Constructing Architecture / Materials, Processes, Structures, a Handbook
Andrea Deplazes
With over 1200 illustrations, plans, and detail drawings, Constructing Architecture is a veritable encyclopedia for anyone interested in the essential technical information needed for building and construction, regardless of design style. This lavish but systematically organized book is divided into sections on materials, building components, building types, case studies, and a catalog of components, all drawn to a common scale, providing everything the professional or the student might need to transform their designs into built projects.

Paperback / 636 pages / text English / 2005

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Neufert / Architects' Data, Third edition
Ernst Neufert, Peter Neufert, Bousmaha Baiche en Nicholas Walliman
This is the third English language edition of a reference in which architects Ernst and Peter Neufert provide core information needed to form a framework for the detailed planning of any building project. Organized largely by building type, and containing about 6000 diagrams, it contains a mass of data on spatial requirements as well as planning criteria and considerations of function and siting. Most illustrations are dimensioned and each building type includes plans, sections, site layouts and design details. New sections include coverage of building components, services, heating, lighting, thermal and sound insulation, fire protection, and designing for the disabled.

Paperback / 636 pages / text English / 2002

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Construction Materials Manual
Hegger, Auch-Scwelk, Fuchs, Rosenkranz
Until now, the few existing systematic texts on construction materials have primarily been directed at building engineers. An overview for architects, which also considers the importance of construction materials in the sensory perception of architecture - including tactile qualities, smell, color, and surface structure - has not been available. With the publication of the Construction Materials Manual, all that has changed.
As a basic work aimed equally at the questions and perspectives of architects and building engineers, it will bring together all of the above-mentioned viewpoints. It addresses fundamental questions of sustainability, including life-span, environmental impact and material cycles, while also presenting material innovations. All of the principal conventional and innovative construction materials are comprehensively documented, with attention to their production, manufacture, fabrication, treatment, surfaces, connections and characteristics.
International examples help to illustrate their use in architecture, where a building's appearance is often defined by a single material. Thus, the Construction Materials Manual will support the daily work of architects and engineers in the choice of construction materials in a comprehensive and at the same time vivid and stimulating manner.

Hardcover / 280 pages / text English / 2006

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In Detail: Building Skins / new enlarged edition
Christian Schittich, Werner Lang, Roland Krippner
The external facades of a building are more than a protective mantle, or an intelligent skin regulating temperature and light, they also determine its very appearance. By unusual choices of materials and the use of complex technology, facades have become increasingly significant in recent years. External surfaces are being perceived as an integral part of the building and are therefore being designed as such. This volume focuses on the wide-ranging aspects of facade design, from the selection and use of materials to the advanced technical possibilities now open to the architect. A wide array of carefully selected international examples show the theory in the practice. All plans, details, and large scale sections of the facades have been researched with the high degree of competence typical of the editorial staff from the review Detail. Expert authors provide the essential information needed to plan and design facades and elucidate on the latest developments in technology and materials.

Hardcover / 196 pages / text English / 2006

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Materials for Architectural Design
Victoria Ballard Bell, Patrick Rand
In architectural education the study of materials and the study of design are often treated as separate areas of discourse, when in reality the two are utterly intertwined. The choice of construction materials affects the look and feel of built form, while inspired design sense injects life into a buildings ingredients. This book is aimed at students of architecture and young practising architects. Through its detailed descriptions of glass, concrete, wood, metals and plastics - covering their unique properties, histories and various forms - the book lays the educational foundation for any aspiring architect. Each section features 10-12 case studies including plans, sections, elevations and details, together with colour photographs illustrating the inspired and widely varied ways in which these materials can be applied. Among the case studies are works by Steven Holl, Shigeru Ban, Rural Studio, Campo Baeza, Arets and many others.

Paperback / 288 pages / text English / 2006

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Organic Architecture / The Other Modernism
Alan Hess
Surveying over 125 years, this book traces the trends of organic architecture, architecture that interprets a building's design, structure, use and life as an organic thing. Showcasing the work of architects such as Louis Sullivan, Frank Furness, Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff, as well as lesser known architects who have embraced a fresh style that used modern techniques blended with an ageless natural landscape. Unexpectedly organic design reflects an exuberant, opulent and at times extravagant complexity of line, form, texture, structure and colour. This book highlights the fact that less is not necessarily more in Organic design.

Hardcover / 275 pages / text English / 2006

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Transmaterial / A Catalogue of Materials that Redefine Our Physical Environment
Blaine Brownell
Another materials catalogue, this one scores points for the breadth of its range. The book is split into ten sections, some of which will be fairly familiar (concrete, metal, glass), though none the worse for that, but which also include light (such examples as an interactive textile sensor wall panel) and digital (computer-controlled surface manipulation). The 200-odd entries include photos, explanatory text, technical spec and details of where to get hold of the product or process concerned.

Paperback / 273 pages / text English / 2006

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Transmaterial 2 / A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical Environment
Blaine Brownell
As the speed of technological progress continues to accelerate, innovation threatens to outpace architects' and designers' working knowledge of materials thereby limiting their applicability. In order to stay at the cutting edge of design, a knowledge of the uses, properties, and sources of new materials is essential. A sequel to the critically acclaimed and best-selling book Transmaterial, Transmaterial 2 is a clear, concise, accessible, and carefully edited resource that provides information about the latest and most intriguing materials commercially available.
Based on a compilation of Blaine Brownell's "product of the week" electronic journal, Transmaterial 2 includes more than two hundred materials and is indexed in multiple ways for maximum convenience. An excellent ideas generator Transmaterial 2 is an indispensable tool for any architect or designer looking to keep up with the current trends in the field of materials.

Paperback / 248 pages / text English / March 2008

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Spacecraft 2. More Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts
Robert Klanten, Lukas Feireiss
Like its successful predecessor, Spacecraft 2 showcases international projects by architects, artists and designers that meet the changing spatial needs of our modern lifestyles and that are simultaneously expanding our current understanding of architecture. This sumptuous volume further documents a dynamic range of ephemeral structures such as pavilions, art projects and exhibition spaces as well as transient architecture including mobile habitats, and vacations homes that inconspicuously adapt to their natural or urban environments.

Hardcover / 280 page's / text English / February 2009
Published in 2007 Spacecraft. Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts

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Rooftop Architecture / Building on an elevated surface
Ed Melet, Eric Vreedenburgh
The land in big cities has be used more intensively, but the possibilities are limited. One of the leading options for the future is the use of the flat roofs of residential buildings and office blocks as a building site. Rooftop buildings can intensify the existing city, inject it with new vitality and break through the monofunctionality of a neighbourhood.
So far the exploitation of rooftop space has been incidental. This book analyses and describes the opportunities for realizing projects of this kind, as well as the potential difficulties, using interesting examples of construction on top of existing buildings in the Netherlands and abroad. It will therefore be influential in establishing a benchmark for architecture and urban planning that is a necessity if rooftop architecture is to have a serious future.

Paperback / 208 pages / text English / 2005

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Floor Plan Manual: Housing
Friederike Schneider
The updated and extended edition of the classic Floor Plan Atlas: Housing.
The Housing Floor Plan Atlas, for 10 years the bestseller among reference works, has lost none of its actuality. ground floor planning and living space requirements have changed little over the past decade, but the selected case-studies and their graphic presentation have been updated to satisfy the demands of today's audience.
This new edition features some 35 new examples by: Ben van Berkel; Caruso St. John; Kazujo Sejima; MVRDV and other prominent modern architects, as well as adding classic case-studies by for example Mies van der Rohe; Louis I. Kahn; Adolf Loos; Richard Neutra e.a.

Paperback / 320 pages / text English and German / 2004

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Key Houses of the 20th Century / Plans, Sections and Elevations
Colin Davies
Featuring over 100 of the most significant and influential houses of the twentieth century, this book includes classic works by such seminal architects as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe and Alvar Aalto, as well as those by more recent masters, such as Tadao Ando, Rem Koolhaas and Glen Murcutt. For each of the houses included there are numerous, accurate scale plans showing each floor, together with elevations, sections and site plans where appropriate. All of these have been specially drawn for this book and are based on the most upto-date information and sources. There is also a concise text explaining the significant architectural features of the building and the influences it shows or generated, together with colour images. Cross-references to other buildings in the book highlight the various connections between these key houses. The quality and number of the line drawings, together with the authoritative text and images, allow all the buildings to be understood in detail.

Paperback / 240 pages / text English / 2006

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The Intermediate Size / A handbook for collective dwellings
Like Bijlsma, Jochem Groenland
Recent shifts in housing development demand an evaluation of existing models of parceling. The growing diversity of living arrangements calls for a greater variety of housing typologies. The intermediate Size shifts the focus from individual plots and separate dwellings to shared plots and muliti-family dwellings, thereby challenging the existing relationship between architecture and urban planning. The intermediate Size is a reference work and a handbook in one.

Hardcover / 216 pages / text English and Dutch / 2006

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Density Projects. 36 New concepts on collective housing
Aurora Fernandez Per, Javier Arpa
Presented here are recent collective housing projects - in phase of development or execution through 2007 - that are characterised by their use of densification models in combination with good architecture. Many of the projects incorporate other uses, alongside residential ones in their programmes. This contributes both to density and intensity of use in respective environments, in turn creating new urban nuclei and providing a solution to strained resources. Fully illustrated with plans, diagrams and elevations, ‘Density Projects' includes works from the likes of; BIG, Jean Nouvel, Kohn Pedersen Fox, MGM, No.MAD, Stephen Holl, Studio Gang Architects and VMX architects.

Paperback / 400 pages / text English, Spanish / 2008

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a + t Density condensed edition / New Collective Housing
Javier Mozas, Aurora Fernandez Per
Condensed version of an earlier publication first released in 2004, but redesigned to make consultation and handling easier. This standard work contains all the projects and comparative indicators of the earlier edition, retaining its relevance as a reference on mass housing and urban planning. The architecture magazine a+t put together in a book its four issues on Density and mass housing, revised and extended with new projects.
The selection includes over 60 buildings and ten executed urban plans. The publication takes on the character of an accessible manual: the projects are presented in a uniform manner and the data offered can be easily compared. The monograph is structured according to Density (number of dwellings per hectare), always however taking into account the different ways of occupying land and the new factors bearing on the design of collective housing.
The quality and quantity of the projects selected and the way they are presented over 300 photos including overall plans, floor plans of apartments, and working details make this manual a first major worldwide revision of mass housing, one tackled through a reflection on density.
A detailed, meticulously elaborated work based on studies on housing carried out in the past five years on an international scale.
Indexes organized by author, formal result, and manner of occupying land.
An indispensable reference for the architect committed to his times and for anyone interested in the new tendencies of mass housing

Paperback / 448 pages / text English and Spanish / 2006

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The Architecture of Hospitals
Cor Wagenaar (ed.), Abram de Swaan, Stephen Verderber, Charles Jencks, Aaron Betsky, Roger Ulrich a.o.
Architecture affects people. The architecture of hospitals contributes to the well-being and recovery of patients. This bold proposition dates back to the late 18th century, and has been a recurring theme in the functional development of hospital architecture ever since. The most recent manifestation of this was the phenomenon of 'Evidence-Based Design', which originated in the USA. This methodology compares the effects of various spatial factors and provided indisputable evidence that architecture does indeed work for the first time. The positive influence of architecture is one of the two cornerstones of The Architecture of Hospitals. The other is architecture as an historical discipline with a wide-ranging cultural dimension. The hospital, being a public and representative building with a special societal function, is the ideal vehicle to express this cultural dimension. From French and German examples it seems that good architecture can, moreover, contribute to an agreeable, orderly and well maintained environment, which perhaps has a greater impact on the functioning of the hospital than the effects of Evidence-Based Design.
Architecture as architecture and as medicine is the theme of The Architecture of Hospitals. Partially based on a project of the same name initiated by the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), which included various conferences, studios and workshops, the book bears no resemblance to the standard bundle of conference proceedings. Instead it is a richly illustrated publication which is constructed around five themes: culture, healthcare concepts, Evidence-Based Design, technology and country-specific presentations. The book includes a selection of new, ground-breaking designs interspersed with a number of in-depth historical studies.

Paperback / 560 pages / text English / 2006

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