Books about Architectural from Amazon.com

2008 Silver Award Winner, Architecture Category, Independent Publisher Book Awards. and Winning entry, General Trade Illustrated Category, in the 2008 New England Book Show sponsored by Bookbuilders of Boston.

This is a book that students of architecture will want to keep in the studio and in their backpacks. It is also a book they may want to keep out of view of their professors, for it expresses in clear and simple language things that tend to be murky and abstruse in the classroom. These 101 concise lessons in design, drawing, the creative process, and presentation—from the basics of "How to Draw a Line" to the complexities of color theory—provide a much-needed primer in architectural literacy, making concrete what too often is left nebulous or open-ended in the architecture curriculum. Each lesson utilizes a two-page format, with a brief explanation and an illustration that can range from diagrammatic to whimsical. The lesson on "How to Draw a Line" is illustrated by examples of good and bad lines; a lesson on the dangers of awkward floor level changes shows the television actor Dick Van Dyke in the midst of a pratfall; a discussion of the proportional differences between traditional and modern buildings features a drawing of a building split neatly in half between the two. Written by an architect and instructor who remembers well the fog of his own student days, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School provides valuable guideposts for navigating the design studio and other classes in the architecture curriculum. Architecture graduates—from young designers to experienced practitioners—will turn to the book as well, for inspiration and a guide back to basics when solving a complex design problem..
Price: $7.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

• Considerably easier to use than other 3D software, Google SketchUp has found a niche in architecture, landscaping, real estate development, furniture building, and other design professions
• The fun and friendly approach assumes no previous 3D modeling experience and explains the basic concepts involved in 3D modeling
• Shows readers how to build a 3D model, print it, share it, export it to another professional design package, export it to Google Earth, and create a 3D animated tour
• Helps readers harness the power of Google SketchUp so that they can populate Google Earth with 3D buildings, monuments, and other sculptures

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Price: $11.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The morning hours before the hustle and bustle of the day commences is the perfect time to pause and enjoy a sense of renewal and vitality On the morning of December 7, 2006, Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes each took a digital photo of everyday objects randomly arranged on their kitchen tables and, unbeknownst to one another, uploaded them to the website Flickr.

"A Year of Mornings" collects 236 images – always taken before 10AM without discussion between the two women – from this uniquely 21st-century artistic collaboration. The intimacy of these photographs – discarded clothing, a view of a snowy day from the window, a table cloth – combined with their striking similarities in color and composition defies the reality of their long-distance collaboration. While clearly kindred spirits, the two women have met in person only once. Their friendship is maintained solely online, sustained by a shared love for moments of serenity, solitude, and peacefulness. The annotated photographs in "A Year of Mornings" radiate an aura of sweetness and light – the promise of a new day.

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Price: $12.38 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Size: 12x12. Flower & Garden.
Price: $7.27 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning ...[It] can also be seen in a much larger context   It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the bitingly satiric account of traditional planning theory can still be read for pleasure even by those who long ago absorbed and appropriated the book's arguments."  Jane Jacobs, an editor and writer on architecture in New York City in the early sixties, argued that urban diversity and vitality were being destroyed by powerful architects and city planners.  Rigorous, sane, and delightfully epigrammatic, Jacobs's small masterpiece is a blueprint for the humanistic management of cities.  It is sensible, knowledgeable, readable, indispensable.  The author has written a new foreword for this Modern Library edition..
Price: $12.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

How do designers get ideas? Many spend their time searching for clever combinations of forms, fonts, and colors inside the design annuals and monographs of other designers’ work. For those looking to challenge the cut-and-paste mentality there are few resources that are both informative and inspirational. In Graphic Design: The New Basics, Ellen Lupton, best-selling author of such books as Thinking with Type and Design It Yourself, and design educator Jennifer Cole Phillips refocus design instruction on the study of the fundamentals of form and ideas in a critical, rigorous way, informed by contemporary media, theory, and software systems.

Through visual demonstrations and concise commentary, The New Basics shows students and professionals how to build interest and complexity around simple relationships between formal elements of two-dimensional design such as point, line, plane, scale, hierarchy, layers, and transparency. The New Basics explains the key concepts of visual language that inform any work of design—from a logo or letterhead to a complex Web site. It takes a fresh approach to design instruction by emphasizing visually intensive, form-based thinking in a manner that is in tune with the latest developments in contemporary media, theory, art, and technology. Colorful, compact, and clearly written, The New Basics is the new indispensable resource for anyone seeking a smart inspiring introduction to graphic design, and destined to become the standard reference work in design education.

www.gdbasics.com, the on-line companion to Graphic Design: The New Basics, includes a variety of student responses to the design problems featured in the book. Sample syllabi for a variety of course levels are included along with key technical information from each chapter.

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Price: $19.24 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Through all-new, full-color photography, Stanford White, Architect is the first book to explicitly feature the work of the principal genius of the illustrious American architecture firm of McKim, Mead & White. The firm was also a prime mover in the realm of residential design, with Stanford White as its visionary head. As an architect of opulent houses—in Newport, Rhode Island, along the Hudson, on the Long Island Gold Coast, and elsewhere—Stanford White had few peers. His genius for this form is expressed nowhere more wonderfully than in such personal masterpieces as his country home Box Hill and his city home in Gramercy Park. Along with residential commissions for such eminent American families as the Vanderbilts, Astors, Pulitzers, Paynes, and Whitneys, Stanford White lent his eye and hand to New York’s Pennsylvania Station, Brooklyn Museum, The American Academy in Rome, and the Boston Public Library, as well as many diverse commissions, including social clubs, public buildings, churches, monuments, university buildings, and many other forms, each of which is represented in this landmark volume..
Price: $43.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Designers are quick to tell us about their sources of inspiration, but they are much less willing to reveal such critical matters as how to find work, how much they charge, and what to do when a client rejects three weeks of work and refuses to pay the bill. How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul addresses the concerns of young designers who want to earn a living by doing expressive and meaningful work, and who want to avoid becoming hired drones working on soulless projects. Written by a designer for designers, it combines practical advice with philosophical guidance to help young professionals embark on their careers.

How should designers manage the creative process? What's the first step in the successful interpretation of a brief? How do you generate ideas when everything just seems blank? How to be a graphic designer offers clear, concise guidance for these questions, along with focused, no-nonsense strategies for setting up, running, and promoting a studio, finding work, and collaborating with clients.

The book also includes inspiring interviews with ten leading designers, including Rudy VanderLans (Emigre), John Warwicker (Tomato), Neville Brody (Research Studios), and Andy Cruz (House Industries). All told, How to be a graphic designer covers just about every aspect of the profession, and stands as an indispensable guide for any young designer..
Price: $11.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]