspects of park design through the eyes of the people for whom parks are planned, designed, and built. The book bridges the gaps that often exist between park designer and park user, between landscape architect and park board, between administrators and maintenance staff. Readers will enjoy the witty and lively presentation of the principles that govern skillful plan interpretation and effective site design, addressing the modern-day challenges facing landscape architects, park administrators and personnel, and the communities they serve. The third edition includes a detailed treatment of creative funding solutions, including the ins and outs of grant writing and application. Readers will be better able to identify opportunities and generate ideas for building partnerships to help conceive and implement park projects. The authors engage the reader in thought-provoking discussions about multiple-use concepts, nature preservation and energy conservation, the increasing importance of cost-conscious budgeting, the value of good design and durable construction, and the latest in computer-assisted park design and maintenance. ... Read more

Book Description

Since the beginning of the last century, the Ruhr Area has been the industrial heart of Germany. With the demise of the coal, iron and steel industries, the region now faces an existential question: growth or shrinkage? This dichotomy is the point of departure for the development of various future scenarios, and it is from here that MVRDV, the celebrated Rotterdam-based architectural firm, developed its structural exploration on the future of the Rhine-Ruhr region, implemented in cooperation with a number of German and Netherlandish universities. Extensively documented in this book, the study presents a compact commentary on the meaning of region, identity and tradition, issues ever more consciously present in the age of globalization. Also in this volume is MVRDV's pavilion for Hannover EXPO 2000. The firm caused a stir with its design for the Dutch pavilion, whose motto, "Holland Creates Space," was skillfully translated into a façade-free building with stacked-up landscapes. Essays by Daniel Dekkers andWieland & Gouwens. Paperback, 6 x 8.25 in./352 pgs / 100 color 50 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20059 ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Steinhardt's work shows the importance of Chinese cities
Chinese Imperial City Planning is an excellent historical account of the spatial development of China's ancient cities. Extremely well researched, Steinhardt does a nice job of chronicling the impacts each empire had on urban form in China.

As a scholar interested in Japanese and other East Asian cities, the author's chapter discussing China's historical legacy to urban form in Ancient Japan, was especially interesting. This chapter clearly illustrates how necessary the study of Chinese cities is to the understanding of other Asian cities. It also demonstrates the care Steinhardt took in her research.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the historical origins of urban planning and spatial form in China and Japan. ... Read more

Book Description

Robert Venturi exploded onto the architectural scene in 1966 with a radical call to arms in Complexity and Contradiction. Further accolades and outrage ensued in 1972 when Venturi and Denise Scott Brown (along with Steven Izenour) analyzed the Las Vegas strip as an archetype in Learning from Las Vegas. Now, for the first time, these two observer-designer-theorists turn their iconoclastic vision onto their own remarkable partnership and the rule-breaking architecture it has informed.

The views of Venturi and Scott Brown have influenced architects worldwide for nearly half a century. Pluralism and multiculturalism; symbolism and iconography; popular culture and the everyday landscape; generic building and electronic communication are among the many ideas they have championed. Here, they present both a fascinating retrospective of their life work and a definitive statement of its theoretical underpinnings.

Accessible, informative, and beautifully illustrated, Architecture as Signs and Systems is a must for students of architecture and urban planning, as well as anyone intrigued by these seminal cultural figures. Venturi and Scott Brown have devoted their professional lives to broadening our view of the built world and enlarging the purview of practitioners within it. By looking backward over their own life work, they discover signs and systems that point forward, toward a humane Mannerist architecture for a complex, multicultural society.

Book Description

This thoughtful new study presents a detailed survey of traditional urban structures in Arab countries and an analysis of the problems faced by ancient cities as they confront modern development and Western technologies. It will appeal to architects and planners professionally involved in the Middle East and in the Third World, and to anyone interested in Islamic architecture and culture in general. Stefano Bianco builds a bridge between past and present, between theory and practice. He combines a thorough knowledge of historic building types in the Arab world with an understanding of the modern architectural transformations occurring in Islamic cities. The rich visual documentation complements his text and includes maps, plans, and photographs, many previously unpublished. ... Read more

Book Description

The idea of a town must be strong enough to survive the inevitable chaotic overlay of urban experience, Joseph Rykwert asserts in this fundamental book on urban form. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Ethnocentric and Anti-Anthropological
This is an ethnocentric view of the role of religion in ancient cities. The author assumes that all cities were the same and that notions from the western tradition apply to all ancient cities. The use of the term "anthropology" in the title is ironic; his approach is not at all anthropological (anthropology works to transcend ethnocentric ideas and to document cultural variation, not ignore it). In fact, the title shows the author's ignorance of the discipline of anthropology. He employs an archaic definition, common among nineteenth-century classicists, that "anthropology" means "religion and ritual." So the title of this book really means, "the religion of urban form."

The comparative method is the hallmark of anthropology. Rykwert does make cross-cultural comparisons, but in a random, non-anthropological fashion. Instead of making controlled comparisons using a clear problem-orientation, he throws in seemingly-random examples from vastly different cultures without any theoretical justification for the particular comparison. This may be entertaining, and even illuminating in a few cases, but it is NOT anthropological, and it does not at all resemble the comparative approach of anthropology.

Rykwert makes a number of anti-anthropological statements; here are some examples: (1) "All the great civilizations practice it" (referring to rectilineal planning), page 26. This is incorrect in that rectilineal planning is NOT particularly common in ancient civilizations, and it is anti-anthropological in assuming that some civilizations are "greater" than others. (2) Rituals done at the founding of a town "must have roots in the biological structure of man" (page 194). This is nonsense, unless the author is using the trivial notion that all behavior, at some level, has roots in our biological nature.

I apologize for the vitriolics, but as an anthropologist I find the use of the term "anthropology" in this book title inaccurate and insulting.

overlooked topic offering unexpected insights
Rykwert succeeds magnificently with this work, an older and more historically focused effort than his brilliant The Seduction of Place: The Future and Future of Cities. The writing is clear and accessible, but reaches far into historical annals, educating the reader and, more importantly, touching on the role that societies have played in the founding, structuring and continued sanctifying of cities. His focus is Roman, buttressed with Etruscan and Greek insights drawn from lore and archeology, but he also offers a broader panorama in his closing chapters. Rykwert writes with an erudition that seems boundless. Urbanists, archeologists, village-people and philosophers alike will appreciate his thought on a subject that ought not to be overlooked in our mad commuting and hectic urbanism.

Not optional reading
This is a book more for architects than it is for classicists although it will enrich anyone who reads it. Rykwert is a scholar of the first rank, and it is the mark of a superior scholar to write in such a way as to cull the most arcane information from another field and trim, dry, boil, knead and package it for easy swallowing without sacrificing any of the wisdon-enhancing ingredients. Other books dealing with the same theme have preceded Rykwert's own book. F.W Jackson Knight's and Fustel de Coulanges' are exemplary for their intensity of imagination and obliquity of perspective. And like its predecessors, Rykwert's book takes you on a brief, but a grand tour of the ancient world. That is to say, it shows you just what was so grand about the ancient world and the ancient mind's response to the cosmos in its orientation with regard to "worlding". The book deals with the ancient practice, especially Roman, of founding a city. Rykwert shows you in plain language the profundity and density of religious and mythopoetic factors that used to go into the act of founding a city. But, this book is not about something that once was. It is about that which always IS in Architecture. The Roman poet Sallust said of myths, "these things never happened, but are always." This is what Rykwert gets at in describing the actual mechanisms and the machines that appear as gods, herms, gates, etc, in ancient Mediterranean constructions of the world. World: Mundus, in Latin. The chthonic gateway to the underworld, the big gaping vaginal hole in the middle of the site where the town is to be erected. The final chapter discusses the symbolic parallels found in other traditions.
This book is not optional reading for those who would pretend to practice architecture, or for those who want to understand the origin/destiny of the relationship between "art" and "religion", between the Apollonian and the Dionysian in Western culture. I recommend Camille Paglia's for a richer and wider and literary understanding of the implication of Rykwert's thesis as it applies to the whole cultural trajectory of the Occident's history. By the way, the sales rank of this book, and that after 25 years, no architect (practitioner, student, consumer) has bothered to write a review of this indispensible work only further fan my misgivings concerning the two thing I know about my own profession: intellectual vapidity of the license wielding practitioners and the miasmic cabalism of the academics. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

easy to follow
This book offers lots of general principles, methods and scenarios to help people who are interested in community planning as soon as possible to get involved. It also makes links between those principles, methods and scenarios with each other in order to make them more useful and easy to apply. The last part-appendices can combine all those above mention to a practice situation. This is a very useful handbook, in my personal opinion. ... Read more

Book Description

This practical guide demonstrates the benefits of sustainable design by emphasising its development as an economically viable and profitable option.

This title identifies the current problems which demand that a new holistic approach to sustainability be taken on. It details the issues, and provides a range of potential solutions and techniques that can be applied by the architect and urban designer at both the building, and urban scale. It goes on to provide examples of good practice and guidelines for future development - essential information that shows how sustainability has been developed to provide tangible benefits, not only to the environment, but also to users and designers.

*Learn to profit from sustainable design with this practical guide
*Discover how to apply the theory to all projects, from urban to building scale
*International case studies from Europe, North America, Australia and Hong Kong make the topic universally relevant ... Read more

Book Description

James and Nancy Duncan look at how the aesthetics of physical landscapes are fully enmeshed in producing the American class system. Focusing on an archetypal upper class American suburb-Bedford in Westchester County, NY-they show how the physical presentation of a place carries with it a range of markers of inclusion and exclusion. ... Read more