Materials Books

Transmaterial 2: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical Environment

Blaine Brownell

Amazon Price: $35.00 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Princeton Architectural Press Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $18.19

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Highly Recommended 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Cannot recommend this book highly enough - it does a great job of finding cool, interesting, ground breaking materials and then providing information on how to source them. A must-have reference for any designer, interior designer or architect who prides themselves on staying abreast of cutting-edge materials. (And since materials are the palette of the designer this book will go a long way to keeping you on the leading edge of design as well.) Not to be missed.

Editorial Review:

As the speed of technological progress continues to accelerate, innovation threatens to outpace architects' and designers' working knowledge of materials thereby limiting their applicability. In order to stay at the cutting edge of design, a knowledge of the uses, properties, and sources of new materials is essential. A sequel to the critically acclaimed and best-selling book Transmaterial, Transmaterial 2 is a clear, concise, accessible, and carefully edited resource that provides information about the latest and most intriguing materials commercially available.

Based on a compilation of Blaine Brownell's "product of the week" electronic journal, Transmaterial 2 includes more than two hundred materials and is indexed in multiple ways for maximum convenience. An excellent ideas generator Transmaterial 2 is an indispensable tool for any architect or designer looking to keep up with the current trends in the field of materials.

Materials for Design

Victoria Ballard Bell, Patrick Rand

Amazon Price: $40.00 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Princeton Architectural Press Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $35.11

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A great resource for technical info AND design inspiration 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I absolutely agree with the two previous reviews-- it is a seamless combination of technical info and aesthetics. The book was recommended in my Masters of Architecture program by the Construction-I professor and since then it has been circulating widely in the design studios. It is a great resource for material detailing AND design inspiration. Wa-hoo-wa, Victoria Bell, great job.

Editorial Review:

As architecture programs throughout the country break out of the classroom and adopt the holistic methods of design/build programs, the need for a textbook that bridges the gap between construction materials and design sensibility is sorely needed. Materials for Design is that book. Students must be taught how a choice of material affects the form and look of a structure; they must also learn how inspired design can inject any material with true personality and zeal. Broken into five sections-glass, wood, metals, plastics, and concrete-Materials for Design makes a thorough study of each material's properties, followed by a series of 10-12 case studies of that material put to imaginative use by today's brightest architects from around the world. There is no other textbook on the market that tackles material details so thoroughly while presenting lush, inspired color photographs, plan drawings, and detailed architectural diagrams.

Transmaterial: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine our Physical Environment

Blaine Brownell

Amazon Price: $30.00 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Princeton Architectural Press Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $12.90

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

These days, whether you're designing a building or a toaster, a savvy knowledge of materials is increasingly critical. And keeping up with the constant flow of new materials, let alone their applications, properties, and sources, is an increasingly difficult and time-consuming task. Blaine Erickson Brownell, author of Transmaterial, known to thousands of web users for his "product of the week" email service alerting designers to new materials that are reshaping our world, has created this handy and affordable reference to the most interesting and most useful new materials now available. Transmaterial is indexed in multiple ways for the sake of maximum convenience, and utilizes the new CSI Master-Format 2004 product categorization system. With more than 200 materials, organized by category, described, pictured, and annotated with technical and sourcing information, this catalog is an essential tool for any architect or designer interested in keeping up with the rapid developments in the field of materials, looking for a source of inspiration for their designs, or just eager to get their hands on real materials in an effort to understand the incredibly innovative palette now available to us.

Modern Cabin

Michelle Kodis

Amazon Price: $26.37 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Gibbs Smith, Publisher Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $24.76

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Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Home Design -> House Plans
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Modern Cabin turns a true icon on its head-radically redefining what a cabin can be. For those who've always wanted a woodsy retreat but want to create a softer environment footprint, Michelle Kodis has gathered twenty-two examples of mountain retreats that push the envelope of cabin architecture and lead the way for the cabin of the future. Architects are creating structures that showcase inspiring and innovative construction methods and materials-including prefab components, environmentally responsible and energy-efficient building techniques, and even "smart" house technology.
Sections include:
Updated Rustic Charm: past meets future
Beyond the Traditional Cabin: fresh architectural solutions
Into the Future: ultra-modern cabins constructed with cutting-edge building methods and materials.
Michelle Kodis has been featured on The Jane Pauley Show as well as in such publications as the Los Angeles Times and Time magazine. She is frequently featured on MSN.com as an expert in homes and architecture.

Build Your Own Stonehenge (Running Press Mini Kits)

Morgan Beard

Amazon Price: $6.95 List Price: $6.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Running Press Miniature Editions Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $2.93

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> Models
Subjects -> History -> Ancient -> General
Subjects -> History -> Ancient -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

YAY! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Yes, it's tiny. It's supposed to be tiny, that's the point. The whole thing fits in a tiny box, it's the same with the rest of the Running Press Mini Kits. But, like most of their other kits, this is a lot of fun and really cool. You get a tiny model Stonehenge to build and display in your home/office/whatever. If you're quirky, eccentric, or just into this kind of thing then you'll love this. I do!

AMAZING 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

so much detail went into the creation of this product! I'm so impressed with it I'll be buying it for friends as well! Anyone who loves miniatures will go nuts for this tiny kit!

Pay Close Attention to the Product Dimensions! 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Pay close attention to the Product Dimensions: 3.2 x 3 x 1.3 inches. It's very small, with TINY pieces.

Editorial Review:

In the past, it was believed that only giants, wizards, Druids, and aliens were extraordinary enough to have built the mythical Stonehenge, but our kit makes it easy for everyone, whether you can map a leyline or not. Complete with 16 stone replicas, a beautiful placement mat, and a 32-page guide, it won’t take a trip to England for your family, friends, and coworkers to admire this ancient wonder.

Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods

Edward Allen

List Price: $99.00 By: John Wiley & Sons Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $7.50

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Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Home Design -> Buildings & Construction
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Architecture -> Building Types & Styles -> General
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Architecture -> Building Types & Styles -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This Third Edition of the classic Fundamentals of Building Construction offers a panoramic view of today's construction systems-from foundation to roof, exterior cladding to interior finishes. Every common system of construction is covered, including wood light frame construction, heavy timber, masonry, steel, sitecast concrete, and precast concrete. New chapters offer coverage of light gauge steel frame construction and detailed information on selecting windows and doors. Architect and author Edward Allen addresses the history, theory, and practice of each type of construction, including typical details of assembly. The lucid text is supported by more than 600 photographs and 400 line drawings, many of them arranged in sequences that illustrate construction operations step-by-step. More than 200 of the illustrations were prepared especially for this new edition. These include photographs of recent work by Horst Berger, Helmut Jahn, Cesar Pelli, Frank Gehry, Eric Owen Moss, Steven Holl, and Suzane Reatig. This book is an essential reference for students of architecture, civil engineering, and construction technology. It finds everyday use in virtually every architecture firm in North America.

Shelter

List Price: $19.95 By: Shelter Pubns Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $35.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

HANDBUILT HOUSES, BY FREE THINKING PEOPLE. WAY COOL YES. 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I studied architecture in Australia and dragged my feet through the course. That is until a mate suggested I check out this book.
It liberated me.

Here was a bunch of common folk who met one of the most basic needs of all humanity - shelter.

So much of what we encounter in our 'western' enlightened age is alien and regulated. The materials that we commonly use in buildings & infrastruture is devoid of any life or connection with the earth. They are not in or close to their natural state. And even if they are, there is so much regulation and stipulation on how we are to use them.

But this book gives you hope, a chance to dream. It shows buildings as art forms, useful & practical but completely expressive of the owners they serve. They are not bound by regulations and conventions. This is craftsmanship not industrialisation. They are made from from natural unrefined materials which in essence connects us to the earth, which we all belong to. From dust we came, to dust we will all return. The beauty of nature is your own home.

This book is filled with ideas and ways in which people have often 'escaped' from the life draining cities to a more peacuful and harmonious way of life. It's superb photo's, hand illustrations and even the way the book is laid out are a freedom in itself. This is one book you will not regret owning and will always find pleasure returning again and again to.

Editorial Review:

Shelter

"An embarassment of riches."

-- Manas

"How very fine it is to leaf through a 176-page book on architecture -- from bailiwicks to zomes -- and find no palaces, no pyramids or temples, no cathedrals, skyscrapers, Kremlins, or Pentagons in sight... instead, a book of homes, habitations for human beings in all their infinite variety." -- Edward Abbey

"Shelter is a must not only for those actively engaged in house building, but for everyone who understands that lifestyle begins at home -- that we are, after all, where we live." -- Rolling Stone

"Shelter is lavishly illustrated, containing over 1000 photographs, numerous drawings, and 250,000 words of text concerned with basic shelters from all over the world." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"It's time to educate the architects. To that extent this book on shakes and wattle and daub is the most revolutionary architecture book around..."

-- Architecture In Australia

"A piece of environmental drama."

-- Building Design

In Detail: Building Simply

Amazon Price: $53.52 List Price: $84.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Birkhäuser (Princeton Architectural Press) Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $53.52

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

a very informative architectural detail review on residential 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book describes simple and neat residential building design in detail , shape, and material. The book should be applicable to architects or designers who aspire to work in modernism or minimalism on housing and who desire to improve the residential detil design to be more insighfully clean and blight. As well, the analysis from the publication could be developed to function in other architecture types.

Editorial Review:

In a time of loud gestures and ostentation unpretentious buildings, which have been reduced to the essentials with no superfluous decoration, are soothing in their purity. This new volume in the series In Detail demonstrates the breadth and complexity of the issues involved in building simply, from functional and economic demands, through ecological and energy-related aspects, to design and construction requirements. "Building Simply" can be read and applied in many ways. In the face of the sheer wealth of possibilities available today and the ever quicker changes in design and style, it is a creative process which does justice to the nature and quality of the materials used and gives rise to unique projects through an economy of means and resources. The project section documents a comprehensive range of international examples, from simple wooden bridges, to pavilions, residential buildings, workshops, and warehouses.

From Control to Design: Parametric/Algorithmic Architecture

Amazon Price: $31.32 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Actar Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $26.94

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Editorial Review:

Along with the new architectural freedoms offered by contemporary technologies come new questions. increasing importance has been given to the role of parametric design, a process based not on fixed metric quantities but on consistent relationships between objects, allowing changes in a single element to propagate corresponding changes throughout the system. In parallel, recent developments in algorithmic design processes have opened the way to scripting and other procedures that allow complex forms to be grown from simple iterative methods while preserving specified qualities. If the parametric is a technique for the holistic control and manipulation of design objects at all scales from part to whole, the algorithmic is a method of generation, producing complex forms and structures based on simple component rules. The question today is how these related but distinct techniques - the parametric and the algorithmic - will affect design practice. Leading practitioners of parametric and algorithmic design will be invited to contribute research and projects that illustrate their view on the new possibilities offered by these new technologies, their similarities and their differences. Rather than a compilation of individual projects, the next Verb monograph presents the work of each author as an extended contribution, through research and projects, that reflects a particular attitude towards the potentials of parametric and algorithmic design today.

The Barefoot Architect

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Shelter Publications, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $10.81

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Foreign Language Nonfiction -> Spanish
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Really Helpful 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'm in the process of re-building the kitchen, bathroom, foundation and an addition to our home. Picking up this book to peruse made my imagination wander and provided tremendous insight into not only how to go about these significant changes but also provided new ways based upon sensible and older techniques. There are so many ideas, drawings and explanations that even if you thought you had everything at hand and knew just what you were going to do, this could very much make your work better. I very much recommend this thick and interesting book.

Editorial Review:

A former UN worker and prominent architect, Johan van Lengen has seen firsthand the desperate need for a "greener" approach to housing in impoverished tropical climates. This comprehensive book clearly explains every aspect of this endeavor, including design (siting, orientation, climate consideration), materials (sisal, cactus, bamboo, earth), and implementation. The author emphasizes throughout the book what is inexpensive and sustainable. Included are sections discussing urban planning, small-scale energy production, cleaning and storing drinking water, and dealing with septic waste, and all information is applied to three distinct tropical regions: humid areas, temporate areas, and desert climates. Hundreds of explanatory drawings by van Lengen allow even novice builders to get started.