Book Description
According to N. J. Habraken, intimate and unceasing interaction between people and the forms they inhabit uniquely defines built environment. The Structure of the Ordinary, the culmination of decades of environmental observation and design research, is a recognition and analysis of everyday environment as the wellspring of urban design and formal architecture. The author's central argument is that built environment is universally organized by the Orders of Form, Place, and Understanding. These three fundamental, interwoven principles correspond roughly to physical, biological, and social domains.
Historically, "ordinary" environment was the background against which architects built the "extraordinary." Drawing upon extensive examples from archaeological and contemporary sites worldwide, the author illustrates profound recent shifts in the structure of everyday environment. One effect of these transformations, Habraken argues, has been the loss of implicit common understanding that previously enabled architects to formally enhance and innovate while still maintaining environmental coherence. Consequently, architects must now undertake a study of the ordinary as the fertile common ground in which form- and place-making are rooted. In focusing on built environment as an autonomous entity distinct from the societies and natural environments that jointly create it, this book lays the foundation for a new dialogue on methodology and pedagogy, in support of a more informed approach to professional intervention.
Customer Reviews:
Essential.......2007-07-01
Habraken is essential for understanding and practising contemporary architectural design. He started out his career pointing out the limitations of the then (and often still) prevailing design approach towards housing and large buildings, and proposing methods for systems design meant to allow several levels of control, and changing configurations over time (this was extremely influential, and all relevant contemporary building and systems design is heir to his work directly or indirectly). He then went on to explore and explain the underlying order for architectural/urban configurations, and in this book he explains the orders of 'Form' (which could also be called construction), 'Territory' (boundaries, control) and 'Understanding' (shared patterns, systems and types) that make built environments be what they are, illustrating everything with perfectly selected examples. If you know the examples, the beauty is in the way he makes the underlying orders coherent and understandable. And you will not know a few of the examples, so the book is also beautiful as a pointer for further studies.
3 other smaller books by him that develop details, or follow implications:
- Supports, An Alternative to Mass Housing';
- Variations, The Systematic Design of Supports;
-
<---- this is where 'The Structure of the Ordinary' falls chronologically;
- Palladio's Children
all by Habraken, all essential.
Ultimately Illuminating!!!.......2003-09-04
I found this book to be both insightful and ultimately very influential as to my own thoughts on sustainable design, urban planning, and the contemporary values and accustomed comfort levels which we, the western societies of the world, have come to take for granted when we think about our built environment. I feel that this book should be read by both students and practitioners alike. It's lessons are far reaching and all too relavent.
Ultimately unhelpful.......2001-05-17
Though well produced and well illustrated I found this book to be disapointing. I thought it woud be more overtly rigourous in its analysis. Instead it offers only personnal insights into the structure of ordinary enironments. The back cover says that the book is the result of years of 'design research', yet I could find little evidence of this research in the book. Some people may find these insights illumating, unfortunately I did not, and without formal research to back them up I found the book disappointing.
Book Description
A delightfully engaging cornucopia of things to do when on vacation--or when dreaming of being on vacation--for children of all ages, including adults.
How to Draw a Clam takes you anywhere you want to go with creativity imagination and a terrific sense of fun. It offers short escapes (open a suitcase filled with sand, remove shoes and socks, wiggle toes in sand) and longer trips (take a nice walk). A whimsical survey examines the various types of vacations, from the adventurous to the vegetative. Possible accommodations are also considered: hotel, friend's couch, under a boat on a moonlit beach.
How to Draw a Clam presents short tutorials on drawing deserts, cowfish, flip-flops, and more, and discusses exotic destinations, including beach resorts, ski resorts, and Ohio.
Customer Reviews:
I can guarantee that this fun book can drive your imagination engine into hyper-speed mode!.......2006-10-19
How to Draw a Radish: And Other Fun Things to Do at Work
How to Draw a Cup of Coffee and Other Fun Ideas for Home & Garden
How to Draw a Clam: A Wonderful Vacation Planner
All three books, by Joy Sikorski
I have owned these three wonderful books since the late nineties & have re-visited them many times.
In the field of what I would like to term as 'deliberate doodling', I consider these three books to be the best in the genre. Unlike the common doodles, which seem whimsical, 'deliberate doodling' involves some form of structure & purpose. I am very impressed by what the author has done in the three fun books of hers.
All three fun books are spiral bound, each with almost two hundred pages of inspirational doodling techniques, on top of various other discovery games & paper crafts for professional & personal entertainment. Each is sturdily constructed with two pockets for special projects, organised with ten card-board dividers & yet small enough to fit into your briefcase.
From my personal perspective, they are wonderful toys for grow-ups: playful, instructive & absolutely worthwhile!
The author has actually written another similar book, entitled 'Squeaky Chalk : And Other Fun Things to Draw (And Do) When There's Nothing to Do!' but for some strange reasons, I did not lay my hands on it.
For the benefit of readers, let me share this personal experience of mine: I have combined the 'deliberate doodling' techniques from Joy with the 'rapid viz' techniques from Kurt Hanks, & integrated them into the 'private writing' processes as formulated by Mark Levy in his wonderful book, 'Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing .'
I use what I often like to term as my 'scratch pad', the type artists use, foolscape size, spiral-bound, 100 pages per pad, 100 gms weight, in conjuction with a multi-colour/multi-utility pen from Rotring. At one point in time, (for about 3 years) I used the Bienfang spring-bound note/sketch pads until the only local supplier went out of business unexpectedly.
On many occasions, I have astonished myself by being able to wrestle with the valuable business & life insights from my own seemingly disparate "private writing"/'deliberate doodling'/'rapid viz' pages. The doodles & illustrations often add a perceptive visual dimension to my seemingly random thoughts on paper. My scratch pad is always a visual smorgasbord of relatively heavy text, mystical doodles & logical illustrations (thanks & no thanks to my engineering training!). I have translated many of my valuable insights into pragmatic projects. One of the sideline projects is writing reviews on amazon website.
To all readers: If you really want to use both sides of your powerful brain to generate valuable insights, I can guarantee that these three books can drive your imagination engine into hyper-speed mode.
Read. and smile........2001-07-07
Have you ever lately read a book which makes you smile? Take this.Read this and see you in the mirror.Even when you feel you are still in frown, you will see a :) there!
Another Great One.......2000-07-31
Once again Joy has written another great art book for people of all ages! it makes a great gift or just a fun read! i have been reading her books for years and still love the creativity she puts into them! Read it for your self and see what you think!
Book Description
Censored by the U.S. Army, Dorothea Lange's unseen photographs are the extraordinary photographic record of the Japanese American internment saga.
This indelible work of visual and social history confirms Dorothea Lange's stature as one of the twentieth century's greatest American photographers. Presenting 119 images originally censored by the U.S. Army—the majority of which have never been published—Impounded evokes the horror of a community uprooted in the early 1940s and the stark reality of the internment camps. With poignancy and sage insight, nationally known historians Linda Gordon and Gary Okihiro illuminate the saga of Japanese American internment: from life before Executive Order 9066 to the abrupt roundups and the marginal existence in the bleak, sandswept camps. In the tradition of Roman Vishniac's A Vanished World, Impounded, with the immediacy of its photographs, tells the story of the thousands of lives unalterably shattered by racial hatred brought on by the passions of war. 104 photographs.
Customer Reviews:
Great photography and history.......2007-01-12
Outstanding description and photographs documenting the terrible injustice done to American citizens and residents solely because of their Japanese ancestry throughout the Second World War. The indecencies suffered by these people can barely be described adequately, but this book attempts to further illustrate the horrors that can be inflicted on an ethnic group if racism is allowed to influence government policy, as it did in this country during that war.
Text, yes. Photographs, no.......2007-01-10
These important photographs taking during WW2 in the Japanese internment camps scattered around the American west are almost unreadble. The are reproduced very small, and without the requisite skill to make deteriorated images look half decent on the printed page.
The text is informative, especially about Dorothea Lange's trials in gaining access to the camps in California.
Impounded: Important Photography of the Internment and American History.......2007-01-08
Dorothea Lange's photographs document an important American event that is still unknown to a large number of Americans. The fact that the government impounded the photographs speaks for itself.
Heartbreaking images of a shameful past........2006-11-06
Although the text is informative in telling the history of Japanese internment during World War II, the images speak for themselves, page after page in stark black and white, the young and innocent, the old and careworn, carrying rope-bound suitcases and cardboard boxes, standing in long lines, waiting to be processed by indifferent jailors, an entire race herded into the camps that will be home for the war years, disenfranchising them of investment in community and the pride of being Americans. As history has proven over and over, fear is a monster that cannot be contained once the public is infected, the vulnerable a source of suspicion, marked by the color of their skin and the shape of their eyes.
Whole families gather in these telling photographs, leaving treasured belongings behind, grandparents to infants, all swept up in an infamous display of mistrust in a country suddenly driven to panic by a surprise attack, demanding a quick response from their government. Lange has a particular talent for capturing the very human face of the internment camps, children with ID tags attached to their coats, chain link fences topped with barbed wire circling the arid landscape, family laundry hanging from a window, the barren rows of housing units assailed by constant dust storms, women working on camouflage nets for the War Department.
Famous for her Depression era photos of migrant farm workers, this series of photographs, while ordered by the US Government, were censored for the duration of the war. The most striking feature of the collection is the very American look of these people, standing proud while saluting the flag, teenagers trying to act cool in spite of their surroundings, family gatherings that are familiar Americana. It is also important to mention that, in spite of the extreme measures undertaken, "no Japanese-American was ever found guilty of espionage". Lange's work is enhanced by the two essays that precede the collection of photographs, Linda Gordon's biographical essay on Lange's life and work and Gary Okihiro's "An American Story", outlining Japanese immigration to America and the history of Japanese internment, with personal anecdotes by detainees. This is a moving portrait of a country's response to threat, reminding us to value the precious tenets of freedom. Luan Gaines/2006.
Book Description
The most comprehensive collection of the photographer's work ever published.
Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime begins with her portraits from the early years, when she was a fashionable studio photographer, and moves into the classic images that established Lange as the preeminent documentary artist of her time: the Depression bread lines and demonstrations, the blighted farms, the migrating farm families, and the makeshift, desolate tent camps. The book concludes with her photographs from the final years, when Lange traveled the globe, finally turning the lens on her children and grandchildren and the familiar objects of her daily life.
In a penetrating critical biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Coles offers an incisive study of Lange's life and work.
Customer Reviews:
Photographs of a Lifetime Book.......2007-01-09
Interesting book , history in photos with written words. Found it in book store for twice as much. The book store suggested to buy it on line. So glad I did.
Beautiful Photographic Collection.......2001-10-14
This anthology is a well-packaged, heart-warmingly first-person annoted retrospective of Lange's career. Enlighening glimpses into Lange's personal point-of view are offered here, showcasing her stark Depression-era WPA migration shots alongside her later vignettes of the American western plains and western coastal dwellers captured in their every day routines. Therein lies this collection's strength and weakness: while her Americana movement captured a rural slice of America which later mediums still struggle to duplicate, that subject matter still did not match the sheer horror and power of her WPA work, which captured the raw strength of the human spirit during life-threatening crises. The diversity of this collection makes it an essential introductory volume, however.
Photographs of a Lifetime.......2001-05-25
I had just recently seen a Lange exhibit when I bought this wonderful book. It starts with an essay on Lange by Robert Coles. Then it moves into her photographs and her own words. Her work is beautiful on its own, but to have the photographs and her philosophy side by side is an enriching experience. The photographs fill the entire book so it's a great read and a nice coffee table book. The images are primarily from her depression photos, but there are also pictures from around the world, her family and her early portraits. I also like that they included photographs of her and her oak trees. Dorothea Lange was a woman with such a unique perspective on life. I feel that this book does an excellent job of presenting her work.
Book Description
This installment in the acclaimed In Focus series examines the life and career of Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), who is most recognized for her social documentary work during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Getty Museum holds nearly one hundred of the artist's pictures, about fifty of
which are discussed by Judith Keller, associate curator of photographs. These include the iconic images of homeless farm families as well as lesser-known Southwestern views, personal photographs Lange made at home in the 1950s, and late compositions from an extensive trip to Asia and the Middle
East. In Focus: Dorothea Lange is published to coincide with an exhibition of her photographs at the Getty Museum from October 15, 2002 through February 9, 2003.
The book includes an edited transcript of a colloquium on Lange, with participants Keller; Keith Davis, Fine Arts Programs Director, Hallmark Cards, Inc.; David Featherstone, independent curator, freelance writer, and editor; Therese Heyman, curator emeritus, Oakland Museum of Photography; Weston
Naef, curator of photographs, Getty Museum; Sally Stein, associate professor of art history, University of California, Irvine; and Michael Williamson, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and author, currently working for the Washington Post. Their animated conversation adds greatly to the
understanding of the artist's creations. A complete chronology of major events in Lange's life rounds out the book.
Book Description
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) is one of the most famous documentary photographers of all time. In 1935, tired of studio portraiture, she began working for the Farm Security Administration and created many of the images that define the Depression in the popular imagination.
Other artists in this series include: Eugene Atget, Mathew Brady, Wynn Bullock, Julia Margaret Cameron, Joan Fontcuberta, David Goldblatt, Nan Goldin, Graciela Iturbide, Andre Kertesz, Mary Ellen Mark, Joel Meyerowitz, Boris Mikhailov, Lisette Model, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Eadweard Muybridge, Eugene Richards, W. Eugene Smith, Shomei Tomatsu, Joel-Peter Witkin
Customer Reviews:
Dignity captured.......2002-07-03
A wonderful book of eighty-five, beautifully printed, Dorothea Lange photos. I think the best ones are forty-seven from the thirties when Lange was part of a small group of photographers employed by the Government to record the plight of the rural poor. Their output (now in the Library of Congress and accessible to all) was the most complete photographic record of a nation ever undertaken. Lange and Walker Evans were, depending on your point of view, the most talented of this group and you can see why by looking at her photos in this book. Keith Davis says in the introduction... "Her photographs are at once bluntly factual and deeply sympathetic. While Lange recorded innumerable scenes of destitution, she consistently evoked the resilience, faith and determination of her subjects". I think her point-of-view comes across in all the work shown in this book. After the thirties the remaining photos cover her work up to 1958.
All the photos have dated captions and many have background information about what is being shown plus the thoughts of Lange and her subjects. The back of the book has a chronology, bibliography and print source. This is a lovely record of her photographic work but if you want to know more have a look at Dorothea Lange: The Heart and Mind of a Photographer, a really comprehensive look at her photos with excellent essays which include several reproductions of spreads from her photobooks.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
BTW: This is the second book of American images I have reviewed in the last few days, the other one was a selection of photos taken over a number of years by British photographer Nick Waplington of a small town in New Mexico called Truth or Consequences (also the books title) but what a contrast, the Lange book has captions and other information, the photographer's thoughts, chronology, bibliography, sources while Waplington's book has none of this, not even page numbers! It raises questions (least to me) about how publishers regard their readers.
Customer Reviews:
Visual masterpiece of americana........1999-09-09
Do you want to learn about American History? Do you want your mind and heart expanded? Do you want to be touched, to be moved to tears? Then buy a copy of this marvelous book of Lange's photographs and let your journey begin. She has the amazing ablility to reveal the very essence of her subject matter - the human spirit. Enjoy!
Average customer rating:
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Dorothea Lange : Photographs of a Lifetime (Aperture Monograph)
Manufacturer: Aperture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Lange, Dorothea
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ASIN: 0893811009 |
Customer Reviews:
I'll Sigh Whenever I Please!.......2000-06-07
This book features the Peanuts gang in the mid-1970's. In the story which inspired the title, Peppermint Patty shares a desk with the slightly embarrased Charlie Brown. Peppermint Patty nags poor old Chuck to death until Charlie Brown finally yells "Stop criticizing me!"- you tell her, Chuck! As for Peppermint Patty, she gets so upset her mood ring pops! Schroeder humors Lucy after she's asked 1 too many stupid questions ("Do you think Beethoven was a better musician than Elton John?") and graciously dons a pair of Elton's specs magnaminously given by you-know-who.
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- The White House in Miniature: Based on the White House Replica by John, Jan, and the Zweifel Family
- Today's Country Houses (Today's)
- Tokujin Yoshioka Design
- Tom Kundig: Houses
- Turf Managers' Handbook for Golf Course Construction, Renovation, and Grow-In
- Urban Design: Method and Techniques, Second Edition
- Urban Transit : Operations, Planning and Economics
- Villas of Lucca
- X-Urbanism: Architecture and the American City
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