Origins of Form is about the shape of things. What limits the height of a tree? Why is a large ship or office building more efficient than a small one? What is the similarity between a human rib cage and an airplane or a bison and a cantilevered bridge? How might we plan for things to improve as they are used instead of wearing out? The author has chosen eight criteria that constitute the major influences on three-dimensional form. These criteria comprise the eight chapters of the book: each looks at form from entirely different viewpoints. The products of both nature and man are examined and compared. This book will make readers-especially those who design and build-aware of their physical environment and how to break away from previously held assumptions and indifference about the ways forms in our human environment have evolved. It shows better ways to do things.The author's practical, no-nonsense approach and his exquisite drawings, done especially for this volume, provide a clear understanding of what can and cannot be; how big or small an object should be, of what material it will be made, how its function will relate to its design, how its use will change it, and what laws will influence its development. The facts and information were gathered from many sources: the areas of mechanics, structure, and materials; geology, biology, anthropology, paleobiology, morphology and others. These are standard facts in these areas of specialization, but they are also essential to the designer's overall knowledge and understanding of form. The result is an invaluable work for students, designers, architects, and planners, and an informed introduction to a fascinating subject for laymen.

Devastating damage in the Tohoku region of Japan occurred during and after the earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake on March 11, 2011. The AIJ (Architectural Institute of Japan) dispatched reconnaissance teams into the field to obtain basic facts on the damage to buildings due to the massive ground motions and resultant tsunami. Their mission included collecting information on the characteristics of the earthquake itself and the observed major ground motions and tsunamis throughout the area. For the structural damage investigation, buildings are classified by their type of construction, namely, steel buildings, reinforced concrete buildings, wooden houses, etc. along with descriptions of special features for each category of building type. The report summarizes damage associated with ground failures including landslide and liquefaction as
well as non-structural damages such as to equipment and facilities, partitioning walls and ceilings, and functional failures in skyscrapers. Also brief description of the Japanese Seismic Design Code will be provided in the Appendix. A proposed scheme of anti-tsunami design for buildings is also included.

In the years after the fall of communist governments in Central, Eastern, and South- eastern Europe (CESEE), a flood of memoir literature began to fill bookstores around the region. The turn to autobiography and personal narrative inspired the theme section in this volume of "Aspasia" women's auto-biographical writing and correspondence. Articles in this section examine women's autobiographical writing in the second half of the nineteenth century and women's written memories of epochal moments in the Soviet past: the Holodomor (or Great Famine) that convulsed Ukraine in the aftermath of forced collectivization, and the experience of women soldiers during World War II.

Also in this volume, we present the continuation of a fascinating forum on women's and gender history in CESEE, "Clio on the Margins," edited by Krassimira Daskalova (the first five essays appeared in Aspasia volume 6]). The eight essays in this section provide a comprehensive look at the state of the field of women's and gender history in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.

The volume concludes with two more general articles, two book review essays, twenty book reviews, and a conference report.

'Green space in the community' refers to the public space that is located in sections of residential land, often a space providing entertainment facilities and a place for the community to interact across various activities. As one of the most important components of urban green space, public green space makes a huge impact on the quality of residents' daily lives. With the rapid development of the urbanisation process, people are paying much more attention to the construction of infrastructure in their living environments, thus the construction of public green space is steadily increasing on a larger scale. The construction of green space not only helps improve the quality of residential living spaces and the level of public welfare, but these spaces also inspire residents' participation in the community.

Michael Littlewood's Landscape Detailing is now well established as a valuable source of reference for architects, landscape architects, other professionals and students designing external works. For this third edition it has been split into three volumes to give a greater depth of coverage than ever before.Volume 3 covers pergolas, arbours, arches, gazebos, summer houses, sheds, shelters, decks, footbridges, furniture and roofs. Each section begins with technical guidance notes on design and construction. This is followed by a set of drawn-to-scale detail sheets. These details can be traced for direct incorporation into the set of contract drawings. A list of relevant references, bibliography and a list of association and institutions indicate where further guidance can be obtained. A ready reference for landscape designers and an indispensable time-saving tool, Landscape Detailing is an essential for the design office.

Overview: The Various Passive Cooling Systems and Their Applicability to Different Climates and Building Types.

Minimizing Cooling Needs by Building Design.

Ventilative Cooling.

Radiant Cooling.

Evaporative Cooling Systems.

The Earth as a Cooling Source for Buildings.

Cooling of Attached Outdoor Spaces.

Index.

"Sites Unseen" examines the complex intertwining of race and architecture in nineteenth and early-twentieth century American culture, the period not only in which American architecture came of age professionally in the U.S. but also in which ideas about architecture became a prominent part of broader conversations about American culture, history, politics, and&#8212although we have not yet understood this clearly&#8212race relations. This rich and copiously illustrated interdisciplinary study explores the ways that American writing between roughly 1850 and 1930 concerned itself, often intensely, with the racial implications of architectural space primarily, but not exclusively, through domestic architecture.

In addition to identifying an archive of provocative primary materials, "Sites Unseen" draws significantly on important recent scholarship in multiple fields ranging from literature, history, and material culture to architecture, cultural geography, and urban planning. Together the chapters interrogate a variety of expressive American vernacular forms, including the dialect tale, the novel of empire, letters, and pulp stories, along with the plantation cabin, the West Indian cottage, the Latin American plaza, and the "Oriental" parlor. These are some of the overlooked plots and structures that can and should inform a more comprehensive consideration of the literary and cultural meanings of American architecture. Making sense of the relations between architecture, race, and American writing of the long nineteenth century&#8212in their regional, national, and hemispheric contexts&#8212"Sites Unseen" provides a clearer view not only of this catalytic era but also more broadly of what architectural historian Dell Upton has aptly termed the social experience of the built environment.

The Manhattan skyline is one of the great wonders of the modern world. But how and why did it form? Much has been written about the city's architecture and its general history, but little work has explored the economic forces that created the skyline. This book chronicles the economic history of the Manhattan skyline. In the process, the book debunks some widely-held misconceptions about the city's history. Part I lays out the historical and environmental background that established Manhattan's real estate trajectory before the Skyscraper Revolution at the end of the 19th century. The book begins with Manhattan's natural and geological history and then moves on to how it influenced early land use and neighborhood formation, and how these early decisions eventually impacted the location of skyscrapers. Part II focuses specifically on the economic history of skyscrapers and the skyline, investigating the reasons for their heights, frequencies, locations, and shapes. The book discusses why skyscrapers emerged downtown and why they appeared three miles to the north in midtown, but not in between. Contrary to popular belief it was not due to the depths of Manhattan's bedrock, nor the presence of Grand Central Station. Rather midtown's emergence was a response to the economic and demographic forces that were taking place north of 14th Street after the Civil War. The book also presents the first rigorous investigation of the causes of the building boom during the Roaring Twenties. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the boom was largely a rational response to the economic growth of the nation and city. The last chapter investigates the value of Manhattan Island and the relationship between skyscrapers and land prices. Finally, an Epilogue offers policy recommendations for a resilient and robust future skyline.

Building Community is an in-depth, wide-ranging survey of contemporary apartment buildings, not as raw canvases for interior decoration but as a building type of growing significance. An introduction presents the history of multiple-occupancy housing through its most innovative 20th-century exemplars, from the urbane blocks of Auguste Perret and Henri Sauvage in Paris, to the landscaped housing estates of Weimar Germany and the visionary schemes of Le Corbusier. The heart of the book features 39 recent or ongoing projects, designed by leading international studios and rising talents. Buildings range from social housing and micro apartments to urban villages, megastructures and innovative high-rises. Each project is considered for the way in which it enriches the lives of residents and the city, and is shown through drawings and photographs, taken from the street and within. The book also includes interviews with such contemporary masters of apartment design as Michael Maltzan, Lorcan O'Herlihy, Edouard Francois and Bjarke Ingels. As our cities grow more crowded, it is critical that we produce creative buildings that enhance the lives of their inhabitants, their surroundings and the urban environment as a whole. Building Community offers dozens of proven successes to designers and apartment-dwellers. With 348 illustrations in colour

This sure-to-be-controversial work examines the failure of city planning in America, the results of that failure as seen in the day-to-day lives of our cities, and the reasons behind that failure. Hommann contends that, although desperately needed, by and large city planning has no effect on urban development in this country where developers are supreme. For the most part, local planners must deal with a daily fiction regarding their involvement in developmental decisions, a fiction that ultimately drives many into alternate pursuits. After tracing the history of American development and planning, the author argues that greed settled this country and continues to control economic and developmental decisions, accompanied in this century by criminal conspiracy. The result is the civic deprivation that debilitates millions of Americans culturally, socially, and economically. This study will be of interest to scholars, students, and professionals in planning, urban studies, architecture, public administration, sociology, political science, housing, civil engineering, traffic engineering, transportation planning, city management, and environment; legislators, local politicians, civic leaders, lawyers dealing in public policy and land development, as well as enlightened citizens from the business world.