Art & Architecture Library

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Japanese Touch for Your Home

Japanese Touch for Your Home

by Koji Yagi
Kodansha International (JPN) | 1992-04 | ISBN: 477001662X | 84 pages | PDF | 30,3 MB

Filled with elegant designs and clever tips, A Japanese Touch for Your Home offers bold and exciting ideas for remodeling your home or redecorating your apartment. The author, architect Koji Yagi, explains the basic elements of Japanese interior design and shows you how to use them. Install tatami mats and shoji doors--cardinal elements of Japanese interior design--and see how beautifully they respond to the Western home. Change the size and shape of a room easily and tastefully with bamboo screens and movable partitions. Build a simple Japanese-style alcove, decorate it with something special, and then flaunt it. Try some Japanese lighting techniques--low, soft, and beautiful. Change the mood of a room, and change your way of looking at things. A Japanese Touch for Your Home includes much more. Practical, approachable, and authentic, it is written by a prominent Japanese architect concerned about the demands of contemporary lifestyles, and the answers that traditional Japanese design has to offer. Over 120 color plates taken by a leading Japanese photographer accompany the informed text. In addition, over 200 black and white sketches, floor plans, and a section on do-it-yourself projects make this a book that will pique your desire to be creative and then show you how to fulfill it. A practical guide for homeowners, interior designers, and people who like to work with their heads and their hands, this book will introduce you to a new way of living.

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Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

by Rh Value Publishing
Gramercy (August 17, 1999) | ISBN: 051716115X | 80 pages | Djvu | 9,8 Mb

The importance of the architect to the quality and character of any society is not usually as widely regarded as it deserves to be. While every past civilization is, to a considerable extent, recognized and judged by its architecture, its creators are in general little known or revered; it would seem as though the buildings which are of such importance to our lives have spontaneously appeared as if by magic. Civilizations are more widely evaluated by their literature, music, painting and sculpture and other useful artefacts, while architecture is merely taken for granted.
In this century, however, where great and far-reaching developments have occurred which require examination and justification, architects have come to be regarded with a mixture of interest, suspicion and sometimes dismay. All this has served to transform the interest of the general public in architecture and the architect is beginning to be appreciated and valued.
When they have great strength of character, lucidity of exposition and, in the view of the media, an interesting personal history as well, they have become publicly recognized figures of social importance. None more so than the subject of this book whose personality and achievement has, unlike many of his peers, dominated the first half of this century. With such figures as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, he is recognized as a creative architectural genius. His singular individual achievement, as a native-born American, was to gather together the strands of American historical architecture and create a corpus of work which is both modern and essentially American.
Frank Lloyd Wright's career, sometimes tragic, sometimes tempestuous—at all times creative—has been examined and re-examined in numerous studies and articles both during his lifetime and since his death in 1959 shortly before his most famous and notorious Guggenheim Museum in New York was completed. And his life continues to demand re-examination as the progress of architectural philosophy inspires dramatic stylistic change. This concise consideration of his life and work offers a careful analysis of this complex, powerful and confident personality as well as the architectural legacy left behind by him.

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File DJVU (.djvu)
the reader for this format is WinDjView for windows user or MacDjView for Mac user.

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Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques

Over 70 percent of Americans cannot afford to own a code-enforced, contractor-built home. This has led to widespread interest in using natural materials, straw, cob, and earth-for building homes and other buildings that are inexpensive, and that rely largely on labor rather than expensive and often environmentally-damaging outsourced materials.

Earthbag Building is the first comprehensive guide to all the tools, tricks, and techniques for building with bags filled with earth or earthbags. Having been introduced to sandbag construction by the renowned Nader Khalili in 1993, the authors developed this "Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique" over the last decade. A reliable method for constructing homes, outbuildings, garden walls and much more, this enduring, tree-free architecture can also be used to create arched and domed structures of great beauty-in any region, and at home, in developing countries, or in emergency relief work.
This profusely illustrated guide first discusses the many merits of earthbag construction, and then leads the reader through the key elements of an earthbag building:
• Special design considerations
• Foundations, walls and floors
• Electrical, plumbing and shelving
• Lintels, windows and door installations
• Roofs, arches and domes
• Exterior and interior plasters.

With dedicated sections on costs, making your own specialized tools, and building code considerations, as well as a complete resources guide, Earthbag Building is the long-awaited, definitive guide to this uniquely pleasing construction style.

Kaki Hunter and Donald Kiffmeyer have been involved in the construction industry for the last 20 years, specializing in affordable, low-tech, low-impact building methods that are as natural as possible. They developed the "Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique" of building affordably with earthbags and have taught the subject and contributed their expertise to several books and journals on natural building.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/249331255/Earthbag_Buildings.rar.html

Construire en terre

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Construction Waterproofing Handbook

by Michael T. Kubal.
McGraw-Hill Professional,2 Ed | 2008 | ISBN: 0071489738 | 576 pages | PDF | 8,5 MB

The Latest Waterproofing Techniques and Technology
Fully updated to include new techniques for mold remediation, Construction Waterproofing Handbook simplifies the critical task of keeping a building's envelope watertight. It begins with a tutorial on basic waterproofing concepts and materials, then moves on to the particulars of designing and installing systems in commercial, industrial, and residential structures.
Written by a renowned expert and popular author on the subject, this comprehensive guide provides key information on such matters as quality assurance, admixtures, expansion joints, testing, and safety. Because of recent natural disasters, clients are more concerned with waterproofing than ever. Construction Waterproofing Handbook provides everything you'll need to complete the most demanding projects with confidence and within budget.
Packed with hundreds of illustrations, Construction Waterproofing Handbook includes:
Innovative mold remediation techniques
New information about residential waterproofing
Illustrations of installation procedures
Detailed plans and specifications
SI units
Inside:
• Waterproofing Principles • Below-Grade Waterproofing • Above-Grade Waterproofing • Residential Waterproofing • Sealants • Expansion Joints • Admixtures • Remedial Waterproofing • Mold • The Building Envelope • Life Cycles • Envelope Testing • Leak Investigation and Detection • Safety • Guide Specifications • Resources

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California Interiors: Interieurs Californiens

California Interiors: Interieurs Californiens

Diane Dorrans Saeks (Author), Angelika Taschen (Editor), "California Interiors: Interieurs Californiens"
Taschen | September 1999 | ISBN 3822866105 | PDF | 32 MB | 303 pages

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Building Failures: Diagnosis and Avoidance, 2nd Edition

In recent years building failures and the resulting lawsuits and awards for damages have frequently been in the news. The biggest headlines may have been reserved for structural failures and complete collapses. But we should not forget the less newsworthy failures such as leaky roofs, damp walls, dropped foundations and rotted timber.

This book gives practical guidance on the prevention of failure by describing the nature and cause of the most common defects in buildings, and then shows how they should be avoided in design and construction.

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Bioclimatic Housing: Innovative Designs for Warmer Climates

In the search for sustainable architecture there is growing interest amongst architects, designers and engineers in the relationship between nature and design. The term ‘bioclimatic’, traditionally relating to the dynamic between climate and living organisms, is applied by the authors in focusing on countries where housing requires cooling for a significant part of the year and presenting both the theory and practice of innovative, low-energy architecture. Having set out new definitions of bioclimatic housing, the book interweaves the themes of social progress, technological solutions and industry developments within a discussion of global and country trends. With case studies from Iran, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka and Italy, this is a truly international and authoritative work, prepared under the auspices of a 5-year International Energy Agency (IEA) project.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/249308475/Bioclimatic_Housing_-_Innovative_Designs_for_Warm_Climates.rar.html

Barcelona Art Nouveau

Barcelona Art Nouveau

Lluis Permanyer, "Barcelona Art Nouveau"
Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications (October 1, 1999) | ISBN: 0847822206 | DjVu | 14 Mb | 167 pages

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File DJVU (.djvu)

the reader for this format is WinDjView for windows user or MacDjView for Mac user.

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Architecture Sustainable Building Design

Architecture Sustainable Building Design

PDF | 100 Pages | 8.95 MB | ISBN 0471486604
Publisher: Tokyo University Press 2005

The 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference in Tokyo, Student Session 23-29 September 2005, Tokyo, Japan, with 95 project from all the world - very interesting work.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/249283053/Architecture.Sustainable.Building.Design.rar.html

Architecture in Europe Since 1968: Memory and Invention

Winner of an American Institute of Architects Award, this book surveys twenty years of a period characterized by conflict between tradition and invention, modern and anti-modern, and by an abundance of disparate design solutions. The epoch begins with the completion in 1972 of the first commissions embodying the ideas that sprang out of the events of 1968--a year when student unrest and political upheaval crystallized new intellectual and cultural attitudes. It ends in the early 1990s, a time when both Modernism and earlier traditions began to be reappraised. Over seventy-five projects are presented, with critical essays, photographs, drawings, site diagrams, and construction details. Extensive documentation includes background data on each project, bibliographies, and biographies, with contributions from Jean-Louis Cohen, Lucius Burckhardt, Fritz Neumeyer, and Peter Rice.

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http://rapidshare.com/files/249286608/Architecture-inEurope.rar.html