Architecture

The first text on the history of planning in Australia, drawing on the expertise of leading authorities in planning and urban studies. more...

Price: $36.00

Together with the National Library of Ireland, Architectural Press presents seventy previously unpublished drawings by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.The identification in the National Library of Ireland of three sketchbooks, from which these drawings have been selected, represents a significant addition to the body of early drawings by Mackintosh. The sketches date from a crucial period in the young man's development, spanning his highly successful student years and the beginnings of his professional career. Each of the three sketchbooks covers an area central to his growth as an artist: the architecture of his native Scotland, an important scholarship journey in Italy and, Mackintosh's first love and greatest influence, the study of plants and growing things. Essentially private, these little known and unique works provide privileged access to significant moments in the artist's intellectual and emotional life. In this book Elaine Grogan attempts to take them out of the library display-case and bring them to life in the hands of the reader. She invites us to look over Mackintosh's shoulder on his early tentative steps towards fulfilment as a creative genius. Connections are traced, both backwards in time to his training and forwards to his great successes and eventual bitter eclipse. more...

Price: $34.95

Contrary to accepted wisdom, rapid urban growth can leave communities permanently scarred, deeply in debt, with unaffordable housing, a lost sense of community, and sacrificed environmental quality. In Better NOT Bigger, Fodor explodes the fundamental myth that growth is good for us and that more development will bring in more tax money, add jobs, lower housing costs, and reduce property taxes. Lively and well-illustrated, Better NOT Bigger provides insights, ideas, and tools to empower citizens to switch off their local "growth machine" by debunking the pro-growth rhetoric. Highly accessible to ordinary citizens as well as professional planners. more...

Price: $15.95

The Boiled Frog Syndrome presents compelling evidence to show that the source of the majority of the Western diseases of civilisation that have multiplied over the past 100 years, ranging from cancers to debilitating sicknesses and allergies, can be traced to the modern built environment, our increasing exposure to electromagnetic radiation and the indiscriminate use of untested advanced technology. It is also due, in part, to the 20th century's repudiation of perennial wisdom. more...

Price: $37.50

The aim of the Watching series is to draw attention to some of the very interesting items around us, things that perhaps we don't notice as much as we might. The first was Bridge Watching, and when this was put ''on the Net'' it produced, to the surprise of the author, such a pleasant flood of e-mail that another was written, called Water Watching. This, too, was kindly received. So it was tempting to continue with the theme.Brick-watching is an inexpensive pastime, which can turn an old brick wall into an exciting find, and bring to your attention the fascination that is hidden from those who look but don't see, or perhaps see but don't look. It is taken for granted that everyone knows that a brick is a lump of clay moulded into a rectangular block and then baked; but there is of course much more to it than that. Armed with a little knowledge, every brick structure is an item of interest, something to be noticed, perhaps to be jotted down in a record, or photographed, drawn, painted, remembered. The author hopes that this gentle approach will provide some insight into the esoteric world of bricks, and will increase the pleasure of finding and studying the many brick structures (including the multitude of fascinating ruins) not only locally but all over the world. It might even convert the reader from being indifferent to becoming enthusiastic. more...

Price: $19.95