Customer Reviews

Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design

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

 

 

I love ken's "rethinking the skyscraper" There is so much description in the diagrams and drawings etc. This book is difficult because there is so much to read and not as many diagrams to explain the ideas. THe ideas are complex and i just wish there was more information to clarify.

It is a good and very complete book on the subject. It looks at all the aspects of eco-architecture, but maybe a bit to dificult to read if you are not specialy interested in the subject. It has given me a lot of new thoughts and ideas. Very good indeed.

«Ecodesign, a manual for ecological design», is a complex & useful as well as a pleasant & readable book. The approach followed by Ken Yeang and the structure of the book makes it useful for those interested in sustainability as well as professional designers. Premises & strategies --some of them subject of debate-- are presented in a non-dogmatic fashion, allowing the reader to form its own opinion, thus contributing to build new knowledge on the subject. Chapter B, Design Instructions, the core of the book, is precisely a toolbox that guides the reader in a step by step set of directions that assist designers & planners to make the relevant decisions in the ecological design process, far beyond the concept of green buildings. The book has been very useful to us as socioeconomic & regional planners, allowing not also to determine the main guidelines for a regional strategic plan, but also to determine the specific criteria that should be applied in the specific design at the urban & building levels. The book is much more than a useful tool, it is a «landmark» in the field of sustainability, a much needed line of thought in the world of today, if we want to have a world tomorrow.

My books was shipped in one day just as Amazon told me! This service is great for students that need to receive their books soon! Thank you!!! I am one happy customer that Amazon will keep, and I will spread the word :)

The book begins presenting the overall idea that it is vital for any designer or builder to have a minimal ecological literacy in order for him/her to be aware of all the ecological consequences of the actions affected by his/hers design.
Concepts such as ecology, biological organisation, ecosystem development (processes, components) and all the interactions between the layers within the ecosystem are presented and explained in an objective way.
Ken Yeang's main goal with Ecodesign is to spread the overall perception of how our built environment and its influence on the natural scenario can become an integral and benign part of our life on the planet.
In those terms, a variety of instructions, illustations, diagrams, schemes and strategies for achieving such ecological approach to design are presented.
Do not expect to find all the answers for ecodesign on this manual. Expect, however, to find a theoretical framework that enables the designer to achieve an end product that recognizes and responds to a locality's ecosystem benignly and contributes to its biodiversity continuity.
The book's structure and organisation serves its premise of being a manual once the user can rearrange the reading sequence of the chapters as intended. It is a "must have" for all of those who seek to understand and apply green concepts into their practical work.

If a negative star rating were possible...this book would be about a minus 10.
This is perhaps the most poorly written, poorly organized, poorly edited, and horribly designed books on any topic that I have ever had the displeasure of picking up. Ken Yeang's architectural work including his built projects are interesting, but this book makes a better doorstop than a text book. It's as if someone snuck into the publisher's offices at night while everyone was asleep (and the editor in year ten of a coma) and threw together a book with the lights out. It does little for advancing principles of ecological design but really pushes the boundaries of meaning for the term "redundant." Did I mention the redundancy? A mind numbing waste of paper and ink, this book would have made an enormously more positive ecological impact by never having been printed.