Inscriptions on buildings are a distinctive feature of Islamic architecture, and this book studies the 79 surviving monumental inscriptions in the Iranian world from the first five centuries of the Muslim era (A.D. 622-1106), the period in which all the major trends of monumental epigraphy in the area were set. These foundation, commemorative, and funerary texts come from the region between Iraq and Soviet Central Asia. Written primarily in Arabic, they embellished architectural monuments and furnishings whose nature implies the construction of major buildings. An extended introduction discusses such general topics as titulature, patronage, and stylistic development. Each text is then presented individually with photographs, drawings, transcriptions, translations and an extensive commentary, which presents the inscription in its larger palaeographic and historical contexts.

Teaches the principles behind the successful planning and creation of inspired built forms and urban places This book offers an integrated understanding of both the principles and the perception of the design of built environments and public spaces. It outlines the fundamental characteristics that are evident in the creation of built form and illustrates how they determine the experience of resultant places. It also consolidates the key criteria that need to be taken into consideration in the development of these areas. All of the above-mentioned aims to provide designers with a solid understanding of the implications of their decisions on perception and behavior during the creation of new spaces. Design and Order: Perceptual experience of built form - Principles in the Planning and Making of Place starts by examining the designing of natural environments and the affect that they have on humans. It teaches readers how people experience and are shaped by a space--via their eyes, brain, and overall perception. It then instructs on proper grammar of form and syntax so that designers can understand how to pursue design processes systematically. The book then takes readers through this process of designing, informing them on the principles of form, function, configuration, communication, organization, color and contrasts, building structures, good practice and more. Seeks to improve the methodological approach to the planning and design of buildings Broadly address all of the functions that impact the realization of new built and urban form Outlines the fundamental characteristics that are evident in the design of built forms and illustrates how these characteristics determine the experience of the resultant places Comprehensively covers the ideas, principles, and the perception of design Teaches designers to make informed decisions about applying or discarding principles when creating spaces. Design and Order is a unique book that will appeal to students and professionals in architecture, urban design and planning, as well as designers and developers.

A stunning showcase of the unique lifestyle opportunities afforded by contemporary courtyard design in the Asia-Pacific region. Courtyards have long played an important function in residential design, regulating light, shade and the use of space. With thousands of years of tradition as inspiration, contemporary architects are realizing courtyard living afresh. This lavish survey of 25 residences across the Asia-Pacific region features homes from Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, India, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Structured by courtyard function, the book consists of five chapters - on privacy; multigenerational living; sightlines; light and ventilation; and living with nature - that are richly illustrated with photography as well as architectural illustrations showing courtyard positions within floor plans. Showcasing the unique lifestyle opportunities afforded by contemporary courtyard design, this is an inspirational resource for anyone interested in indoor-outdoor living.

Water in Social Imagination considers how human communities have known, imagined and shaped water - and how water has shaped both material culture and the imagination. Essays from diverse perspectives offer histories of water at different scales - from community water wells and sacred springs to Siberian rivers and the regulated space of the Baltic Sea. From early modernization through Soviet style technological optimism to contemporary environmentalism, water's ideological uses are multiple. With sustained attention not just to state policy and the technologies of high modernity, but to creative resistance to utilitarian imaginations, these essays insist on fluidities of meaning, ambiguities that derive both from water's physical mutability and from its dual nature as life necessity and agent of destruction.

Living and working in extra-terrestrial habitats means being potentially vulnerable to very harsh environmental, social, and psychological conditions. With the stringent technical specifications for launch vehicles and transport into space, a very tight framework for the creation of habitable space is set. These constraints result in a very demanding "partnership" between the habitat and the inhabitant. This book is the result of researching the interface between people, space and objects in an extra-terrestrial environment. The evaluation of extra-terrestrial habitats in comparison to the user's perspective leads to a new framework, comparing these buildings from the viewpoint of human activity. It can be used as reference or as conceptual framework for the purpose of evaluation. It also summarizes relevant human-related design directions. The work is addressed to architects and designers as well as engineers.

Undeservedly out of print for decades, American Plants for American Gardens was one of the first popular books to promote the use of plant ecology and native plants in gardening and landscaping. Emphasizing the strong links between ecology and aesthetics, nature and design, the book demonstrates the basic, practical application of ecological principles to the selection of plant groups or "associations" that are inherently suited to a particular climate, soil, topography, and lighting. Specifically, American Plants for American Gardens focuses on the vegetation concentrated in the northeastern United States, but which extends from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Alleghenies and south to Georgia. The plant community settings featured include the open field, hillside, wood and grove, streamside, ravine, pond, bog, and seaside. Plant lists and accompanying texts provide valuable information for the design and management of a wide range of project types: residential properties, school grounds, corporate office sites, roadways, and parks. In his introduction, Darrel G. Morrison locates American Plants for American Gardens among a handful of influential early books advocating the protection and use of native plants--a major area of interest today among serious gardeners, landscape architects, nursery managers, and students of ecology, botany, and landscape design. Included is an appendix of plant name changes that have occurred since the book's original publication in 1929. Ahead of their time in many ways, Edith A. Roberts and Elsa Rehmann can now speak to new generations of ecologically conscious Americans.

This book reviews a variety of methods for wave-based acoustic simulation and recent applications to architectural and environmental acoustic problems. Following an introduction providing an overview of computational simulation of sound environment, the book is in two parts: four chapters on methods and four chapters on applications. The first part explains the fundamentals and advanced techniques for three popular methods, namely, the finite-difference time-domain method, the finite element method, and the boundary element method, as well as alternative time-domain methods. The second part demonstrates various applications to room acoustics simulation, noise propagation simulation, acoustic property simulation for building components, and auralization. This book is a valuable reference that covers the state of the art in computational simulation for architectural and environmental acoustics.

The topology optimization method solves the basic engineering problem of distributing a limited amount of material in a design space. The first edition of this book has become the standard text on optimal design, which is concerned with the optimization of structural topology, shape and material. This edition has been substantially revised and updated to reflect progress made in modelling and computational procedures. It also encompasses a comprehensive and unified description of the state of the art of the so-called material distribution method, based on the use of mathematical programming and finite elements. Applications treated include not only structures but also MEMS and materials.

The Reinvented City reflects on externity, the principal feature of a reinvented city. Three basic trends of the city are investigated; "discomposed," "generic" and "segregated" phenomena with the loss of the city as a space of social interaction and communication. Important questions are posed: What is the true public sphere in contemporary societies? What is the contemporary public space corresponding to it? In what way can the city project construct contemporary public space?

Kelly Hoppen, multi-award-winning designer and TV personality, shares her essential style solutions that will transform your home. Kelly knows what works, and here she shows you how to do it by bringing together creative ideas and inspiration alongside a wealth of professional know-how, practical advice and cost-effective style solutions that can work for every home, big or small. Whether you are a young professional renting a flat, a first-time homebuyer or an experienced homeowner who wants to give your home a dash of Kelly Hoppen glamour, this book will help you create a beautiful, functional and relaxing home that suits your individual needs and reflects your personality. With over 200 images, carefully selected and curated by a world-renowned design guru with over 40 years' experience, Kelly Hoppen's Essential Style Solutions for Every Home gives you: Clear and easy-to-follow advice on the first principles of style including tones and colour, texture, light and finishing touches. The lowdown on practicalities, budgeting and prioritizing from Kelly's expert perspective. Tried-and-tested tricks of the trade that show you how to use colour and tones that will make your rooms feel bigger and brighter. Tips on how to dress and accessorise rooms for maximum impact. Room-by-room case studies focus on the main spaces in the home as well as dead space such as corridors, addressing the feeling you are aiming to create, and setting out the core elements and top styling tips to allow you to achieve this. Where applicable, Kelly makes cost-cutting suggestions for saving money by choosing less-expensive materials, advising what it's worth splashing out on and where you can afford to spend less, as well as ideas for making quick-and-easy seasonal updates to inexpensively refresh your rooms on a regular basis. Get the luxe look for less with Kelly Hoppen's Essential Style Solutions for Every Home.

This book is about African and Asian cities. Illustrated through selected case cities, the book brings together a rich collection of papers by leading scholars and practitioners in Africa and Asia to offer empirical analysis and up-to-date discussions and assessments of the urban challenges and solutions for their cities. A number of key topics concerning housing, sustainable urban development and climate change in Africa and Asia are explored along with how policy interventions and partnerships deliver specific forms of urban development. It is intended for all who are interested in the state of the cities and urban development in Africa and Asia. Africa and Asia present, in many ways, useful lessons in dealing with the burgeoning urban population, and the problems surrounding this influx of people and climate change in the developing word.

The purpose of the Structures Notebook is to explain, in the simplest possible terms, about the structure of 'things', and to demonstrate the fact that everything you see and touch, live in and use, living and man-made, has a structure which is acted upon by natural forces and reacts to these forces according to its form and material.

The Structures Notebook was originally written by Tony Hunt as a brief teaching aid for students at the Royal College of Art who had very little, if any, knowledge of physics or structural behaviour. It has now been expanded, and with this second edition, updated, into a more comprehensive book while retaining a simple visual and non-mathematical approach to structures.
The book is divided into seven main sections, in a logical sequence, and is written in simple language. Each section, related to its text, has a comprehensive set of hand-drawn sketches which show, as simply as possible, what the text is about. The book is almost totally non-mathematical since the author believes very strongly that structural behaviour can be understood best by diagrams and simple descriptions and that mathematics for the majority of people interested in design is a barrier. The design of structures is a combination of art and science and to achieve the best solution, concept should always come before calculation.
* Includes a new chapter with twelve further inventive solutions from well-known engineers
* Hundreds of illustrations communicate a clear understanding of the subject, without mathematics
* Comprehensive coverage of key information, with examples and insights from this influential structural engineer

Fumio Sasaki is not an enlightened minimalism expert or organizing guru like Marie Kondo-he's just a regular guy who was stressed out and constantly comparing himself to others, until one day he decided to change his life by saying goodbye to everything he didn't absolutely need. The effects were remarkable: Sasaki gained true freedom, new focus, and a real sense of gratitude for everything around him. In Goodbye, Things Sasaki modestly shares his personal minimalist experience, offering specific tips on the minimizing process and revealing how the new minimalist movement can not only transform your space but truly enrich your life. The benefits of a minimalist life can be realized by anyone, and Sasaki's humble vision of true happiness will open your eyes to minimalism's potential.

Nordic Classicism presents the first English-language survey of an important yet short-lived movement in modern architectural history. It was through the Nordic classical movement that Scandinavian architecture first attracted international attention. It was the Nordic Pavilions, rather than Le Corbusier's modernism, which generated most admiration at the 1925 World Fair, and it was the Nordic classical architects - including Gunnar Asplund, Sigurd Lewerentz, and Alvar Aalto - who went on to establish Scandinavia's reputation for modern design. Yet this brief classsical movement was quickly eclipsed by the rise of international modernism, and has often been overlooked in architectural studies. The book explores the lives and works of various key contributors to Nordic classicism - with eleven chapters each focussing on a different architect and on one of the period's outstanding works (including the Stockholm Central Library, the Resurrection Chapel, and the Woodland Cemetery). Famous architects and their works are examined alongside many lesser-known examples, to provide a comprehensive and in-depth account. As we approach the centenary of many of the events to which the book refers, now is a timely opportunity to explore the key themes of the Nordic classical movement, its architects, their buildings and the social and cultural changes to which they were responding.

Retracing the contours of a bitter controversy over the meaning of sacred architecture that flared up among some of the leading lights of the Carolingian renaissance, Samuel Collins explores how ninth-century authors articulated the relationship of form to function and ideal to reality in the ecclesiastical architecture of the Carolingian empire. This debate involved many of the major figures of the era, and at its core questioned what it meant for any given place or building to be thought of as specially holy. Many of the signature moments of the Carolingian Renaissance, in church reform, law, and political theory, depended on rival and bitterly controversial definitions of sacred architecture in the material world.

These days human beings have a profound influence on aspects of the planetary ecosystem, e.g. on climate change and biodiversity, to name only two. This manual is intended to help practitioners, who are dealing with human-based rural and urban settlement-ecosystems, in the key steps towards their realization (design, implementation, and operation) and helpful for all, who are concerned about ensuring their practical sustainability. The ecosystem-approach is holistic and integrative, encompassing various disciplines like architecture, landscape architecture, environmental engineering, social sciences, life sciences, ecology, and management. It also considers issues such as energy-savings, ecological cycles, reuse, natural resources, socio-cultural background, real participation, and holistic quality management. Thus it not only explains the general concept, the steps of realization and the respective involved stakeholders, but also gives hints and tools for practitioners. The information, recommendations and tools are directed to the following target groups, among others: * Local planning authorities (giving hints for the procedure and the involved stakeholders) * Designers (holistic approach, procedures, tools) * Regulatory bodies, licensing and financing authorities (requirements for approach and procedures) * Construction and implementing firms and institutions (recommendations, tools) * Operating bodies (hints for operation, tools) The experiences are based on a joint German-Ghanaian program at Valley View University, the biggest private university in Ghana, intended to help realize the vision of a truly holistic ecological university. It was financed originally by the German Ministry of Education and Research and recently by the German Ministry for the Environment in the frame of the Climate Change Initiative of the Federal Government of Germany.

"Architectures: Modernism and After "surveys the history of the building from the advent of industrialization to the cultural imperatives of the present moment. The collection of essays brings together international art and architectural historians to consider a range of topics that have influenced the shape, profile, and aesthetics of the built environment from 1851 to the present time, showing how buildings and our responses to them are embedded in the cultural process and the ethics of production.

This volume presents crucial "moments" in the history of the field when the architecture of the past is made to respond to new and changing cultural circumstances. In doing so, "Architectures: Modernism and After" provides a view of architectural history as part of a continuing dialogue between aesthetic criteria and social and cultural imperatives.