Customer Reviews

Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The English title might be misleading--this book is not about 'construction', but rather about what the Germans call Baukunst, the art of construction, or the art of 'putting buildings together', considering the spatial order as an inseparable part of that putting things together.
The book provides a structured approach to the basics of contemporary architectural composition, several essays introducing fundamental concepts and giving you the bibliography to go into them in detail (the key part is making them all fit into an overall framework, and pointing at the sources that normally take years to discover), and illustrate several remarkable buildings in remarkable detail, with excellent descriptions reaching a depth and quality of analysis unfortunately missing in typical architectural publications.
Andrea Deplazes, the editor and author or co-author of many of the articles, teaches at the Zurich ETH (and I would guess the same must be true for the authors of most of the other articles), which for well over a hundred years has been one of the few true schools of architecture in the world. The book glows with the power of this accumulated knowledge developed in a true academic environment since the times of Semper. It also gives a glimpse at how the ETH consistently produces first class ordinary architecture, and for that matter first class extraordinary architecture too.
This book will be of huge value to every architecture student, teacher, and architectural designer. I bought it by a fortunate mistake --I thought a construction book from the ETH was sure to be an excellent reference book on technology, and the mail delivered a treasure trove of architectural knowledge instead.

I purchased this book for a construction class and as an architecture student, I find it very helpful. The book is not a construction how-to and the images are not very detailed nor are any of the images in color, but it is a compilation of a variety of architectural examples that use different or innovative construction methods. A great supplement to a studio course for inspiration and incorporating interesting structure into projects.

I have reviewed many attempts at a comprehensive description of the complex subject of architecture, and this is the best. This book is far better than the exhaustively recommended Francis Ching (all due respect), and even better than Unwin's Architectural Notebook, which is also excellent. This is the very first book I would recommend for any serious architecture student. It covers tectonics and construction in elegant detail but, even more importantly, this book delves into the conceptual intentions behind the tectonics, at every scale. Telling examples, well chosen, illuminate the ideas, and the case studies feature some of the finest contemporary architecture in the world today. Simply the best.

This great and useful book is printed so badly, that makes wanto to write to the authors and Birkhauser to ask for your money back. It is basically a low def scan. Anything that is not a line drawing is plainly illegible.

As someone already mentioned, it is a good book but, the print quality is bad. In a book store in Spain, I saw the same book. It was a lot better in quality of paper and print resolution. The version I received through Amazon in the US is printed in the US and, unfortunately, a lot of details are lost because of low resolution of printing. Whatever the reason is, it is bad. The book is very well written. The publisher should print better using better quality of paper. It is a shame.

I wish I had this book during my architectural degree. Best architectural book I've ever found. Amazing range of details, perfect expalantions, clear, inspiring, perfect. A must for any architect. Buy this now. A degree in a book.

i ordered the book and got it on time. it was also cheap. the book said it was used but it is practically new.

Excellent book, everything you wished to know about construction, it's there explained, in theory, in in technical drawings, and with images of contemporary buildings.
The way it is organized is very straightfoward, good index, with all themes and sub-themes making sense.
One of the buys of the year for me...