The worldwide use of building envelopes in steel and glass is one of the characteristic features of modern architecture. Many of these pre- and post-war buildings are now suffering severe defects in the building fabric, which necessitate measures to preserve the buildings. In this endeavor, aspects of architectural design, building physics, and the preservation of historic buildings play a key role. Using a selection of 20 iconic buildings in Europe and the USA, the book documents the current technological status of the three most common strategies used today: restoration, rehabilitation, and replacement. The buildings include Fallingwater House by Frank Lloyd Wright, Farnsworth House by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Fagus Factory and Bauhaus Building by Walter Gropius.

In countless neighborhoods across America, the streets are lined with houses representing
no established architectural style. Many of the 80 million homes in the United States
today have only loose-fitting, general names like ranch, duplex, bungalow, and flat.
Most, however, cannot even be identified by these common names, much less by an
architectural type such as Colonial, Italianate, or Queen Anne. The few regionally
recognized vernacular terms-- shotgun, Cape (Cod), three-decker, and the like--remain
exceptions rather than the rule. In this innovative, copiously illustrated guide, Thomas C.
Hubka considers why most ordinary, working-class houses lack an adequate identifying
nomenclature and proposes new ways to name and classify these anonymous structures,
shedding a fresh light on their role in the development of American domestic culture and
its housing landscape.
Popular, developer-built, tract, speculative, everyday--whatever they are called,
these common homes constitute the largest portion of American housing in all regions
and historic periods. Without classification, these dwellings tend to be left out of histories
of American building, neglected in preservation surveys and plans, and ignored when it
comes to considering their impact on American culture. Current methods of interpreting
common houses need not be replaced, Hubka shows, but only modified to include a
broader, more complete spectrum of common dwellings. As Hubka explains, by applying
an order of census and a floor-plan analysis, scholars can adequately characterize
the actual homes in which most Americans live, particularly in recent times after the
widespread growth of suburban homes.
Based on years of field observations, measured drawings, and surveys of regional
house types, this handbook provides a working vocabulary for the study and appreciation
of America¹s common houses and will prove useful to preservationists, academics, and
architects, as well as owners and residents of America¹s most ubiquitous residences.

The Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio was one of the most influential figures that the field of architecture has ever produced. For classical architects, the term Palladian stands for a vocabulary of architectural forms embodying perfection and beauty. Of even greater significance than Palladio's buildings is his treatise I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books On Architecture), the most successful architectural treatise of the Renaissance and one of the two or three most important books in the literature of architecture. First published in Italian in 1570, it has been translated into every major Western language.This is the first English translation of Palladio in over 250 years, making it the only translation available in modern English. Until now, English-language readers have had to rely mostly on a facsimile of Isaac Ware's 1738 translation and the eighteenth-century engravings prepared for that text. This new translation by Robert Tavernor and Richard Schofield contains Palladio's original woodcuts, reproduced in facsimile and positioned correctly, adjacent to the text. The book also contains a glossary that explains technical terms in their original context, a bibliography of recent Palladio research, and an introduction to Palladio and his times.The First Book discusses building materials and techniques, as well as the five orders of architecture: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. Palladio describes the characteristics of each order and illustrates them. The Second Book discusses private town houses and country estates, almost all designed by Palladio. The Third Book discusses streets, bridges, piazzas, and basilicas, most of ancient Roman origin. The Fourth Book discusses ancient Roman temples, including the Pantheon.

Taking the Soviet Union Apart Room by Room investigates what happens to domestic spaces, architecture, and the lives of urbanites during a socioeconomic upheaval. Kateryna Malaia analyzes how Soviet and post-Soviet city dwellers, navigating a crisis of inadequate housing and extreme social disruption between the late 1980s and 2000s, transformed their dwellings as their countries transformed around them. Soviet infrastructure remained but, in their domestic spaces, urbanites transitioned to post-Soviet citizens. The two decades after the collapse of the USSR witnessed a major urban apartment remodeling boom. Malaia shows how, in the context of limited residential mobility, those remodeling and modifying their homes formed new lifestyles defined by increased spatial privacy. Remodeled interiors served as a material expression of a social identity above the poverty line, in place of the outdated Soviet signifiers of well-being. Connecting home improvement, self-reinvention, the end of state socialism, and the lived experience of change, Malaia puts together a comprehensive portrait of the era. Malaia shows both the stubborn continuities and the dramatic changes that accompanied the collapse of the USSR. Making the case for similarities throughout the former Soviet empire, this study is based on interviews and fieldwork done primarily in Kyiv and Lviv, Ukraine. Many of the buildings described are similar to those damaged or destroyed by Russian bombings or artillery fire following the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. A book about major historic events written through the lens of everyday life, Taking Soviet Union Apart is also about the meaning of home in a dramatically changing world.

The two Bern architects Bernhard Aebi and Pascal Vincent have designed an impressive portfolio of works since 1996, including renovations of historical buildings such as the Bundeshaus in Bern, but also many residential and administrative buildings, mostly following competition successes and always achieving great architectural qualities. Text in English and German.

The farmhouse gained a contemporary freshness while respecting existing elements and using only a few external measures. Inside, a surprisingly multifaceted world has been created that impresses with its high-quality finishing, humour and consistency. The conversion thrives on surprising moments: the tension created by differently proportioned rooms, the varied interior furbishing and the direct nature of specific solutions that pick up on original uses. Text in English and German.

Das Berliner Zimmer ist seit jeher Zumutung und Angebot zugleich: dunkel, schwer zu beheizen, ohne klar definierte Funktion. Ein Raum, der zur kreativen Aneignung einladt, der geliebt und gehasst wird - aber bisher kaum erforscht wurde. Jan Herres leistet in diesem Buch Pionierarbeit. Er zeigt auf, wie das Berliner Zimmer ab dem 18. Jahrhundert entstand und warum es bis heute Eingang in den Berliner Wohnungsbau findet. Die architekturgeschichtliche Beschreibung wird durch Fallstudien und Bildstrecken zu heutigen Formen der Nutzung und Moeblierung erganzt. Durch die Erfassung von Grundrissen, Groessen und Wohnpraktiken liegt mit Das Berliner Zimmer. Geschichte, Typologie, Nutzungsaneignung die erste Anthologie des Berliner Zimmers vor, die zugleich ein Pladoyer dafur ist, Wohnarchitektur nutzungsoffen und wandelbar fur kunftige Anforderungen zu planen.

The overall aim of the first chapter is to improve the knowledge about the simulation of thermal indoor climate for buildings in different climate conditions and its application for computer-based simulations. The work is done in order to simplify the use of CFD as a powerful tool in order to model the temperature distribution within the building envelope in two real cases in Switzerland, and promote a comfortable indoor environment with a maximum reduction of energy consumption. High energy materials like cement, glass, brick and steel are typically used in building construction. However, it is possible to reduce the environmental impact of any structure through the use of alternative, low-energy materials such as Silica aerogels (aerogel-based plasters), Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), Polyurethane foams (PU), and Mineral wool (Stone or Glass). Increased interest has focused on the development of advanced sustainable construction materials (Nano thermal insulation materials, aerogels, etc.) with adequate mechanical properties and durability performance. The most convenient way to get the most out of their investment in a building is to use energy modeling software. The second chapter will be primarily concerned with the choice of materials, then the suitability of insulation exterior facades. Geothermal is the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly method of heating and cooling buildings. The design of borehole thermal energy, as a common type of geothermal energy, is presented in Chapter Three. The calculation is based on heat transfer principles, including a case study of a BHE for a one-story house with all the properties related to analyze the BHE, e.g., to calculate the changes in the temperature of the circulating fluid. Economic analysis of implementing renewable energy technologies in buildings is especially important for a transition away from the greenhouse emitting energies since a great majority of the current capital stock and infrastructure of today's economic systems are adjusted based on fossil-fuel energies. Chapter Four presents a diverse collection of examples with economic analysis of costs and paybacks covering warm vs cold, social complexes vs private houses, and new vs historical buildings. Solar energy has various uses besides more energy production and it can be incorporated in applications with cooling, heating and desalination processes. The main objectives of Chapter Five are to assess the degree of energy reduction using solar energy in buildings and to establish the requirements for energy-efficient design of buildings in cold/hot regions. Payback period analysis that evaluates the cost savings resulting from energy efficiency improvements is also addressed.

The Tiny House Movement: Challenging Consumer Culture features in-depth interviews with movement residents, builders, and advocates, as well as the author's insights from her fieldwork of living tiny. In it, we learn how the movement is challenging consumerism, overwork, and environmental destruction and facilitating a more meaningful understanding of home. This book highlights that the tiny house movement is more than a lifestyle choice and that the movement challenges the consumerist lifestyle. In Canada and the United States, we are taught that bigger is better and that constant growth in our personal wealth, accumulation, and in the economy is a sign of our success. We sacrifice well-being and life satisfaction because of our relationship with 'stuff.' This leads to personal debt and unsustainability in our relationships, communities, and the environment. This is the first book to examine the tiny house movement as a challenge to consumer culture by demonstrating its potential to offer individual, collective, and societal change.