(Part 2) Best residential arhitecture books according to redditors
We found 211 Reddit comments discussing the best residential arhitecture books. We ranked the 107 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Just so you know, modern scholarship disagrees heavily with your assessment of what was more important. See for example this book.
I'm reading an interesting book The Making of Home: The 500-Year Story of How Our Houses Became Our Homes and it talks about how men & women's tasks/chores/jobs whatever weren't separated for a long time (mostly bc everyone just did everything) but once they were, they stopped considering what women did "work" (even if it was considered that when men did it") because obviously women weren't supposed to do ~real work~...
As /u/postpostmodern said: Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings is great. Here it is online: Japanese Homes And Their Surroundings - Online version
There is this course online: https://www.edx.org/course/four-facets-contemporary-japanese-utokyox-utokyo004x
This is also great: Jutakutokushu 2017:08 Special Issue: The Japanese House - Architecture and Life after 1945 (English and Japanese Edition)
This is also an interesting books: Kura, design and tradition of the Japanese storehouse
This is a pretty interesting blog post too: https://misfitsarchitecture.com/2015/06/25/the-japanese-machiya/
Fun fact: middle-class and upper-middle-class kids today are growing up in houses that are on average twice as large as the houses kids in the '50s and '60s grew up in.
Fwiw, both of my parents (and their siblings) had their own bedrooms as kids back in the 1920s and '30s.
If you're interested in a bit more history, this is a fun and informative read:
https://www.amazon.com/Home-Short-History-Witold-Rybczynski/dp/0140102310/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Home%3A+A+Short+History+of+an+Idea&qid=1571242917&sr=8-1
Wow! I had the exact same sentiment when I was 20. I'm now 30, let me give you a summary of how things developed :)
First off, I created a spreadsheet to calculate the effect of adding more people to the effort. Turns out, adding even one person is hugely helpful. There's just one (fairly major) downside: Zoning laws will generally only allow you to build one house on a property, so these people need to get along well enough to live together. Easy to do at age 20, much harder to do as everyone ages.
Then, what I needed was an accurate idea of how much $$ you will need to get started. In other words, why can't I just go NOW! This is where reality hits. I can post my budget(it's huge) to help, but here's a very high-level summary of the options:
Option 1 - Everything from scratch (takes a ton of upfront $$$)
Option 2 - mortgage (less upfront capital)
After looking at those options, I calculated how long it would take me to save up enough cash. I used my spreadsheet to motivate myself to save every last possible penny, and it worked!
I found many like-minded people, but the mechanics of us actually merging into a commune for this effort were difficult, so I am founding a commune of 2 (my wife and I).
As far as actually living on the land goes, find an Organic farm in Ontario and visit them(some have tours). You'll find that farming is a lot of work! It is very difficult to make a profit from it, however feeding yourself is quite doable. In Ontario, you'll want to get into preserving (fermentation/canning) to last through the winter.
TL;DR it's the journey not the destination, if you think you'll enjoy the journey, GO FOR IT.
Chronicles Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy's attempt at building a model urbanisation scheme for Egypt's working class in the the 1940s-1950s, it's written in a kind of diary-like fashion and describes everything from the building methods, interactions with the future occupants, the bureaucratic hellscape of mid-century Egypt, and Fathy's own salty ramblings about the state of urbanism in the MENA.
Describes the principles guiding the shape of the pre-colonial townscape of Tunis by relating it to legal codes and proceedings of the period and their justifications. it's written in an attempt to show their relevance to urban planning today as an alternative to current methods, but it also talks a lot about the perceptions of the inhabitants and how the interactions of a neighbourhood can be shaped by different urban forms.
Home: A Short History of an Idea
What is Architecture - Big fan of Shepheard's writing, especially the second book which focuses on landscape.
I was an americorps with habitat, its really a great way to get involved in construction. This is my go to book to understanding the fundamentals
http://www.amazon.com/Habitat-Humanity-Build-Revised-Updated/dp/B002KQ6FLU.
Robert Benedetto: Building an Archtop Guitar
George Frank: Adventures in Wood FInishing
Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking
George Nakashima: The Soul of a Tree
The Genius of Japanese Carpentry
All these b ooks have impressed me greatly, and taught me things.
A coffee table book about tree houses! Really cool and in multiple languages :D This one, but I don't think my Mom paid that much for it.
Sixties Design A fun romp through the sixties curvy day glow design bent
Eames: Beautiful DetailsDefinitive Eames Book.
Industrial Design Raymond Loewy My favorite all time designer.
Infrastructure by Brian Hayes Not Sexy, but necessary.
Industrial Design A-Z, Taschen Everything by the letters.
PreFab HousesGood, if dated a little on prefab potential
1000 Chairs Bible of chairs
Things Come Apart They destroyed it beautifully for you
Trespass Street Art photographed and credited
Type Vol. 2 The Taschen site-order version comes with a digital code for Hi-Res digital downloads of each plate. Not sure if the amazon version does. Still worth it either way.
D&AD 11 All the D&AD books are a real tight look at that years best and worst commercial work.
Logo Design 2 I'm sure this has been updated, but good enough and much cheaper now.
DDR Design I have a soft spot for bolshevik propaganda forced into design.
1000 Retail Graphics It is what it says it is, not much more. Good for brainstorming, but not really inspiring.
Thanks for the input! He loves reading and is sketching non stop in his free time. Architects are always working, aren't they? I thought about this,https://www.amazon.com/Cabins-Philip-Jodidio/dp/3836550261/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1448203475&sr=8-1&keywords=cabins+taschen&linkCode=sl1&tag=deskdeck-20&linkId=94b99fd8ad0bf2e43ee7992fa9162280
Well I studied in the UK, so not sure. However, I did go to Kuwait University one summer and I met with the head of the architecture department. I was spending time there and wanted to study traditional Islamic architecture, and I had a family contact to the department head. Anyway he was surprised and said sorry, we don't have any classes on that. So I asked.. 'well.. what do you teach here?' He responded: 'You know... Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright...'
So that's not a good sign.
Regarding architectural trends, my feeling is that the GCC states are going through a phase of tribal modern. My own theory is that in the 50s and 60s, Gulf nations were building in what can be called Islamic Classicism. Iraqi architect Mohamed Makkiya designed Kuwait's Grand Mosque. He used Abbasid and Moorish elements in the design, and he was extremely popular across the new oil-rich states. You see other examples, such as this Islamic centre in Doha. It's based on the 9th century Samarra Mosque in Iraq, and the Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo from the same century. In general, the architecture of the GCC states was a schizophrenic development - famous foreign architects building straightforward modernist cities and buildings, with local architects following more classical Islamic style.
After a few decades, these states began to exert more focus on their own sovereignty and heritage. So you start to see lots of buildings rejecting Islamic architecture, and basing their design on sand dunes, dhows, pearling, waves, and most of all, malqafs (wind towers), and crenellations. If you visit Kuwait or especially the UAE, you'll see wind towers on everything - shopping malls, garages, gas stations, bridges. Look at Souq Sharq in Kuwait. Of course these aren't real wind towers. Just decorative. In Oman, everything has crenellations. Because Oman is famous for its forts and fortified villages, very similar to Qasbahs and crenellated mosques in the Maghreb and Andalusia (because they were actual military structures). So now everything has to have crenellations. Qatar has gone the same route, just check out the new Ministry of Interior building. I'm not sure whether the famous Qatari forts are even Qatari, or whether they are Ottoman built.. but whatever. The point is that each state is exerting its own style evoking a patriotic national bedouin past. Kuwait's parliament building was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, and is one of the earliest examples of this in my opinion. It's based on the bedouin tent.
In terms of domestic architecture, traditional Arabic-Islamic design is non-existent. The building regulations and codes don't allow for the density needed for vernacular architecture of the region, and the masterplans that created the codes were all done by European, mainly British, architects.
In terms of sources, it depends on what your main interest is. I mainly used academic papers, because the topic of urban transformation of the GCC isn't well researched at all. There are a few interesting academics writing about the tragedy of urbanism in the GCC. Like Saleh al-Hathloul, Ashraf Salama, Yasser Mahgoub, and Fadl al-Buainain. I relied heavily on the Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, and the now defunct Mimar magazine and Muqarnas journal.
This is an excellent book by a Tunisian author, but it's very dry and academic, and the pictures all black and white, so not sure that's what you're looking for.
Arts and Crafts of the Islamic Lands is an excellent book. It covers geometry and calligraphy and has lots of instructional stuff. Not really about architecture.
Contemporary Architecture In the Arab States is a classic. It looks at the best MENA architecture from the 70s to the 90s. Doesn't talk about urbanism though.
The book I linked to previously, Kuwait Transformed, by Farah al-Nakib, is a great book, but focuses entirely on Kuwait.
This is an absolutely fantastic book, but I could only find it at the uni library. It's a collection of research papers from a conference in the 1980s. I even contacted the organization in SAudi to try to find out if they have any copies i could get, but predictably, didn't get a response.
If you're interested in regular traditional architecture of the MENA region, with some nice pictures (hand sketches), that covers each country, then this is absolutely fantastic.
I could go on forever with these sources, but I think mine may be too specific for your interest. Something like this or this cover general Islamic architecture well, but they focus always on mosques and monuments. That's why I really enjoy Raguette's book, because it focuses on domestic and vernacular architecture.
Sorry for the long rambly reply.
You may be interested in looking into the Journal of Light Construction (JLC) magazines, notably their field guides; Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
When I get the chance I will pull out my construction text book and get back to you with the title.
An overnight bag, for weekend trips.
This coffee table book, to inspire future travels.
A luxurious sleep mask, for restful nights.
This shower oil, which is great for dry winter skin.
This relaxing and ambrosial aromatherapy diffuser.
I'd be happy to provide more suggestions if these seem a little off :)
Perhaps this book would help you out?
https://www.amazon.com/What-Japanese-Architecture-Survey-Traditional/dp/4770019920
There are quite a few books about Japanese culture out there. But, I prefer this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Japanese-Society-Yoshio-Sugimoto/dp/1107626676/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526214731&sr=1-1&keywords=sugimoto+japanese
I think some subtle stuff is some badass coffee table books. One of my favorites are the Dream Home book series. You can get one for the state you live in. Example here (Michigan)
At Home by Bill Bryson
Grey's talked about other books of his, and this is full of odd stories about how certain domestic things we take for granted arrived at their modern form.
Congrats on your house, and good luck renovating! Here are some resources I found that I hope will help:
I'd recommend the book "Extreme Simplicity" by Christoper Nyerges.
http://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Simplicity-Homesteading-Christopher-Nyerges/dp/1890132365/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319620686&sr=8-1
He talks about the transformation his house in LA undertook at the helm of he and his wife. Wild edibles, chickens, fruit trees, a wood fired hot bat tub. One of the best books onthe subject.