Customer Reviews

Detail in Contemporary Residential Architecture: Includes CD-ROM

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An account of the 2 hours I spent flipping through this book after it arrived at my door:

1. When I saw that the intricacy of the illustration on the cover is produced by overlapping several drawings, I thought, "uh-oh."

2. After looking through a few projects, I was a little disappointed with the haphazard organization of the "details." For example, full wall sections were more often than not excluded. Envelope details were presented as partial sections, thereby losing the context. The different lineweights were also practically indistinguishable.

3. I was impressed, however, with the comprehensive list of materials/components accompanying the drawings.

4. I was disappointed with the choice of photographs, in general, of the projects. Most projects had photos that basically show the same part of the building, but from a different angle, or slightly zoomed in.

5. More overlapping drawings. This bothers me quite a bit, since these are just page-fillers, and do not offer anything except examples of what not to do when presenting construction details.

6. One project was entirely devoted to the detailing of a window box, when that building had used a very interesting roofing material (handcrafted lead sheets), what appeared to be hidden gutters, and a very well integrated envelope from roof to grade. I flipped through this section repeatedly to check if I had missed some pages, then I grew a little angry that these very worthwhile details were forgone in favour of a single window.

7. After going through the entire book, I flipped through it quickly to see if there were any projects from South America since I didn't remember seeing any. I recalled only two projects from Central America. A quick look through the list of projects seem to indicate a coastal North America and Western European bias.

8. I wished I could afford a subscription to the German version of Detail.

I would not recommend this book for something that one expects from well-drafted construction documents. The method of reference and presentation is a little messy. Drawings seem to be organized by how well they fit together on a single page, rather than their as-built relationship. Given the precious lack of real-estate dedicated to photos, certain photographs could be omitted and replaced by more telling shots. Perhaps coordinate the details presented with a photo of the detail in situ and in context? A larger-scale foundation-to-roof envelope section can be a good organizational tool for subsequent details. Did I mention that overlapping drawings bother me?

What I find good is the abundance of projects, the organization by material, and the list of components used. While I have a lot to complain about in terms of the drawings, there is still quite a bit one can take away from them. It would be a good book to go to for initial ideas.

In short, this book is a coffee-table architectural book - a lot of pictures without definite purpose - disguised as a technical book. Sort of misses the point for a book that's about details.

Overall this is a fairly good detail book and well presented with nice modern houses. The level of details is more on the level of DD and SD and varies from project to project. The best CD details are only found in real construction drawings. The German's "Detail" magazine and books also shows comprehensive details. Another good detail book is "The architectural Detail, Dutch architects visualize their concepts" by Ed Melet.

Well this book has less texts then the Dutch architects detail book. Also, the drawing details are on average larger. The details are also drawing in an American's standard presentation. The Dutch book is presented with European hatches and drawing standards, which are not as easy to understand. The range of details type methogolies are very good, from some what of a roof garden to cylinder metal house.

At time there are too many SD overall sections and plans that take too many pages. The CD (disc) is nice and includes a lot of drawings in CAD .dwg and .eps format with no texts.

This book is an excellent buy. Not only does it include overviews of the projects (by John Pawson, Sean Godsell, Scogin-Elam, and many others) but it includes plans, elevations, and MOST IMPORTANTLY multiple detail drawings of each residence. The book is organized into sections such as steel, masonry, bamboo, and others. If you dont just want strictly images (although roughly 5-10 images of each house are provided) but want to know how the projects were put together, then I would recommend this book. Thanks.

I've purchased one too many architecture books that have cool buildings with nice photos, overly self-indulgent artistic descriptions, and really not much else that is useful. Despite its title, I was expecting this book to be similar to those other ones, if only perhaps a small step forward in terms of the quality of the information.

This book is a giant leap forward compared to most architecture books. It is outstanding because it presents each project completely; with photos, plans, sections, and numerous quality details. The information is much more complete than I am accustomed to seeing from these types of books, and the drawings are for the most part clear and well-noted. There's also a CD included with DWG files and EPS files of every illustration!

Because the information is so complete...there's enough information there to really study the materials and assemblies, to understand both the concept and the execution of these great projects. This is the kind of book you can study over and over, and really learn from. Compared to other architecture books in my library it is outstanding. My only wish is that the author would keep going and expand her great work into numerous other architecture styles (way beyond contemporary buildings).

This is a terrific book with many interesting residential projects. However, if you are an architect buying this book for the supplementary CAD details included on CD.....don't. The details actually lack detail, making many of them somewhat worthless. Although I was disappointed in the drawings, the book has been insightful and definitely worth the purchase.

This was a gift to my son, an architect student at CU. He loved the
book and wouldn't put it down. He also loved the way it was arranged
(by building materials). The accompanying CD has been loaded into his
computer (which all ready had the Auto-Cam software needed) and thinks
its fantastic. Its a book that he will use probably throughout his new
career.

A while back, Architectural Record would include design details in each of their issues, albeit just one or two enlarged details, and mostly tiny floor plans. This book is similar to those Architectural Record issues, but in a nicely condensed series of 52 different residential projects with select plans, details, background information and photos, and at much larger sizes for excellent viewing.

The projects are separated by types of primary materials (concrete, steel, masonry, etc) and includes a index of types of details (door, glazing, roof, etc) as well as contact/address listings for the designers/architects. The big bonus of course, is that the details are available on a disk, in .EPS and .DWG formats, which are quite spectacular for further exploration of these designers' details.

It is a very well organized and complete book; I have rarely found this level of detailing and documentation in other books, and I would highly recommend this book - especially since I was able to get it for the bargain price of $20 - as a reference tool and the basis for an exploration of new ideas. If you are a detail-control-freak designer like I am, I think you would enjoy this book as well as I have.

-footnote added 3/16/2010-

After careful scrutiny of more details, I can tell you that there were apparently at least two different drawing editors, leading to drastically different levels of detailing and information. Further, errors in drafting and non-matching details to actual built work can be spotted in different projects, leading one to wonder about the quality control at some of these design firms. Some of the details are seemingly drawn for aesthetic sake instead of usable, working drawings; one should be careful when using these as reference material, as some - as drawn - are unusable, as if drawn by interns. Thus, I have down-ranked the book to 4 stars instead of 5.

A book that try to be a reference. The projects are well chosen and there are good images that have not been published really much so far. Many detail are made for building with a ''not that cold'' climate, I've appreciate it even if we have to deal with winter in Canada...

It delivers. Excellent roundup of modern day detailing.
Features projects from all continents and takes into account climatic differences and local craftsmanship. The included digital files are a bonus. Recommended.

too simplistic of a book, crappy drawings and out of scale details, graphically badly presented... $45 wasted
I don't recommend this book at all, very disappointed.
If you are looking something for learning more about detailing in contemporary architecture don't buy this book. lack of notes, missing fastening details very poor presentation and even the CD has nothing professionally acceptable in it. Why do they put things like that on the shelves of book stores?