Best building architecture books according to redditors
We found 626 Reddit comments discussing the best building architecture books. We ranked the 325 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 626 Reddit comments discussing the best building architecture books. We ranked the 325 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
For the first two questions, buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Do-Yourself-Housebuilding-Complete-Handbook/dp/0806904240
For the last question, these PDFs may help:
https://brightnest-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/guides/BrightNest_Homeowners_Guide.pdf
http://content.angieslist.com/PDF/eBookFinal.pdf
http://www.greenbuildermedia.com/hubfs/Microsite_NV_Energy/Homeowners_guide/Homeowner's%20Guide-NV%20Energy-6.pdf
And this one:
http://homeowners.allstateonline.com/?cid=DML-HomeownerSurvival-151118
The History of Hell, by Alice Turner, was a great read for me. However, it goes into interpretations and evolution of our perceptions of Hell from every religion, not just the Abrahamic religions.
Correct.
For those with any interest in getting architectural details right when you're DIY'ing, I cannot recommend this book enough. I bought 10 years ago and it's hands down my favorite/ most recommended reference ever.
Source:
I'm a contractor, the product of an interior designer mom and a lumber/building supplies wholesaler dad. Grew up with Arch Digest, Fine Homebuilding, JLC, and a million other design & home improvement publications littering the house.
I'm not a Christian but I used to be and I still like to read Christian/Jewish history, I'm not sure why. Here's some interesting stuff regarding Christian eschatology.
Judaism had very little to say about any afterlife before the influence of the Greeks. Judaism was a religion for the here-and-now. It helped people deal with the vicissitudes of life in a harsh world. Under the Hasmonian Kings, following Alexander's conquering of the Babylonians that allowed Jews to return to their homeland, Greek ideas influenced Judaism. Prior to that, it was only really good people (like Elijah) who ascended to Heaven and really bad people (like the rich man who wouldn't let the beggar eat scraps from his table) that went to the lake of fire. Also, there was nothing to indicate that it was eternal. Everybody else remained dead until the Messiah would come and bring the Kingdom of God to the Earth. Source
Hell plays a much more central role in Christianity, obviously, since by that time it had been well established. But even in Christianity, Hell didn't always play the role it does today. Part of the reason that Hell became so big in Christianity is that it played well with poor people. Poor communities did not always have access to ordained priests (in early to mid second millennium). So local holy men, for lack of a better phrase, would adopt the role. They relied, however, on their charisma and ability to draw a crowd. Instead of a usual sermon, there were often "morality plays," which are just what you might imagine: a play with a Christian moral. Well the ones about Satan and Hell were a massive draw. Costumes for the Devil were often very scary (employing bear skins, horns, etc). It was basically an early horror film. Some of these would travel as well. The result was that fire and brimstone preaching got an early and strong foothold in the popular imagination, particularly among that of poor people. Source
Bill Bryson's book At Home: A Short History of Private Life is another good read that covers these relationships, along with an incredibly interesting history of other aspects of day-to-day life. I very much recommended it.
Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life covers this in great depth. Highly recommended reading.
In this exact order:
If you want to dive in deeper in to correct housing elements I would suggest finding a copy of Get Your House Right. Once you read that book you realize how poorly some houses are designed, and how easy it would be to fix.
https://www.amazon.com/Get-Your-House-Right-Architectural/dp/1402791038
Much of the stuff the book highlights is visually wrong, but it goes into detail why it is wrong, and how to correct.
Love this! I am actually doing a personal challenge where I am building each type of house.
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This is another great resource, goes in depth!
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-American-Houses-Revised/dp/0375710825
Sounds like what you want is Virginia Savage McAlester's book A Field Guide to American Houses.
She walks you through each style that is found in the US, explains the key features of each and give well drawn diagrams and photographic examples of each. Really well done.
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-American-Houses-Revised/dp/0375710825
That wasn't uninspired, you just took inspiration from old European manor homes! Hallways are for servants!
Seriously though, they were. The concept of connecting hallways was so servants could move unseen through the house and just appear where they were needed. No need for the nobs to see the peons. If you're interested, I highly suggest At Home, by Bill Bryson, a room-by-room historical perspective over the evolution of a western home.
Also, the majority of America (and the world) is untrained in the rules of classical architecture. Including me! But I ended up working in historic preservation/documentation, so that's given me enough on-the-job experience to understand what is "correct" and what isn't.
One of my favorite books in this vein is Get Your House Right by Marianne Cusato. She went through (what I understand to be) the near-fanatically Classicist architecture program at Notre Dame, and it really shows. It has some spot-on illustrations, if a bit rigid in philosophy.
Look at the American Institute of Architecture Guide to New York City. That should cover, actually, all of them, except for anything built in the past few years.
There's a book called Building Construction Illustrated that should get you started.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0470087811/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
I am going to suggest two things:
(1) You need to know how things work, and why they work the way they do. So you need a Bible for this house. I recommend this book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0806904240/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=
Do-It-Yourself Housebuilding: The Complete Handbook by George Nash. At 700 pages, it's a beast. Here is what one reviewer has to say:
It has chapters on everything, starting with selecting a site and house plan and ending with landscaping. There are plenty of drawings, charts and photographs to illustrate the topics. For example there are almost three pages of drawings of various types of electrical boxes and their installation. The dialog is clear and easy to understand. You can learn why you need to do something, not just how to do it.
The chapter about stairs describes rise and run and how to figure out how to build and place stairs. Again there are lots of diagrams showing things like how to measure angles on stringers accurately and how to get the tread level.
Each chapter covers various types of building practices and materials and isn't limited to any particular style. For instance the roofing chapter covers asphalt shingles, wood shingles and shakes, concrete and clay tiles, and even what I was interested in - tin.
Not only are there pictures of how to do things correctly, but there are occasional shots of owner-builder mistakes. It helps to know what not to do as well as what to do.
If it's not covered in this book, there's a bibliography in the back with a section for each chapter.
This is perfect for your new/old house.
(2) If you are concerned about taking something back apart later, use screws in just about every phase of renovation. They are your friend. They hold everything together, yet you can take it back apart with ease.
And this is just me. You are going to make mistakes, and you are going to waste money. That is the nature of home renovation. But as you get better at this, those will become fewer and fewer.
It's not a crime to mess up now and then. It is only a crime if you cannot learn from those mistakes. And trust me on this; your time, and your money, are great motivators to learn and remember all that you can.
Best of luck to you guys. Take lots of pictures. This is one hell of a journey you are on, and it deserves to be documented. One day you'll look on those pictures and laugh, telling each other "Remember when it looked like THAT?!".
Okay so
I'll divide this into a few sections, assuming you can only speak English and want books in a somewhat reasonable price range.
Though if you're at uni or have access to a uni library: make the most of it.
Oh yeah before I forget, as a general rule, if you're reading an explanation or exploration of a culture's beliefs or stories, find something written by someone who comes from the actual culture if you can. It's always best as a foreigner to have your first insight being from someone who's grown up with it. Avoid people like Alan Watts like the fucking plague. Though of course actual academics on the mythology and religion generally write quite well about them.
First up, Shintoism.
The perfect primer for Japanese mythology is the oldest book extant in Japan's history: the Kojiki. In English, you really cannot go past the Philippi translation. It is incredibly comprehensive with cross referencing and explaining basically any term you could want to know. Philippi explains the history of the book, the intracies of the language involved, and competing theories regarding contentious points alongside with the translation. The one downside here is that it's rather pricey. The book is out of print due to copyright issues, so you can only really get it for around $100 at the lowest. Still, it's a pretty great resource. A word of warning though, there are a lot of boring chapters in the Kojiki if you're interested in myths. Part of the reason why the Kojiki and the Nihongi were commissioned at the time was to legitimise imperial rule, so you have a lot of chapters that just talk about lineage, connecting the Imperial family back to Amaterasu. "Emperor Steve was born in this year, had six kids with three wives and died. He was succeeded by Emperor Greg." Stuff like that.
If you want something that isn't a primary text and is a little more accessible, The Kami Way is supposed to be quite good. It's very cheap, written by two academics (one from Japan one from the West), and quite short, making it easy to dive into. The one downside is that it's a little old, so its scholarship might not be quite as current as some other books.
Next up, Hinduism.
Hinduism is fucking terrifying to tackle because there is just so much stuff on it. Keep in mind that Hinduism is more a collection of belief systems than one unified belief system, keep in mind that it has an incredibly well preserved written and oral history, keep in mind that it's an offshoot of one of the oldest attested religions on Earth... there's a lot here.
and then you have the five hundred books written by western people about the TRUE way to Awaken Your Chakras
Now two of the most important texts here are the Rig Veda and the Upanishads. The Rig Veda is one of the oldest religious texts in the world, a collection of religious hymns. Until recently, there was no good full translation into English. Sure you can find one on the Sacred Texts website but... it's crap from 19th century England. Scholarship was not the same then as it is now. However, in 2014, an absolutely fantastic resource was completed. It is the full Rig Veda, unabridged, with commentary on every single one of over a thousand hymns. The poetry sings, the commentary is insightful... and it costs 400 american dollars all up. I only got to read these through my university library.
There's a few good Upanishad translations for cheap though. A lot shorter too, normally clocking it at only around 500 pages. I picked one up from Oxford World's Classics. This is pretty essential if you want to understand what the Brahman concept from Digital Devil Saga actually is.
In terms of a general introduction though, probably this book is the best. It's a pretty thorough overview that covers the history of Hinduism from ancient times to today, the mythology of it, etc.
Next, Buddhism.
Buddhism has a similar problem to Hinduism in terms of scope, though somewhat less pronounced, as Buddhism is genuinely just one belief system, separated into sects that are much more comparable to Christianity's variations. You do probably get even more "Namaste Bro" type people with Buddism than you do Hinduism though.
My knowledge here isn't as much up to scratch though, as up til now I've read more about the practice and history of Buddhism as opposed to going in depth about the mythology and cosmology of it all, which I only really know on a very superficial level. I'm trying to change that right now though; it's super interesting to learn what Hindu gods became in the Buddhist belief system, and how they evolved further upon reaching Japan.
If you're looking more into the mythology side of things, don't read something like the Dhammpada, which is a sayings text. Of course it's interconnected, but you'll probably want something a bit more direct.
I'd recommend again going to an academic text rather than straight into the three baskets. And in this case, I'd recommend this book, which I picked up purely because of a certain coincidence and have found very interesting. By framing it around the cosmology of Buddhism, this book naturally leads into talking about Buddhist deities, and other things you're more likely to be interested in, without skimping on explanation about how this connects to the Buddhist belief system.
Finally, Taoism
all i can recommend you here is the tao te ching and the zhuangzi, get them with a good commentary, i don't know enough about other texts that explain taoism to recommend any
That's about what I'd recommend. If anyone wants to suggest any improvements to this list please do!
I'm no expert, but I do have a copy of A Field Guide of American Houses. So with that caveat, my guess is that this is a modern (read: millennium mansion) interpretation of the classical Georgian style house with a center-gabled roof.
> Identifying Features: Paneled front door, usually centered and capped by an elaborate decorative crown (entablature) supported by decorative pilasters (flattened columns); usually with a row of small rectangular panes of glass beneath the crown, either within the door or in a transom just above; cornice usually emphasized by decorative moldings, most commonly with tooth-like dentils; windows with double-hung sashes having many small panes (most commonly nine or twelve panes per sash) separated by thick wooden muntins; windows aligned horizontally and vertically in symmetrical rows, never in adjacent pairs, usually five-ranked on front facade, less commonly three-or seven-ranked.
It's always been like this... I think someone should take the Field Guide to American Houses and create a Style Flowchart, like a Taxonmy Diagram, and we can link to it in the sidebar. 99% of the time the house has no style, and falls into the category of "Contractor's Choice".
In addition to his technical writing Larry wrote a memoir shortly before his passing.
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600854028/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2
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I found it to be a good read.
pick up any francis ching book. they are wonderfully illustrated and quite helpful.
The first thing to keep in mind that is that Shinto is not similar to the Western sense of a 'religion' at all. There is not good versus evil or right and wrong. It evolved from the patchwork of historic folk rituals of the local communities concerned with bringing about a good harvest or warding off natural disasters. There isn't a Shinto 'Bible' to refer to and there isn't much in the way of 'faith' in something, and certainly no concepts of salvation or a heaven.
The longstanding classic text for Westerners is Shinto: The Kami Way by Prof. Sokyo Ono. This book has been around a long time and is somewhat dry, but it goes through lots of basic definitions and concepts.
If you want to understand the mythology of the kami behind Shinto, find a summarized version of the first few chapters of the Kojiki. This is the Japanese creation myth which also sets up the primary high kami (Izanagi, Izanami, Ookuni-nushi, Susano'o, Amaterasu). Wikipedia has a pretty decent summary, but if you really want to bore yourself, the full original Basil Hall Chamberlain translation from 100+ years ago is online.
More than anything, I personally recommend A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine by Prof. John Nelson. It is an excellent balance of academic and readable, and he explains and frames Shinto in some great phrases. My copy has many earmarks where I've saved some of his fabulous quotes.
And of course, you can ask us here in r/Shinto if you have any specific questions. :)
AIA Guide to New York City
One of the best references for understanding where and why game level design differs from or aligns with traditional architecture and landscape is Designing Disney, as the intent behind most game landscape is essentially the same as a theme park’s. Look up Disney ‘weenies’ and how they constantly employ sightlines, colour, light, etc to keep attendees engaged and moving through the park in the exact same way that games do to players. The biggest difference between most games and real life is that they actually have to teach players how to navigate through their environments. So, games are both adults teaching a toddler to walk and fantastic theme parks keeping them interested in moving.
This is one of the reasons a lot of designers are fans of Nintendo games, as they tend to pay a lot of attention to this aspect. There’s countless analysis of Super Mario’s 1-1 level design that you should be able to find online. It’s a standout example as it does so much to teach players how to exist in that space, from your starting position in the camera’s frame (the camera should also always be thought of as part of a game’s environment, for further discussion on that look up Kane and Lynch 2, or think about the effects UIs can have on our interaction with and perception of a game space), to the placement, intent and movement patterns of power ups and enemies, to the physical controller itself. (Metroid: Prime is a fantastic example of a game completely built around its controller, as it’s an FPS with lots of vertical design and the Game Cube controller didn’t have a second analogue stick they frequently use ramps or targetable enemies to get the players naturally looking up and down) My favourite little article on Super Mario is this one by Anna Anthropy, it goes into a lot of detail with how the level design intersects with and is built around the player experience and game mechanics.
>on the subject of challenge, three of the ceiling bricks above the treasure room fall when mario gets near, potentially hurting him. because they fall the entire height of the screen, they’re a hazard to mario regardless of whether he’s in the treasure chamber or above it. but since they fall from the top of the screen, a mario above the chamber is naturally in greater danger of being hit than one inside the chamber. a mario above, however, is also more likely to be a big mario, while a mario below is definitely a little mario.
The way Mario’s current power up state is taken into account is something I’m sure someone (more familiar with traditional design than me) could argue is similar to how different accesses often have to be designed for differently abled bodies, routes with extra coins or power ups create navigable spaces that serve alternative purposes to players almost like service tunnels and elevators do in public spaces.
Everyone’s already mentioned Dark Souls and that’s a perfect example of developers using sight lines and contrast to push players toward their goals. A really good example of this is the lit torch next to the escape route during the Asylum Demon fight, a lot of players won’t consciously notice it but it’s something that pushes a lot of people towards that direction. (The demon also holds its weapon in a way that makes players want to go left when they first see it). For the first four or five hours of the game there’s a lit torch next to basically every door along the ‘intended path’.
Another important aspect of game architecture and landscape is that games are often told in fictional universes, so the architecture and game spaces have to tell stories that let us better place ourselves in that universe. Morrowind is totally the undisputed champion in this category as there’s over half a dozen different architectural styles in that game that all come from varying cultures. They all have their own styles of city planning and use different materials and they’re all built to serve different historical purposes. Hlaalu are a merchant institution who build their cities by natural points of trade, there’s always a distinct class divide in their towns where the rich are walled off and geographically higher than the poor. Redoran towns are built to act as fortifications, their poor live close to the upper class, and there’s always a barracks and defendable locations for people to retreat to. Telvanni are breathtakingly self-superior, aloof wizards constantly weaving their own political machinations who build mushroom towers. They often forget to build stairs and ladders because only non-wizards would need them, their class system is directly parallel to where someone lives in the hierarchy of the mushroom plant, the wizards live at the very top with the plant literally weaving down from there to define and shape the lives of all their underlings, with the poorest in self-made shacks at the base. You could easily write an essay just on what modes of public transport each culture and city favour.
Geography and distance in Morrowind is also directly influenced by the game engine and technology of the time. The game had a really restrictive render distance which means a lot of the landscape is designed to look good silhouetted by the fog effect and the distances between points of interest are staggered in a way to keep the navigation compelling and interesting. It’s also why so many of the ruins and more interesting geographical features (mushrooms, mountains) are so vertical, because you can get the full impact of those models in a way that’s not lessened by the fog distance. You’ll frequently have people playing it now with enhanced render distances who are surprised how close together different locations are, or how small certain landmarks are.
Bill Bryson's 'At Home' discusses a lot of this stuff.
Have you read anything by Bill Bryson? A Short History of Nearly Everything and At Home are two of the most entertaining, well written and informative books I've ever read.
For identifying the elements and composing with them:
Classical Architecture by Robert Adam is really great.
Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid by Marianne Cusato is also very useful.
Regarding the second point, it comes from a reading of Vitruvius and his principle of decorum. For a good overview, I recommend Architecture, Liberty and Civic Order by Carroll William Westfall.
I have "The Field Guide to American Houses" by Virgina Savage McAlester and use it pretty often. :-)
https://smile.amazon.com/Field-Guide-American-Houses-Revised/dp/0375710825/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538584655&sr=8-1&keywords=field+guide+to+american+houses
You might find this site useful
Shinto Encyclopedia
A good introductory book which describes the basics of worship is
The Kami Way
They are no longer sold in the parks, but I got one of these books about each park on Amazon.
The Imagineering Field Guide to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World--Updated! (An Imagineering Field Guide) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423124685/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_V2nEAb9ESJWFM
This book is awesome as well.
Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making More Magic Real https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423107667/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_G5nEAbWCYDX57
Firstly on the resources for Urban planning. Well. Honestly, I haven't personally great online resources for learning about Urban planning. Various government institutions have released master plans and design guide documents (almost all are pretty boring). Your best bet (unfortunately) is in buying expensive books online and getting it shipped to you. There are plenty of great planning books for the European context. Particularly urban design books.
https://www.reddit.com/r/urbanplanning/wiki/readinglist Is worth a look at. (most are american focuses of course)
I think these might be useful to you.
https://www.amazon.com/City-Reader-5th-Routledge-Urban/dp/0415556651
https://www.amazon.com/Economics-Land-Planning-Alan-Evans/dp/140511861X
https://www.amazon.com/Urban-Economics-Arthur-OSullivan/dp/0073511471
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Streets-Press-Allan-Jacobs/dp/0262600234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536125765&sr=8-1&keywords=great+streets
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On the green space/parking. Well firstly it really depends on:
A) what is the land parcel you already own here. Who owns the petrol station? What is the minimum set back from the Ma-6014 road?
B) What kind of funding do you have? Are you using a loan?
C) what are your zoning and planning powers here?
D) how many cars do you need to accommodate and how much of the parking share would be given for free and how will you pay for that (will the foreign parking pay for it? Will you need general revenue or will you lease out some land for commercial purposes to cover costs -and do you have the power to do that) -I'm personally against free parking but i get it's appeal and use as a planning tool-.
E) What kind of services does your town lack? Child care? Library (if within your level of government)? Flexible community space (i.e cheaply rent-able rooms for hire by community groups)?
F) What's the parking for anyway? Do people drive to your town to go to the beach (will it compete with the beach front parking)? Or do people use the town as a dormitory suburb for Parma and is that is why people park there? Will people be using the car park all the time? On the weekends? Mornings and at night in the week days?
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Other random observations:
-How much demand is there fore more green space? The town seems to be pretty well provisioned with public space (even if there isn't much 'green' public space). There's also near by natural reserve.
-There's a lack of street trees east of the supermarket and police station.
- Whats up with the fence around the main park? For the children?
-From an urban design perspective, everything around that park is such a missed opportunity.
The early church didn't "make up" the idea of hell, it was already present in Judaism and the nascent Christian sect. What they did was define it more narrowly under Augustine. Look into reading The History of Hell by Alice Turner.
Based on your follow up questions, it's pretty clear that all this is pretty new to you. I'm a huge believer in do-it-yourselfing it, but I'm not really sure this is a good place for you to start.
It might cost you, I dunno, a hundred bucks to have an electrician come in and do this. It will be done right AND you get to watch the entire process. (Don't get in his space, but let him know you are just interested in learning). I think it's money well spent.
All this stuff is relatively easy once you have some experience, but it's also pretty easy for a newbie to make a mess of it. Here, you have old wiring w/o a ground, combined with an outlet going next to a sink. Also, you have to cut a hole in your sheetrock (?) or plaster wall to sink the new box. Again, easy enough, but consider the money spent on getting it done tuition.
I salute your efforts to learn. I was fortunate to watch my dad do a lot of handyman type stuff as a kid. I've learned a lot on my own since then, but my early experience gave me the confidence to know that it was doable.
BTW, consider purchasing this book. It's out of print but still available. It's mainly geared towards building your home, but building and doing repair work are two sides of the same coin. Knowing how something is built helps you know how to tackle the repair. It's an EXCELLENT book, and I highly recommend it.
https://www.amazon.com/Do-Yourself-Housebuilding-Complete-Handbook/dp/0806904240/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1480823080&sr=8-4&keywords=george+nash
Francis Ching has some good reference books for a starter: Building construction illustrated and Architecture: Form Space and Order. It might be a good idea to regularly visit sites like ArchDaily to see what contemporary architects are doing. If you want to start learning design programs, try downloading SketchUp or Rhino (both have free versions). Good luck!
Fixing existing developments and creating better ones in the future are very different beasts. One very influential group working on latter is the Congress for New Urbanism. A useful volume by a few of CNU's leading practioners is Suburban Nation. One pertinent critique of New Urbanism though is that is has been relatively ineffective about the retrofitting you describe. For that you might check out books like Retrofitting Suburbia.
If you want a good rant on how we got into the mess J.H. Kunstler's Geography of Nowhere is an angry read. On patterns that underlay places we like being in, there is the always present work of Christopher Alexander. For my money one of the most under-read great urbanists of our time is Richard Sennett, particularly his book The Uses of Disorder.
Finally, Jacob's has a lot of prescriptive stuff in Death and Life. I'll give you that it is not as rule-based as most contemporary approaches, but therein lies its greatness.
Earthbag Building and The Hand-Sculpted House are both on my shelf. They contain enough information to get you started.
As someone who recently purchased A Field Guide to American Houses for personal reading (and to figure out what house style I've always liked but not known the name of), this is amazing. Great work!
I have this one on my book shelf, it's pretty good.
I heartily recommend the book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.
I honestly don't think any outsider can really understand American culture unless they understand the immensity of car culture and suburbia in the country.
The book is fantastic at explaining how it all came to be. Did you know that in the 1920's, General Motors deliberately began a campaign to dismantle streetcar and trolley systems? They succeeded, forcing people into buses and cars. It's fascinating.
Cathedral by David Macauley?
Or if not that, check out his other works.
Interaction Design
Interior Design
Landscape Architecture
Lighting Design
Product Design
Product Design
Sound Design
Urban Design
* Cities for People by Jan Gehl
Web Design
I just picked up his book A Carpenter's Life. https://www.amazon.com/Carpenters-Life-Told-Houses/dp/1600854028 .
His thoughts and views about the world and his experiences in life make him even more endearing.
To be a guide, you have to take and pass the NYC sightseeing exam, which consists of 150 multiple choice questions, a handful of which are pictures. The passing score is 97; distinguished guides get a score of 120 or above. Tell your gf to get the AIA Guide to NYC and the Blue Guide New York, as the test contains questions about material in these books. I am actually working on writing a guide to the exam, as before I took it, I had compiled a list of questions I thought would be on the exam, and most of them indeed were. If your gf has any other questions, please feel free to PM me and ask away!
I love the Mental Floss History of the World and Mental Floss History of the United States. Those two may be exactly what you're looking for. Also, check out Sarah Vowell. Assasination Vacation is great. Bill Bryson's work is excellent. A Short History of Nearly Everything is mind-blowing and I've heard great things about At Home which is next on my reading list. :)
If you're at all interested in the building of Il Duomo di Firenze, I'd highly recommend the book Brunelleschi's Dome
Fuck. FUCK. 'Demons', I've just read your post, and every comment that followed, and I've gotta say this to you, and to every single one of you. I can relate. Hugely. I just feel like I'm now at the other side, looking back.
I only joined Reddit a couple of months ago having finally 'got' it, and am slowly building my subscriptions; Funny, WTF, world news, etc. I am very new to FA. I joined because my last girlfriend was 7 years ago and I'm not a womanising creep, thus ForeverAlone.
I am 38 in a month but here's the thing - I feel, finally, like I got comfortable in my own skin only a year or two ago. Everything kinda congealed into me and it 'only' took three and a half decades.
When I was in my early twenties, I was a potsmoking, over-eager mess. I was a try-hard, an amiable buffoon, an idiot. That is because during those adult-forming years, 15,16,17, etc, I was truly alone. I literally had no friends. I was fat and bullied in school. Demons, you say "Even if I were to be designated as the bitch of the group, I'd much rather be included in a clique than excluded." Trust me, you don't. I thought these schoolkids were my friends - after all, they were all I had - but they had no interest in me beyond having me around to make them feel better about themselves. After school, I never saw any of them again. (I did call, but no-one wanted to hang out. I quickly got the message.) This was 1990. Years later, when fucking Facebook appeared, I found them and was about to add them as friends until I saw pictures of the vacation to Spain they went on straight after school, and my heart dropped; It took about 15 years to realise they never invited me... but I digress. The point is being the bitch of any group is NOT acceptable.
After school, I was ForeverAlone with a vengeance. If FA existed then - fuck, there wasn't even The Internet - I would've cried tears of joy although nothing would've changed on the ground and I still would've locked myself indoors (particularly over those lonely weekends), atrophying and not 'developing'.
What changed for me was University. (I'm British, and not sure of the US equivalent term. College? I was 18-21). I took a course 100 miles from home and arrived with literally zero friends in my life (I called this my secret shame). It took a while. It was still awkward. But the friends I made were based on something stronger than those immature and critical fuckers I was at school with and, 20 years on, 95% of my friends today are those Uni guys, or their friends.
BUT... I do have a point. There is no perfect. Neither is there some idyllic, Leave it to Beaver childhood and family unit that is the only way to springboard from into the perfect life. We are all fucked-up mammals with our own insecurities and dreams and desires. There is no right or correct way but at the same time there's no wrong way either. Life is a journey each and every one of us is on and we have to nip and tuck our concerns and make them better so we can make ourselves better.
Now let me see if I can bring everything together into something resembling coherence...
Not everyone here has my experience being physically or mentally bullied at school although I'm sure some of you do. The point is we already have backgrounds and experiences to draw upon and share. This is what makes us us, no matter how unpleasant, or too personal, or even trivial you may think it is to everyone else. Even what you'd consider no personality is a personality.
I used to feel exactly the same when it came to relationships with people. Why couldn't I make people laugh, like X? Why aren't I as interesting as Y? This is all comparison shopping with others, and doesn't help. I was aware of this around my mid-Twenties, and learned to stop caring (or more accurately, I learned to stop dwelling so much) by my early-30s, and that's when some door of perception opened. I'm not these other people. I'm me. I have my own take on things, and my own way of dealing with them - and if I'm unhappy about something, I have to change or die.
I guess it took the passing of time for me to get to this stage, as opposed to having some grand revelation, or cure. I just chilled a little when it came to my own insecurities, seeing it as part of me.
You do have life experiences. Using two as an example - and forgive my assumptions - we have grown up in different countries, so there's a wealth of differences there, as well as similarities. There's also a generational gap of your early Twenties and my late Thirties. We have both different perspectives, and similarities too. As my 91yo grandfather said after I'd shown him some gadget back in 1988, "You're never too old to learn".
And then he died.
So here's my fucking perspective, for what it's worth:-
My current worry is the lack of a lady in my life. Almost all my University friends have married, and are now having babies left, right, and centre. I am therefore dipping into the /r/seddit universe, although I'm not comfortable with it. (I wrote THIS post to voice my concerns and got downvoted to HELL.) I remain unsure about the whole 'seduction' side of things, but if you read the replies to my post, you will see a lot of sanity regarding taking steps to get to where I want to be (i.e. meeting the woman I want to settle down with.) Seddit, surprisingly, reccomends THIS book I bought 2 days ago. It has nothing to do with 'seduction' per se, but overcoming depression and negative perceptions of ourselves first and foremost. I have only just started this book but it makes so much sense, it's unreal. I urge you to look into this.
Finally, and from my perspective of being nearly 40, rejoice in your youth even though it seems futile. Okay, you've never had that first kiss, or a first date. You haven't driven a car, or been to a party. But the fact you're expressing your frustrations here tells me they're IN THE POST.
Remember, the fact that you're concerned at all marks the beginning of any change.
TL;DR EDIT - To give you some kind of solution, read, motherfucker! Learn facts, pick up some history, watch documentaries. Fill your brain with knowledge, or comedy, or drama. Watch movies, seek out your favourite directors, get some foreign films under your belt. Explore music. Sample all genres. Listen to classical composers. DANCE. Wander through museums, and art galleries, and cafes. Travel and discover and explore and embrace your very fucking existence, and not only will your life feel more rich and varied but before you know it you'll have a treasure trove of knowledge and conversation in your head, you interesting son-of-a-bitch. Just don't cave in to years of sexual absence and have accidental sex with a Thai hooker. Having said that, you might just get a story out of it. Just be careful who you share those kind of things with.
Good pics thus far. I'd like to add:
City: Rediscovering the Center by William H Whyte.
Great Streets by Allan Jacobs.
Life Between Buildings: Using Public Spaces by Jan Gehl.
And for something different, a little Marxist geography:
Social Justice and the City by David Harvey
I highly suggest purchasing resource books on urban design, urban planning, and city structure. I will list some for you. I like to keep the aid of resource books in my personal library collection, and I am finding that urban planning resource books are helping me greatly in my world-building process.
I highly suggest looking into the life work of urban planner and MIT lecturer Kevin A. Lynch. He studied how urban environments are heavily shaped and influenced by fundamental human values and perceptions. Cities reflected directly those whom lived within them according to Lynch.
Here is a list of books as well as a link to their Amazon page:
Provided on each page is a wide variety of other resource books depending on the time period you are aiming on world-building around. I hope this helped.
Off the top of my head here are some interesting books I've read (or reread) lately that I think you might enjoy and fall nicely into the young-adult-expanding-their-mind category.
The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti
Really interesting look at what the implications of the American obsession with virginity/purity are.
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The Communist Manifesto (edited/annotated by Phil Gasper)
Everybody should read the Communist Manifesto. It's too big of a part of history (and of America's history of opposition to communism) to not read. Gasper's heavy annotations make this an absolutely top-notch edition to read.
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At Home by Bill Bryson
Really enjoyable overview of the history of domestic life and it's myriad of quirks and traditions.
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Escaping the Endless Adolescence: How We Can Help Our Teenagers Grow Up Before They Grow Old by Joseph Allen
Very interesting look at the current trend in America of lengthening adolescence and how our extension of what we consider adolescence well into the 20s is harming young adults.
Kevin Lynch's Image of the City
I recommend reading 'At Home' by Bill Bryson. He goes through this in detail.
From what I recall, houses used to be just one big room, animals, people, servants all in the one place. Over the centuries, people got bette at building walls, so they built these buildings higher - this showed your wealth and was much less smokey. As there was all that extra room above head height, primitive first-floors came about, pretty much just elevated sleeping areas for the main family in the home. That's when people began sleeping upstairs, hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
Kitchens were at the back of the house so that visitors didn't need to see them. Dining rooms were adjacent to kitchens for ease of service.
I didn't include dates here as I'm sleepy can't can't remember, but the book is a great read http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0767919394
I am going to recommend a couple of books that should provide insight into the language that buildings speak. These books get at the established rules of building design in a practical way. Certainly, the conversation of architecture is an immense and ongoing conversation, but I think these books serve as a good introductory.
The Old Way of Seeing
Get Your House Right
Plenty of really good books on the subject, like
https://www.amazon.com/Neufert-Architects-Data-Fourth-Ernst/dp/1405192534
Here are my favorites:
Designing Disney
Walt Disney's Imagineering Legends
The Disney Mountains
It's Kinda a Cute Story
and anything in the Imagineering Field Guide Series.
Non-fiction. A lot of people seem to discount anything that's not fiction, on the grounds that it will be boring, 'hard', or extraneous to their lives. What's I've found is that I'll often pick up a book because I'm interested in a particular topic, and 'new' non-fiction often takes you into many other related topics, how they've influenced/been a symbol of that society, etc.
A few of the books that really stick in my mind are
The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America. I'd originally picked it up because I've got an interest in serial killers (yeah, I know), but all of the information about engineering, the history of the World's Fair, Chicago etc. was just fascinating.
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. It's supposedly about Prohibition, but it says a lot more about the political/religious climate of the U.S. from the mid-1800s on, ties prohibition in with women's rights, churches, gangsters etc. And it's a great read.
Pretty much anything by Jon Krakauer. A lot of his books are about 'individualism vs. society', but they cover a lot of ground. Into Thin Air is one of the best extreme sports books I've ever read, Into the Wild is incredibly sad, Under the Banner of Heaven was a very interesting look at Mormon-related culture, etc.
At Home: A Short History of Private Life is just interesting, accessible reading, that touches on everything from why we have closets to when the desire for privacy influenced house design.
Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement is ostensibly about a splinter fundamentalist group that started in the U.S., but eventually ends up touching on everything from PACs, to racism, education styles, women's rights, how Catholic/Protestant/Jewish/Islamic fundamentalists are coming to an accord on some fairly major issues, and how that's likely to play out.
And because I'm a Tudor history nut, Henry VIII: the King and his Court, and The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen were both very interesting, and go well beyond the standard royal biography. I think that it's pretty awesome that so much new information and scholarship is turning up around facts that we've 'known' for centuries.
Pretty much anything by Nathaniel Philbrick or David McCullough.
Non-fiction is just great, especially right now. I think that we're in a bit of in a Golden Age of non-fiction right now, as there's a demand for it, and authors are making it more accessible and interesting than ever.
Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City
a relatively short read, but discusses ideas of "imageability" central to urban design and planning
My book that I go back to again and again is A Field Guide to American Homes. It has lots of pictures of each style, as well as drawings of details and information on the overall shapes used in the various styles. The 1984 edition is also available for just a few dollars. It's also very good, but it doesn't have the chapters on recent developments (like McMansions), as well as a chapter on how to choose appropriate detailing for what the author refers to as "new traditional" homes. Anyone building a house should read that chapter.
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson goes into the historical and cultural origins of everyday household things we completely take for granted. Its a fascinating dive into the outrageous and often bloody history of stuff in your house.
For more technical, structural explanations and drawings Building Structures Illustrated and Building Construction Illustrated are both extremely helpful.
It's not a TV show, but Bill Bryson's book At Home: A Short History of Private Life is a good read on this topic. It's a history of all the rooms in a house, including many of the items in it. It's exhaustive and entertaining.
https://www.amazon.com/Brunelleschis-Dome-Renaissance-Reinvented-Architecture/dp/1620401932
I also highly recommend this book.
Not that person but:
get your house right is a pretty good book on architectural details
For a first project, this looks really good. Others have said some of the stuff that I'm going to say, but there's a couple other comments I haven't seen others make.
First, learn how to export images. Every arch program I've used has the ability to do this and it makes things look much nicer than taking a picture of a screen, which leads me to...
Learn how to Google efficiently. If you don't know how to do something, think of what you're trying to do, take the keywords out of it ("I want to build a wall that is sloped outward in Google Sketchup" turns into "slope wall sketchup"). In high school, I ended up knowing the programs we used better than my teacher because of this. Now in college, I am one of 3 out of about 125 that everyone goes to for help with programs. About 50% of the stuff they ask I don't know, but I can Google it and find an answer in under a minute.
Now, for the design itself. It's important that every design decision you make, you ask "why?" If you cannot fully justify it, think of a couple alternatives, and choose the best option. Then at the very least your reason would be "I explored a few options and determined this was the best solution." Sure, some will be able to argue it, but you have a reason. Always try and push it though. For instance, why did you choose wood planks for part of your facade? Is it because it looks good or because you had a location in mind and it matches the style of that location?
Next, materiality on facades. My general rule of thumb I use is one main material, one accent material (larger amounts of glazing would count, simple windows like you have would not). When you start having more than that, it starts to look rather busy and can be distracting. But like in the last paragraph, try to have a reason for the material. Pick a location for the building, learn the style and material of the location, and design with that in mind.
Finally, it's never too early to start learning about how buildings are actually constructed. If you can, get access to books by Francis Ching. If they are available at your library, check them out. If not, they're relatively cheap ($20-$30 each iirc). Building Construction Illustrated, Architecture: Form, Space, and Order, and A Visual Dictionary of Architecture are three books I highly recommend to get started on. It will help you understand how buildings are actually put together (and provide tips like nominal construction so you aren't doing things like cutting a CMU in half so that it fits). I notice a few things (such as being able to see the outlines of your stairs from the outside) that you want to watch for so they don't show up. This can be solved by understanding where different elements stop, how they're connected to each other, etc.
So, like I said, this looks really good. Starting at 15 is awesome, I started when I was 16 and now I'm applying to some of the top grad schools in the US, so definitely keep at it! One last tip, if you haven't already, start sketching/drawing by hand. It's an invaluable skill to have and will help you immensely if you decide to study architecture. Even if it's drawing one object a day, just spend 10-15 minutes every day sketching things out. You'll be surprised how much you improve just from practice in even a month.
Dude, you live in NYC? Lucky bastard. Go explore manhattan!
Go here:
http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=center-for-architecture
Buy this:
http://www.amazon.com/AIA-Guide-New-York-City/dp/0195383869
Watch this:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fountainhead-Gary-Cooper/dp/B000HWZ4A2
Note: this movie shows the architect how he often likes to see himself. Not realistic, but reveals what often motivates architects.
For the lazy.
At Home by Bill Bryson. It's about the history of domestic living. He moved into an old Rectory and found the original floorplans. The book is broken up into rooms of that Rectory and discusses the history of the living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc.
Fun fact I remember from that book: "Room and board" means "a room with meals" because people used to use wooden boards on their laps as food trays.
I currently have 7 books on my nightstand in various stages of being bookmarked.
If this interests you, try reading "At Home: A Short History of the Private Life" by Bill Bryson. It's full of info like this and is fascinating!
http://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private/dp/0767919394
Fixed link.
Well, there could be a lot of factors determining sub-par mass transit in an urban area. At the most basic level it could be lack of funding. In WA state we dealt with this over ten years ago with Tim Eyman's I-695 which in my area cut mass transit funding 50%. When you have a group of voters who say "fuck it" to funding bus/light rail you're going to have progressively worse service.
Another aspect is urban congestion. If you are running a bus line without dedicated lanes in a dense downtown region (or the center of an auto-centric sprawl city like Atlanta) it's going to back up and cause delayed routes, more gas consumption, and longer rides. Light rail, commuter rail, and BRT can move faster in most locations but require a larger investment (more money per mile of service, which won't happen if voters turn down taxes and bonds for it). Also factor in the continued sprawling out of cities like Phoenix, which requires more money to service fewer riders due to low density.
It's funny now because many cities are opting to re-implement the trolley lines they so quickly tore up in the 40's/50's/60's, albeit at a cost. When you had cities growing organically with an urban core that included housing followed by streetcar neighborhoods, the transportation system was integrated into the environment (you walked in downtown, took a streetcar to home/visit in the peripheral neighborhoods). The streetcars were tracked and had the right of way. When the cities tore the tracks up and placed their buses within the street traffic, which would become more congested than we could have ever imagined, in many cases we see them giving up a dedicated right of way for transit and forcing their vehicles right into the shark tank, so to say.
The post-war boom that fueled auto production/purchase coupled with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 swelled the streets with cars and kicked off the suburban sprawl that still persists today (although the numbers have lowered significantly since the 1990's and took a sharp decline since 2008). A few good books on these subjects include: Suburban Nation, The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways, Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000, and How Cities Work : Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken Here are a few about specific cities with high amounts of sprawl that go into what factors caused this and the problems faced today: The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles and Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City (which I am reading right now and can say so far is a really interesting history of the city).
You need to read about New Urbanism. I recommend starting with this book
It's not the intention to put anyone out of business. But sooner or later you have to come to grips with the reality that this little town has become a city and cities require planning, not "build whatever wherever". The space above these shops is prime real estate. If you just build (and maintain) crap 1-story buildings, you have to build OUT (sprawl), when as it gets closer to the city center it should be build UP. Would you like to see the hills of West Austin deforested and developed? Or would you rather see existing real estate get redeveloped and revitalized?
Hell yes.
http://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-David-Macaulay/dp/0395321212
If it involves New York City and architecture, it's in this book.
Walt Disney's Disneyland is an incredibly comprehensive history of the original park. While it includes plenty of concept art it features many historical photos, planning documents, construction photos etc as well as taking the most detailed approach to the story of the park's construction and updates I've seen.
Walt Disney Imagineering is a good companion with a stronger focus on World, but this is more specific ride histories and designs than the overall park.
The Art of Walt Disney is a fantastic top to bottom look at the history of the studios and company, with plenty of amazing illustrations but is obviously art driven.
DisneyWar (already mentioned) is the seminal account of the Eisner era specifically and takes the word "comprehensive" to new heights.
The Walt Disney Studios (releasing this Sept) promises to be an excellent account of the film studios themselves and movies developed there.
As others have touched on there is a little bit of a vacuum for works that are just written histories, most have to get wrapped around "art" in some capacity to justify all of these books being $60+ 300 page hardcovers.
While we're at it, you know what? Fuck Bill Bryson for telling me the history of chairs.
/s
The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell is very very good.
Game AI (Millington and Funge new edition iirc) is very very good.
Some non-game-design books that are very useful for those doing game design:
Scott McLoud: Making Comics (the other two in the series are good but the section on plot, characterization, and development in this one is great)
Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things. (How design works and how people interact with technology and...)
Christopher Alexander et al A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, and Construction (Thinking about scale and design elements and modularity and...)
Kevin Lynch: The Image of the City (How do urban spaces work - essential if your game is set in a city - how do people actually navigate)
Polti: The 36 Dramatic Situations (old, quirky, examines how there are really only a few human plots)
Matt Frederick: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (how to think about and execute simple art, improve your design sense, ...)
I, uh, actually did that before, about two years back because I was trying to get enough to do it for a Grade 12 art project. They replied that because some people in the past have tried to sell Fastpasses online despite the fact that they can't be used the day after they are gotten. Thus, while they appreciated the fact that I wanted to use the fastpasses for an art project, they coudn't comply due to scamming on auction sites in the past.
They did, however, send me a nice photo signed by mickey, a letter wishing me the best, and a very nice hardcover book whose name I can't remember. It was about Imagineers and Disney World, and had an entire section on the specific dimensions of the front of the Castle. Had a bunch of little delicate pages that were in protective sleeves inside the book, and the book itself was somewhere between $60 and $80 to buy, so I really appreciated it.
But, yeah, that route isn't something the works for getting fastpasses, though.
EDIT: Found the book they sent me: http://www.amazon.ca/Walt-Disney-Imagineering-Behind-Dreams/dp/1423107667
Fellow Disney book-nerd here! Here are a bunch of my favorites. Hope this helps!
The Art of Animation
The Illusion of Life by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas
Walt Disney Imagineering by The Imagineers
The Disney That Never Was
Paper Dreams: The Art And Artists Of Disney Storyboards
Before the Animation Begins: The Art & Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists
The Fairest One of All: The Making of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast
Lilo & Stitch: Collected Stories From the Film's Creators
Magic Color Flair: The World of Mary Blair
Lovely: Ladies of Animation
Coming soon:
Marc Davis: Walt Disney’s Renaissance Man
The Nine Old Men by Andreas Deja
Disney During World War II: How the Walt Disney Studio Contributed to Victory in the War
I'll add Fermat's Enigma to my ever growing reading list. If you haven't had a chance to read Bryson's "At Home", do it. It's one of my favorites
There's a reqlly good book called A Carpenter's Life Told by Houses, Larry Haun
If your into house histories, and yes, the does talk about Sears houses, this is a great book. Easy to read also.
The APA has some good material on this: [What Makes a Place Great?] (https://www.planning.org/greatplaces/streets/characteristics.htm)
Related note, see if you can get a look at Allan Jacobs' classic Great Streets before you go. It'll equip you to evaluate public spaces that you visit.
I have a couple that I've loved:
Walt Disney Imagineering Behind Dreams
And version 2 of the book:
Walt Disney Imagineering Behind Dreams 2
I've also really enjoyed this one:
Disney Mountains Imagineering at its Peak
Funny you should ask!
No, I am NOT BB trying to push book sales:
http://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private/dp/0767919394
A UK home. FULL of amazing facts. Not his best I think, but still a great read.
The US used to have forests that went on for thousands of miles.
Since 1600, 90% of the virgin forests that once covered much of the lower 48 states have been cleared away. Most of the remaining old-growth forests in the lower 48 states and Alaska are on public lands. In the Pacific Northwest about 80% of this forestland is slated for logging.
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html
> I'm just saying you're not giving me any sort of reason or evidence.
Alright. Well, Shinto is a religion that I will admit is very minimalist on its own - hence why its often combined with other religions. Some examples besides Buddhism of what is combined with it include Confucianism, and Taoism.
I spoke to my friend today and he suggested this book will give you a brief overview - of course from the POV of the author: http://www.amazon.com/Shinto-Kami-Way-Sokyo-Ph-D/dp/0804835578
Beyond that, you'll need to look into various oral Shinto texts transcribed into Japanese and then translated to English online.
>Isn't this just cherry picking ?
Because of a lack of a general body or canon of texts there are many variations among Shintoist believers. Going to Japan today you'd be hard pressed to find someone who believes the creation myth of Shintoism.
>Could you ask for me at your temple
Because I live in the US I don't have the equivalent of a church or a temple - but in Japanese the term would be jinja - for shrine.
>Cheers for all the explanation and patience, I would think my ignorance of the topic is annoying !
Not at all, happy to discuss.
I agree, he was a kind person too, very well spoken and well thought out. I posted an article above from the NYT when he passed away. I just bought his [book] (https://www.amazon.com/Carpenters-Life-Told-Houses/dp/1600854028).
Architecture isn't a very textbook-y kind of field, so there aren't really many authoritative books that are universally used by everyone (other than the IBC).
Francis D. K. Ching is really the only exception to this rule as most schools seem to have incorporated at least one of his books into their curriculum. I would highly recommend the following:
Form Space and Order is a great introductory text that will introduce aspiring architects to some of the basic concepts of architecture.
Building Codes Illustrated relays code information graphically, making it easier to understand. It is not a replacement for the actual code, but it will at least give you an idea of what to look for.
Building Construction Illustrated is arguably the most useful of the three. I continue to refer back to this book even today and I'm not even in school anymore.
If you're looking for things most people won't know. Try the Progress City Primer.
if you're looking for cool things from an Imagineer. Try Designing Disney by John Hench
If you're looking for more of an overview of Imagineering. Try Imagineering Disney.
If you're looking for a light overview of the park through time. Try Disneyland Through the Decades.
I just read this book on [building a cob house] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Hand-Sculpted-House-Practical-Philosophical/dp/1890132349) and am so in love with the idea that it is my next life plan. Looking for the land now...
Would also maybe throw on "At Home" by Bill Bryson it's not too relevant, but it's a fun history of western houses and can help inspire with Scenic design.
Check out Bob Gurr's Google Talk, particularly at the 12 minute mark when he hears his interviewer use the word "Process." It's pretty funny. Watch the whole video. It's great. I'd also recommend any of the D23 panels that include the Imagineering Legends (Sklar, Gurr, Tony Baxter, Alice Davis, Rolly Crump, Joe Rohde, and others).
I was fortunate enough to hear Bob speak and meet him. Very, very nice gentleman.
In terms of books, in addition to those already mentioned:
The Imagineering Way is a fun book about the way they go about things.
The Imagineering Workout is a fun companion book.
John Hench's Designing Disney is a fun, visual look at his time with Disney.
Building a Better Mouse is a very specific story about the engineers who built The American Adventure show. This might be something you'd find interesting as an engineering student.
Project Future discusses the land acquisition in Florida. Very interesting book.
Three Years in Wonderland covers the construction and development of Disneyland in detail, more regarding the business side of things (leases, sponsors and partnerships).
*Walt and the Promise of Progress City is another fun book on the acquisition and the original EPCOT concept.
The main Walt Disney Imagineering Book is a great start, and Marty's two books are good as well.
I've also found Creativity, Inc to be inspirational. It goes back to the storytelling roots, but you'll find that most of the Imagineering books, articles, and posts are all about storytelling.
"A Field Guide to American Houses" https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375710825/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_xJwJDbJ6BYDYR
No shame in copying.
Look at great examples of Section drawings of Streetscapes and emulate them in some way. Pay attention to the details, how do they dimension? how do they draw a person, car, bus, tree? How do they depict architecture?
Here's a famous example: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Streets-Allan-B-Jacobs/dp/0262600234
Go digital though if you can do that look.
Getting dimensions is fairly simple. Measure from google earth. Measuring tape, Find out a street standard for a particular city to fact check as you go along. Figure out your pace as you walk across a roadway.
For buildings:
Step 1: Have a friend with a specific height (let's say 6') or most doorways are 6'8" tall.
Step 2: Have them stand against a building.
Step 3: Take a photo from further away to get the entire building and your friend in the photo.
Step 4: Now to find the height figure out how many of your friend (6') you can fit from the ground to the roof of the building.
e.g. This building can fit your friend 4 times so your building is 24'.
Hope this helps.
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
One of my favorite books from my favorite author. Definitely a good read for anyone who wants to learn about the things you'd never think you'd want to know about. Like why forks have 4 tongs instead of 3 or 5 and why we have such an abiding attachment to salt and pepper instead of cinnamon and cardamom.
So is the US really relying on softpower, or hardpower to gets it way?
Not at all ignorant, Roman engineering was indeed lost and forgotten during the Dark ages especially when it came to dome-building. Renaissance architecture in fact specifically developed because there was a deliberate study of the left over ruins to try to figure out what they did. The architect of the Duomo, Filippo Brunelleschi spent years doing so along with his friend Donatello in Rome. It remains a mystery how he learned of the technique of laying bricks upside down so they didn't fall down, it is assumed from traders that made it to Florence from the Middleast. May I suggest you read a great little book on this
https://www.amazon.com/Brunelleschis-Dome-Renaissance-Reinvented-Architecture/dp/1620401932
How much do you want to bet that in 100 years, nay 50 years, your kids will be trying to learn Chinese again?
I really love the book At Home by Bill Bryson and that’s basically all digressions...so when I read there were tons of digressions about the Paris sewer system, argot, the battle of Waterloo and so on, I said to myself, “this sounds like a beautiful literary marriage of my favorite things! Sign me up!”
It's not about roller coasters specifically, but the Disney Imagineering book is really cool:
https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Imagineering-Behind-Dreams/dp/1423107667/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535950757&sr=8-1&keywords=imagineering
Do your grades for your diploma count towards UCAS points? If they do, then it shouldn't be too much of an issue as many universities go by that system and not strictly A Levels. What I would do is visit as many universities as possible, have a look at some of the work students do and ask the tutors. Some universities focus heavily on the technical side of architecture whereas others look towards a more artistic side. If you're getting a diploma on graphic design, then it would probably be best to lean towards the artistically oriented uni's as you might have a better chance with those.
Another thing you should do which is perhaps the most important thing is build up a strong portfolio and try to make it architecture related as possible. Many universities will ask for one and it can make a huge difference. I'd suggest buying an A3 sketchbook and a pencil and just go out and draw. It doesn't necessarily need to be a work of art, it's more about recording, anaylsing and communicating what you see around you. You could also buy a roll of tracing paper and draw some of your own designs over your sketches and photographs.
You could even start making physical models and using programs such as Sketchup to further develop your ideas and add them to your portfolio. If you really wanted to get technical, you could start looking into structure and detailing. Building Construction Illustrated by Francis Ching and subscribing to Detail Magazine are excellent for this and chances are you'll use them for life as well as throughout university.
It would also be worth looking at other portfolios to help you have an idea of what to include in yours and how to present them. I'd recommend big.dk as a good example, but be sure to look at others. Try to avoid too much writing, your work should speak for itself. When people are looking through portfolios, they're not going to bother reading lots of text so your work needs to stand out.
Good luck!
Read this. Once I saw how the entire myth was fabricated culturally through the centuries, my fear dissipated.
Call the Strand and see if they have this book
I recommend this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-American-Houses-Revised/dp/0375710825
It has pages on pages of colonial houses. It also calls out design choices that are consistent with the style.
I’m sure you can google or Pinterest more options, but long-term I would be wary of trends.
That house pictured is beautiful though. In going through the process I would start by writing down all your needs for each room based on what you actually do and then when you see interior plans, make sure it does what you want it to.
Assume it's to do with history of toilets and the British bringing their housing style with them to Australia. [wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_(room). Also, Bill Bryson's book "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" is full of interesting bits about all sorts of rooms/furniture in our homes.
I helped build an earthen house in Texas, and they are actually quite cheap compared to traditional homes (and super fun to build). The most expensive part is usually getting the land. Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley, two pioneers in the US natural building movement, famously built their cob (it's kind of like adobe) home for only $500.
My advice would be to sign up for any natural building workshops that are in your area, and take lots of notes, pictures, and video. Start building up a good library of books (since a lot of natural builders are hippie-types, you can often download their books for free online). Keep a notebook full of your sketches and ideas (Google also has a free modeling program called SketchUp that you can try using if you want to have a 3D model) and collect materials if you can. Then when the time comes to actually get started you will have your ideas in order, a lot of materials at hand, knowledge and experience, and contacts with folks that can help you out if something goes wrong.
Don't let people tell you it will be too expensive or too hard unless they've got actual experience in natural building. I have known people that have built beautiful buildings without any fancy equipment or tools.
Edit: For a good first book, I would recommend Ianto Evans' The Hand-Sculpted House. It covers everything from the most basic newbie questions to more complex issues likes drainage and wiring. It also has a section on living roofs, which is what you would want for a hobbit home.
http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Imagineering-Behind-Dreams/dp/1423107667
I got this for Christmas and it's amazing.
[Thiiiiiiiiiissssss.] (https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Disney-Walt-Imagineering-Book/dp/1423119150) I was told if you wanted to ever be an imagineer, read this book, and apply it to heart
"At Home" is a fantastic book by bill bryson. It is a history of "homelife". The book is framed roughly by bill as he walks through his house in england. As he passes through each room in the house (kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom) he tells the history of humans as it relates to that room. How we slept and courted (in ancient times, as history progressed, up until now), how we ate, how we studied and farmed, etc. It is a page turner for sure, he has amazing style. It is more focused on the changes that occurred from the middle ages until now but does touch on antiquity.
I highly recommend it. It appears to be exactly what you are looking for. It details how specific technologies and tools changed the way we live. How/where did people shit before the toilet? Did they wipe or use water? What did they eat off of? How was food cooked and preserved? How were jobs allocated?
One fact I gleaned? When you buy a college dorm plan or hotel that includes "Room and board" (which means a bed to sleep in and food), the phrase comes from the fact that in the medieval ages tavern patrons ate their food off of a wooden board laid across their laps.
I've found the hand-sculpted house to be one of the definitive guides. Couple that with Rocket Mass Heaters.
I've seen designs like that in this book which has a chapter on low energy housing:
http://www.amazon.com/Do-Yourself-Housebuilding-Complete-Handbook/dp/0806904240
These two books have made me confident I can build my own small house with natural materials. I am starting a pole barn with cob walls this month and a small straw bale guest house on my property later this year with the guidance of these books.
Also, this blog is a great resource for code issues related to tiny houses.
I scrolled down just for this. I have fond memories of a co-worker bringing in a book that explained with illustrations how cathedrals were built. It may have been Macaulay. The most impressive thing to me was the hamster-wheel like lift they used to bring materials up to height.
I like big books and I cannot lie really... I love them.
Non-fiction:
History of your home!
Some badass women!
What did those lyrics mean?
fiction:
The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Its a huge series, that is the first one.
Or seriously, anything by Dan Simmons. :)
The Hand Sculpted House
Yeah, /u/A_Bus_Fulla_Nunz is correct. Michelangelo had nothing to do with the the dome itself.
I highly recommend the book Brunelleschi's Dome. It will blow your mind how amazing the creation of this cathedral is.
An article about Ernst Neufert, an advocate of standardisation in building construction in Germany. His Architect's Data has been continuously in print since 1936.
The DIN 476 paper sizes were an influence on Neufert's modular construction ideas. His ideas were responsible for standardisation of components such as doors and window frames, and even bricks, all based on a 12.5 cm sized grid.
Most urban planners would tell you that slowing down traffic is exactly what you want to do so that cars must drive slower, pedestrians are in less danger, people are more inclined to use public transportation, and in general areas are more liveable. Here is an excellent book on the subject if you're interested: http://www.amazon.com/Suburban-Nation-Sprawl-Decline-American/dp/0865476063
I'm currently in graduate school. Most of the textbooks I bought were for my technical classes like environmental technology or structures. I have used:
Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius. I used this in my theory class. It's a pretty neat book that offers classic principles of architecture.
The Ethical Function of Architecture This is another theory book that offers more contemporary architectural issues. I'm not the biggest fan of theoretical readings but it's not too bad.
Building Construction Illustrated by Francis Ching
Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings
Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods
101 Things I Learned in Architecture School This is one I think every architecture student should own. Its very small and simple.
Bill Bryson wrote a great book that answered that and other similar questions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Home:_A_Short_History_of_Private_Life
https://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private/dp/0767919394
Go to your local library, the books I linked and ones like them are very often available in the kid's sections. Free!
Depending on what you are trying to do - this book is amazing. It really shakes your preconceptions by exploring how people lived in different times. Not "castles" but an incredible eye opener.
https://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private-ebook/dp/B003F3FJGY/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
A History of Hell is a pretty good pop book on the subject. Early Christians had a wide variety of beliefs about this and most everything else. Unfortunately, we have little other than the writings of those in the Catholic/Orthodox line to go by; and they were still divided on this. Tertullian in particular advanced the idea of Hell as eternal, and Augustine pretty much cemented it.
Are you sure it's not from https://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-David-Macaulay/dp/0395321212
Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0395316685/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_22eIDbHCT2QE4
This book outlines many of the design pitfalls that ruin many houses. "Get Your House Right"
Its from an American perspective though so not sure how much that will help you in Barcelona.
I'm reading History of Hell for a college class, it's an easy read and pretty comprehensive source.
currently reading At home: A Short History of Private Life. Riveting stuff.
I really enjoyed Macaulay's books like Cathedral, but for "The Way Things Work," I'll stick with the old dense version (pre-Macaulay).
It's actually in North Carolina! It seems ~3.5 years is a fairly standard track for those without an undergrad in Arch.
Thanks for the advice!
Is this what you mean by Neufert?
43.773157, 11.256953
Brunelleschi's Dome is still the largest unsupported masonry dome in the world, even though it was built in the Renaissance. You can actually climb to the top of the dome and see over all of Florence, just a spectacular view. Probably my favorite place I've ever visited. There's actually a book about how the dome was built that's really interesting.
I was hoping to get the Super Meat Boy bundle, but I like puzzle games, so if there is a different puzzle bundle/game available, that would be awesome as well. Thanks for the giveaway!
here you go :)
​
Bill Bryson's "At Home" covers it. And other stories, like why we still have buttons on our jacker sleeves, since they have no purpose.
It's not better than "A short History of Everything" but It's a very nice read. We learn a lot and have a blast.
You're right, there is no one right way to do anything.
All I'm going off of is your first comment about your dad being disappointed in you for buying a book. And my point was that it was the most basic of starting points.
With an example of hammering a nail, the book would tell you how to grip the hammer, how to hold the nail, where to place the nail on the material, maybe offer a tip of blunting the tip of the nail to prevent splitting, the mechanics of the swing, and the steps to start and complete the process.
Of course it's up to you to do it and figure out what works for you and how to get better at it. Same thing for someone offering tips and help.
In the end though, a book is a respectable place to get that foundation of knowledge and it's nothing to be ashamed of.
Oh, and Larry Haun also wrote an autobiography, too. https://www.amazon.com/Carpenters-Life-Told-Houses/dp/1600854028
My son is similar though younger. He enjoys books on architecture like the book cathedral
Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction https://www.amazon.com/dp/0395316685/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_SP2MAb9P0DY50
and a recent one on bridges that shows how every different type of bridge in the Portland /Vancouver area was made.
The Big & Awesome Bridges of Portland & Vancouver : A Book for Young Readers and Their Teachers https://www.amazon.com/dp/0978736567/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_DU2MAbYFKBWHB
I have architectural blueprints from a family member that I'm going to let him copy or trace soon.
I give him Lego challenges. Www.dameoftheden.com/block-challenge/
I'm looking forward to seeing him grow, little engineers are fascinating!
I recommend this book all the time, I'm cool with sounding like a broken record though:
Neufert Architect's Data is the only book you'll ever need for designing anything
Mines a book: Building Construction Illustrated
Fiction or non-fiction?
My favourite "happy" non-fiction is Bill Bryson. I just finished At home and it was the sort of book that made me laugh out loud, and also want grab random people and read out cool little passages about random things.
Nice little piece of popular science, The Red Queen is a well written and interesting book about the evolutionary basis for sex.
I love David McCullough...He's like Bryson, except where Bryson would spend 5 pages on something, McCullough will spend a thousand, and leave you feeling like you know the person he's writing about better than you know your family. My favourites of his aren't the biographies (he wins a Pulizter for damn near every one), but the stories of buildings and events. The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas...All great, though the Pulitzers were for his Truman biography, and his John Adams biography.
For fiction? Hmmm. Intellectual and not depressing is tricky. I like Michael Chabon, but he flirts with depressing on a regular basis. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is amazing, and so is The Yiddish Policeman's Union.
So, regarding the eligibility for an MSME program, I don't think you'll be able to get accepted without some level of BSME curriculum. You might not need a full BSME, but there would be some core courses you'll need to take. More discussion here: https://m.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/32pfc8/those_who_have_a_msme/
Now as for the Disney Imagineering path, I wouldn't limit yourself to Orlando area. Judging by the latest engineering job postings (link), it seems a lot of their staff is in Glendale, CA. There has been a lot of discussion here on Reddit as well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3e7i0z/iwasan_imagineer_amaa/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Disneyland/comments/2m8ign/how_do_you_become_an_imagineer_at_disneyland/
You also might want to start reading up on Imagineering as well. I've found dozens of books on Amazon on the subject. Here's just one: http://amzn.to/29HwlF0. There are numerous books on theme park engineering as well.
Hope this helps. Sounds like you have some research to do.
Here is the mobile version of your link
Malcolm Gladwell or Bill Bryson spring to mind. Entertaining, engaging and light hearted, yet still packed with good content.
If you were looking for fiction recommendations, have you thought of short stories? Gabriel Garcia Marquez has quite a collection - I'd recommend Strange Pilgrims.
Edit: Added links.
While nobody actually knows for certain, most literature seems to agree that the pyramids were built one layer at a time, with earthen ramps leading up to the layer currently under construction. (Slave-)workers would then haul the stones on sleighs up these ramps.
I really enjoyed this book on the subject when I was a kid.