Book Description
Shigeru Ban lives and works in Tokyo, where he teaches architecture at Keio University. The scope of his practice - he has houses, museums, pavilions, and other public projects in progress in France, London, Beijing, Portugal, Brussels, and the United States - belies a relatively quiet early career in Tokyo. Following studies at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) and graduation from The Cooper Union in New York, he established his own firm in Toyko in 1985. During next decade, Ban built a following in Japan by designing dozens of unique small houses, exhibitions, and other projects using alternative, environmentally friendly materials: paper, wood, bamboo and prefabricated paper products. Following the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, Ban responded by designing emergency temporary housing he calls Paper Log Houses, made out of paper logs, waterproof sponge tape, and beer crates that could be assembled in a matter of hours by volunteers and provided shelter for hundreds of displaced residents. Following on the success of this project, from 1995 to 2000 Ban was a consultant to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, advising on temporary housing for displaced populations in Rwanda, Turkey, and India. He established the Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN) in 1995, an organization that continues to promote such humanitarian assistance by architects. Ban has won several awards, including the Kansai Architect Grand Prize in 1996, and Best Young Architect of the Year from the Japan Institute of Architecture in 1997. Ban's fame began to spread rapidly beyond Japan when he was included in the Museum of Modern Art's "Un-Private House" exhibition in 1999 with his Curtain Wall House in Tokyo, a glass-and-steel house where privacy is controlled by means of monumental, two-story-high curtains along two glass facades that can be opened or closed. The following year Ban designed his first museum project in the United States, also at MoMA: "Paper Arch", an installation of cardboard tubes in a canopy over the museum's sculpture garden. Also in 2000, he collaborated with German architect Frei Otto to design the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, a recyclable, organic-shaped structure of paper stretched over a paper tube armature. The modest names Ban gives to his projects - "Paper Church", "Library of a Poet", "Bamboo Furniture House", "Naked House" - express his lack of pretense and his focus on materials and structure rather than form for form's sake. This book features 32 of Ban's most exemplary projects realized since 1993, divided into 5 sections based on the primary materials or construction principle used: paper, wood, bamboo, prefabrication, and skin. Each project is documented with colour photographs, plans, drawings, and a brief, straightforward project description. In addition, the book contains four sections of "experimental data", or technical information, printed in red and black on grey tinted paper. These sections gather diagrams, tables, sketches, and explanatory text to document the numerous tests that Ban's office has made over the years to study the strength, performance, and structural potential of his materials. A foreword by the distinguished German architect Frei Otto, with whom Ban has collaborated for several years, introduces the book. Also included is an essay by Shigeru Ban about his work with Otto on the Japan Pavilion.
Customer Reviews:
continuated.......2006-07-31
the work of this interessant japanese architect, it's a demonstration of a continuated and progressive developmente of an architecture beautifull and deep.
Shigeru Ban.......2006-02-23
Excellent book,interesting, useful not only for architectors but for anybody. good print quality.
"Shigeru Ban is the future.".......2005-05-24
Shigeru Ban is famous for his innovative use of building materials, structural rigor and pureness. This book captures all these quintessential attributes of this ingenious architect.
The editor did a great job of organizing Ban's projects according to the building materials (i.e., paper, wood, bamboo, prefab, and skin). Multiple projects in each chapter form a coherent and articulated presentation of how Ban took advantage of the uniquessness of certain material and incorporated it into his architectural philosophy and aesthetics.
The text is technical oriented which often includes the characteristics of the materials and the issues concerning structural engineering. At the end of most chapters, you can find detailed technical information and test statistics of the building materials used in the featured projects. Moreover, at the beginning of the book, Ban also contributed an article on the whole building process of building his classic work: Japanese Pavillion, which is very informative and instructive.
Another noteworthy strength of this book is that it reveals the connectness of Ban's different projects and shows how the architect developed and built his own architectural style programmatically (e.g., How he developed, refined, and matured the paper architecture, the furniture house idea, the ivy structure, and the universal floor plan through several dozens of projects).
Put together, this is a well-organized, thoughtful, and informative book about Ban's contribution to the international architectural community. Bravo!
Excellent, persuasive monograph.......2004-10-08
The book itself is almost the perfect monograph. Each project is described concisely, and it has all the drawings and photos to orient the reader to the site, the program and the idea. The drawings and photos range from the finest detail to the biggest gestures, and doesn't isolate the projects like they're pristine objects. The photos often emphasize the construction or assembly of the work, though the finished photos and model shots are expressive and informative too. The pages with experimental and test calculations are well-organized and relate back to specific projects and details, using graphs, tables and pictures or drawings of the elements or details in question. For a non-engineer, it's all rather clear and convincing. I've never seen ideas and processes presented so rationally and convincingly. Nothing here seems superfluous and Ban reveals his process and interests completely to the reader.
Of course, the projects themselves are fantastic. John Hedjuk's influence is all over the work, and I dare say that Ban's actualized projects are now richer, have reached greater depth and are more expressive and informative than his mentor's. On one level, you could imagine that Ban's preoccupation with wood products, "green" construction and sustainable design started as a bad pun that served as the basis of his student thesis. ("Paper Architecture." Ha-ha.) But the rigor and depth that he brings to each project break through any temptation to show self-conscious irony or superficiality. At the end of the day, he's an architect's architect who controls proportion and light, defines space and considers human scale in all his work. He makes Calatrava look like "just" an engineer. And his works aren't just formal exercises with nine square grids and such. His ideas and works begin to touch on politics without seeming pretentious or partisan with his refugeee shelters and other more recent work (although those private houses do present a counterpoint to the socially-oriented work in more ways than one).
Anyway, great book, great work. I'm totally convinced of Ban's skills and talent.
Book Description
Shigeru Ban may be best known for his evocative Curtain Wall House in Tokyo—a highlight of the Museum of Modern Art's 1999 Un-Private House exhibit—but few know the range of this Japanese architect's work. In this first English-language monograph on Ban, 30 built projects reveal his inventiveness and humanitarianism. Ban's primary objectives in his work are the use of low cost materials and the dissolution of the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces. His paper tube designs, which he first created as emergency housing for victims of Rwanda's civil war, were later reconfigured for earthquake victims in Kobe and are currently incorporated in Ban's Japanese Pavilion at Hannover Expo 2000. Influenced by the Japanese tradition of linking the home with the surrounding environment, Ban has created buildings such as Hanegi Forest and Walls—less House that invite nature to coexist with design.
Customer Reviews:
A good supplementary reading to the same title from Phaidon.......2005-05-24
I read this book and another volume with the same title published by Phaidon together. My suggestion is that read the Phaidon book first, then supplement with this one. Phaidon's book catpures the core of Ban's architectural identity and is well-organized by the building materials he used in the projects (paper, wood, bamboo, prefab, and skin). The text in that book is also technical, detail, and informative.
Though there are quite a few overlaps between these two books, this book includes more projects than the Phaidon volume. For example, it presents Ban's early works (emphasizing the use of walls), his exhibition installations (from which he got the inspiration of paper architecture), and more furniture house projects.
If I can only buy one book, I will definitely choose the Phaidon book and get a copy of this book from the library.
Keeping it simple works!.......2002-10-28
If you are into architecture in any way, try this book. Although there is not a lot of usefull information in this book it is still a good read. It features simple and effective descriptions of some of his famous buildings which are illustrated by great photographs and small diagrams. And that is the power of this book: keeping it simple.
Shigeru Ban.......2002-02-13
A must-have monograph that is as lucid, intelligent, and unpretentious as its subject-and at a bargain price. Ban combines a respect for the Japanese architectural tradition of simple, open, lightweight structures with the theoretical rigor he absorbed from John Hejduc, his teacher at Cooper Union. His signature element is the cardboard tube (first used as an economy in his installation of an Aalto exhibition) and since employed as the structural support for houses, a post-earthquake church in Kobe, a graceful canopy over the MoMA garden, and the Japanese Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover. Ban's oeuvre includes provocative private houses and temporary shelters for disaster victims.
Book Description
"In the past decade, designers have become increasingly engaged with the quotidian. This shift away from more strictly formal and functional concerns has allowed them to freely explore design's contexts and effects. A light that responds to silence, a table that knows where it is, a pig farm the size of a skyscraper, a coat that becomes a tent, a house that fits in your pocket--these projects by innovators in the field of design question the habitual, transform the commonplace, alter our notions of dwelling and blur the boundaries between form and function. Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life explores the paradox of design in our daily lives. Anonymous and conspicuous, familiar and strange, design surrounds us while fading from view, becoming second nature to us and yet remaining still somehow elusive. This exhibition catalogue includes more than 40 innovative projects drawn internationally from the fields of architecture, product, furniture, fashion and graphic design. Among the designers and architects featured are Shigeru Ban, MVRDV, LOT-EK, Atelier Bow-Wow, Dunne & Raby, Marcel Wanders, Michael Anastassiades, Constantin and Laurene Leon Boym, and Allan Wexler. This richly illustrated volume includes essays on the tactics of formlessness and its impact on everyday consumption, the potential of an endlessly transformable environment to extend product lifecycles, and ruminations on the strange and familiar worlds of design."
Average customer rating:
|
Shigeru Ban
Hideki Yoshimatsu
Manufacturer: Galgiani, Phillip
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Architects, A-Z
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 488706179X |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Architectural Review, published by Thomson Gale on April 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1049 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: East meets north: Alvar Aalto's endlessly inventive career is seen through the eyes of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban in a major new exhibition at London's Barbican.
Author: Peter Davey
Publication:
The Architectural Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 221
Issue: 1322
Page: 96(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Customer Reviews:
Don't waste your time.......2007-06-13
This article is virtually useless, as the images from the original article aren't included in this digital version. The text itself is quite thin as well, as much of it refers to various elements of the exhibition that we're not able to see.
Spend your money on a Shigeru Ban monograph.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Architectural Review, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2007. The length of the article is 770 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Pod life: his largest building to date, Shigeru Ban's new library is a bold celebration of structure.(Seikei University library)
Author: Michael Webb
Publication:
The Architectural Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 221
Issue: 1320
Page: 60(6)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Parasites are flexible and temporary structures, designed by artists or architects, that feed off of existing infrastructure. Parasite Paradise documents 23 projects that respond on their own terms to new and unforeseen demands. Many of these parasites have settled in the government-designated "Vinex" district of Leidsche Rijn near Utrecht, turning a district almost exclusively concerned with dwelling into a more urban entity. What do these small, mobile architectural interventions mean for our strictly regulated society and for the planning of architecture and urbanism? What sense (or nonsense) is there in mobile architecture from a historical perspective? How much of it is art and how much is architecture? Parasite Paradise encourages us to consider a new approach to planning, one where not everything is fixed beforehand. This makes it required reading for architects, urban planners, and artists whose concern is designing urban space. With projects by Shigeru Ban, Atelier van Lieshout, Vito Acconci, Alicia Framis, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster & Martial Galfione, Kathrin B hm & Stefan Saffer with Andreas Lang, Attila Foundation, Winter/H rbelt, and others.
Average customer rating:
|
Shigeru Ban
Manufacturer: PHAIDON PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GRAUCA |
Average customer rating:
|
Yurei gadan: Kara-ban (Iwanami shinsho. Shin akaban)
Shigeru Mizuki
Manufacturer: Iwanami Shoten
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Japanese
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Arts & Photography
| Japanese
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Japanese
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Japanese Books
| Japanese
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 4004303427 |
Book Description
Unrivaled in scope, this encyclopedic reference on the most versatile of all painting mediums is an excellent tool to help both beginning and seasoned artists produce their best work in acrylics.
With its great flexibility, acrylic paint can mimic the appearance of oils, tempera, and watercolors in unique ways, each method pictured in a separate step-by-step demonstration. The author also examines the use of acrylics with airbrush, sculptural, and printing techniques-even three-dimensional relief painting and collagraphy printing methods are included-and how several of these different creative processes can be integrated successfully in one composition with ink, pencil, charcoal, and pastel. Inspiring examples of representational and abstract subjects are depicted throughout, and a complete survey of all the latest acrylic materials covers the best paint brands, painting mediums, supports, varnishes, brushes, knives, and palettes.
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2006-08-14
This book gives a really good intro into acrylics for beginners. I've dabbled in acrylics, but the info in this book gave me the why as well as the how to different techniques. It's absolutely a beginner's book, but very thorough on the basics.
Excellent.......2006-06-16
I found this book just as I was beginning to paint. It helped me confirm that it was acrylics, rather than some other medium, that I wanted to use; and it gave me great instruction to get me going. I have subsequently read other painting-technique books (some excellent, others not) and I still think that, as a general discussion of acrylics, this book is perhaps the best I've seen. It has beautiful paintings as examples of what can be accomplished in acrylics.
I was probably a bit stingy in giving only 4 stars, but I feel that, on a very few points, there might have been more detail or elaboration. Still, overall, I know of no better book for anyone new to acrylics--indeed it continues to be a favorite of mine. I recommend this book together with the website of Golden Acrylics; those two resources might be all you will need to educate yourself about the use and manipulation of acrylic paints and acrylic mediums.
Great for the Beginning Acrylic Painter.......2004-12-03
Very informative with regard to brands of paints, brushes, mediums, and surfaces. Has recommendations for your beginning palate, brush set, etc. Expands on technique with demonstrations. REALLY like this book and glad I bought it.
A good beginning.......2003-08-19
I recommend this for the beginner level acrylic painter. What you need to know to get started with a lot of great product information.
Everything you need to know to get started........2003-04-16
This book is really quite excellent. Using clear, concise and friendly language Mr. Shears starts with a short but invaluable description of what's out there as far as paints, brushes, etc., comnpares them and suggests what you need to get started. After spending an hour in the brushes aisle frozen from indecision and sensory overload, it was a huge help to have someone say 'Buy, this and this to get started.'
The chapters are well defined and the pictures are generously distributed. My only criticism (hence 4 out of 5 stars) is that it would have been nice to see a more diverse representation of artwork. I understand the book may be somewhat of a platform for Mr. Shears, but i would have benefitted and enjoyed seeing different styles represented. There are a few, but the majority is Mr. Shears own work.
That aside, after looking at MANY books on the subject, i wholeheartdly endorse this one.
Book Description
Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California is known as the birthplace of the physical-fitness boom of the twentieth century. In the 1930s and 1940s, it was the trendsetting spot where Steve Reeves, Jack LaLanne, the Tanny Brothers, and Joe Gold built their bodies, as well as their reputations.
With first-hand experience in the world of hard bodies, Harold Zinkin (the first Mr. California as well as inventor of the Universal Gym Machine) tells the story of Muscle Beach and the people who worked out on its sand. He shares not only the stories of Hollywood celebrities who frequented Muscle Beach-including Mae West, Jane Russel, Jayne Mansfield, and Kirk Douglas-but also provides an insider's account and photographic view of how this small strip of sand became a haven for the health-conscious and bodies beautiful.
Customer Reviews:
The story behind the story.......2006-01-14
My dear father is now 86-years-old and his memory has grown weaker with age. I try to visit him frequently as I know his time on this earth is drawing to a close. One night, he started talking about his memories of his family home at 213 14th Street in Santa Monica. He told me that he and his twin brother Ed Fuller would go down to the Santa Monica Beach and hang out.
My father was a very handsome man in his youth and very strong. He and Ed began working out on the beach and one day, the Lifeguard down at the beach referred to them as "The Muscle Twins."
Before long, more men and women started joining their little mini-fitness craze and lifting weights on the beach. Sometimes, their antics would draw quite a crowd. My father and his brother would get very competitive and see who could lift the most weight.
As my father told this story, I grabbed a pen and started making notes. He mentioned several names, including "Pudge Stockton" and more. I scribbled away as he talked. I had my doubts. After all, my 86-year-old father was telling me that he and his brother Ed started the phenomenon known as "Muscle Beach"?
As a surprise, I ordered THIS book for my father and when it arrived, I read the first few pages and found the same names my father had mentioned. My father's joy at receiving this tome was beyond words. He read it over and over and over again, saying, "Yep, there's Pudge and there's Bruce..."
So what do I think of this book? I loved it. Loved the vintage photos and the concise information and the easy-breezy layout.
Most of all, I rejoiced at my father's delight as he fondly turned the pages, rekindling old memories of a happy time long ago on a beach at the end of Santa Monica Blvd.
Rose Fuller Thornton
daughter of one of the original "Muscle Twins"
gentlebeam@hotmail.com
Fills in some 'blanks'.......2004-09-25
`Memories" will provide the reader with some great historical photos and interesting tib-bits about some of the original muscle beach participants. Like the author says, it was a sub culture at a specific local during a specific period. Therefore, if you're looking for a general documentary on the more recent origins of acrobatics and bodybuilding, this book might not be for you.
However, if you just happen to be somewhat familiar with Santa Monica's `muscle beach' (other reviewers) then you can probably gleam quite a bit of information and enjoyment from the presentation. Personally, I spent the better part of my weekends, especially Sundays during 1962 and 1963 at Santa Monia famous beach area, honing my gymnastics skills, the fun ones, not necessarily the competitive ones and it definitely was a cultural thing as described by Zenkin. Where I enjoy the reading and photos was finding out about the period before I had ever heard of muscle beach. Ironically, I discovered MB by reading `Modern Gymnast' by Glenn Sunby who was one of the originals mentioned throughout Zenkin's book
I guess what it really comes down to, if you have a desire to know more about the history of an interest like acrobatics, gymnastics or bodybuilding. Zenkins book will fill in some of the blanks, especially if you're an early `baby boomer' like myself. Old enough to remember when the circus came to town, when great performers were watched in ah like people today observe the current generation of extreme athletics. The only difference was in those days; acrobatic tricks were performed with a different set of props. Today, Cirque de Soleil, is a testament that acrobatics is still an endearing form of family entertainment and not dead by any means, but IM afraid that for the good old USA, its not the same either.
Flawed but Valuable Historical Document.......2000-04-18
While enjoying the great photos and reading about the amazing characters and individuals who pioneered physical culture in the 1930's and 1940's at muscle beach, I found the book to be a little unstructured and would have preferred to read more about how muscle beach developed, the impact it had, and the local politics and changes from the 1950's to today.
The book tended to be just a series of character portraits (wonderful as they were) but is obviously a valuable historical artifact as these pioneers of fitness are now fading from our 21st century view.
I may be wrong, but from a European perspective muscle beach has always meant bodybuilders and the focus in the book was more on acrobats/gymnasts. My own recollection of first hearing of muscle beach was as a teenager seeing Arnold in the weights compound area in 'Pumping Iron' - a period that post dates all of this book.
What I learned reading this book is that muscle beach now only exists as a concept being, as it was, close to where Golds and World gym are now.
Loved It !.......2000-01-25
I got my copy of the book, went home and read it cover to cover that night. It brought lots of memories of Muscle Beach. I put faces to the names that I have heard since I was a kid visiting my Uncles Russ and Ray Saunders and family friend Paula Boelsems. They used to toss us around in the 50's and 60's at Muscle Beach. For all these years I have heard the names mentioned in "Remembering Muscle Beach" and now I can put faces to the names. Even now visiting with Russ Saunders I hear the names repeated over and over. Muscle Beach was such a huge part of all these people's lives. It moulded their careers and their leisure time for their whole life. It will give you a good picture of what life was like in Santa Monica. The early years of Hollywood stunts and the movie industry came directly from the regulars at Muscle Beach. Even if you don't personally know the people in this book, you will recognize at least some of the names. What a great documentation of this era of Muscle Beach. PS I somehow think I might be related to the other reviewer!
Childhood Memories.......1999-06-22
It is with much anticipation that I wait for the release of this book. As a child in the 50s and 60s,visiting from my home in Canada, I spent many Sunday afternoons with the folks at Muscle Beach. My uncles Russ and Ray Saunders and good family friend Paula Boelsems were some of the original muslcle beach folks and they are on the cover of this book. The acrobatics that were taught to us kids was great fun. They always put on a wonderful show. Some of these folks (including my uncles) were stunt people in the movies and went on to become world class gymnastic judges. They contributed a great deal to the Pier and it became a way of life for a lot of us. As a kid I remember eating too many corn dogs and drinking too much lemonaide, from the stand beside the grass in front of the lifeguard building, before being tossed in the air from the teetor board by Uncle Russ. You can guess what happened. Buy the book and bring back some memories of a simpler time in Santa Monica.
Average customer rating:
|
How To Read Manga: Gloom Party Volume 1 (How to Read Manga)
Yoshio Kawashima , and
Keiko Kinoshita
Manufacturer: Digital Manga Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Comic Strips
| Comics & Graphic Novels
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Comics & Graphic Novels
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Graphic Novels
| Comics & Graphic Novels
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Manga
| Comics & Graphic Novels
| Subjects
| Books
Fantasy
| Manga
| Comics & Graphic Novels
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Fantasy
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
| Alternate History
| Anthologies
| Arthurian
| Contemporary
| Epic
| General
| Historical
| History & Criticism
| Magic & Wizards
| Series
Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Teen Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 1569709564 |
Book Description
How to Read Manga is a great way to polish your Japanese manga reading skills. Learn slang, dark humor and the uniquely Japanese comedic rhythm in Yoshio Kawashima's classic Gloom Party, a shorts collection from shonen champion comics. Every four-frame strip stands alone, pacing the reader at one lesson per page, one punch line at a time.
Books:
- Sister Wendy's Story of Painting (Enhanced and Expanded Edition)
- Small Houses of the Twenties: The Sears, Roebuck 1926 House Catalog (Dover Pictorial Archives)
- Storybook Style
- Styles: Compendium of Interior
- The Abrams Guide to American House Styles (Abrams Book)
- The Architect's Studio Companion, 3rd Edition
- The Dream Palaces of Hollywood's Golden Age
- The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Shape the World
- The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral
- The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- History: Fiction or Science
- Complete Guide to Real Estate Tax Liens and Foreclosure Deeds: Learn in 7 Days-Investing Without Los
- The Mycota: A Comprehensive Treatise on Fungi as Experimental Systems for Basic and Applied Research
- Tulsa Art Deco
- Architectural Graphic Standards
- Emergency Response Planning for Corporate and Municipal Managers, Second Edition
- Bethlehem Road
- Baumschlager & Eberle: Hous-ing
- Urban Design: Street and Square, Third Edition
- Introduction to Mushroom Hunting
Kengo Kuma: Selected Works
Shigeru Ban
Alvaro Siza: Complete Works
Carlo Scarpa: Architecture and Design
Alvar Aalto: Through the Eyes of Shigeru Ban
