Architecture: Find Books & eBooks

This comprehensive handbook provides everything you need for the preliminary selecting, configuring, and sizing of the structural, environmental, safety, accessibility, and parking systems of a building.
The updated edition has new building codes, new information on heating and cooling systems for buildings, new structural systems, new requirements for tall mass timber buildings, and more.
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The industry-standard guide to designing well-performing buildings Architectural Detailing systematically describes the principles by which good architectural details are designed. Principles are explained in brief, and backed by extensive illustrations.
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The seventh edition provides a comprehensive introduction to graphic tools and drafting conventions for effective visual presentations. It covers topics such as perspectives, sketching, hand rendering, visual communication, and transitioning from analog to digital. The book teaches readers how to understand different types of drawing, master interior sections, create professional layouts, and more. Architectural graphics are essential for conveying design and require mastery of tools and conventions to avoid mistakes that can cause delays and increased costs. This guide is a valuable resource for professional architectural drawing.

The gold-standard design and documentation reference for students Architectural Graphic Standards, Student Edition condenses key information from the definitive industry reference to provide students with a powerful learning resource. Section 1: Design Principles & Construction. Section 2: Materials. Section 3: Building Elements.
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Contains key information that's essential to planning and executing architectural projects of all shapes and sizes.

Fully updated throughout, it highlights all of the changes to the code for quick reference and easy navigation. It pulls out the portions of the building code that are most relevant for the architect and provides an easy-to-understand interpretation in both words and illustrations.
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Curious about how Alsop Architects managed to construct that flying, translucent rectangle at the Ontario College of Art and Design? Wonder about the sustainability of the Genzyme Building? The saying "the truth is in the details" reveals an essential quality of architectural design. How a staircase curves, a roof seemingly floats, or a concrete wall illuminates are critical questions for architects looking at or creating new work. You might forgive designers for closely guarding their signature techniques. Fortunately, editors Christine Killory and Rene Davids culled an amazing collection of the best trade secrets in Details in Contemporary Architecture.
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Note from the publisher: Now in its sixth edition, this bestselling reference focuses on the basic materials and methods used in building construction. Emphasizing common construction systems such as light wood frame, masonry bearing wall, steel frame, and reinforced concrete construction, the new edition includes new information on building materials properties; the latest on "pre-engineered" building components and sustainability issues; and reflects the latest building codes and standards. It also features an expanded series of case studies along with more axonometric detail drawings and revised photographs for a thoroughly illustrated approach.  

The Green Studio Handbook remains an essential resource for design studios and professional practice. This extensive and user-friendly tool presents practical guidelines for the application of green strategies during the schematic design of buildings. Includes case studies and more than 500 sketches and full-color images illustrate how to successfully apply strategies.
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Hospitals as a building type have undergone a substantial evolution in the past years. Changes in healthcare, the impact of evidence-based medicine and aspects of healthcare economics (such as the clustering of diagnostic procedures in specialized clinics) pose new and different challenges for the designer. Private healthcare facilities herald the paradigm change from the large functional building complex to a design-conscious health institution with luxury hotel features. Health centers more devoted to prevention rather than cure have been another important trend. This publication explains the principles and requirements for the planning of hospitals and other health facilities. An international case study section documents 40 best-practice projects in six categories: general hospitals, children's hospitals, specialized clinics, outpatient clinics and health centers as well as rehabilitation clinics.
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This publication focuses on the key documentation requirements of the landscape architectural design and construction documentation process. Understand the principles behind these documentation practices. Implement best practices specific to each documentation phase and drawing, from title block and cover sheet design to soil plans and plant protection.
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Provides the principles of the library building with examples of National, large and small public, and university libraries. Includes international case studies from the late 1990s to the present.
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Lighting Design Basics, 4th Edition” is an authoritative introduction to professional lighting design for architects, interior designers, and engineers. It emphasizes the critical role of lighting in designed spaces and provides a fundamental grounding in architectural lighting concepts, processes, and techniques. The book combines design and technology instruction, offering graphic information through plan, section, and three-dimensional drawings. With over 25 design scenarios, in-depth rationales, and practical guidance, it equips students and professionals with the skills needed to make informed design choices. Notably, this edition includes a new chapter on “Light and Health”, covering physiological aspects of lighting design, as well as updated content on LED technology, industry codes, and sustainable practices

"A timely update of the architectural classic on design analysis Precedents in Architecture, Fourth Edition provides a vocabulary for architectural analysis that illuminates the works of leading architects and aids architects and designers in creating their own designs. Thirty-eight leading architects are represented in this updated edition through an analysis of more than 100 buildings that are assessed using a diagrammatic technique applicable to any building. This impressive collection includes fourteen new buildings and seven new, innovative architects."
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This updated fourth edition includes digitized drawings, diagrams, and matrices throughout, and newly added supplemental photographs. The text reflects the latest developments in sustainable and universal design, including coverage of daylighting, benchmarking, LEED system standards, and green code issues.
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All the architects in this book deserve international recognition. The reality is, though, that few are household names. Over the last decade, awareness of the need for gender balance in architecture has gained traction. Within the profession, women remain underrepresented, underpromoted and underpaid. Failure to acknowledge women's contribution to the built environment has perpetuated this cycle and impoverished us all. By showcasing 100 exceptional architects - who happen to be women - this book provides a flagship reference to inspire and support everyone working in the profession, no matter how they identify. Global in outlook, the book presents an equitable sample of architects from every continent. We all need heroines as much as heroes. Through illustrated interviews, each woman shares how they are responding to a profound disconnect between architecture and the people and landscape it serves. Their visions, methods and models of leadership are essential to connecting the needs of humans and the planet. In the words of Indigenous Canadian architect Eladia Smoke: 'Now is a critical time to seek out every opportunity to transmit this knowledge to future generations.' Featuring: 100 interviews with leading women architects, including: Tatiana Bilbao, Odile Decq, Liz Diller, Julia Gamolina, Dorte Mandrup and Farshid Moussavi. Over 400 photographs and drawings. Geographically balanced selection, with profiles across every continent.

The Black Experience in Design spotlights teaching practices, research, stories, and conversations from a Black/African diasporic lens. Excluded from traditional design history and educational canons that heavily favor European modernist influences, the work and experiences of Black designers have been systematically overlooked in the profession for decades. However, given the national focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the aftermath of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, educators, practitioners, and students now have the opportunity--as well as the social and political momentum--to make long-term, systemic changes in design education, research, and practice, reclaiming the contributions of Black designers in the process. The Black Experience in Design, an anthology centering a range of perspectives, spotlights teaching practices, research, stories, and conversations from a Black/African diasporic lens. Through the voices represented, this text exemplifies the inherently collaborative and multidisciplinary nature of design, providing access to ideas and topics for a variety of audiences, meeting people as they are and wherever they are in their knowledge about design. Ultimately, The Black Experience in Design serves as both inspiration and a catalyst for the next generation of creative minds tasked with imagining, shaping, and designing our future.

Making Detroit: History and Mystery provides a readable understanding of the history of Detroit through its endlessly fascinating development, eventual disinvestment and current surge of optimism and redevelopment. As such, it focuses on moments in time where cultural forces created the form of the city and then destroyed it and hypothesizes the potential for a bright future. The book answers the mystery of how the greatest manufacturing city in the world becomes the "poster child" for post-industrial abandonment.Detroit is viewed through the visual and cultural lens of the author: an architects, urban designer, educator and resident of over 45 years. The book is organized into three parts: Part One: A City of Making (pre-history to 1950) tells the story of how Detroit became a city recognized around the world as a manufacturing behemoth that in many ways created the now fading middle class; Part Two: Detroit Returns to Nature (1950-2001) tells how the city lost its way and went from one of the largest cities in the United States to a struggling middle-sized city; and Part Three: It will Arise from the Ashes Again (2001-present) looks at Detroit's slow climb back to prominence and speculates on its potential future.