Practical Straw Bale Building

Ebook Title: Practical Straw Bale Building
Author: Murray Hollis
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing (March 2005)
Paperback: 104 pages
ISBN-10: 0643069771
ISBN-13: 978-0643069770

Ebook Description
Building with straw bales is being embraced by amateurs and professionals for its versatility, comfort, environmental friendliness and high insulation. New methods should expand its growing worldwide popularity.

Ebook Review
Practical Straw Bale Building describes the best of current practices and introduces new ideas in a practical step-by-step approach, supported by technical data and analysis. Starting from how straw bales are made, it describes the building of both in-fill and load-bearing walls, discusses the properties of materials used to plaster the walls, and details how particular features are incorporated, such as windows, doors, arches, plumbing and electrical. It especially describes new methods that enable the construction of straighter, thinner and easier-to-plaster walls. The book provides a wealth of information and ideas for immediate practical application and as a basis for further development of straw bale building methods. --from the publisher

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Cosmology And Architecture In Premodern Islam: An Architectural Reading Of Mystical Ideas

Ebook Title: Cosmology And Architecture In Premodern Islam: An Architectural Reading Of Mystical Ideas
Author: Samer Akkach
Publisher: State University of New York Press (June 30, 2005)
Hardcover: 262 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0791464113
ISBN-13: 978-0791464113

Ebook Description
A study of cosmology and architecture from a premodern Sufi perspective pre-supposes some knowledge of the trends in Islamic cosmological thinking, of the sense in which cosmology can be related to architecture and of the terrains of mystical thoughts in which the relationship is grounded. Cosmology And Architecture In Premodern Islam presents abrief overview of cosmology in premodern Islam, acritical review of symbolism, being the prevailing method of reading cosmological ideas into architectural forms, and reconstruction of a Sufi perspective on symbolism.

Ebook Review
"In the preface to this book, Samer Akkach describes his childhood experience of watching snowflakes from his window in Damascus. Looking at them, he had the feeling that the flakes were not falling, but that he was floating upward to higher realms. Reading his book has had a similar affect on me, giving the impression that I have been carried up into unutterably strange, but compellingly beautiful, realms of thought and imagination.

In the face of the worldwide homogenization of architectural education, it is salutary to be reminded that architecture wasn't always and everywhere designed solely to satisfy aesthetic, economic, functional and technological exigencies. In many times and places architecture expressed a human sense of the wonder and oneness of the world. Buildings fitted together with myths and cosmologies to convey that people and the cosmos belong together: humans belong in the world they inhabit; and the world belongs together with humans. In this context, buildings serve to mediate between the human as microcosm and the whole world as macrocosm, showing how they inter-reflect and harmonize...

Samer Akkach is one of a small band of architectural scholars who see it as their task to record and interpret these other architectures so that they do not sink into irrecoverable oblivion. He rescues Islamic architecture from amnesia. In his splendid book he applies his intimate knowledge of Arabic and the premodern Sufi texts to convey a lucid and richly detailed account of the manner in which Islamic architecture, in all its forms, from buildings to cities, gardens, landscapes and meta-landscapes, reflected the cosmos, and thus gave back praise. The book is masterful, and a major contribution to architectural scholarship. --by Professor Adrian Snodgrass published in Architectural Theory Review, vol. 11

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New Houses in Old Buildings: Architectural Design

Ebook Title: New Houses in Old Buildings: Architectural Design
Author: Links Editorial
Publisher: Links (June 1998)
Hardcover: 238 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 848986103X
ISBN-13: 978-8489861039


Ebook Description
New Houses in Old Buildings: Architectural Design is the perfect example of the harmony that can stem from the combination of old architecture and new ideas. The pictures in this book are wonderfully informative and artfully done. Weather you're looking for new ideas in architecture or just out to see some cool pictures, you should at the very least just flip through this book.

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New Health Facilities: Architectural Design

Ebook Title: New Health Facilities: Architectural Design
Author: Arian Mostaedi
Publisher: Links (August 2003)
Hardcover: 240 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 8489861668
ISBN-13: 978-8489861664

Ebook Description
Hospitals and health centers are a unique category of architecture with clearly defined characteristics. Health architecture must offer imaginative, constructive responses and flexible solutions to the problem raised by this special type of facility: planning, budgets and space as well as the idiosyncrasies arising from each particular field of health. New Health Facilities presents the best examples of health architecture constructed in recent years and each of the architects demonstrates a solid understanding of the need to create new and better health facilities.

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African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction

Ebook Title: African
Archaeology: A Critical Introduction
Author: Ann Brower Stahl
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (October 1, 2004)
Hardcover: 512 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1405101555
ISBN-13: 978-1405101554

Ebook Description
African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction fills a crucial gap by providing a multi-authored introduction to the archaeology of Africa that challenges misconceptions and claims about Africa’s past, and teaches students how to evaluate these claims. Ann Stahl’s thoughtful introduction explores the contexts that have shaped archaeological knowledge of Africa’s past and asks readers to consider for whom Africa’s past matters and why. African Archaeology comprises unique contributions by prominent archaeologists with regional and topical expertise. They explore the preoccupations and assumptions that have framed research, assess the quality and reliability of evidence, and chart emerging research directions and questions that can help build on the strengths of earlier work, while finally setting aside long-held misperceptions.
African Archaeology is a landmark volume and an indispensable tool for students, instructors, and researchers.

Ebook Review
“Ann Stahl has brought together a set of researchers at the height of their powers and incited them to write chapters that bring home to readers the challenge of the archaeological enterprise. This is the book I would give as a text to seniors and to which I would constantly refer if teaching the archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa to students of any and all levels.” --Nicholas David, University of Calgary

“This book moves beyond the usual seamless syntheses and looks critically at the quality of the evidence, the questions asked and unasked, and how these have been fashioned into narratives about the African past. It is a unique and indispensable resource for Africanist archaeologists, historians, and students of these disciplines.” --Susan McIntosh, Rice University

“I have long desired a text for African archaeology that presents a summary of African prehistory while highlighting the research questions and debates that make the study of the African past exciting; that book is now available. The book’s coverage of sub-Saharan Africa is exemplary.” --Peter Robertshaw, California State University, San Bernardino

"This book is a showcase for African Archaeology and deserves a place on the bookshelves of all who teach world archaeology, as well as those who study biodiversity of wild and domestic resources, or care about the linguistics or history of Africa. I recommend 'African Archaeology' to you enthusiastically." --Journal of African Archaeology

About the Author
Ann Brower Stahl is Professor of Anthropology at Binghamton University, SUNY

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Archaeology of Asia (Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology)

Ebook Title: Archaeology of Asia (Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology)
Author: Miriam T. Stark
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (August 5, 2005)
Paperback: 384 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1405102136
ISBN-13: 978-1405102131

Ebook Description
This book introduction to the archaeology of Asia focuses on case studies from the region’s last 10,000 years of history. Comprising fifteen chapters written by some of the world’s foremost Asia archaeologists, the book sheds light on many of the most compelling aspects of Asian archaeology, from the earliest plant and animal domestication to the emergence of states and empires from Pakistan to North China. In particular, the contributors explore issues of cross-cultural significance, such as migration, ethnicity, urbanism, and technology, challenging readers to think beyond national and regional boundaries. In doing so, they draw on original research data and synthesize work previously unavailable to western readers.
The volume as a whole offers new insights into the archaeology of Asia and encourages western scholars to pay more attention to the continent in their studies of human origins, evolution, and history.

Ebook Review
“Miriam Stark has performed a monumental service to global archaeology by selecting the most important cross-cultural themes in Asian archaeology and many of the most innovative writers to discuss them.” --Gina L. Barnes, University of Durham

“Offering remarkable coverage of the world’s largest continent, Stark has created an outstanding book that should be required reading for any archaeologist or historian interested in Asia.” --John Olsen, University of Arizona

"This volume is the seventh in the series Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology, a series intended to cover the central areas of undergraduate archaeological teaching. While this is certainly a sustainable market for the series, this particular volume presents an overview and depth that will also, and perhaps more so, be a welcome addition to the libraries of postgraduate and research archaeologists ... Stark has assembled a valuable resource made all the more useful by not shying away from the scholarly and national politics reflected in so much Asian Archaeology". --Australian Archaeology

About the Author
Miriam T. Stark is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa. She has worked in Southeast Asia since 1987, and also has experience in North American and Near Eastern archaeology. She has published widely on her research in the Philippines and in Cambodia, and currently co-directs the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project in the Mekong Delta.

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