You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope... View More...
Created by an assembly of leading designers, architects, and bloggers, these 57 unique and innovative designs will show you the limits of what is possible. All of the designs include beautiful full-colour photos along with floor plans and building tips; 15 of them include flushed-out concept sketches; and five include step-by-step building plans. You'll also find guidelines on building with recycled and salvaged materials, plus techniques for making your small space comfortable and easy to inhabit. View More...
This is an inspiring guide to maximising the potential of small homes and spaces. Harnesses a bestselling topic: home construction solutions for limited space. It looks at a variety of houses as well as a selection of sheds, studios, and other small structures. Just because a home is smaller doesn't mean it can't serve all the purposes a larger home did - it just takes careful planning and some smart strategies which are provided in Cabins & Cottages and Other Small Spaces. In this collection from Fine Homebuilding magazine, the authors look at houses both new and remodelled, urban and rural, ... View More...
Working drawings with dimensions for constructing fences, gates, doors, windows, chimneys, verandahs & garages for houses of the late 19th & early 20th centuries. This book is the result of countless hours of fieldwork a tape measure and notebook, painstakingly measuring, recording and drawing some of the most important details of old Australian houses. The designs which it contains provide all of the dimensions and construction details necessary for restoration work on a variety of Australian housing styles in the period from the late 1890s through to the late 1920s and beyond. There are ch... View More...
The houses of Queensland are unique in Australia. Broad verandahs shaded by gracefully curved expanses of roofing iron, tall stumps, lattice, roof ventilators, and a host of the subtleties combine to give the Queensland house of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries its own special qualities and visual character. It might be thought that determining why Queensland houses are so very different from those found elsewhere in Australia would be a simple matter. But it has taken years of research to unravel a very complex story and find the answers to some fundamental questions about the... View More...
How to Restore the Old Aussie House is an essential part of the house restorer's toolkit - as important as the paintbrush, hammer and nails. This practical guide contains a wealth of information on understanding and maintaining old houses and buildings. Written by one of Australia's leading conservation architects, it contains detailed and authoritative information about the stylistic evolution, terminology and construction of Australian houses from about 1800 to the 1930s. How to Restore the Old Aussie House includes more than 180 specially-drawn illustrations, as well as specifications fo... View More...
This book contains a collection of authentic interior and exterior colour schemes for Australian houses built between about 1820 and 1940s. The interior schemes consist of complete decorative effects and finishes for twenty-five suites of rooms, with colours and finishes for every surface from the skirting board to the ceiling rose. There are sixteen authentic exterior schemes, carefully collected from buildings that range from early nineteenth-century farm houses to bungalows, terraces and cottages. Everything from colour selection to wallpaper and stencil designs of the various periods is... View More...
Though the median size of a new single-family house is back on the rise--after a brief decline during the 2007-2009 U.S. recession--many are now choosing to live small deliberately. They're building smaller, more environmentally and economically friendly homes. The New Small House presents small-house design strategies as well as whole-house case studies from across the U.S. and Canada for homeowners eager to simplify, and remodelers, builders, architects, and designers looking for inspiration. The ingenious and attractive designs of these 24 small houses (ranging in size from 500 square feet ... View More...
TV's architecture and design guru Kevin McCloud shares his passion and expertise in this brilliant guide to designing and building your own home, illustrated with the most memorable houses from the award-winning Channel 4 series. The book goes way beyond the confines of the usual TV tie-in. Over the 11 years that Grand Designs has been on our screens, Kevin has had plenty of opportunity to formulate his own strong views on what makes truly brilliant architecture. For the first time he can share those views fully, showing that 'houses too can be architecture' and giving any aspiring self-builde... View More...
Australian House Styles. An Illustrated guide to domestic architecture from 1788 to the present. This book takes us on a journey through Australian architectural history, from the bark and split-slab cottages of the early colonial period to the sleek corrugated-steel pavilions of the twenty-first century. In between are country homesteads, city terraces, Federation villas, Californian bungalows and the austere fibro-clad cottages of the 1940s and 1950s. Sixty-three carefully-detailed drawings illustrate the characteristics of every style. The text and drawings combine authority and authe... View More...
An inspirational and practical guide to building exciting, beautiful and extraordinary homes, Grand Designs Australia Handbook is a must-have book for all homeowners, builders, renovators and dreamers. Showcasing the striking homes - from streamlined, sleek modernist homes to rustic country getaways - that appeared in Grand Designs Australia television series 1-3, this book is packed with practical guidance, advice and ideas for people who are considering building or renovating their home. From the initial vision through to the planning, construction and finishing stages, Peter Maddison ... View More...
Permaculture is more than just the latest buzzword; it offers positive solutions for many of the environmental and social challenges confronting us. And nowhere are those remedies more needed and desired than in our cities. The Permaculture City provides a new way of thinking about urban living, with practical examples for creating abundant food, energy security, close-knit communities, local and meaningful livelihoods, and sustainable policies in our cities and towns. The same nature-based approach that works so beautifully for growing food connecting the pieces of the landscape together in h... View More...
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