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Title:
The Inner Harmony of the Japanese House

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Summary:
This book uncovers the concealed concepts at work in Japanese living space, and brings compelling insights and long-needed clairity to the subject.

Title:
Two squares

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Summary:
Through a series of essays by urban historians and designers, Two Squares examines the changing role of public space in the cities of Beirut and Istanbul as they undergo major urban redevelopment. The study of Beirut looks at the redesign of Martyrs' Square, the city's primary public space, in the aftermath of the civil war and the ongoing reconstruction efforts to rebuild the center. In Istanbul, the focus is on Sirkeci Square, one of the main intermodal hubs in the historic peninsula, as it readies itself to host a new station for the first under-Bosphorus train tunnel. The two urban transformations are taken as opportunities to examine the nature of public space in the 21st-century city, the history and evolution of public life in Beirut and Istanbul, and the possibilities of using these vital transportation nodes as opportunities for new landscape, urban, and architectural design strategies. The book also includes a series of hypothetical design projects for these two squares.

Title:
Le sens de l'espace au Japon : vivre, penser, bâtir

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$58.95
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Le sens de l'espace au japon, c'est le déploiement du monde japonais, de la terre d'un certain archipel à la manière dont le moi s'y définit dans son rapport avec les choses et avec autrui. C'est l'organisation des parcours dans un jardin-promenade, l'agencement des pièces dans l'ancien palais du shôgun à Edo, mais aussi certains principes managériaux des grandes entreprises, l'apparente absence du sujet dans certains poèmes, les repères situationnels de la morale ordinaire, et jusqu'à la remise en cause au XXe siècle, par la " logique du lieu " nishidienne, du principe d'identité qui fonda l'inférence rationnelle chez Aristote. En effet, chaque société crée son espace dans un sens qui lui est propre, et qu'analogiquement elle déploie dans tous les domaines de son existence ; mais en outre, la spatialité japonaise a ceci de particulier qu'elle a construit un paradigme existentiel : un paradigme de la vie même, à l'opposé du mécanicisme de la modernité occidentale. On en tire ici les leçons pour une architecture naturelle, en prise concrète avec les sens de notre corps dans le paysage.

Title:
Elements of Japanese design

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Summary:
"Elements of Japanese design" introduces 80 key concepts in Japanese design in a readable and accessible short-entry format. Including a brief explanation and examples of every aspect of Japanese design—from Wah (Harmony) to Kaizen (Continuous Improvement), from Mushin (the Empty Mind) to Mujo (Incompleteness).

Title:
The arts of China after 1620

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$74.95
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Summary:
The Arts of China after 1620 concludes a major three-volume survey that examines China's huge wealth of art, architecture and artefacts from prehistoric times to the present. Beginning with discussions of 'fine' art and painting and progressing to analysis of carving and sculpture, ceramics, glassware and textiles, the authors demonstrate how, in the age of the Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, the 'decorative' arts rose to a prominence quite unlike the western experience. Avoiding misrepresentative categorization, they single out period styles, as well as identifying repeated phases of archaism and Buddhist art, and discuss characteristic groups of jade, ivory, ceramics, glassware and textiles. They consider the importance of the imperial workshops and their role in developing craftsmen's skills and encouraging the cross-over of techniques from different disciplines and they present the compelling influence of Emperor Qianlong's aesthetic innovations. In architecture the vast plan and overwhelming authority of the imperial buildings contrasts with the restrained subtlety of domestic architecture and garden design where magnificent rocks were the principal feature, just as in landscape painting. The survey concludes by examining the development of East/West trade and the effects of commercialization on Chinese arts and crafts. This handsome, well-illustrated book provides a scholarly and illuminating resource for all students of the arts of China.

Title:
Chinese architecture

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$19.95
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Summary:
Ancient Chinese architecture is not only a source of reference for modern Chinese design, it has also had an international influence and attracted global attention. Moreover, architectural remains in China reveal much about the history of this ancient civilisation. The palaces, gardens, temples, tombs and dwellings of the Chinese people reflect, for example, the military achievements of the Qin emperor, the spirit of the Tang Dynasty, the palace intrigues of the Ming Dynasty, the diversity of Chinese culture through the ages and the skill of countless generations of craftsmen and labourers. This publication provides an accessible, illustrated introduction to this essential part of China's cultural heritage.

Title:
Viêtnam : à travers l'architecture coloniale

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$72.95
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A la faveur des échanges renoués, les Occidentaux redécouvrent ce pays secoué par trente ans de guerre. Les apports architecturaux de la période coloniale demeurent visibles et contribuent toujours à façonner le visage des cités actuelles. Léonard de Selva, photographe, et Arnauld Le Brusq, historien de l''art, proposent un itinéraire du sud au nord du Viêtnam, de Hô Chi Minh-Ville - l''ancien Saigon - à Hanoi, en passant par Dalat, Nha Trang, Danang - anciennement Tourane - et Huê, autant de villes abordées de manière vivante sous l''angle de l'histoire urbaine et architecturale.

Title:
Jerusalem: city of longing

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$21.99
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Summary:
Goldhill, professor of Greek at Cambridge, provides an illuminating archeological, architectural and historical guide to Jerusalem's most holy and secular sites from biblical times to the present. As Goldhill explores Jerusalem during the Victorian period, which he claims laid the groundwork for much of the modern city, the impact of British mandatory rule, and the city today, he faces head-on the difficulty of telling the history of a place where every fact is contested by conflicting nationalist narratives.

Title:
M8 in China: contemporary chinese architects

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$48.00
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Summary:
M8 in China showcases a range of work by eight private Chinese architectural offices whose energetic output reveals some fascinating new connections between Eastern tradition and the Western avant garde. Whether it is a museum with a facade made of bamboo-clad concrete or a tea-house sited at the foot of a mountain, all 24 selected projects in this book are impressive evidence of the high quality of current architectural practice in China.

Title:
The appearances of memory : mnemonic practices of architecture and urban form in Indonesia

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$29.95
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Summary:
In this publication, the Indonesian architectural and urban historian Abidin Kusno explores the connections between the built environment and political consciousness in Indonesia during the colonial and postcolonial eras. Focusing primarily on Jakarta, he describes how perceptions of the past, anxieties about the rapid pace of change in the present, and hopes for the future have been embodied in architecture and urban space at different historical moments. He argues that the built environment serves as a reminder of the practices of the past and an instantiation of the desire to remake oneself within, as well as beyond, one’s particular time and place. Addressing developments in Indonesia since the fall of President Suharto’s regime in 1998, Kusno delves into such topics as the domestication of traumatic violence and the restoration of order in the urban space, the intense interest in urban history in contemporary Indonesia, and the implications of "superblocks", large urban complexes consisting of residences, offices, shops, and entertainment venues. Moving farther back in time, he examines how Indonesian architects reinvented colonial architectural styles to challenge the political culture of the state, how colonial structures such as railway and commercial buildings created a new, politically charged cognitive map of cities in Java in the early twentieth century, and how the Dutch, in attempting to quell dissent, imposed a distinctive urban visual order in the 1930s. Finally, the present and the past meet in his long-term considerations of how Java has responded to the global flow of Islamic architecture, and how the meanings of Indonesian gatehouses have changed and persisted over time.