Synopsis: Erstwhile-house expert Brent Hull has an extensive library of books nearly building and pattern. He believes every architect should have a collection of at to the lowest degree 100 books—with a focus on business firm design and building styles, because today many builders take become too separate from the architectural field and lack a broader agreement of building design that will ameliorate inform their piece of work. He includes a list of titles categorized into historical architecture, edifice styles, architectural details, and how-to, with additional books to consider beyond those on the list.
If you trace the give-and-take "architect" back to its mid-16th-century roots, its meaning is literally "main architect." Back then, and for hundreds of years afterward, a architect was not just expected to be skilled at the manual aspects of the arts and crafts, but too knowledgeable in the design side of the process. That'south why Asher Benjamin, a master builder and writer who lived from 1773 until 1845, is one of my heroes. To me, he was the model for what a craftsman should strive for today. He is known for existence the first American-born pattern-volume author, whose works teach craftsmen the finer points of building pattern.
Today, many builders are more specialized in their work compared to those generalists of the past, and architects accept get solely focused on design. It doesn't have to be like this. With a bit of self-motivated studying, we can proceeds a broader education and better understand all of the moving parts that influence what nosotros produce on a twenty-four hours-to-day ground.
Builders take the how-to downwards pat, merely don't know why they are edifice what they are building. Nosotros know how to frame a business firm, only aren't equally expert with which style is appropriate, or how to continue that way consequent. What we accept lost is a deeper awareness of the subtleties of building style, business firm design, and construction methods, all of which make the divergence between a good project and one that is truly excellent.
I believe, like Benjamin, that the lost arts of building are found in books—many of them sometime ones. I remember every builder worth his or her salt should have a library of at least 100 books, and to assistance, I've put together this listing. Many of the titles that follow are out of print and tin can only be purchased from secondhand sellers; a quick search will show some of them available for viewing online. Y'all can choose the titles that about interest y'all, simply what follows is organized into a guided curriculum of sorts.
The journeying starts with a basic understanding of how housing has changed over the final 100-plus years. From there, dig deeper into the variety of architectural styles by studying historic examples, because how else can builders exist confident they aren't only muddying the waters? Adjacent, I suggest studying historical structure details, which inform remodeling and reproduction work besides as new structure. Of class, there's e'er skillful reason to expand on how-to skills—I'd wager that the previous generation of carpenters forgot more edifice noesis than most of today'due south carpenters fifty-fifty bothered to larn in the first place.
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A History of How We Got Here
If y'all've ever driven through a historic neighborhood and wondered why new neighborhoods don't look every bit mannerly, yous've identified the problem with new-habitation design: It's no longer cohesive. I think this started with the post-WWII nail of production edifice, and much of that legacy lives on today. Merely there's a renewed involvement in old-fashioned neighborhoods lately, cheers in role to New Urbanism, and history tin be a great teacher to aid us along.
The Former Way of Seeing
By Jonathan Hale
This was a very important book to me when I read information technology 15 years ago. I had been studying historic houses, merely didn't sympathise the concept of regulating lines in architecture. Hale compares historic buildings to modern structures to pinpoint exactly why old houses look and feel better than new houses, and what we tin can practise to bring the "magic" dorsum to today's designs.
Suburban Nation
By Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck
This book describes how our neighborhoods have changed since the 1950s—for the worse. It details old neighborhoods from the 1920s, with a focus on how they effectively combined houses, schools, and shops into cohesive communities. By dissimilarity, new cities are divide up by quadrants: housing in gated communities, industrial complexes, schools, and shopping malls. They require a motorcar to go from place to place, significant more than parking lots and wider roads, which leads to uglier developments. The volume's focus on how our neighborhoods work, and why they are designed the mode they are, is enlightening.
Houses From Books
By Daniel D. Reiff
I've mentioned the blueprint books and design treatises that historically led firm design and construction, many of them written by Asher Benjamin. Reiff's comprehensive book includes these titles, giving a history of pattern publications in America from 1738 to 1950, with a focus on how they influenced our pattern landscape. He chronicles not only the historic titles, merely likewise how trade magazines and others treated firm design at different tumultuous periods in history.
Analyses of Architectural Styles
When it comes to education surrounding design, the journeying starts with a bones understanding of overarching house styles and how to differentiate one from another. While one of the titles on this list has a more modern focus (past comparison), the rest of this category includes older books almost houses from the late 1890s into the tardily 1930s, which I notice to be the time period with the greatest depth of resource textile.
Colonial Interiors
By Leigh French Jr.
Many architectural books from the early on 1920s highlight the exterior of a home, but it's important not to overlook the interiors, which pinpoint features such every bit the differences betwixt a Georgian-fashion and a Federal-mode stair. This 3-book set is, in my opinion, the all-time resource for studying these period interiors. The start book is focused on colonial and early Federal piece of work dealing mostly with New England backdrop, the 2d covers more of the southern states, and the 3rd focuses on Federal and Greek-revival architecture. With all three books in hand, you tin analyze room layout, fireplace mantels, and other aspects of historical interiors.
Great Georgian Houses of America
Past Architects' Emergency Committee
You can't become wrong with this two-volume set written during the 1930s as part of the Architects' Emergency Relief Fund that put architects to work detailing and studying meaning historic American homes. The books highlight individual homes—homes that should influence your work—and dig into the architectural details of each. For instance, the collection includes the Hammond-Harwood business firm in Annapolis, Maryland, which was built past William Buckland and praised by Thomas Jefferson as having almost beautiful entry in America.
A Field Guide to American Houses
By Virginia Savage McAlester
In society to work on and repair old houses, yous need to understand their fundamental components—otherwise y'all might accept out or ruin the wrong thing. This detailed guide to house styles and their key differences is a great volume to beginning your library. The outset edition, published in 1984, was one of my textbooks when I was a student at N Bennet Street School studying preservation carpentry. A second, expanded (and much-improved) edition with a section on neighborhoods was released in 2013. I recommend it to all of my employees as an indispensable tool for understanding the makeup of business firm styles in America.
White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs
Edited by Russell F. Whitehead
This serial started as an advertising supplement for the White Pine Agency, meant to promote early American buildings constructed from white pine, and is a detailed drove and study of menstruation houses and buildings. The series launched in 1914 and connected into the 1930s, and can now be bought as private copies or spring collections, or viewed on the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association (NELMA) website.
Others to Consider
From here, consider other books in this genre that focus on a certain region, such as Early Architecture of Western Pennsylvania by Charles Morse Stotz and Early Connecticut Architecture past John Frederick Kelly. I also recommend specialty-focus books, which provide deeper dives into more specific architectural topics. An excellent example is Early American Doorways by I.T. Frary. It provides a comprehensive written report of historic doorways and how they were put together.
I e'er like looking at historic-business firm plan books, especially those from 1900 to 1930. Dover publications has reprinted dozens, and I think one of the best is The Books of a Thousand Homes, edited past distinguished architect Henry Atterbury Smith. This book (listed as volume I, though it appears a second was never released) might be hard to find, only is worth keeping an heart out for in used bookshops and online resellers. It'south a charming collection of firm plans and ideas, each starting with a floor plan and a picture of the habitation. A variety of house styles are included, all with appropriate scale and inspiring charm. Though the floor plans may not work today, the exterior details practice.
Details in Danger of Being Forgotten
To build on the foundation of architectural design and style books, a craftsman must also study construction details. It'due south of import to keep up with modern practices, but at that place are also building methods from 100 years agone that we accept completely forgotten, and that are nonetheless useful today. In fact, some of my company's best edifice details are ideas we take found in these historic books.
Go Your House Right
Past Marianne Cusato
This is a newer book compared to others on this list, but it belongs hither considering Cusato references traditional and historical edifice patterns that were once common noesis. From get-go to finish, this book lays out proper details for the exterior of a abode and offers explanation for why these traditional elements work. In the spirit of Mouzon's book (below), Cusato shows hundreds of examples of what to do and what to avoid, making it piece of cake to learn from side-past-side comparisons of skilful and non-and then-skilful design details. This volume is second to none when it comes to explaining classical elements in apparently and articulate terms— from the orders of architecture to styles of windows and doors to details for brick arches and keystones.
Radford's Portfolio of Details of Building Structure
By William A. Radford
Although most of Radford's publications are worth a look, Details of Edifice Construction (published in 1911) and Architectural Details for Every Blazon of Building (which followed in 1925) are ii of my favorites. In both books, there are a slew of important business firm elements and interesting methods for building. One detail—the shelf stays shown in his cabinet construction—we borrowed for a chore and then fabricated our standard for mounting shelves in cabinets. Another priceless find is the traditional methods and details shown for edifice porches. If at that place is i area builders get wrong most oft, information technology is porches, especially how to place the porch beam onto a column. Radford reminds the states how information technology all should go together with articulate construction drawings and blueprints.
Traditional Structure Patterns
By Stephen A. Mouzon
I consider Mouzon to exist one of today's cracking thinkers in building pattern. Trained as a modernist architect, he learned the beauty and rationality of traditional design and has since become an influential speaker and writer. I similar this book because on each page he addresses a design chemical element—eaves, stucco, dormers, chimneys, even dentil size and proportion—and uses visuals to highlight what works and what doesn't.
Others to Consider
There are a few others to consider when rounding out this category of your collection. Building Details by Frank M. Snyder includes historic details from distinguished architecture firms from the early on 20th century, such as McKim, Mead & White. This 12-part serial, released between 1904 and 1914, highlights some of the best period construction elements. Another, Traditional Details, is a collection of architectural details from the 1932 to 1951 editions of Architectural Graphic Standards written by Charles George Ramsey and Harold Reeve Sleeper. Information technology includes hundreds of architectural illustrations and covers standards of construction from foundations to effects. Consider, also, Comparative Architectural Details, edited by Milton Wilford Grenfell, which is a collection of writings from Pencil Points, an architecture and design mag first released in 1920. This is one of my favorites because it highlights "fashionable" business firm elements such as chimneys, porches, and dormers, but also less glamorous areas such every bit radiator enclosures. Photos are oftentimes accompanied with detailed drawings, making this an inspirational idea book.
How-to That All the same Holds Up
No builder'southward library would be consummate without a selection of books nigh working with wood and mitt tools. Don't make the mistake of thinking that this onetime-world cognition has no relevance in today's ability-tool world. A good excavation contractor knows when it'due south actually more efficient to become off the backhoe and grab a shovel, and builder'due south should learn to recognize those moments in their piece of work as well.
Rendering in Pen and Ink
Past Arthur 50. Guptill
This isn't a volume on pattern or edifice, just rather on drafting and cartoon, because one thing every master builder should exist able to do is draw—if non formally, at least to create quality sketches for clients and subcontractors. At that place are many good books on drawing in perspective, but this 1928 text, regarded as the nigh comprehensive book ever published on the subject of ink drawing, is a slap-up starting indicate.
Encyclopedia of Furniture Making
Past Ernest Joyce
This is a comprehensive book on furniture pattern and construction. The starting time half covers hand tools and joinery, and is perfectly adjustable to home building and trimwork. The rest of the book covers techniques and processes that we don't often come across in habitation construction, but that can provide great solutions for a talented craftsman or cabinetmaker. Builders should be craftsmen, and the most accomplished craftsmen I know have built article of furniture for themselves or clients.
A Practical Treatise on the Steel Square
past Fred T. Hodgson
This two-volume set, written in the 1870s, was a best-seller at the time and can be found reprinted by various publishers into the 1930s. The subject area is geometry and basic building theory, and I think every architect or carpenter, especially framers, should own a re-create. With this set, a craftsman will larn the countless tricks to using a framing square in day-today piece of work, amalgam annihilation from stairs to roofs and circuitous dormers.
Audels Carpenters and Builders Guide
Past Frank D. Graham and Thomas J. Emery
This small, four-volume, must-have set is designed to be carried in a toolbox or work frock. Each volume is filled with all kinds of useful information. The first book covers tools, steel squares, saw filing, joinery, and furniture. The second volume includes builder's math, drawing plans, specifications, and estimating. The third covers house and roof framing, layout, and foundations. The fourth finishes with doors, windows, stair building, millwork, and painting. The breadth of the material gives insight into the types of things a carpenter or architect in the '20s was expected to know and sympathize— hopefully, it will push button you to larn the same things.
More than reading material:
Code Check: The Go-to Quick Guide to Edifice Codes Since 1995 – The leading resources for navigating and understanding the complex, layered, and sometimes wearisome rules for building safety and performance.
5 Books to Improve Your Construction Business concern – With topics from financial strategies to productivity to leadership, here are v books that I highly recommend reading to better your business.
From FineHomebuilding #290
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What Book to Read if I Want to Build My Own House
Source: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2020/02/26/books-every-builder-should-own
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