The Barefoot Architect

A former UN worker and prominent architect, Johan van Lengen has seen firsthand the desperate need for a "greener" approach to housing in impoverished tropical climates. This comprehensive book clearly explains every aspect of this endeavor, includingdesign (siting, orientation, climate consideration), materials (sisal, cactus, bamboo, earth), and implementation. The author emphasizes throughout the book what is inexpensive and sustainable. Included are sections discussing urban planning, small-scale energy production, cleaning and storing drinking water, and dealing with septic waste, and all information is applied to three distinct tropical regions: humid areas, temporate areas, and desert climates. Hundreds of explanatory drawings by van Lengen allow even novice builders to get started."

Illustrates stretching exercises that can be done at the office to increase flexibility, relieve sore muscles, combat neck and back pain, prevent carpal tunnel syndrome, and reduce stress.

Shelter is many things - a visually dynamic, oversized compendium of organic architecture past and present; a how-to book that includes over 1,250 illustrations; and a Whole Earth Catalog-type sourcebook for living in harmony with the earth by using every conceivable material. First published in 1973, Shelter remains a source of inspiration and invention. Including the nuts-and-bolts aspects of building, the book covers such topics as dwellings from Iron Age huts to Bedouin tents to Togo's tin-and-thatch houses; nomadic shelters from tipis to "housecars"; and domes, dome cities, sod iglus, and even treehouses. The authors recount personal stories about alternative dwellings that illustrate sensible solutions to problems associated with using materials found in the environment - with fascinating, often surprising results.

Publisher description

Each of the groups that has held political power in Vienna over the past three centuries has left its mark on the city's history, institutions, and architecture. In Landscape and Power in Vienna, Robert Rotenberg shows how such groups--monarchists and republicans, fascists and socialists--also influenced another, equally vital aspect of urban identity in this central European metropolis: the landscape. Working as both a historian and an ethnographer, Rotenberg examines the relationship among human experience, landscape design, and the ideas that design was meant to represent. Understanding this relationship, Rotenberg explains, makes it possible to examine a Viennese garden today and deduce the ideology of those who planted it. From "Gardens of Order" and "Gardens of Liberty," to "Gardens of Reaction" and "Gardens of Renewal," the chapters of Landscape and Power in Vienna show how leaders and citizens shared ideas about landscape emerge in the kinds of gardens they produce. "Landscape itself is a language," Rotenberg concludes. "People learn the meanings of landscape in a city from the landscape itself."

If you’ve ever dreamt of designing and building your own home, this book is for you. Becoming a ‘self-builder’ doesn’t necessarily mean learning to build a house physically from scratch. Anyone can be a self-builder – you can do so without ever having to lay a brick yourself. Self-built homes can also be more individual, better designed and more economical than buying from a developer. This book is designed for homeowners and self-builders, whether aspiring or on the brink of starting a project. It provides a jargon-free, step-by-step guide to the process of designing and building your own home, distilling all of the practical information needed to make your dream house a reality. Carefully crafted to offer friendly, easy-to-understand practical guidance and packed with watch points, hints and tips, it also highlights the potential pitfalls and suggests ways of avoiding them. Including indications of costs and timescales, Self-build demystifies the process of budgeting, finding a site, gaining planning permission, designing your home and all of the surrounding issues to do with sustainability, planning, regulations, procurement and the use of building contracts. Beautifully illustrated with over 230-colour photos, diagrams and plans, it provides all the inspiration and ideas you need to bring your own project to life. Featured houses include: Amphibious House by Baca Architects Corten Courtyard House by Barefoot Architects Haringey Brick House by Satish Jassal Architects Shawm House by Mawson Kerr Architects Sussex House by Wilkinson King Architects The Pocket House by Tikari Works Architects.

Pack this one in your beach bag and get ready for nonstop fun (Susan Mallery) in the book that kicks off New York Times bestselling author Roxanne St. Claire's beloved Barefoot Bay series! When a hurricane roars through Lacey Armstrong's home on the coast of Barefoot Bay, she decides all that remains in the rubble is opportunity. A new hotel is just what Mimosa Key needs, and Lacey and her teenage daughter are due for a fresh start. And nothing, especially not a hot, younger architect, is going to distract Lacey from finally making her dreams a reality. Love has already cost Clay Walker everything. And if he's going to have any chance of picking up the pieces of his life, he needs the job as Lacey Armstrong's architect. What's not in the plans is falling for the headstrong beauty. Her vision of the future is more appealing than anything he could have ever drafted for himself. Will Clay's designs on Lacey's heart be more than she can handle, or will she trust him to build something that will last forever?