Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order

Book Description

This fascinating introduction to classical art and architecture is the first book to investigate the way classical buildings are put together as formal structures. It researches the generative rules, the poetics of composition that classical architecture shares with classical music, poetry, and drama, and is enriched by a variety of examples and an extensive analysis of compositional rules. The 205 line drawings make up a discourse of their own, a pictorial text that serves as an introductory theory of composition or basic design aid.

Drawing from Vitruvius, the poetics of Aristotle, the theories of classical architecture, music, and poetry since the Renaissance, and the poetics of the Russian formalists, the authors present classical architecture as a coherent system of architectural thinking that is capable of producing a tragic humanistic discourse, a public art with critical, moral, and philosophical meaning.

Alexander Tzonis is Crown Professor of Architectural Theory and Methodology at the Technische Hogeschool, Delft. Liane Lefaivre teaches at the Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Arnhem.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting discussion of the appeal of classical form........1999-04-30

A highly useful if somewhat cursory look at the principals of classical architectural form. As an artist I found it to be very illuminating. Even more important was the author's attempt at developing a modern aesthetic which accounts for the lasting appeal of the classical.

Great book on architectural theory.......1997-10-16

Tzonis dose a very good job at laying out the foundations of classical architecture, for the biginner and the professional. This book has some very nice drawings incorperated into it that help with the understanding of the theories. This book is highly recomended for any one interested in classical architecture.

Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order

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Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order
Alexander Tzonis
Manufacturer: MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQY5FQ

Book Description

William Coperthwaite is a teacher, builder, designer, and writer who for many years has explored the possibilities of true simplicity on a homestead on the north coast of Maine. In the spirit of Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and Helen and Scott Nearing, Coperthwaite has fashioned a livelihood of integrity and completeness—buying almost nothing, providing for his own needs, and serving as a guide and companion to hundreds of apprentices drawn to his unique way of being.

A Handmade Life carries Coperthwaite's ongoing experiments with hand tools, hand-grown and gathered food, and handmade shelter, clothing, and furnishings out into the world to challenge and inspire. His writing is both philosophical and practical, exploring themes of beauty, work, education, and design while giving instruction on the hand-crafting of the necessities of life. Richly illustrated with luminous color photographs by Peter Forbes, the book is a moving and inspirational testament to a new practice of old ways of life.

Customer Reviews:

This Handsome Book Evokes the Simple But Deep Living Aesthetics It Preaches.......2007-07-14

It's funny how even a quick browsing of this book tells you it has integrity. It's some combination of the artful layout, the paper quality, and of course the author's inspiration living-the-talk life. A Handmade Life evokes a simple but deep way to live. I should confess, however, that I haven't read the whole book, but I love it anyway and keep it on my desk by computer, sipping it now and again like a wine brewed for inspiration. It's a reminder to slow down, focus more on craft than result and quality more than quantity.

Another one in this genre is The Hand-Sculpted House.

A Handmade Life.......2006-04-18

The book was not as beautiful as the experience. The first time I went I left a feather and stones and couldn't bear to leave, subsequent visits were as powerful but in the way a life is crafted, one builing upon another. Bill is superlative. The book is good but needs to be taken in small portions, savored,it added to my experience. Building a yurt should be done by any awake human. Bill's the only authentic one I know of-the rest, shallow imitations, posers, pretenders, charlatans and just plain not it. Even though I'm sure they are earnest folks.

The Search for Simplicity.......2004-07-06

I didn't go looking for this book. It simply fell into place. Literally. While I was browsing in the satellite branch of my local public library for books about business this volume fell on my head. It had been left precariously on top of the shelf.
Aesthetics appeal to me, to the cover was intriguing. I skipped the book about where mobile and wireless technology is taking society and immediately checked out A Handmade Life.
It is a beautifully presented book. The photographs of an idyllic life in Maine are appealingly presented. The text proposes a way of life that, even here on the paradisical edge of the Pacific Ocean, on the edge of the world, even, it is hard not to yearn for. And maybe that is true value of the book. It awakened a hankering in me for a more naieve way. Strangely it also help me make a number of business choices I had been faced with. Appropriate considering there is a side-bar in the book:

"Borrow from cultures old and new
And with our imaginations

Blend those borrowings
To Create new ways to live
That are simpler, gentler
More generous and beautiful."

Book Description

* Tracks the concept of sustainable development from Stockholm, to Rio, to Johannesburg, and beyond
* An authoritative view of three decades of development and green debates

Since the Stockholm Environment Conference in 1972 and the Rio Summit in 1992 and now in Johannesburg, there has been unprecedented public concern for the future of the planet and a growing awareness that development needs to be sustainable. This charts the growth of these ideas by beginning with a visionary piece written by Barbara Ward in the 1970s, and ending with a chapter looking ahead another 30 years into the future.
Two generations of thinkers and activists have helped to shape environment and development policy and increase local level power in environmental management - in celebration of their 30th anniversary, the IIED's most influential writers, in this book, provide a uniquely authoritative perspective on three decades of development and green debates.

Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search For A Value Of Place

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Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search For A Value Of Place
Thomas Michael Power
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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General | Urban Planning & Development | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1559633697

Amazon.com

Today's academic economists have, for the most part, withdrawn from "the parochial fray of local economic development policy" in pursuit analyzing broader national and international issues. Not so, says Thomas Michael Power, whose intent in his scholarly and deeply felt Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies is to address the fundamental errors and distractions inherent in folk economics. Power is uniquely suited to the task. A professor at the University of Montana, his is the perfect perch from which to regard the rapacious plunder of local and state economies by the mining and timber companies.

"A popular folk economics," Power writes, "teaches us that the extraction and processing of natural resources are the heart of economic development, that 'all wealth springs from the earth.'" Power argues against this conventional model of extractive-dependent communities. Such models play a role, he proves, in the decline and destabilization of local economies. To see landscape and its preservation not as an aesthetic whim but as an economic necessity is a brave and lonely stance, indeed. Economic health equals nothing less than "avoiding needless damage to the natural--and therefore human--environment."

We recognize the battle lines, clearly drawn between the environmental and resource-industry sides. At stake: both the extinction of whole species and traditional ways of life that have supported families and communities for generations. "If we could lay to rest," Power argues, "the fear that environmental protection will cause the imminent economic collapse of communities, the acrimony would subside and it would be much easier to engage in civil discourse over the real choices communities face." With a persuasive overview and the use of powerful case studies on the impact of ranching, mining, and timber on the land, Thomas Power has himself extracted a clear definition of the real issues from the rubble of misguided passions, paranoia, and a divisive media.

Book Description

Over the past two decades, a growing consensus has emerged among Americans as to the importance of environmental quality. Yet at the same time, conflict over environmental issues has built to a point where rational discussion is often impossible. Efforts to protect unique ecosystems and endangered wildlife are portrayed as threatening entire regions and ways of life, and anti-environmental groups such as the Wise Use Movement are able to use economic insecurity as a weapon in an ongoing attempt to rescind environmental protection measures.

In Lost Landscapes and Failed Economics, economist Thomas Michael Power argues that the quality of the natural landscape is an essential part of a community's permanent economic base and need not be sacrificed in short-term efforts to maintain employment levels in industries that are ultimately not sustainable. He provides numerous case studies of the ranching, mining, and timber industries in a critical analysis of the role played by extractive industry in our communities. In addition, he looks at areas where environmental protection measures have been enacted and examines the impact of protected landscapes on local economies.

Both environmental protection and extractive industry are economic activities that can contribute to local economic well-being. Both generate jobs and income. Both have a significant impact on people's lives. Power exposes the fundamental flaws in the widely accepted view of the local economy built around the "extractive model," a model that overemphasizes the importance of extractive industries and assumes that people don't care where they live and that businesses don't care about the available labor supply. By revealing the inadequacies of the extractive model, he lays to rest fears that environmental protection will cause an imminent collapse of the community, and puts economic tools in the hands of those working to protect their communities.

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In search of a natural systems sustainability index [An article from: Ecological Economics]
L. Di@?az-Balteiro , and C. Romero
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RQZI4U

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Ecological Economics, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This research note proposes an index of sustainability to be attached to any natural system evaluated according to several indicators of sustainability. The proposed index (IS) is very operational and most of the indices proposed in the literature can be considered to be particular cases of IS. Moreover, the IS propounded can be used to reach balances or compromises between an engineering solution of ''maximum aggregate sustainability'' and an ecological solution of ''most balanced sustainability'' of the system.

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In Search of Sustainability

Manufacturer: CSIRO Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Renewable Energy | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0643090622
Release Date: 2004-12-01

Book Description

What must we do to achieve a sustainable society? There is no one answer. The first steps towards sustainability cover a whole spectrum of economic, social and environmental issues.

In this volume Australian leaders from a wide range of fields discuss the key issues we must address if we are to move towards a more just and sustainable future. They identify the major concerns and challenges for achieving sustainability in the areas of:

human health
water resources
land use and natural ecosystems
energy
equity and peace
economic systems
climate change
labour forces and work
urban design and transport
population

Book Description

In recent years, the forests of British Columbia have become a battleground for sustainable resource development. The conflicts are ever present, usually pitting environmentalists against the forest industry and forestry workers and communities. In an effort to broker peace in the woods, British Columbia's NDP government launched a number of promising new forest policy initiatives in the 1990s.

In Search of Sustainability brings together a group of political scientists to examine this extraordinary burst of policy activism. Focusing on how much change has occurred and why, the authors examine seven components of BC forest policy: land use, forest practices, tenure, Aboriginal issues, timber supply, pricing, and jobs. Results of initiatives in these policy areas have been mixed. While environmental values have acquired a more central place in BC forest policy, they have not displaced timber production as the dominant force in policy making. Moreover, the authors conclude that despite the astonishing level of activism, the government's search for sustainability -- whether measured by environmental, social, economic, or political indicators -- has ultimately failed.

In Search of Sustainability is a lucid, provocative, and often sobering examination of a crucial period in the forest industry in a province where forestry remains a central plank of the provincial economy and where environmental pressures, both domestic and foreign, continue to escalate. Essential reading for scholars, teachers, and students of forestry and environmental policy, it will also appeal to anyone interested in the future of forestry both in British Columbia and beyond.

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In Search of Sustainability: BC Forest Policy in the 1990s. (book review): An article from: The Canadian Geographer
Roger Hayter
Manufacturer: Canadian Association of Geographers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0009FRUIQ
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Canadian Geographer, published by Canadian Association of Geographers on March 22, 2002. The length of the article is 1074 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: In Search of Sustainability: BC Forest Policy in the 1990s. (book review)
Author: Roger Hayter
Publication: The Canadian Geographer (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2002
Publisher: Canadian Association of Geographers
Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Page: 90(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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In Search of Sustainable Livelihood Systems: Managing Resources and Change

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In Search of Sustainable Livelihood Systems: Managing Resources and Change

Manufacturer: Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Development & Growth | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 076199808X

Book Description

`What a pleasure to find, at long last, a book on rural livelihoods which does not package sustainability through the straightjacket of assessment, numbers and capital' - Development and Change

Livelihood systems are much more than sets of material and economic conditions. They have to cater to a large number of human needs including food and shelter. The contributors to this important volume adopt a holistic approach to understanding rural livelihood systems. They maintain that a livelihood system embraces not just economic conditions for physical subsistence, but all the elements that provide material continuity and cultural meaning to the life of a family in a community.

Book Description

Water issues in the American West share many similarities with those seen elsewhere in the world as population growth exacerbates longstanding problems of inappropriate water use and management. The contributors to this timely volume examine the universal challenge of sustainable water management to improve the use of water resources already developed and find ways to moderate our growing collective thirst. The volume begins with an exploration of the opportunities, arguments, and mechanisms for transferring lessons between the American West and foreign nations. Succeeding chapters cover individual issues such as: water allocation and the relationship between market mechanisms and government-based approaches, the challenge of environmental protection, the protection of cultural values with a focus on indigenous water rights, the significance of international and interstate rivers in promoting regional conflict and cooperation, and the role of water management in sustainable development. A comprehensive look at one of our most pressing issues, In Search of Sustainable Water Management will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners in the areas of water management, law, policy studies, economics, planning and public administration.

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