Books about Facades from Amazon.com

The riveting, action-packed true story of the first soldier to challenge the war in Iraq.

As a 1st Lieutenant and Infantry Platoon Leader for the U.S. Army, charged with leading 38 young men in Iraq, Paul Rieckhoff was proud to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who served during Vietnam and WWII respectively. He and his soldiers spent almost a year in one of the most dangerous and volatile areas of Baghdad. And what they encountered there was chaos: not nearly enough troops, no humanitarian aid, no body armor, no radios, and no real plan for what to do after Baghdad fell.

Rieckhoff was shocked to see that sometimes the greatest challenges his platoon faced did not come from enemy combatants. He saw fi rsthand the disastrous results of disbanding the Iraqi army, sending thousands of armed, angry, and unemployed men out into the streets. And he saw what happened when we tried to conduct a war on the cheap, by bestowing government contracts to the lowest bidder and sending our military into battle inadequately protected and armed. What followed, over the next ten months, set him on a course that would forever change his life.

When he fi nally came home from his tour of duty, Rieckhoff vowed to tell Americans the truth about what was going on in Iraq. He demanded accountability from elected officials and was the first Iraq veteran to do so publicly. He created Operation Truth, the first and largest veterans' group specifically for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through this organization, he has become a leading spokesman for troops, veterans, and their families, and a critical voice in the ongoing debate surrounding this conflict.

What is really happening in Iraq? Should we be there? Should we stay? Rieckhoff is in a unique position to answer these crucial questions. Not only was he on the ground in the heat of battle but he is also on the front lines politically at home. He provides a grunt's-eye view of the harrowing, bloody battles on the streets of Baghdad and a patriot's vision of where America has gone wrong and how it can reset its path..
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Facades -- they are the first feature of a building to be noticed, they determine its distinctive appearance and are often the subject of controversial debate. This new first edition of the Facade Construction Manual provides a systematic survey of contemporary expertise in the application of new materials and energy-efficient technologies in facade design, and represents an invaluable addition to our series of Construction Manuals. It surveys the facade design requirements made by various types of buildings, as well as the most important materials, from natural stone through to synthetics, and documents a diversity of construction forms for a wide range of building types. Over 100 international case-studies in large-scale, detailed drawings are presented in the comprehensive project section..
Price: $91.35 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For generations, the women of the South African Ndebele tribe have produced a rich, living art. They continue to do so today, conjuring up on the walls of their houses a world of spontaneous forms with intricate beadwork and wall painting. Their dynamic compositions and blazing colors show a bold graphic quality that makes them appear stunningly fresh and modern.

Margaret Courtney-Clarke spent five years visiting the Ndebele and recording their art. Her work on this book began long before the political upheavals following the end of apartheid and the coming to power of the black majority in South Africa. The Ndebele from the southern Transvaal, whose art is documented here, were violently displaced and forcibly resettled in the newly created KwaNdebele homeland. During her later visits Courtney-Clarke discovered that more and more of her favorite paintings had decayed or disappeared after the family had either moved away or been forcibly resettled. The result in several cases is that her photographs are the only surviving documents of some of the most impressive of Ndebele artworks.

These photographs bear witness to a people who, despite unspeakable suffering, have continued to decorate their surroundings with breathtaking brilliance and passion. 191 color photographs..
Price: $21.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Facades determine the appearance of a building Thus they have a very important role to play in architecture At the same time, the building envelope has important functions to fulfill, including lighting, weatherproofing, thermal isolation, load distribution, and sound insulation, to name only the most important. In the last fifteen years, facades have become significantly more complex. For example, "intelligent,” climate-active facades use self-regulating systems to respond to changing light and weather conditions.

This book demonstrates the principles of facade construction. Guidelines are suggested for good detailing. The installation procedures are described for the most common materials –glass, wood, steel, concrete, and aluminum. Numerous drawings made specially for the book explain the principles of the individual types of facade which are then illustrated with built examples.

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Price: $26.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The facade plays a critical role in the conception of energy- and climate-optimized buildings: it is the building’s skin and functions as an interface between interior and exterior space. It provides thermal and sound insulation and ventilation, and controls and guides the entrance of daylight into the building. Climate Skin offers concrete planning advice for architects and engineers who wish to exploit not only the architectural potential of facades but also their energy and climate-control possibilities, treating the building envelope as an essential component within a complete climate-control and technology solution. It provides a solid foundation of knowledge that equips the reader to make competent technical and economic evaluations of building envelopes. For everyone concerned with facades, Climate Skin is a comprehensive planning handbook and reference work that covers all of the relevant technical and physical aspects of the design and detailed planning of energy-efficient facades.

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Price: $60.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Renaissance architect and builder Andrea Palladio is arguable the most influential architect in Western history, and certainly the most beloved. His sixteenth-century villas in the Italian Veneto revolutionized the course of architecture, and the principles on which he based his work are still felt today. For the past several years, Italian watercolorist Giovanni Giaconi has devoted his talents to creating exquisite large-format pen-and-ink watercolor renderings of all thirty-two of Palladio’s villas. Each drawing captures the timeless beauty of Palladian architecture and provides a detailed record of these masterpieces. Together with brief descriptions of each villa, samples of Giaconi’s preparatory sketches, and where available, Palladio’s own woodcuts, these works of art leave a deep impression of Palladio’s oeuvre and give the reader an opportunity to compare the original designs with the actual buildings and their present state of conservation. This beautiful book is a must-have and the perfect gift for architects, travelers, and lovers of Italy and Palladio’s architecture. .
Price: $249.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The curtain wall—a non-bearing wall attached to a building's structural frame like a curtain made of metal or, more likely glass—is an omnipresent feature of contemporary architecture. Variations of pattern and color, transparency and opacity offer the architect almost limitless design possibilities, a tremendous palette for "skinning" the structural frame of buildings from museums to skyscrapers.There are few practitioners of curtain wall design as accomplished as Cesar Pelli & Associates, and this book presents twenty of their most exemplary projects. Arranged by material—glass, metal, stone—the conception and development of each individual facade is revealed and construction details comprehensively documented through numerous drawings. Any practicing architect interested in state-of-the-art curtain wall design will need to own this indispensable and inspiring book..
Price: $51.09 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Make any renovation job go smoother Building renovation, conservation and reuse represents more than half of all construction work - and is projected to increase to 80% by 2004. Structural Renovation of Buildings, by Alexander Newman, puts a single, convenient source of information about all aspects of structural renovation and strengthening of buildings at your fingertips. While its focus is largely on low and midrise buildings, you can apply the principles it clarifies to buildings of any size - steel-framed, masonry, or wood. Whether you're repairing deteriorated concrete...rehabilitating slabs on grade...strengthening lateral-load resisting systems...renovating a building facade...handling seismic upgrades or fire damage, you'll find this time-and-trouble-saving guide loaded with practical tips, methods, and design examples. It's also heavily illustrated with autoCAD generated details, supplier illustrations of materials, procedural techniques, and much, much more..
Price: $63.84 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Problems in construction have existed for as long as architecture itself has enclosed our spaces, and the types of defects and their causes are as varied as the architecture itself. Particularly in glass structures there have been some catastrophic problems in recent years. In a sense it would seem that modern architecture with its complex technologies and ingenious details is especially prone to defects. It would almost be true to say that the more daring the design, the greater the risk of flaws. For this very reason, this selection of examples includes renowned projects as Waterloo Station in London, the John Hancock Tower in Boston, the Galeries Lafayette in Berlin, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Bibliotheque de France in Paris. However, the author is not appealing for a return to more conventional building styles, rather he aims to demonstrate how typical defects can be avoided. the book can be seen as a catalogue of façade failure modes, examining defects due to water leakage, corrosion, combinations of incompatible materials, insufficient redundancy, climatic influences, wear and tear of materials, etc. Each chapter is devoted to a particular form of damage, providing an analytical form of damage, providing an analytical description of the basics of the phenomenon, illustrating it with one or more examples, and concluding with helpful strategies designed to avoid repetition of defects. In addition to pointing out problems, the author also examines enclosures that have been successful..
Price: $19.34 [Notify me when price goes down.]