Book Description
Curious about how Alsop Architects managed to construct that flying, translucent rectangle at the Ontario College of Art and Design? Wonder about the sustainability of the Genzyme Building? The saying "the truth is in the details" reveals an essential quality of architectural design. How a staircase curves, a roof seemingly floats, or a concrete wall illuminates are critical questions for architects looking at or creating new work. You might forgive designers for closely guarding their signature techniques. Fortunately, editors Christine Killory and René Davids culled an amazing collection of the best trade secrets in Details in Contemporary Architecture.
By looking at the best work of the past two years, the book demonstrates how complicated design problems have been handled by architects to achieve beautiful, functional, innovative, sustainable, and, where necessary, economical results. Including work by David Chipperfield, Herzog and deMeuron, Morphosis, ShoP, and many other well-known firms, Details in Contemporary Architecture extensively explores the common as well as more exotic architectural detailing (screens and walls, doors and windows, roofs, bridges, and stairs) that so often gets lost in the pages and photographs of the design media.
Customer Reviews:
Almost a 'How Did They Do That'.......2007-03-24
AsBuilt is a new series of architecture books beint published by Princeton Architectural Press. This is the first book in the series and seems to be the prototype for the concept of the series.
This book, and all of the planned books in the series, feature 25 buildings that were actually constructed in the US or Canada. Besides being interesting buildings in their overall design, the author, a practicing architect in her own right, goes beyond the facade to present how the special features of the building were designed/constructed.
As the saying goes, 'the Devil is in the details.' And here are the details of these buildings discussed in the open. Many of these feature new construction materials, old materials used in new ways, or merely have designs that go beyond the expected. Ms. Killory has been able to get the architects involved to share their newest developments, right down to including the engineering drawings of particularly difficult parts of the structure.
This book goes beyond the normal 'idea book' to give you the how as well. And showing only 'AsBuilt' buildings, here are buildings not just concepts on paper.
Book Description
Professional designers know that it's attention to detail that truly distinguishes an interior. Light fixtures, door handles, textiles, fittings, accessories: these are the components that can transform a merely stylish space into something more personal and unique. Without them, even the most professionally decorated homes can end up looking like a museum-beautiful, but intimidating and ultimately lifeless. Showcasing actual residences in hundreds of stunning, full-color photographs, this volume zeroes in on the critical fine points and finishing touches that give a room individual character. Through a casebook method of presentation that mirrors the way most of us approach home renovation-room by room-Trocmé emphasizes a practical design philosophy in which functionality is as important as pure form.
Representing a range of contemporary styles, the featured interiors reveal how real people have addressed a wide variety of decorating challenges. A directory of sources refers readers to manufacturers of top-quality materials and products.
Customer Reviews:
They were not kidding when they titled this book "Attention to Detail.".......2006-07-28
This is one of the most informative non-textbook on interior design I have ever read. The author goes into great detail on the items she chose and why she chose them-hence the name. "Attention to Detail" is split into three major sections with several chapters in each section. The sections are Casebook, Functional Detail, and Decorative Detail.
The chapters in the Casebook section represent each area in a house. There are several cases described in each chapter. For each case the author describes what the client's desires were, each item in the room, and how it incoporates the clients desires. There is a floor plan of each room. She also describes a concept and how the case illustrates that concept. For example, the first chapter is about living rooms. Case Study 1 is about Ralph and Ann Pucci's living room. They like their environment to be "neat, but easy." The concept this case illustrates is comfort. The author describes how the color, style, and placement of furniture, art, windows, books, etc. was done just so to evoke the feeling of neat and easy comfort.
The second section Funtional Detail contains the chapters surfaces, walls, floors, structure, services, water, heat, light, and storage. In these chapters the author describes different types of items and concepts in each category. For example in the wall category she describes inserting walls, bare walls, cladding, tile, color, and pattern. This section does not give you step-by-step instructions on how to achieve the effects-there are other books for that-it describes some examples in each category and why you might want to incorporate them into a room.
The third section Decorative Detail has chapters on accessories, such as furniture, soft furnishings, and art and ornament. There is also a list of resources for the book.
I like "Attention to Detail" because it not only shows great pictures, but unlike most interior design/decoration books, gives you the decorator's "assignment" and how she accomplished it. The interior design style is modern, but the information can be applied to any style. I think this is a great edition to anyone's interior decoration/design library
Book Description
A visual look at the architectural details of sustainable residential spaces
The Contemporary Design Details series takes a highly visual look at architectural design details that are more often dealt with in a technical textbook format. The books take readers on a tour of the best details designed by great architects around the world. The series provides a powerful presentation of the most challenging and evolving architectural and design categories.
Sustainable Environments focuses on the type of architectural details in distinctive, sustainable residential spaces. It includes sections on components such as cooling or shading devices, building techniques that create minimal impact on the land, active systems, and the use of new sustainable materials as well as those that are salvaged or recyclable. The book presents recent work by architects from around the globe in color photographs and architectural drawings, and is structured according to categories of architectural detail.
Customer Reviews:
Expectation vs product.......2005-08-23
The book is more of a catalogue than an architectural publication. It certainly contains lots of contemporary details, but these are often displayed lacking context. I believe this book was published to help architects in their everyday practice, but don't we have enough commercial material these days?
What I was looking for was an album showing contemporary interior design case studies, focusing on details. What I found was another market offer, except published in a hardcover. However, there are some interesting photos in a book, and if you are looking for a tool that could improve communication between designers and their customers it is worth the money.
Not what I expected.......2005-07-07
The reason I purchased this book is because it billed itself as a great reference/sourcebook. In my mind, that meant a place to get ideas for contemporary home improvements, as well as a means to make them actually happen. I envisioned a book that showed a photo of a (kitchen, floor, bathroom, some tile, etc.), discuss the actual materials used in EACH setting, and where possible, where they can be found. While there are a few basic references of this type, the bulk of the book gives the name of whatever architect contributed to each setting and then describes the shot in great detail, yet with hardly any information about what's IN it. In addition, many of the pictures are too small/shot too close up/at odd angles to get a lot out of them. I'm sorry, but I did not find this book helpful.
Contemporary Details 1992 ed.......2005-02-24
I got my hands on a used 1992 edition. There were some great ideas in here if you like contemporary/modern design. Some rooms seemed to be more of a Zen modern/asian influenced. Only get this book if you like to look at photos of nice rooms though, there is little to no instruction found inside.
This is my style!.......2003-05-07
Contemporary details is a very focused book: good examples, excellent photos and contents.
As an interior designer, I recommend.
The details are not exactly what I was looking for.......2000-10-30
Although I do not own a copy for myself, I intended to purchase it. The pictures are wonderful and there are a myriad of products. But, while browsing through a copy at my local bookstore I realized that the items pictured where not exactly my taste. The fixtures and furnishings are definitely modern, but tend to have an extremely hard edge. I love contemporary interior design, but something a little softer, a little less abstract. If you are interested in that end of the contemporary spectrum, then go for it. If you are like me, you may be dissapointed.
Book Description
A visual look at the architectural details of smaller residential spaces
The Contemporary Design Details series takes a highly visual look at architectural design details that are more often dealt with in a technical textbook format. The books take readers on a tour of the best details designed by great architects around the world. The series provides a powerful presentation of the most challenging and evolving architectural and design categories.
Small Environments focuses on the type of architectural details that make up distinctive residential spaces under 1,200 square feet [120 square meters]. It presents recent work by architects from around the globe in color photographs and architectural drawings. Rather than simply another compendium of small projects, the book is structured according to categories of architectural detail. It includes sections on components essential to the design of small spaces, such as built-in pieces, mobile systems, storage, outdoor rooms, siting strategies and daylighting details.
Product Description
"MARIO DAL FABBRO: Designer, Craftsman, Author"; The author of How To Build Modern Furniture has long had a warm and intimate relationship with the art of working with wood. As a boy in Italy, where he was born in 1913, his first toys included the hand wood working tools which surrounded him daily in his family's shop, where fine original furniture was designed and crafted by hand. This inheritance, plus many years of experience and experiment, has enabled Mario Dal Fabbro to design and execute furniture of rare functional grace and symmetry. At the same time, because of technical superiority, his furniture does not sacrifice any of the strength and durability usually associated with more ponderous pieces. Between 1938 and 1948 , Mr. Dal Fabbro became widely recognized abroad as an imprtant exponent of creative contemporary furniture design. His output was prodigious; he designed hundreds of pieces for private individuals and for renowned Milan furniture houses. Many of his designs were acclaimed at international furniture exhibitions and competitions. He also found time to write several books on furniture design and construction which were published in Milan by Hoepli and Goelich. Mario Dal Fabbro came to the United States in 1948 and now designs furniture for American manufacturers. Since coming here he has written a number of furniture boks including the very popular How To Make Built-In Furniture. He is also a contributor to the do-it-yourself pages of many newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times and House and Garden. (from inside of back jacket)
Book Description
Within the last decade most of the world's acclaimed architects have designed staircases for houses, galleries, shops, hotels, and offices. This book contains more than 45 case studies of the finest examples, and illustrate the construction, setting, materials, and design. With an introduction on the history of the staircase and thematically organized chapters showing the staircases in their contexts, detail photographs, and architects' plans, this volume is an invaluable sourcebook for architects, students, and design enthusiasts alike.
Book Description
Architectural detailing makes a building unique and an architect outstanding. This book provides analysis of both the technical and the aesthetic importance of details in the development of contemporary domestic architecture from 2000 to 2005. Featuring many of the world's most highly acclaimed architects, the book presents over 50 of the most recently completed and influential house designs. For each house there are color photographs, plans of every floor, sections and elevations, and numerous construction details. The book also features in-depth information for each project, including the size, the client, the architectural project team, main consultants, and contractors. With CD-ROM.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Details.......2007-09-19
This book is an excellent buy. Not only does it include overviews of the projects (by John Pawson, Sean Godsell, Scogin-Elam, and many others) but it includes plans, elevations, and MOST IMPORTANTLY multiple detail drawings of each residence. The book is organized into sections such as steel, masonry, bamboo, and others. If you dont just want strictly images (although roughly 5-10 images of each house are provided) but want to know how the projects were put together, then I would recommend this book. Thanks.
Customer Reviews:
Great help with choosing pastels, hard or soft, brand etc........2007-07-27
When I became interested in pastels, I took a dozen books out from the library including Mowry's THE PASTELIST'S YEAR, all of Paul Taggert's books, THE PASTEL BOOK, etc.
I found Mowry's books helpful regarding her use of color in this book to change the season of a scene - it's amazing. I learned a lot looking at her different views of the same scene painted to represent the different seasons. Very illuminating to say the least.
I thought thee pictures were small and could have been made larger for the serious student to see the illustrations better.
PRINT QUALITY IS FINE. THOSE ARE PHOTOS OF CONSTRUCTION.......2004-02-13
There doesn't appear to be any print quality issues with the photos in the book. There are several step-by-step photos that don't have some of the colors added yet because they are showing how the pastel sketches were made! See pg 81 for an example. There are also some extreme close ups which show the natural grain of the strokes to show how the larger image was created. These type of photos are exactly what any reader (beginner or expert) wants in an art technique book. The previous reviewers that didn't bother to read the captions of the photos should be a little ashamed if this is what they were describing. The book also has photos of the finished pastels. In general, the book and is filled with quality photos of pastel landscapes and appears to have good instruction throughout.
A Traditional Pastellist with a Modern Flair.......2003-11-13
Elizabeth Mowry has taken the time to establish a palate for the colors appearing in the four seasons; however, they were difficult to study since they were on different colored backgrounds. I especially liked the way she heightened the color temperature on some of her paintings. I wish she had used a greater variety of strokes. I recall that she favors the feather stroke, which was effective. She seemed to work more saliently with contrast, composition, color temperature, texture using traditional landscape themes. It would have been helpful to have a couple of paintings actual size so that I could have seen the "actual" painting. The cover has two flaps which could be used as bookmarks, which is a thought!
One of the very best !!.......2003-07-23
I have read this book twice and some portions three times. I find Elizabeth Mowry to be very sharing and knowledgeable and willing to show you how she achieves certain passages in her paintings. I had been going through a dry period, and this book opened up new worlds for me. I especially liked that she tells you to make small sketches, color sketches and use photographs. All these things were beneficial to me and I wish I could thank her personally for her very inspirational book. I have also given her book to friends and they all love it.
Poor printing quality detracts from a great book, won't buy.......2002-05-28
I bought this book and ws really disappointed when I leafed through more thoroughly and found MANY of the illustrations were out of focus, and one had a HUGH printer error where the image was blocked on one of the printer's colors.
I returned this book and have repeatedly looked at it at the book stores to see if a re-issued copy comes out that corrects these problems. My estimate is that there are 7-8 plates that are defective.
Books:
- Digital Tectonics
- Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future
- Federal Style Patterns 1780-1820 with CD-Rom
- Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism
- Food Safety Law
- Guide To Undertaking Biodiversity Legal And Institutional Profiles: A Contribution To The Global Biodiversity Strategy (Iucn Environmental Policy and Law Paper)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
Books Home
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- Microbiology: An Introduction Brief Edition
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Criticism
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Detail In Contemporary Residential Architecture (includes DVD)
In Detail: Building Skins (In Detail (englisch))
Prefab Prototypes: Site-specific Design for Offsite Construction
In Detail: High-Density Housing: Concepts, Planning, Construction (In Detail (englisch))
In Detail: Single Family Houses (In Detail (englisch))
