Tuesday, November 6, 2018

The Big Book of Lofts


The Big Book of Lofts
English | 2007 | Pages 381 | PDF | 31.10Mb

Featuring page after page of beautiful, dynamic, full-color images, "The Big Book of Lofts" presents 48 creative and cutting-edge projects, showcasing concepts that today's most innovative designers have applied to lofts around the globe. 

From modern apartment complexes to traditional, family-sized spaces, this book presents a variety of projects involving one unit and single-family dwellings that are sure to catch the eye of any reader.

In depicting creative and personalized converted spaces, hip loft developments, and sophisticated loft houses, "The Big Book of Lofts" explores not only fresh concepts, but also the idea that even small spaces can have endless design possibilities.


The Architecture of Government: Rethinking Political Decentralization


The Architecture of Government: Rethinking Political Decentralization
 English | July 2, 2007 | 348 pages | PDF | 2 MB

Since the days of Montesquieu and Jefferson, political decentralization has been seen as a force for better government and economic performance. It is thought to bring government 'closer to the people', nurture civic virtue, protect liberty, exploit local information, stimulate policy innovation, and alleviate ethnic tensions.

 Inspired by such arguments, and generously funded by the major development agencies, countries across the globe have been racing to devolve power to local governments. This book re-examines the arguments that underlie the modern faith in decentralization. 

Using logical analysis and formal modeling, and appealing to numerous examples, it shows that most are based on vague intuitions or partial views that do not withstand scrutiny. A review of empirical studies of decentralization finds these as inconclusive and mutually contradictory as the theories they set out to test.


Symbolic Landscapes


Symbolic Landscapes
2009 | 420 Pages | PDF | 8 MB


Symbolic Landscapes presents a definitive collection of landscape/place studies that explores symbolic, cultural levels of geographical meanings. Essays written by philosophers, geographers, architects, social scientists, art historians, and literati, bring specific modes of expertise and perspectives to this transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary study of the symbolic level human existential spatiality. 

Placing emphasis on the pre-cognitive genesis of symbolic meaning, as well as embodied, experiential (lived) geography, the volume offers a fresh, quasi-phenomenological approach. The editors articulate the epistemological doctrine that perception and imagination form a continuum in which both are always implicated as complements. 

This approach makes a case for the interrelation of the geography of perception and the geography of imagination, which means that human/cultural geography offers only an abstraction if indeed an aesthetic geography is constituted merely as a sub-field. 

Human/cultural geography can only approach spatial reality through recognizing the intimate interrelative dialectic between the imaginative and perceptual meanings of our landscapes/place-worlds.

 This volume reinvigorates the importance of the topic of symbolism in human/cultural geography, landscape studies, philosophy of place, architecture and planning, and will stand among the classics in the field.


Sustainable Retail Development: New Success Strategies


Sustainable Retail Development: New Success Strategies
2009 | 215 Pages | PDF | 7 MB


Sustainable Retail Development, addresses the emerging issue of green retail buildings and retail development that will grow significantly in importance over the next half-decade, a trend seen throughout the developed world. 

This volume is a practical and comprehensive guide to greening retail real estate, including green building and marketing strategies, corporate sustainability programs and features a 10-point “action program” for greening any retail real estate portfolio.

Sustainable Retail Development, should be essential reading for professionals in design, construction and operations of shopping centers and retail stores. Well illustrated, this volume features over 30 green retail developments from North America, Europe, South America, Asia and Australia, as well as interviews with 25 leading industry experts.


Sustainable Cities for the Third Millennium: The Odyssey of Urban Excellence


Sustainable Cities for the Third Millennium: The Odyssey of Urban Excellence
2010 | 233 pages | PDF | 4 MB

This book offers a 360 degree view of the challenges facing cities at the dawn of the millennium in terms of growth, governance, institutions and infrastructures, environmental well-being, social integration, science, culture and the arts, urban renaissance and planning, local democracy and citizenship. One year afte the crisis that started in 2008, the book presents responses to overcome the crisis of values and engage in a sustainability path from European and world cities.

Cities are propellers of sustainable growth, theatres of values, schools of skills and abilities, beacons of culture and temples of citizen duties and rights. Aristotle called them “built politics”, places which have the noble aim to offer citizens a fulfilling and worthy life. Cities have always been beehives of cross-fertilised creativity, the only places where people and resources congregate at a point beyond which synergetic effects become more important than the simply additive ones. 

The book offers a 360° view of the challenges facing cities at the dawn of the millennium in terms of growth, governance, environmental well-being, social inclusion, science, culture and the arts, urban renaissance and planning. One year after the crisis that started in 2008, the book presents responses to overcome the crisis of values and engage in a sustainability path from European and world cities. It tries to distil useful messages for all cities wishing to adopt bolder and better policy initiatives.


Structure & Fabric


Structure & Fabric
2007 | Pages: 235 | PDF | 12,3 MB

A new edition of the best selling title in the prestigious Mitchell's Building Series. This book is the first of a two volume set which provides a complete and thorough treatment of the principles and techniques used in the design and construction of a building. 

This new edition has been thoroughly updated to bring it into line with recent changes in British Standards and developments in construction techniques while retaining the comprehensive approach for which it is renowned.


Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Structural Steelwork: Design to Limit State Theory, Second Edition


Structural Steelwork: Design to Limit State Theory, Second Edition
 edition 1992 | PDF | 400 pages | 10.5 mb

For this second edition, the book has been updated to comply with the recently revised code of practice for hot-rolled sections. In addition, a new chapter on portal design has been included to cover this very important type of single-storey structure.

Both elastic and plastic methods are given.
This book will continue to provide an indispensable guide for students of structural and civil engineering and for engineers and designers in industry.


Structural Foundation Manual for Low-Rise Buildings


Structural Foundation Manual for Low-Rise Buildings
November 1993 / 248 pages / English

This book is a practical guide to the design of foundations for housing and other low-rise buildings. Its emphasis is on practical, buildable solutions to foundation problems, especially on abnormal or poor ground. 

Builders, structural engineers and architects will find Structural Foundations Manual for Low-Rise Buildings an invaluable desk-side reference for foundation designs on these sites. 


Street Furniture


Street Furniture
2010 | 242 pages | PDF | 64.01 Mb

Street furniture is the secret star of urban outdoor design. Though rarely noticed at first glance, it significantly contributes towards the urban experience. Benches, fountains, street lamps, rubbish bins, post boxes, tourist information signs, bus stops as well as public toilets are items that reoccur in various urban spaces. 

Just like outstanding monuments and landmarks, they determine the identity of a square, street or town. This volume introduces 100 exceptional examples of contemporary street furniture, presenting both items that are one-of-a-kind as well as objects that are part of a product series.


Strategic Airport Planning


Strategic Airport Planning
pages: 468 | 1999 | PDF | 35,5 mb

The book will examine these pressures in order to identify changes that are required to the airport planning process. The major issues to be discussed are: forecasting in an uncertain world; airport market share; airline network choices; political settings and their consequences; economic justification and viability; environmental impacts and their mitigation; cooperative planning; and physical planning challenges. 

The issues will be illuminated by case studies of representative airport systems: intercontinental gateways, metropolitan multi airport system, provincial and regional airports and developing country systems. The final section will bring together suggestions for ways in which the industry can move forward to a green and profitable future with an appropriate provision of new capacity.


Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Spectacular Outdoor Living of Texas


Spectacular Outdoor Living of Texas
A Collection of Fine Design
2011 | 49 Pages | 15MB | True PDF