This issue of "DASH" examines the history and the future of the sustainable home, with particular attention to technical issues such as solar energy and ventilation and material-use concepts. Essays and planning documentation provide a critical analysis of the current state of affairs as well as an exploration of possibilities for the future.

This is the first book to attempt a comprehensice treatment of the wide variety of nomad tents still in use in the Middle East: it is both architectural and ethnographical. It draws primarily on the author's own extensive fieldwork sind 1967, providing largely first-hand information on a fascinating but badly-neglected area of architecture. He began the task of recording these traditions with a sense of urgency, as they seemed threatened with imminent extinction. The survey was therefore made in sufficient detail to allow the tents to be reconstructed. Changes over the last thirty years have in fact led to reductions in the number of nomads, severe weakening of their economy, the intrusion of new materials, and the adoption of mechanised ransport; some, but not all, of the types studied have indeed disappeared. Information on areas not visited by the author has been contributed by ethnologist colleagues, who share his admiration for a closeness of fit between the rigorous constraints of nomadic life and a response arrived at through more than a millenium of experience and craftmanship. Throughout, the work emphasises the ethnological context in which these dwellings are used. Each type is first located as exactly as possible, named, and given a short historical background; its general characteristics are summarised, and it is considered in relation to other, comparable types. Its structure and covering are then described in full detail, together with the processes of manufacture, maintenance, operation, transport, and the procedures followed for pitching and striking. Variations in the plan and internal arrangements are discussed in relation to ownership and residence, and the principal moments in the life cycle of the inhabitants, at marriage, the inauguration of the household, the birth of a son, and inheritance. Local terms are given for the parts and processes. Camping patterns, migrations and camp planning are explained, and details of the climate of the areas concerned. Each tent is represented in measured drawings or sketches with photographs. The classification in the book relates to the map of nomadic tent types already published by the author (TAVO A IX 5, Reichert 1990), grouping the tents according to structural type and ethnic group; 56 types are described, together with some related hut types. These two volumes, on tents with rigid, self-supporting frames, are the first part of the work. The second part, also in two volumes, and now being prepared, will deal with the black tension-tents. The author, a qualified architect, took his doctorate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1980. He has been working at the Institute for Ethnology, Cologne University, since 1981, and with the Central Asian Seminar, University of Bonn, since 1992. He held the Endowed Professorship for Islamic Art and Archaeology at the University of Bamberg in 1990-91.

"Everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul." Samuel Mockbee

Based on this simple premise, in 1992 Samuel Mockbee launched the Rural Studio to create homes and community buildings for the poor while offering hands-on architecture training for coming generations. Choosing impoverished Hale County, Alabama, for his bold experiment, Mockbee and his Auburn University students peppered this left-behind corner of the rural South with striking buildings of exceptional design. Most use recycled and curious materials: hay bales, surplus tires, leftover carpet tiles, even discarded 1980 Chevy Caprice windshields. The publication of "Rural Studio" brought this innovative work to the public, and five printings later continues to affect the way people view architecture.

Since Mockbee's death in 2001, the Rural Studio has continued to thrive, a tribute to its founder's vision. In 2004, the American Institute of Architects posthumously awarded Mockbee its highest honor, the Gold Medal for Architecture. Under Mockbee's successor, Andrew Freear, the studio has seeded southwest Alabama with an additional seventeen architectural landmarks, and all are shown here. With thoughtful text from Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and stunning photographs by Timothy Hursley, this new book explains the changes the studio has undergone during the last four years and its continuing ability to "proceed and be bold," as Mockbee counseled.

" Winner of the best published book of the year award, presented by the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Assocation."
Nova Scotia has a rich heritage of houses dating from the 1700s. Here, the best examples of every important house style over the past 250 years are brought together in full colour. The authors have travelled to all parts of the province to select the finest examples of architectural heritage. Most of these buildings are accessible to the public and some have been carefully restored, allowing you to revisit the way people lived in Nova Scotia's past.
You'll read how each house style reached Nova Scotia and discover how to identify not only its characteristic features but variants unique to the province. The authors also explain how new technologies have affected architectural style, and how the most available building material -- wood -- was used for houses designed to be constructed of brick, stone and mortar.

The Karoo is big sky country; a land of vast plains punctuated by flat-topped mountains, conical hills and secluded valleys, a land of scrubby bushes and hardy trees, where pioneers carved roads out of rock to set down roots in an unforgiving environment.

Here dreams are born, legends are made, and outcasts find sanctuary. It is also an ancient place, whose story is revealed through geology, fossils and artefacts, and whose human lineage predates any written history. Today, the people who inhabit it must manifest the same fortitude that sustained those who left their footprints in the primieval mud.

In Hidden Karoo you will find all this, and more. Through a series of superb photo-essays, this majestic place is revealed as a land where conservation and neglect are seldom far apart, where one town boasts splendidly restored buildings, while along a dusty road lie forgotten villages waiting for... something. Could it be a renewal, or a slow death? There’s nothing novel about the movement of people from country to city, and the Karoo mimics other parts of the world where rural areas become derelict as they are depopulated.

Hidden Karoo presents a snapshot of the region, offering a glimpse into towns and villages, farms and churches, public buildings and private homes, all against a backdrop of awe-inspiring landscapes. Through words and pictures, it prompts us to consider what was, what is and, perhaps, what might be. One constant about the Karoo is change. A book can do no more than capture a moment in time or depict fragments of a place, but in doing so, it bears witness to the past and offers the hope that there may yet be a future for this unparalleled part of our country.