A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

Author(s): Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein

Publisher: Oxford Univ Press

ISBN: 0195019199

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Hardcover, 1171 pages

Amazon.com:

The second of three books published by the Center for Environmental Structure to provide a “working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning,” A Pattern Language offers a practical language for building and planning based on natural considerations. The reader is given an overview of some 250 patterns that are the units of this language, each consisting of a design problem, discussion, illustration, and solution. By understanding recurrent design problems in our environment, readers can identify extant patterns in their own design projects and use these patterns to create a language of their own. Extraordinarily thorough, coherent, and accessible, this book has become a bible for homebuilders, contractors, and developers who care about creating healthy, high-level design.

Customer Comments 11/07/97, rating=9:
A Pattern Language presents a compelling case for the influence of space, buildings, and landscape on human endeavors. We often overlook this force, accustomed as we are to accommodating spatial limitations and design flaws. But try entering any room and ignoring the cues of memory and social constraints – you will doubtless be drawn to the window in the room.

Alexander and his contributing editors present a series of patterns that operate universally on the mood and activities of people using spaces. “Light on Two Sides,” for example, is a pattern describing the impact of light entering a room from two directions. Functionally, this arrangement softens light by cancelling the harsh shadows that arise from a single light direction. Emotionally, this makes a room more pleasant to live and work in, and may of its own accord encourage certain activities.

Alexander’s huge study of over 200 patterns is at once modest and sweeping. He details patterns with care, and offers sketches and photographs to illustrate them, along with an unassuming voice. Above all, he demystifies architecture itself, calling upon any reader to assume a role in the design process. Despite this humility, the significance of Alexander’s vision is always present. In the end, he is constructing a formula for social utopiaÐan architectural prescription for living well and wisely. From integrating children and senior citizens into the daily life of a community to revealing the advantages of mixed use commercial and residential zoning, Alexander proposes ideas that can successfully animate any town’s master planning efforts.

Read this book if you’re designing house, working with an architect, looking for a new house, or contributing to your city’s planning commission. You will doubtless come away with a heightened appreciation for the influence of space on your choices and activities.

Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home

Author(s): Sarah Susanka

Publisher: Taunton; First Edition edition (October 1, 2000)

ISBN: 1561583774

ISBN-13: 978-1561583775

Order From Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Sarah Susanka’s first book, The Not So Big House, created a movement that is changing the way people think about the American home. That groundbreaking book proposed a new blueprint for the American home: a house that values quality over quantity, with an emphasis on comfort and beauty, a high level of detail and a floor plan designed for today’s informal lifestyle.

Creating the Not So Big House is this blueprint in action. Focusing on key design strategies such as visual weight, layering and framed openings, Sarah Susanka takes an up-close look at 25 houses designed according to Not So Big principles. The houses are from all over North America in a rich variety of styles — from a tiny New York apartment to a southwestern adobe, a traditional Minnesota farmhouse to a cottage community in the Pacific Northwest. The description of each house is accompanied by a floor plan and several beautiful color photographs by Grey Crawford. Informative sidebars sprinkled throughout the book show how specific house features and clever design details illustrate “Not So Big” principles. Whether new or remodeled, these one-of-a-kind homes provide all the inspiration you need to create your own Not So Big House.

As an advocate of “less is more” in residential architecture and interior design, Sarah Susanka has emerged as one of America’s favorite home architects. As a result of the success of the Not So Big House and the new vision it holds for the American home, she was featured by U.S. News and World Report as one of 18 innovators in American culture. Susanka has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Charlie Rose Show, and numerous radio programs around the country. She is a former principal and founding partner of the firm chosen by LIFE magazine to design its 1999 dream home. Plans are available for all the houses featured in Creating the Not So Big House.

258 pages, 2000

“Sarah Susanka shows how to downsize the dream house without diminishing the dream.” –Washington Post

“Sarah Susanka offers us a more hopeful strategy for sustaining human development–just make life richer, not bigger….Improve your life and everyone else’s. Use the ideas in this book–not more square feet!” –William McDonough, FAIA, architect, educator, and winner of the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development

“In The Not So Big House, Sarah Susanka offered so much sound advice for those seeking comfort and beauty with a sense of proportion. Now, she has a new book with additional solutions to that all-important question–how do we want to live?” –Barbara Mayer, author of In The Arts and Crafts Style

“Susanka’s book, Creating the Not So Big House, shows how space can be small but beautiful and visually expansive….She has tapped into those principles that Frank Lloyd Wright used in his ‘Usonian’ Houses and has presented them in a very clear and beautifully illustrated format.” –Eric Lloyd Wright, architect

Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual

Author(s): Bill Mollison

Publisher: Ten Speed

ISBN: 0908228015

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

For those of us searching for an ecologically responsible lifestyle amid urban and suburban insanity, Bill Mollison has a real and exciting answer. This book is full of helpful advice presented in a very readable way. (The only problem might be getting stuck in the chapters on climates that don’t concern you; just skip them until later!) The groundwork philosophy of permaculture is laid first, and the book moves from there to the practical business of actually designing one. The emphasis is on letting various plant and animal species work together as much as possible, to form a basically self-sustaining system from which people can reap a continual harvest, not only of food, but of interest and self-respect. What a prospect! It is certainly a very different one from what we young people have been taught to expect from life! This volume is much more complete in both the philosophy and the practice than were the original “Permaculture One” and “Permaculture Two.” It is also much less focused on the Southern Hemisphere, which is helpful for North Americans trying to visualize their own permaculture. I can only hope that more people happen upon this book as I did and are themselves inspired to create a fulfilling life for themselves and their children.

— Wendell Berry

This is the permaculture bible, written by the great guru of permaculture. Site design issues are interwoven throughout the text.

Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development

Author(s): John Tillman Lyle

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

ISBN: 0471555827

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Landscape Architecture

Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development Winner, 1994 Merit Award for Communications, American Society of Landscape Architects

“Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development is nothing less than a user’s manual for planet Earth that integrates the principles of ecological design with practical realities better than anything I’ve read. John Lyle has written the best book now available on the theory and practice of sustainability . . . essential reading for natural resource professionals, architects, planners, educators, environmentalists, and the general public.” –David W. Orr, Professor and Chair Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College.

“John Lyle has written a splendid book, Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development. It is perfectly topical; it is committed to the unity of art and science, design and planning, man and nature. It is itself exemplary, and it is a repository of exemplary adaptations. It has carried the environmental movement to a new threshold of ecological planning and design. It should be widely read and employed.” –Ian L. McHarg, FASLA.

“In these times of widespread urban stress and regional disruption, the cogent thoughts of John Tillman Lyle on sustainable cities are on target and highly constructive. They are must reading for planning professionals and all concerned citizens.” –John Ormsbee Simonds, FASLA.

“More designers need to broaden their horizons in the way John Lyle has put forth in this book. In general, there are far too few land planners, landscape architects, or architects who have any working procedure that approximates what sustainable design entails. This book provides important historical background and contemporary experience to help guide the way.”–Pliny Fisk III, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems.

From the despoliation of our rivers and lakes by industrial runoff to the destruction of our atmosphere by sulphur emissions and CFCs, production cycles based on a one-way flow of materials and energy have pushed us to the brink of environmental collapse. It is time for a change, and in this groundbreaking book, John Tillman Lyle offers us a blueprint for implementing that change.

This book provides civil engineers, architects, land development planners, and others with practical, realistic approaches to reversing this deadly course. Throughout, the emphasis is on proven regenerative practices for water use, land use, energy use, and building design. Most importantly, it provides ways to reestablish connections between people and nature, between art and science, and between technology and daily life.

From the Publisher

200 years of global industrialization have brought the Earth to the brink of environmental crisis. One of the most respected figures in environmental design presents methods for reversing past trends in practical and realistic ways. Describes a broad sampling of practices and technologies that are inherently self-renewing along with examples which demonstrate how they have been applied through carefully conceived design in various situations. Explores the roles of regenerative design in social, physical, and political contexts.

Green Building Handbook: Volume 1: A Guide to Building Products and their Impact on the Environment

Author(s): T. Woolley

Publisher: E & Fn Spon

Paperback: 224 pages

ISBN: 0419226907

ISBN-13: 978-0419226901

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Environmentally responsible building involves resolving many conflicting issues and requirements. Each stage in the design process from the fundamental decisions about what, where and even whether to build has implications for the environment.
Evolving out of the success of Green Building Digest, a publication described by Building Design as well-researched, authoritative and exhaustive, this practical new handbook considers the environmental issues which relate to the production, use and disposal of key building products and materials. It is designed to help specifiers and purchasers gain awareness of the potential environmental impact of their decisions.
Chapter by chapter Green Building Handbook looks at a different sector of the trade from flooring to roofing, comparing the environmental effects of commonly available products with less well known green alternatives. A Best Buy section then ranks these products from lowest to highest impact.

Small House Designs: Elegant, Architect-Designed Homes – 33 Award-Winning Plans 1,250 Square Feet or Less

Author(s): Kenneth R. Tremblay (Editor), Lawrence Von Bamford (Editor)

Publisher: Storey Books

ISBN: 0882669664

Order From Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Paperback
192 pages
July 1997

Storey Publishing’s newest book on small homes, Small House Designs, represents the top choices in Storey’s international juried competition of plans for small modern homes. The Criteria: affordable, aesthetically pleasing, functional, environmentally conscious, and innovative. The Results: geographic and stylistic diversity to inspire homeowners, buyers, builders, and designers of all kinds. Each design includes an exterior drawing, floor plan, site plan, axonometric of interior, and elevations. Judges’ critiques and the designer’s concept comments accompany plans for each project. Addresses for architects and designers are also provided for readers interested in obtaining scale plans or more information about a particular house.

Heating, Cooling, Lighting : Design Methods for Architects

Author(s): Norbet M. Lechner

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

ISBN: 0471628875

Order From: Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Heating, Cooling, Lighting : Design Methods for Architects

Paperback, 544 pages
Publication date: January 1991

The publisher, John Wiley & Sons:
Using a qualitative rather than a quantitative approach, presents detailed information based on concepts, rules, guidelines, intuition, and experience for architects in the areas of heating, cooling, and lighting at the schematic design stage. The data explored supports a three-tiered approach–load avoidance, using natural energy sources, and mechanical equipment. Among the topics covered are shading, thermal envelope, passive heating and cooling, electric lighting, and HVAC. Case studies illustrate how certain buildings use techniques at all three tiers for heating, cooling, and lighting. An appendix lists some of the more appropriate computer programs available to the architect for analysis at the schematic design stage.

Table of Contents

Heating, Cooling, and Lighting as Form-Givers in Architecture
Basic Principles
Thermal Comfort
Climate
Solar Radiation
Passive Solar
Shading
Passive Cooling
Site and Community Planning
Lighting
Electric Lighting
Daylighting
Energy Efficiency: Keeping Warm and Staying Cool
Mechanical Equipment for Heating and Cooling
Case Studies
Energy Sources
Appendices
Bibliography
Recommended General Sources
Index.

Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies, 2nd Edition

Author(s): G. Z. Brown and Mark DeKay

Paperback: 400 pages

Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (October 24, 2000)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0471348775

ISBN-13: 978-0471348771

Order From: >Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Shaped to the broad conceptual needs of the designer at the schematic design stage, this book presents the methods necessary for the efficient interplay of nature — sun, wind and light–and architectural forms–building groups, buildings and building parts — when designing buildings. The material helps architectural designers understand the energy consequences of their most basic design decisions and how to use energy issues as inspiration rather than as limits to be accomodated.

Sun, Wind and Light was developed for rapid use during schematic design. It clarifies the relationship between form and energy and gives designers valuable tools for sustainable design. It also:

* Applies the latest passive energy and lighting design research.
* Organizes information by architectural elements at three scales: building groups, individual buildings and building parts.
* Brings design strategies to life with examples and practical design tools.

Sun, Wind and Light features 109 analysis techniques and design strategies. Metric and inch-pound units are used.

The overall organization — from analysis techniques, design strategies, to strategies for supplementing passive systems — allows the designer to make sure, swift progress from the articulation of a strategy to its well-conceived rendering on paper. G.Z. Brown is a registered architect and professor of architecture at the University of Oregon. Mark DeKay is a registered architect, assistant professor of architecture at Washington University and a 2000 Fulbright Fellow to India. Illustrations by Virginia Cartwright, Mark DeKay, Chi-Wen Hung, Pallavi Kalia, Arjun Mande.

382-page book, 750 illustrations, charts and tables, 2001

Your Green Home: A Guide to Planning a Healthy, Environmentally Friendly New Home

Author: Alex Wilson

Paperback: 256 pages

Publisher: New Society Publishers (June 1, 2006)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0865715556

ISBN-13: 978-0865715554

Order From: Amazon.com

More and more homeowners today want houses that are healthy to live in and cause minimal damage to the environment. That’s what green building is all about.

Your Green Home is written for homeowners planning a new home—whether you are working with an architect or builder, or serving as your own general contractor. Intended to improve the overall environmental performance of new houses being built, the book sets out to answer some of the big-picture questions relating to having a home designed and built—and getting what you want.

Your Green Home covers:

• Home location and its relationship to the community
• Site design
• Construction systems
• Building design to optimize energy performance
• Renewable energy systems
• Material selection
• Indoor environmental quality
• Water efficiency
• Material selection

Written by the founder of BuildingGreen—North America’s premier green building authority—this book will prove useful not only to future homeowners, but also to designers and builders seeking to meet this demand. Building professionals well-versed in green building may find this a useful book to give to potential clients to convey the scope and principles of green building.

Alex Wilson is president of BuildingGreen, Inc. and executive editor of Environmental Building News, the oldest and most respected publication serving North America’s green building industry. A green building expert since the 1970s, he has authored countless articles on the topic and several books, including Green Building Products, the Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings, and Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate.

The Passive Solar Design and Construction Handbook

Author(s): Michael J. Crosbie (Editor)

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Hardcover: 291 pages

ISBN: 0471183083

ISBN-13: 978-0471183082

Order From Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window

Publication date: October 1997

The only complete guide to passive solar design and construction

The Passive Solar Design and Construction Handbook is an unbeatable guide for architects and building contractors who want to satisfy the growing demand for passive solar residential design. A complete revision of the bible of passive solar design originally published by the U.S. Department of Energy, this is the only comprehensive guide to adapting standard building practices to current passive solar applications. It supplies detailed, step-by-step information on all practical aspects of passive solar design and construction and fills you in on all the latest advances in materials and building techniques–including the most recent findings on material and assembly performance. You’ll also find the latest techniques for computer simulation and energy analysis.

This timely and informative book:
* Reviews passive solar design principles
* Discusses the unique design opportunities inherent in passive solar homes
* Describes the various solar home types
* Introduces the principles of “whole-house” design
* Includes more than 300 illustrations, complete construction details and notes, and dozens of helpful case studies
* Explores important regional issues, such as termite shields, pressure treating wood, attic ventilation, and special structural requirements in seismic areas.

For building contractors, architects, and anyone interested in state-of-the-art passive solar construction, The Passive Solar Design and Construction Handbook saves hours of research and provides the complete, authoritative, up-to-date information that professionals need to take on a challenging job with confidence.

From the Publisher

The bible of passive solar design has been completely revised and updated. Extensive use of detailed drawings and case studies provide design and construction specifics. Includes updated information on material and assembly performance and computer simulation and analysis, plus the latest advances in materials and techniques.

Table of Contents
Passive Solar Fundamentals
Direct Gain
Thermal Storage Wall
Attached Sunspace
Convective Loop
Materials
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Order From Amazon.com (links will open in a new window)

From the Publisher

Order From Amazon.com (links will open in a new window

From the Publisher

Order From Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window)

Order From Amazon.com
(links will open in a new window