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Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent introduction to contemporary museum architecture
Like other volumes in Taschen's "Architecture Now!" series, this book features brief but excellent case studies. A well-written introduction by Philip Jodidio covers the development of museum architecture since the mid 20th century, putting star museum architects into their historical and cultural context. The meat of the book is comprised of the case studies of over 50 museums around the world, including a few unbuilt designs. Each project is prefaced by a one-page description of the architect or architectural firm with a brief biography and list of important works. One to three double-page spreads are dedicated to each museum, with a description the design requirements and inspiration, interior and exterior photographs, plans, elevations, and occasionally sketches.

Each museum is accompanied by no more than a few paragraphs of text, so this is not a resource for in-depth studies of individual museums, the design process, architectural decision-making, or the construction process. However, it provides an excellent overview of contemporary museum architecture around the world, allowing readers to spot themes and connections as well as how different museums can be. Highly recommended as a source of inspiration during the initial planning stages of a design project, and as a source of broad information about the current state of museum architecture. ... Read more

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Architecture for the Intelligent Enterprise: Powerful New Ways to Maximize the Real-time Value of Information

Tomorrow’s winning “Intelligent Enterprises” will bring together far more diverse sources of data, analyze it in more powerful ways, and deliver immediate insight to decision-makers throughout the organization. Today, however, most companies fail to apply the information they already have, while struggling with the complexity and costs of their existing information environments.

In this book, a team of IBM’s leading information management experts guide you on a journey that will take you from where you are today toward becoming an “Intelligent Enterprise.”

Drawing on their extensive experience working with enterprise clients, the authors present a new, information-centric approach to architecture and powerful new models that will benefit any organization. Using these strategies and models, companies can systematically unlock the business value of information by delivering actionable, real-time information in context to enable better decision-making throughout the enterprise–from the “shop floor” to the “top floor.”

Coverage Includes

• Highlighting the importance of Dynamic Warehousing
• Defining your Enterprise Information Architecture from conceptual, logical, component, and operational views
• Using information architecture principles to integrate and rationalize your IT investments, from Cloud Computing to Information Service Lifecycle Management
• Applying enterprise Master Data Management (MDM) to bolster business functions, ranging from compliance and risk management to marketing and product management
• Implementing more effective business intelligence and business performance optimization, governance, and security systems and processes
• Understanding “Information as a Service” and “Info 2.0,” the information delivery side of Web 2.0

Customer Reviews (1)

Any advanced computer reference library needs this specific guide
The Art of Enterprise Architecture: A Systems-Based Approach for Unlocking Business Insight provides a winning survey of how to develop Enterprise Information Architecture from concept to operations. Any technical IT library will find this packed with tips on implementation, showing how to apply architecture basics to IT systems. Any advanced computer reference library needs this specific guide.
... Read more

Product Description
These days, green is the name of the game. There has never been so much interest in the ecological impact of buildings as there is today. This is not a negligible fact in the struggle to control pollution and in the search for responsible "sustainable" methods of construction. Buildings are among the heaviest consumers of natural resources and account for a significant portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate change. With global warming now a significant international political issue, architecture itself is on the brink of significant changes, where style and matters of aesthetics are placed in a secondary position behind issues of sustainability. At a certain time, "green" buildings were ugly and complicated affairs, usually multicolored as though an entire rainbow in one building might be sufficient to prove a concern for ecology. This is surely no longer the case as buildings published in this current volume demonstrate. However, it may be that green architecture is not so much about architecture as it is about survival; the aesthetics of the architecture are secondary considerations when it comes to finally stopping the war with nature that has resulted in the creation of the asphalt jungle. Well-known architects from Tadao Ando to Thom Mayne figure in this book, but so too do many others that are far less famous today, but perhaps the stars of tomorrow. Find out who is making today s architecture go green in a big way.

Featured architects/firms/artists:
Adjaye Associates, Agence Babylone, Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, Barlindhaug Consult AS, Barton Willmore, Patrick Blanc, Randy Brown Architects, Vincent Callebaut Architecte, Cepezed, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Vladimir Djurovic, Dennis Dollens, Ecosistema Urbano, EDAW, Fearon Hay, Foster + Partners, Peter Gluck, Monika Gogl, Zaha Hadid, Herbst Architects, Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag, David Hertz, Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden, Chris Jacobs, Kempe Thill, KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, Rafael de La-Hoz, Michael Lehrer, MIII architects, Marchi Architectes, Morphosis, Alberto Mozó, Manfredi Nicoletti, Office dA, Sergio Palleroni, Renzo Piano, Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter, Philippe Rahm, Rau, Michael Reynolds, Roswag & Jankowski, Rural Studio, SITE, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, Ken Smith Landscape Architecture, Germán del Sol, Werner Sobek, studio tamassociati, Chris Tate, TNA, UNStudio, Michael Van Valkenburgh, Weiss/Manfredi, wHY Architecture, Ken Yeang, Zoka Zola ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

i never recieved it
ive sen the book and its great only that i ordered it and never recieved it!

boo

Christmas gift..
Will be given for a Christmas gift.Hope he likes the format.May have been better in English only. ... Read more

Product Description
"One of the most important works on modern architecture we have today."—Architectural DesignThis acclaimed survey of modern architecture and its origins has become a classic since it first appeared in 1980. For the fourth edition Kenneth Frampton has added a major new section that explores the effects of globalization on architecture in recent years and examines the phenomenon of international celebrity architects who are increasingly active all over the world. The bibliography has been updated and expanded, making this volume more complete and indispensable than ever. 420 illustrations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Frampton - the Bible for the History of Modern Architecture
This is the Bible for the History of Modern Architecture. I lived with this book in graduate school during the '80's,and is still relevant, important and has been up-dated to address the last 30 years of Architectural ideology and design.

A must have for students and any professional interested in a critical historical perspective. It is also a great read.

Framptonian Criticism
Excellent source for architecture students that want to acquire a perspective about modern architecture. Frampton provide his peculiar criticism about conflicts, particularities and contradictions of 19th and 20th century arquitectural history.
Recommended for anyone. ... Read more

Product Description
Explore the world's greatest buildings!Architecture is filled with amazing illustrations and photographs that take you to the heart of the world's landmark buildings.Get the opportunity to look beyond the facade.Examine materials and technology that shape buildings, and identify the key elements and decorative features of each architectural style. This is the best definitive visual guide on architecture; it covers 5,000 years of architectural design, style, and construction from airports to ziggurats. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

My 12-yr-old daughter loves it
I bought this book for my 12-yr-old daughter when she said that she wanted to explore architecture. She loves it very much and she decides to carry this book in her personal suitcase when we move from NYC to Taipei next month. Those wordings were not easy for her, an non-native English speaker, but she lapped those pictures up. This is a wonderful reading experience for her.

Great little reference book
I bought this book looking for reference material for my art work.I thought it performed a great job of showing many diverse types of architecture and very useful for ideas.I would recommend it.

Maybe the best in his kind!!!
Ultra helpful!!! I bought some for xmas presents and everybody was really happy! In particular, I think this book is the best! If you like Architecture or like to travel or simple you enjoy beatiful photos, Buy it!!!

Glad I got it!
For my neice who has recently become interested in architecture, this is the perfectbook.It not only provides a world perspective of architecture, the actually pictures are great.Fantastic buy! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Very, very cautious!
This book abundantly quotes varied sources ranging from Vitruvius to Allan de Botton, in fact to a point where it appears akin to namedropping.Similarly, all buildings to be expected are indeed mentioned: Falling Waters, the Louvre, Chartres Cathedral, Sant'Ivo, etc.However, little detail is provided to the reader who does not know them firsthand and small new insight is given to those who do.Also, time seems to have stopped a decade ago since the notions of sustainable development or green architecture are nowhere mentioned.

The author is overly balanced and prudent.He appears to be purposely inclusive and hardly takes a clear stance on any issue.He claims for instance to agree with Robert Venturi's positions . . . and with Le Corbusier's.Despite the fact that he has devoted his professional life to the appreciation of architecture, the overall tone is strangely aloof and dispassionate.

Also, potential readers should not be fooled by the attractive photograph of the Chrysler Building on the cover page.In fact, this book's lay-out is archaic and illustrations are limited to tiny low-resolution black and white photographs interspersed here and there. The thick, «quality» paper makes the pages of slightly varying size annoying to turn.

Unfortunately, this superficial book will not necessarily be of particular interest to persons unfamiliar with architecture and will not be vastly informative or stimulating to those familiar with the topic.

Interesting on many levels
The book was very useful to me as an artist in terms of the power of context and the abstract meanings that can exist in art and music as well as architecture. Goldberg's writing is smooth as silk and very conversational.

buy 1, get 1 free
To our joy, 3 books are recently released by first-rate architectural critics.
One is the posthumous work of Herbert Muschamp and the rest two are works of
Paul Goldberger. Critic of New Yorker, his writings flow with delicious flavor.

Born in NJ, studied at Yale, and practiced in NY, Goldberger's writings grasp what is
best of Architecture with examples mostly from the US.
Books like this typically pays particular attention to examples of great
masters of Europe or cities like Paris, Rome, or London.
Goldberger's writings are valuable, at least to foreign audience,
because subject matter is mostly American.

The book is divided into thematic sections. Each section provides ample illustrations.
What makes the reading enjoyable is the fact that Goldberger's writing does not only stick
to examples of now, but rather, navigates also through past, kindly explaining to the
readers why certain building in the past is as much valuable as, if not more, excellent
buildings of now.

For example, he compares National Gallery West to East, outlining why John Pope's design
(though style-wise it was criticized severely by Modernists at the time of erection)
is better than IM Pei's. Claims like this could be mind-bothering, depending on which school
of thought an audience is in. As a museum, Paul thinks west wing was much more exhibition-friendly
than Pei's. He explains why good buildings outlive criticism of the day and outlast
regardless of their style application.

Explanation on Lincoln Memorial is another example. Stylistically speaking it's a Greek
building, but Goldberger's reading of it turns it not so pseudo historical replica.
He argues Henry Bacon was talented enough to make it a truly brilliant and
as much a modern building as any other Modern masterpiece.

Buildings of Gilded Age receive new edge, Architects 19 century gets
new spotlight, and the arc of styles (or life of a building) are re-viewed
with insight and sharpness. His writings on Yale campus and his child
neighborhood are touching. His clips from movies and novels add freshness.

Goldberger also tries to help the reader to see the building not as an individual object,
but to view it in the context of visible, and sometimes invisible, setting. He helps
us to see sometimes physical and cultural, and sometimes political and financial forces
that shaped the building. Yet the joy of his writing is that it is ultimately geared towards
experiential dimension of a space than theoretical.

The joy of experiencing real world, hence he argues, lies in the "serendipity"
and the "propinquity" of real stuff felt through real contact in cities and buildings.
Hence, even in the cyber space world with virtual realities, the importance of matter
and physical contact remains vital importance for people.

Highly readable
Opening a book on architecture tends to put me a bit on edge, since I've come to expect that the author, whoever he may be, is going to be highly opinionated and is going to make a lot of pronouncements that seem arbitrary and (worse) that differ from my own arbitrary opinions. This book was a pleasant surprise. Goldberger doesn't spend a lot of time pronouncing certain examples of architecture as appealing or appalling. Instead, he gives a good overview of what some of the issues are and how various architects handle them: "challenge" versus "comfort", for example, to take what's perhaps his best chapter. There are good black-and-white illustrations in the text, and my only quibble is that there could have been more of them provided (fortunately, it's not hard to find images on the internet). Highly readable and accessible.

architecture and aesthetics
prose poetry that matches the poetry with which the author describes different architectual structures.am particularly interested in the different architectural forms found in the Americas and the bearing that architectural structures have on impoverished neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side of New York City. ... Read more

Product Description
Every year, a bevy of new phones, games, televisions, and electronic reading devices ride into our lives on a tidal wave of interactive hype. These i-products, while handy, primarily confine their interactivity to the surfaces of screens. Not exactly the kind of "world-changing" transformation we've been promised. In Interactive Architecture, authors Michael Fox and Miles Kemp introduce us to a brave new world where design pioneers are busy creating environments that not only facilitate interaction between people, but also actively participate in their own right. These spaces able to reconfigure themselves in response to human stimuli will literally change our worlds by addressing our ever-evolving individual, social, and environmental needs. In other words, it's time to stop asking what architecture is and start asking what it can do.

Interactive Architecture is a processes-oriented guide to creating dynamic spaces and objects capable of performing a range of pragmatic and humanistic functions. These complex physical interactions are made possible by the creative fusion of embedded computation (intelligence) with a physical, tangible counterpart (kinetics). A uniquely twenty-first century toolbox and skill set virtual and physical modeling, sensor technology, CNC fabrication, prototyping, and robotics necessitates collaboration across many diverse scientific and art-based communities. Interactive Architecture includes contributions from the worlds of architecture, industrial design, computer programming, engineering, and physical computing. These remarkable projects run the gamut in size and complexity. Fullscale built examples include a house in Colorado that programs itself by observing the lifestyle of the inhabitants, and then learns to anticipate and accommodate their needs. Interactive Architecture examines this vanguard movement from all sides, including its sociological and psychological implications as well as its potentially beneficial environmental impact. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

the end of the beginning
Interactive Architecture (IA) is a great read and a must have in everyone's physical/ digital library. IA gives you a great overview of the area of research and its origins found in cybernetics, computer science, electrical, mechanical engineering and other disciplines. IA redefines the role of the designer as a catalyst of design that evolves with an understanding of the pragmatic and awareness of aesthetic, conceptual and philosophical issues. Michael Fox and Miles Kemp challenge the state of architectural design and propose transformable spaces that dynamically change and create adaptable spatial configurations through embedded computational infrastructures and intelligent feedback loop systems. The authors describe a future of the architectural profession in which a new level of consultancy and multi-disciplinary approach is needed to address the issues brought by innovative materials and biologically inspired systems. The book ends with a beautiful statement " IA as a field is not at the beginning, nor is it by any means at an end; but it is, in a sense, at the end of the beginning". I look forward to future editions and inspirational works in IA.

A must for everyone in design related fields
I highly recommend Fox and Kemp's user-friendly "Interactive Architecture"; it is a concise resource, a must for everyone in the design related fields and anyone that has ever wondered what else was possible within the built environment. The thoughtful progression in the book is helpful for someone that had relatively no prior knowledge of the systems and technologies associated with this field. IA will spark your interest and curiosity immediately. It is also a beautifully designed book, full of amazing photographs that make you hungry for more.

Could be great...
Interactive Architecture (IA) is a beautiful and well constructed book that outlines some of the key trends and developments in the field. I love the look and feel of the book, a great piece for the bookshelf. There are lots of full-color examples and eye candy that really make the book pop.

Eye candy aside however, there are number of problems with IA that detract from its potential.
There is SO much redundant information in the book that I had to stop reading a number of times and make sure that I hadn't turned back to a previous chapter. Repetition can be a great way to emphasize a point, but it's down right annoying in IA after a point.

It also drove me crazy how the author's hardly ever explain any of the figures and examples that are featured. They will talk about a general topic that somehow relates to the corresponding picture but never explain the real connection. You will have to do most of the research yourself to find out what is actually going on. Furthermore, the author's misconstrue some of the examples to illustrate their point. For example, the Phalanstery Module was used as an example of a space that conforms to the changing needs of people at different times. The Phalanstery Module has nothing to do with that idea and was inspired by anti-gravity and exploring how in space all surfaces can be utilized, ei..floor as ceiling, etc..

The overall tone of the book is inconsistent as well. At times the information is presented in a super technical, detailed fashion, and then the following paragraphs may be downright elementary. Some of the best info in IA so buried in bogs of technobabble that it's easily missed.The book is still a fast and clean read however, but could afford to cut LOTS of fat.

You COULD buy this book, read it, and put it on your shelf only to be outdated in a few years, or you could just surf the internet for a few hours and get all of the same information.It is nice having all the references in one place though.

d.

We need more like this!
In my research on digital technologies and architecture, I have been trying to find a collection of the latest trends in the domain of the digital-physical architecture, that is, and will shape our future. Fox et al.'s work is the best up-to-date resource which reflects such quality. Every chapter of the book has a light on the underpinnings and the main concepts that shape these trends. "Interactive Architecture" is a unique research for any one who is interested to know what is going on right now (it is like a web-blog.) Yet the book can't be used as a reference, specifically when talking about the theories that shape these trends. But to be fair, the authors had supplemented each chapter with references (very helpful!) I highly recommend the book for both researchers and professionals.
The chapters of the book are: physical change; embedded computation; project landscape: adaptable space, environmental impact; enhancing and extending activities; sociological and psychological impacts; design and the profession; new horizons. ... Read more

Product Description
The Internet's remarkable growth has been fueled by innovation. New applications continually enable new ways of using the Internet, and new physical networking technologies increase the range of networks over which the Internet can run. Questions about the relationship between innovation and the Internet's architecture have shaped the debates over open access to broadband networks, network neutrality, nondiscriminatory network management, and future Internet architecture. In Internet Architecture and Innovation, Barbara van Schewick explores the economic consequences of Internet architecture, offering a detailed analysis of how it affects the economic environment for innovation.

Van Schewick describes the design principles on which the Internet's original architecture was based—modularity, layering, and the end-to-end arguments—and shows how they shaped the original architecture. She analyzes in detail how the original architecture affected innovation—in particular, the development of new applications—and how changing the architecture would affect this kind of innovation.

Van Schewick concludes that the original architecture of the Internet fostered application innovation. Current changes that deviate from the Internet's original design principles reduce the amount and quality of application innovation, limit users' ability to use the Internet as they see fit, and threaten the Internet's ability to realize its economic, social, cultural, and political potential. If left to themselves, network providers will continue to change the internal structure of the Internet in ways that are good for them but not necessarily for the rest of us. Government intervention may be needed to save the social benefits associated with the Internet's original design principles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

whither net neutrality?
A good part of the book is devoted to the history and technical architecture of the internet.Light reference to the burning issue of net neutrality and extensive discussion of its surrogate "end-to-end arguments" of the narrow and broad types is puzzling.The internet is not end-to-end but based on hops, box 3.4, as stated on p. 384, so what is the big deal with end-to-end hop-less connectivity, except for real-time communication which was not part of the original design of the internet? This is the first time I learned that Salzer, Reed and Clark (1981) take credit for original "end-to-end" arguments (p. 58), overshadowing Vinton Cerf, Bob Kahn and Jon Postel who "invented" the Internet well before 1981. van Schewich ought to explain why she considers Salzer et al phrase "end-to-end" to be the catchphrase and linguistic keyword for the entire book, instead of relegating it to a mere historical artifact.

Ignoring the unnecessary exposition on the Application/ Transport/ Internet and Link layers, known to every Cisco technician, van Schewich deserves credit for building the next two sections of the book: Net Neutrality and competition, and Net Neutrality and innovation.van Schewich comprehensively surveys the literature of the internet + competition (Varian genre) and internet+innovation (von Hippel genre).The conclusions are predictably unpalatable to the financial health of Comcast and Verizon, that erosion of transparent "end-to-end" connectivity (net neutrality) would be anti-competitive and would stifle innovation.

Confuses Architecture and Implementation
The principal problem with the book is the author's lack of understanding of the engineering process. Engineers, unlike law professors writing books about engineering, don't work from first principles like the Internet's retrospective end-to-end arguments principle; they make tradeoffs and design toward a goal or set of goals. Thus, when the Internet was built the project manager, Bob Kahn, adapted a design that had already been proved in the French research network CYCLADES rather than starting with a blank slate. CYCLADES designer Louis Pouzin went with an "architecture" that was appropriate for a research network, and not very suitable for an everyday network for unskilled people. The Internet has proved difficult to manage and expensive to operate because this research-centric design is still there. Security, privacy, viruses, spam, and denial of service attacks raise the price and lower the utility of the Internet, all a direct consequence of its organization.

The author is right that the Internet's organization makes it easy for some application programmers to bring new information services on-line, but wrong about the scope of the innovations it permits. Regardless of the system architecture, the services offered by a network constrain application developers. The telephone network is innovation-limiting because it's a slow, narrow-band system, not because it lacks end-to-end architecture. The end-to-end architecture is misleading in any case, as any network has an end-to-end element.

Because the Internet offers poor support for performance-intensive real-time applications (gaming, video conferencing, other forms of communication-oriented rather than content-oriented apps) the designers of these applications pay an innovation tax in the form of extra effort that effectively subsidizes content-oriented applications. They also end up bypassing most of the Internet through Content Delivery Networks and managed services. So the author is wrong regarding her claim that the Internet is the best of all possible networks from the innovator's perspective; it's good for some applications, but not for others.

If you must read this book for your job or a school assignment, wait for the Kindle version if you can (MIT Press says it will be three years from now;) it's just a bit tedious on paper.

One of the most important books in tech policy in a decade
This is an important and brilliant book, which I consider required reading for anyone interested in or serious about the Internet or innovation.

I have written a review of this book on my blog ([...]) and on the Huffington Post.

As I say there, this book is one of the very few books in the field of Internet policy that is in the same league as Larry Lessig's Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0, in 2000, and Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, in 2006, in terms of its originality, depth, and importance to Internet policy and other disciplines. I expect the book to affect how people think about the Internet; about the interactions between law and technical architectures in all areas of law; about entrepreneurship in general. I also think her insights on innovation economics, which strike me as far more persuasive than lawyers' usual assumptions, should influence "law and economics" thinking for the better.

Books this good don't come along every day--or even every year-and I'm already late to the praise-party. Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig (the trail-blazing cyberlaw champion) recommended it in the New York Times this week; Susan Crawford (a law professor who served as a top White House advisor) recommended it in an op-ed in Salon/GigaOm yesterday; Brad Burnham, the venture capitalist who was featured earlier this week in the NYT's Room for Debate, also posted an endorsing review on his blog. MIT engineering professor David Reed (one of the key architects of the IP protocol, inventor of the UDP protocol) praises it on the book jacket.

It is not easy material--the Internet's technologies and how innovation actually evolves--but she writes for a general audience, not a technologist or lawyer, and you will learn a lot from, and be challenged by, the ideas in this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Taking a visually-oriented approach, "Statics and Strength of Materials for Architecture and Building Construction, Third Edition", presents basic structural concepts in an easily understood manner. The authors introduce structural theory without relying on calculus. Instead using building examples and illustrations to supplement the book and introduce mathematically based material in a non-threatening way. This edition features many fully-worked example problems, a new supplemental CD-ROM, a section on retaining walls and clearer connections between written and visual elements. Extensive treatment of load tracing (paths) in an organized and heavily illustrated manner. Includes a CD containing additional problems with solutions for further practice. New section discussing the basic principles of concrete retaining walls using free-body diagrams and the equations of equillibrium. Building inspectors or people training to become inspectors or plans checkers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Book is a book.
I gave this book 4 out of five stars, because of the confusing, in my opinion, way the problems are set up. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it.

work book not a text book
This "text" book has a lot of nicely drawn images and plenty of problems to work on but when you look through it to help figure out how to solve the problems the book is USELESS in pretty must every sense of the word.
Also the setup is odd making it hard to look back through the book and distinguishing between example problems and homework type problems making you even more frustrated when trying to teach yourself how to solve a problem.

product arrived as promised
It felt like the book to a little longer than expected, but arrived as advertised. Good transaction.

boring, but useful...
I bought this book to help as an aid in my studies and it did halp give a better understanding of structural engineering.

blaircollins
I am taking a Structures class formy construction management degree.I purchased this textbook as a back up to the one that was assigned.The illustrations and sample problems cover the topic clearly and systematically.I recommend the book for those interested. ... Read more

Product Description
The design of cities and buildings affects the quality of our lives. Making the built environment useful, safe, comfortable, efficient, and as beautiful as possible is a universal quest. We dream about how we might live, work, and play. From these dreams come some 95 percent of all private and public buildings; professional architects design only about 5 percent of the built environment. While much of what non-architects build is beautiful and useful, the ugliness and inconveniences that blight many urban areas demonstrate that an understanding of good architectural design is vital for creating livable buildings and public spaces. To help promote this understanding among non-architects, as well as among those considering architecture as a profession, award-winning architect and professor Hal Box explains the process of making architecture from concept to completed building, using real-life examples to illustrate the principles involved in designing buildings that enhance the quality of life for those who live with them. To cause what we build to become architecture, we have three choices: hire an architect, become an architect, or learn to think like an architect. Box believes that everyone should be involved in making architecture and has organized this book as a series of letters to friends and students about the process of creating architecture. He describes what architecture should be and do; how to look at and appreciate good buildings; and how to understand the design process, work with an architect, or become an architect. He also provides an overview of architectural history, with lists of books to read and buildings to see. For those involved in building projects, Box offers practical guidance about what goes into constructing a building, from the first view of the site to the finished building. For students thinking of becoming architects, he describes an architect's typical training and career path. And for the wide public audience interested in architecture and the built environment, Box addresses how architecture relates to the city, where the art of architecture is headed, and why good architecture matters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

layperson's guide
This title is useful in that it explains design concepts in lay person's terms w/o fussiness. Written by an architect, who has hands on experience building houses, I appreciated that much of what was said about the art of creating beautiful spaces is applicable to landscape design which is my area of interest.

Think Like an Architect
I am not an architect; merely someone who appreciates the end results of good architecture.I do not routinely read books about architecture, or books written by architects. But as a long-time admirer of Hal Box's architectural work, I was curious how a book titled Think Like an Architect might read.

Short answer? Terrifically!I learned something interesting about the history, art and science of architecture in every chapter.

As I finished the book, which I accomplished faster than I would have liked or imagined, it occurred to me that Hal Box accomplished with this book what Vitruvius, the first century BC Roman architect, espoused as the goals of good architecture: commodity, firmness, and delight.The book accomplished its program of encouraging me to think more like an architect (commodity); the ideas and illustrations are thoughtfully and artfully presented in a sturdy format which will withstand years of referencing and re-reading (firmness); and Professor Box puts forth his ideas and opinions, earned over a long and distinguished career as an educator and practicing architect, clearly and entertainingly (delight).

Whether one plans to build or is simply curious about how to do it right, Think Like an Architect is a must.

Very Informative and Clear
Think Like an Architect opens the door to those of us who love space,love to think about space and building houses we love to live in.As someone who has built many homes and lived inside those spaces he conceived and created, Hal Box is able to not only share his love of the creation of places we want to be but to tell us how to get there on our own--clearly.
I am building a second home in Mexico and find that reading and re-reading this book--especially the considerations--continues to inform and clarify my thinking about the project.
Margaret Keys

Thinking Inside the Box
As someone who has an interest in architecture but whose knowledge of architectural theory and history are superficial and spotty, I found Hal Box's book Think Like an Architect an especially rewarding read.Written with the confidence earned from a long, successful, and satisfying career, his book is a straightforward explanation ofboth the intention and process of producing the kind of buildings that arelife-affirming and enduring. His writing is entirely free of the thornscrub argot that makes most architectural criticism an impenetrable thicket closed to "outsiders" and hostile to dialog. Thus unarmed, Mr. Box may therefore be vulnerable because he dares to use old-fashioned words like beauty, graceful, charming, and harmony. But to me, watching my local landscape erased and replaced by generic chain stores and anonymous neighborhoods, this language is as welcome as a summer thunderstorm falling on parched ground.

It was especially interesting to me to learn how a post-war generation of eager young architects were "brainwashed" by Modernism's cerebral rationality. This I can understand, as the enthusiasm followed their experiences of the Great Depression and World War II. Something new was certainly in order. But even newness can become stale and lifeless. Today, as a new generation of architects meets perhaps the even greater challenge of designing buildings that are "sustainable" or "green", we may be seeing another great age of inspired innovation, expanding the smaller scale vernacular experiments of Sam Mockbee, the elegant shelters of Glen Murcutt, and the social works of Cameron Sinclair's Architecture for Humanity Foundation, to influence and shape the mainstream market. I hope that architects, planners and consumers will avail themselves of the wisdom in Mr. Box's book as they participate in this great new adventure.

Author Hal Box also clearly thinks like a master teacher, a raconteur, and an avid reader.
Are you about to build a new home, serve on a school building committee, or design a public park for a client? Or do you just like to be in and around jewels of architecture? If you answer "Yes," get Second Day delivery on your new copy of Think Like an Architect.

This is a rich compendium of letters (chapters) written to friends and colleagues, replete with drawings, photographs, and tools such as "10 ways to explore and understand a building," plus a thorough Seeing List, as well as a Reading List. A blend of architectural history and 21st Century reality -- deftly connected by Dean Box's passion for and knowledge about the importance of architecture in our daily lives and our cultural legacies - these are two hundred of the most helpful and inspiring pages you'll read. It also is a fast read. Yesterday in fact an active aficionado friend who has been intimately involved with half a dozen projects in recent years excitedly told me that he'd, "just finished, the best, most enjoyable book on architecture. I lost sleep because of it, staying up to read it at night and awakening early to continue."I knew the title he was about to tell me.


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Product Description

This award-winning book, substantially updated to reflect the latest developments in the field, introduces the concepts and best practices of software architecture--how a software system is structured and how that system's elements are meant to interact. Distinct from the details of implementation, algorithm, and data representation, an architecture holds the key to achieving system quality, is a reusable asset that can be applied to subsequent systems, and is crucial to a software organization's business strategy.

Drawing on their own extensive experience, the authors cover the essential technical topics for designing, specifying, and validating a system. They also emphasize the importance of the business context in which large systems are designed. Their aim is to present software architecture in a real-world setting, reflecting both the opportunities and constraints that companies encounter. To that end, case studies that describe successful architectures illustrate key points of both technical and organizational discussions.

Topics new to this edition include:

Customer Reviews (26)

Huh?
I was so taken aback by the comments on this volume that I could not resist a retort.First, SEI transformation methodologies are abstract by intent.They are not how-to methodologies or roadmaps for composing class structures, web sites, or a coding guideline standard.The ATAM is immensely valuable for collecting and rating architectural drivers from stakeholders using a very novel approach to tradeoffs.Also, OAR is designed as a guideline to harvesting and rehabilitating pre-existing system components not for a detailed analysis of a systems component code-base.Again, this is not a coding guide for those of us who are new to the architectural profession and are thinking in code-modelling terminology.Last, (but of greatest concern), is the use of SEI transformation methodologies for plotting logical and physical design.They are not intended to be used for this level of design work.(One might compare this to the misapplied notion of using BPMN to design a detailed network topology).Other than possibly CBAM, these are also not cost modelling methodologies. Comparing COCOMO II to CBAM is paramount to comparing an abacus to an accounting algorithm for future value.Sorry if I stepped on any toes...off the soapbox.

Good Foundation Book
This is a solid work on SEI's ADD methodology. The authors fully document the ADD methodology in terms of incorporating this into your practice. Clear text, diagrams, and illustrations depict how you bridge the gap between theory and practice.

If you're looking to use, or enhance, how to leverage your use architecture, I recommend this book. ADD is a method that values the business intent of the software, and constructs a method that delivers value to the customer.

There are some weak chapters, which prevent me from giving a 5-star rating. For example, Chapter 10 addresses reverse engineering an architecture. The focus was on a point exercise that is not useful in either theory or practice. Other case studies in the book (there are a few) were not helpful as they did not have the keys to turn the theory into practice. For example Chapter 16 addressed a J2EE/EJB study; however it was very high-level and omitted important details to be used in practice. However, the case study of an avionics system (Chapter 3) was good; it provided insight in how to apply theoretical concepts.

I recommend this book for those organizations looking for a solid value-add approach to improving your architectures both technically, and in customer value.

Heavy in 'Case Studies'marginal on usable content.
This text is chock full of "Case Studies" in Architectural design & development methods, but surpringinly sparse in specifics. The authors' take an approach that is almost entirely qualitative; I was hoping to see a more analytical set of methods for analysing architectures, butfound little.

Not suitable for web applications
This book is great to gain theoritical knowledge about software architecture, but it lacks practical insights. May be it's my specific problem, because I was trying to find a good book on architecture of web applications, which this book does not provide.

Learning from the ancient masters of building
What is arguably the best analogy to the creation of the large, modern software product is the construction of the great pyramids of Egypt: any error made in laying down the lower layers was magnified many times over when the additional layers were added. The placement of even a single component required the coordinate actions of many workers. Large detailed plans were necessary before the first block could be laid and while no precise deadline existed, there was a general one. Finally, despite their impressive size, the pyramids were built by applying simple components while following a well-understood pattern for integration.
Therefore, as so many people are now pointing out, software engineers can learn much from the masters of construction.
Architecture (architorture to students of the craft) is a very difficult area to master. The human mind processes information based on patterns, but much of that efficiency is based on experienced patterns, and abstractions rarely come easy even to the prepared mind. In this book, the authors do a great deal to assist "open minds" in preparing to understand and use architectural patterns.
To present their ideas, the authors coined the phrase, "Architecture Business Cycle" (ABC). This phrase is designed to describe the entire process, from the initial itch on the back of the brain, to the influence of the architecture of one product in succeeding generations of products. Only when the consequences to future generations of software are included can we truly say we are describing the complete software life cycle.
The approach used is a combination of explanation and case studies. Seven of the nineteen chapters are case studies that generally are well-done examples of the material. The core of the book, however, is the development of the steps in the construction of the ABC. The first step is the creation and analysis of a specific architecture. To perform the analysis, the authors put forward the Software Architecture Analysis Method (SAAM), a scenario-based method of evaluation. This technique is also one of the components of an architecture-review process.
After the architecture is developed, it is time to create an equivalent system based on the design. To do that, a symbolic notation is needed. While there is some time spent on Architecture Description Languages (ADLs), this is one topic that should have been expanded. Without a common language that has a high degree of precision, there is a great deal of room for potential error. The analogy or metaphor that clarifies a concept for one person makes it less comprehensible for others. An example of an ADL is presented, but seven pages containing diagrams is not enough to do more than spark interest or confusion.
The final area concerns the reuse of components and architecture. Two chapters are devoted to this topic, one on reuse within an organization and the other on reuse within the community. Within an organization, the emphasis is on the other software product line-a series of products in both parallel and sequential development. Creating a "reasonable" match to a consumer's requirements in the software development equivalent of real time is achievable only if there is an extensive stock of well-designed components that work and play well with each other. The only way to achieve this is to make such behavior part of the fundamental design. In the modern era of global competition, exposing your architectural designs to the world might seem to be a poor business practice. However in many areas this is not the case.
Software developers can learn a great deal from the construction engineers of the ancient world. When planning a complex structure, the medieval architect commonly attacked the problem from a multigenerational perspective. Knowing the project would not be completed for decades, the initial architectural plans included the passing of the necessary legacy knowledge down to the later generations of planners and builders. Only then could there be a guarantee of completion and long-term viability. The ABC as put forward in this book is one way the computer industry can approach problems from the same perspective.

Published in Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, posted with permission.
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Product Description
Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, Second Edition introduces the core concepts of information architecture: organizing web site content so that it can be found, designing website interaction so that it's pleasant to use, and creating an interface that is easy to understand. This book helps designers, project managers, programmers, and other information architecture practitioners avoid costly mistakes by teaching the skills of information architecture swiftly and clearly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great intro to information architecture
This book is not meant for specialized Information Architects, rather it is aimed at Designers who need to perform IA tasks as part of their job. The book touches on key points such as creating personas and user-flows. This easy-to-read book carries a light-hearted tone, and charming illustrations by Michael Fleming are used as humorous visual aids for the concepts.

Concepts such as usability basics, user-centered design, and social web design are explained, and there is even a chapter with a case study on the Boxes & Arrows website. The book is a great addition to any interaction designer's library.

Information Architecture defined...(2nd Edition review)
Wodkte and Govella do a good job in outlining their definition of the basic principles of IA:
- Design for Wayfinding
- Set expectations and provide feedback
- Design ergonomically
- Be consistent / consider standards
- Provide error support (Prevent, Protect, and Inform)
- Rely on Recognition rather than on recall
- Provide for people of varying skill levels
- Provide contextual help and documentation

While the illustrations that drive home the subject matter can be a little clipart-ish at times, the concepts are presented in a non-technical and non-jargon based way. Each topic is explained clearly using an outline / numbered bullet format to ensure that each section can be clearly understood independently and collectively. Items such as `Who are the users?' may seem trivial at first, but imagine how many interpretations of `who are users' exist with an organization and the problems that arise when the user begins to morph throughout the product lifecycle. Wodtke and Govella decompose several non-obvious items such as persona creation and navigational types (structural, associative, and utility) into chunks that are comprehensible (Hrair Limit). I was genuinely surprised to find a section for Social Architecture which exposed me to topics such as Kurt Lewin's formula for understanding human behavior and the elements of social architecture: identity + elements, relationships + elements, and activity + elements.

The book can be read from cover to cover, if time permits. However, most of the world will probably use this book as a reference guide for completing IA related tasks as they arise. I would strongly recommend that all aspiring and current IAs give the book a once over to spawn new thoughts about the discipline or to renew the interest in keeping things usable and findable.

Three Information Architecture Heroes...
Now I have three information design heros - Tufte, Wodtke & Govella. "Information Architecture - Blueprints For The WEB" SECOND ADDITION by Wodtke & Govella is exactly what the title suggests - a guide to effective form, structure and organization of information on the web. A quick glance at the table of contents reveals essential topics like; Principles, Balance, Search, Navigation, Flow, and Social Spaces. Graphic illustrations abound to give the reader concrete examples of the principles the authors set forth. Anyone considering upping their game and thinking relative to web building should get two ( 2 ) copies of this book; one to read, reference and literally carry around, and a second one to replace the first one when it wears out. ... Read more

Product Description
Expanding Architecture presents a new generation of creative design carried out in the service of the greater public and the greater good. Questioning how design can improve daily lives, editors Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford map an emerging geography of architectural activism--or "public-interest architecture"--that might function akin to public-interest law or medicine by expanding architecture's all too often elite client base. With 30 essays by practicing architects and designers, urban and community planners, historians, landscape architects, environmental designers and members of other fields, this volume presents recent work from around the world that illustrates the ways in which design can address issues of social justice, allow individuals and communities to plan and improve their own lives and serve a much larger percentage of the population than it has in the past. This new inclusionary practice must define new services and new processes, and these are illuminated in the generously illustrated texts as well.
Building on the momentum of Bell's Good Deeds, Good Design and other recent landmark publications such as Rural Studio and Design Like You Give a Damn, Expanding Architecture examines evolving notions of socially conscious practice and serves as a guide for designers who are willing to take on the social, economic and environmental challenges we face today.
Bryan Bell is the Executive Director of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based Design Corps, which he founded in 1991 to provide community service through architecture. His other initiatives include the Design Corps Fellowship program, the Design Corps Summer Studio and the Structures for Inclusion annual conference. In 2007 he received a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects.
Katie Wakeford received her M.Arch from North Carolina State University School of Architecture, where she became interested in community design. She began working with Design Corps in 2002, and currently serves as an intern architect with the North Carolina State College of Design's Home Environments Design Initiative, a research and community outreach endeavor focused on affordable and sustainable housing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Milestone in Contemporary Architecture
As an educator, admirer and follower of Frank Lloyd Wright, I have admired the best of contemporary architecture for many, many years. This edition brings out not only the best of current thinking, but more importantly, it holds open a welcoming door to the future. Kudos to the editors. I hope that they publish a new version every five years.
Charles Eilber,
Durham, North Carolina.

Not Just for Designers
I'm about half-way through this book and am already amazed at all the ways designers have made a difference in their local communities, and beyond. Because a range of projects, small to large, have been included it is even more inspiring to be able to imagine how one person with a good idea and the energy to implement it could have a big impact.I think that even those outside the design profession would find that some of the included projects could serve as a model for how other professions can make similar contributions.I've had other people who are not designers pick up my book and start flipping through and ask if they can read it when I finish.I can't wait to read the rest and pass it on!

Enthusiastically recommended to anyone with a serious interest in expanding the humanitarian role of modern architecture
Expanding Architecture Design as Activism collects thirty in-depth essays about the concept of "public-interest architecture", that is, building designs created explicitly with the benefit of the public in mind. Illustrated with full-color photography on virtually every page, individual essays discuss examples ranging from building housing or water systems to best serve the needs of a refugee population, to participatory planning in a Taiwanese mountain village that transforms an abandoned creek into swimming ponds for the village's future, to exploring different ways to create strong designs with minimal environmental impact, all at a reasonable profit. Enthusiastically recommended to anyone with a serious interest in expanding the humanitarian role of modern architecture, from professionals in the field to any concerned citizen voting on city planning projects.

Good design can be Everywhere!
This book is filled with examples of good designs that redefine architectural resources.I am challenged to share architectural ways of thinking and space making in my own town. This book shows how good design can improve the way we work and live together! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Amazing drawings, good history, but needs to be updated
A large amount of scholarship, care and skill were put into writing this book. The detailed drawings reveal the structure of Chinese architecture (religious and monumental architecture, not commercial or domestic). The drawings are worth the price of the book, while the writing gets a bit boring. But, and this would entail changing the author's book drastically, it needs updating or overhauling--since the book was written 60-70 years ago (with a modern day foreward). It needs to go from Wade-Giles into the pinyin romanization of Chinese characters, and also needs a map or two highlighting where the structures are in China. A better book would be one that keeps his drawings, but uses his writing as source materials and then rewrites it to put things into a better context and flow.

This was the pioneer
Liang Sicheng is among one of the most outstanding Chinese scholars that I admire and respect deeply. As a young man,the beauty of Chinese architecture inspired him to be the first person who studied traditional Chinese architecture scientifically with western methods.After Liang graduated from U.Penn., he moved to Harvard and registered under Graduate School of Art& Science, where he chose the subject "Chinses Architecture". Because there had almost no references in the area, he promised his professor that he will back to China to collect first hand data, and than back to US to finish his study.
The rest of his story is unbelievably dramatic.( You can find more details in <> by Wilma Fairbank)

I am very glad for the reprint of this cheaper edition, this is the book that every historian of Chinese architecture should have.Highly recommended to Chinese historians as well as architecture lover. ... Read more

Product Description
The last decade has witnessed a proliferation of artists whose primary medium is software. Algorithmic processes, harnessed through the medium of computer code, allow artists to generate increasingly complex visual forms that they otherwise might not have been able to imagine, let alone delineate. The newest volume in our Design Brief series Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture is a non-technical introduction to the history, theory, and practice of software in the arts. Organized into themes linked to aspects of code—repetition, transformation, parameters, visualization, and simulation—each of the book's sections contains an essay, code samples, and numerous illustrations. An accompanying website (www.formandcode.com) features code samples in various programming languages for the examples in the book. An ideal introductory text for digital design and media arts courses, this unique primer will also appeal to students and professionals looking for a survey of this exciting new area of artistic production. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wow !
This book is excellent! Clear, with lot of examples...I've find all I need in this book. And this is beautifully designed book to. It is not only for students, designers, architects, it is inspiring book for curios and creative people! By it! ... Read more

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Pattern-oriented software architecture is a new approach to software development. This book represents the progression and evolution of the pattern approach into a system of patterns capable of describing and documenting large-scale applications. A pattern system provides, on one level, a pool of proven solutions to many recurring design problems. On another it shows how to combine individual patterns into heterogeneous structures and as such it can be used to facilitate a constructive development of software systems. Uniquely, the patterns that are presented in this book span several levels of abstraction, from high-level architectural patterns and medium-level design patterns to low-level idioms. The intention of, and motivation for, this book is to support both novices and experts in software development. Novices will gain from the experience inherent in pattern descriptions and experts will hopefully make use of, add to, extend and modify patterns to tailor them to their own needs. None of the pattern descriptions are cast in stone and, just as they are borne from experience, it is expected that further use will feed in and refine individual patterns and produce an evolving system of patterns.Amazon.com Review
Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture: A System ofPatterns looks at how patterns occur on three different levels--insoftware architecture, in everyday design, and in idioms (whichdescribe how a particular design pattern is implemented in aprogramming language like C++). This synthetic approach is a littletheoretical at times, but the authors also present over a dozenpatterns and provide real-world examples wherever possible.

For architectural patterns, the authors look at the Layers pattern,used in operating systems such as Windows NT and virtualmachines. They also consider Pipes and Filters, which process streamsof data. (This pattern, the authors point out, is a lynchpin of Unix.)Their Blackboard pattern shows how a complex problem, such as image orspeech recognition can be broken up into smaller, specializedsubsystems that work together to solve a problem. (For recognizingwords from a raw waveform input, a Blackboard approach might haveseparate processes to find phonemes, then words, then sentences.)

This book also looks at today's distributed systems in considering theBroker pattern, which is used on the Internet and in Microsoft's OLEtechnology.This section also presents several powerful patterns forbuilding effective graphical user interfaces, such asModel-View-Controller.

The authors define several well-known design patterns, such as theProxy and Command patterns, and also basic, far-reaching patterns,such as Whole-Part and Master-Slave, which are widely used throughoutcomputing. Their survey ends with a discussion on the way objects cancommunicate (using such patterns as Forwarder-Receiver,Client-Dispatcher-Server, and Publisher-Subscriber), which manydevelopers will recognize as familiar patterns, but are codified hereas "official" patterns. The book then discusses some idiomsin C++ and a more far-reaching role for patterns in software designand architecture.By fitting patterns into traditional softwareengineering practices, the authors of Pattern-Oriented SoftwareArchitecture successfully argue that the role for patterns willonly continue to diversify and enrich tomorrow's software engineeringtools and methodologies. --Richard Dragan ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Too expensive
$70 for a stream of bytes? Even for a hardcover technical book, that's a tough sell.

Amazing book
This book uses an easy way to explain system patterns. I think every software developer has to read this book; it's a nice reference to help software architects doing a well-done job. Another great reference that you may have in your list of references is the classical book "Design Pattern", also at Amazon.com.

The second best pattern book
Second best isn't bad when the #1 book changed forever the way software architecture is talked about.GoF is not only well-written, but it covers all the basic, most-used patterns.Everybody thereafter is going to have to either re-hash GoF, criticize it, or come up with new patterns which are not as fundamental.

This book is full of new patterns, and fortunately they are good ones: Command, Broker, Layers and worth the price of the book in itself Presentation-Abstraction-Controller.

PAC can be seen as a generalization and extension of Model/View/Controller.The Abstraction is the domain-specific part of the architecture, effectively the Model.The Presentation exposes the Model in some interesting way, either as a user-interface in which case it is a View, or as an API, in which case the Presentation becomes a new Abstraction used by the next level up.The Controller is left with the job of coordinating the Presentation and the Model.The key to the pattern is that PAC agents can be built up into layers with the Presentation API of each lower agent creating a higher abstraction for the next level.Thus PAC becomes MVC for all or your architecture, not just the UI.

The book goes into this at length and adds useful discussion of MVC.Highly recommended.

Not concrete enough
First of all, you need to understand the patterns in the gang of four book before you attempt to read this one.They talk about them all over the place without explaining them.That's a warning, it didn't affect my review.

The major thing I don't like about this book is the abstractness with which they talk.They give you a high level description of a pattern and leave you with that fogginess.

I think the examples were poorly chosen.I would have prefered to have examples that are only as complicated as they needed to be.Unfortunately the book uses examples like, "We're going to make a voice recognition application" or "We're going to make an OS that can run applications that were built on Unix or WinNT or Linux".I think the intent was to have some real-world-I've-been-working-for-six-years examples... it would have been smarter to put the real world examples in a separate chapter and keep the design pattern explanations simple.

Also, I hate the diagrams.They should have just copied the diagrams in the GoF book!Instead they chose these diagrams that give less info and IMO are downright ambiguous in some situations.Another thing the GoF book does is have 2 separate diagrams, one that's a (simple) real world example and another that's a diagram of the actual pattern.This book only has the diagram of the actual pattern.

I disagree with those that say this book is better than the GoF book.I think what they like is the material covered.Material aside, the GoF book presents the information in a much clearer way.That's why I prefer the GoF book over this one.

Clear and wide-ranging
This is an unusual book in the pattern genre. It presents a number of patterns, categorized by archtiectural level. That's just the first part of the book, though. The third of the book is about the process of using, relating, collecting, and distributing patterns.

Only chapter 2 really addresses patterns for the strategic, architectural level of a software system. It does a very adequate job, using a variety of notations, examples, and analysis steps. This book is from 1996, so time has changed our view of some patterns. "Reflection," for example, has become pervasive in applications based on plugins and software components. It is also a fundamental API in the major langauges (Java and C#) released since this book was published - perhaps reflection should be downgraded to an "idiom". That's just nitpicking, though, since reflection is even more important now than when the book was written.

For contrast, the authors present additional design patterns (including some from Gamma's book) for use at tactical design levels. They also discuss idioms patterns that typically involve just a few lines of code within on function. The contrast between the three different levels of implementation and design gives a useful discussion. The authors also present a weak chapter on "systems" or "langauges" of patterns The discussion is OK as far as it goes. The weakness is in what it omits. After reading this brief chapter, the programmer has very little practical information about choosing patterns from some library for some task. The poor programmer has no information at all about how to link patterns together, and that's a real stumbling block for beginning pattern users.

The final section of the book is really sociology. It's about the pattern community, what that community is for, and how to be a working member. I find the discussion un-helpful, but I expect opinions to differ.

Even today, this is a good second book (after Gamma's 'Design Patterns') on patterns and pattern usage. It lack the depth and precision of Gamma's book, and tends to add words without adding meaning. On the positive side, it's broader than Gamma's, and addresses a wider range of implementation levels. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

lots of fluff, completely misses the point
Where do I begin? For a start the 'architecture' patterns are just 'features' that some web 2.0 companies have. It would be a bit of a stretch to call them patterns.
Also the comparison between web 1.0 companies and web 2.0 companies is laughable. Take for example "Akamai" vs "Bittorrent"; there is no comparison, Akamai is a content distribution network, their business model is to host data on their servers closer to users. Bit torrent is a filesharing network, mainly used to share open source and illegal files - it has no business model, it's just a tool. Usually when one compares something the things being compared must have a least something in common.
Take another example: "mp3.com" vs napster, MP3.com is a business, napster is NOT, it's a way to share songs illegally.
Another example: websites and blogs - no comparison, different focuses, they're completely different marketing channels!!
Yet another example: screen scaping and web services, again very different, can you order a book via screen scraping? NO! Web services provides both information and a service, screen scrapping only provides information.

Some quotes from the book to show the quality of the book:

"The Software as a Service (SaaS) Pattern
- Terms often associated with the Software as a Service pattern include:
Model-View-Controller (MVC)
Some people consider SaaS a specialization of the MVC pattern that distributes the Model, View, and Controller (or parts thereof) over multiple resources located on the Internet. It is strongly related to SaaS, and most SaaS providers follow the MVC pattern when implementing SaaS."

Completely wrong, not related whatsoever !!, they're at two completely different levels of abstraction. SaaS just refers to something hosted on the internet/usually self provisioning/usually multi-tenanted. MVC is a design pattern 1 step above coding.

""One of the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 developers and architects has been a dismissal of many traditional enterprise architecture patterns."

Misses the boat completely; the majority of web 2.0 applications aren't actually mission critical - the author would find in most business environments, architects following traditional enterprise architecture pattterns religiously. There's a big difference between facebook going down for 2 hrs and a major banking system.

The book is just a lot of buzzwords, with very poorly written analysis of web2.0.

A good introduction to Web 2.0
This book was a good read and gave me the insight I needed for this emerging technology. Well worth the money spent.

Valuable, but limited
This book sways between discussion and dissection - addressing entrepreneurs, curious technologists and architects. It's inconsistent in its treatment of the material it chooses to add to its scope. Fortunately, this doesn't mean the book isn't useful to read or fairly enjoyable in parts.

Early on the authors take on the considerable task of explaining Web 2.0. They use an approach in which 1.0 applications are compared to their 2.0 successors or competitors. This approach does not work for several reasons.

The 1.0 application on display has evolved since Tim O'Reilly picked the contrasting applications a while ago. So there is no good benchmark to use. The authors point this out in several places, which makes the whole comparison more kludgey. Instead of an architectural analysis that is crisp, the comparisons devolve into feature discussions. So what defines Web 2.0? A set of features, the approach, its execution? The resulting discussion doesn't really come out and clarify Web 2.0 any more or less than available material on the Internet.

However some central themes to emerge in this discussion that are put to good use later.

The second half of the book presents a reference architecture for Web 2.0. Its a decent chapter, but not comprehensive. I was very unclear about how to utilize the information that was presented in Chapter 5.

Chapter 7, which talks about Web 2.0 patterns at a deeper level, is easily the most enjoyable chapter of the book. Like it predecessors, its not comprehensive, but it covers important ground.

Each Web 2.0 pattern is explained very well. There is a paragraph on the context in which the pattern should be utilized. There is material on the pattern's static structure and dynamic behavior and notes on implementation (these are a little thin for some patterns). A nice section on gotchas (called consequences) is also available.

Some patterns are a little broad - for example, is Rich User Experience really a pattern or an expectation in the Web 2.0 context that consists of serveral, constantly evolving, well-understood patterns that encompass graphic design, usability and dynamic web programming? Fortunately, regardless of the approach, the resulting discussions in this chapter are all good ones.

A good book that helps formalize your thinking about Web 2.0 systems
The term "software system architecture" means many things to many people. Coders look at the microcosm. Systems engineers look at the macrocosm. By nature, writing about the software system architecture is hard. Most times no one size is going to fit all.

Thus, I am always apprehensive about a book that purports to explain software system architecture in general. Usually such books are written by highfalutin Big Six consultants for the benefit of entrenched IT managers that need to be "in the know". In most cases neither party has the aptitude or real world technical background to grasp the technical topic at hand in a manner that is useful and accurate. As a result, because neither writer nor readers are real world, the book flops.

So here's the good news. O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Architectures does a more than competent job of explaining Web 2.0 enterprise system architecture. The book takes a real world approach. The first two chapters are a primer in the basics of the Internet and Web 2.0 based software systems. In the primer sections you'll learn about the fundamental technology static and various architectural patterns that make up web based enterprise systems: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Software as a Service (SaaS), Participation-Collaboration, Mash up, Semantic Web Grounding, to name a few.

Then in Chapter 3 the authors frame real world, web based systems such as AdSense, Flickr, BitTorrent,etc..., against architectural concepts, comparing older systems against the newer Web 2.0 counterparts, DoubleClick vs. AdSense, for example.

The writers consider the ability to think and conceptualize in terms of structured abstraction as the primary tool in the architect's toolkit. Thus, Chapter 4, 5 and 6 get you thinking in terms of Models and Patterns.

Chapter 7 serves as Web 2.0 reference/lexicon and Chapter 8 provides the call to action for creating Web 2.0 architectures that last.

After reading this book will you be able to get a job at Amazon designing its next generation Movies on Demand web service? The answer is no. It takes years of experience and some very expensive failures to understand the intricacies of designing and implementing a system of such enormity.

Will you have a formalized understanding of the thinking, patterns and implementations that surround modern Internet based software systems? Yes, by all means.

In terms of the nuts and bolts of the book, there are pros and cons. The book is short. This is good. You can read it in about 4 hours. The conventions used are clear and the writing style is engaging. There is ample reference to online links. Thus, for ease of use, you'll do well to read the book in the online Safari version.

One of the drawbacks of the book is that at times, the book introduces some pretty hard core technologies and then lends fleeting reference once introduced. For example, the book devotes a single paragraph to introducing the concept of the Enterprise Service Bus. Those of us that have worked with the ESB know that it is an ornery technology that comes with a considerable learning curve, and more considerable implementation curve. Yet the book glosses over it. However, such hit and run tactics are limited.

Overall, I found this book useful. If nothing else, it wrapped formal language around concepts that I have been carrying in my head for years. And, once the reseller discounts kick in, the price is right!

I definitely recommend this book as a common reference for any team of developers making modern enterprise level software.
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THE AUBIN ACADEMY MASTER SERIES: REVIT? ARCHITECTURE 2011 focuses on the rationale and practicality of the Revit? Architecture process allowing readers to learn faster and get a clear sense of the software and an understanding of each tool's potential.Instruction and tips from the author as well as online quick start videos all contribute to reinforce learning of Revit Architecture 2011. ... Read more

Product Description
Systems Architecture, Sixth Edition, is the most comprehensive introduction to information systems hardware and software in business. This new edition remains an indispensable tool for IS students, emphasizing a managerial, broad systems perspective for a holistic approach to systems architecture. Each chapter has been updated thoroughly to reflect the changing nature of new technologies, and all end-of-chapter material has been enhanced and expanded. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Dismayed Reader
The information is the book is too basic. A quick read of the end of chapter review questions attests to this.For example: chapter 14 question 6, "What is a monitor?". Are you kidding me? I paid for this? The content is merely a repeat of information from various Computer Based Tutorials CBT) and introductory training material I've seen over the 25 years. Stephen D. Burd does state in the beginning of the book that it is not intended for graduate studies. My problem is that this is the required book for my graduate level Systems Architecture class. I cannot identify a purpose that this book serves well except as a refresher for the semantics necessary to complete my course exams.

Less expensive college book
The book was the correct edition and cheaper than on the college campus.It arrived in record speed without standing in a long line at school!

Book binding / structure is poor
If you purchase this book, you will want to take the time to properly break in the book binding (see [...]), otherwise you will have a book with one large crease down the center.The book's pages are very thick, and the binding isn't strong enough (or loose enough) to support it.

I found the book's content timely and informative.

Nearly Worthless
Contrary to what some of the other reviewers believe, this book was not intended for graduate studies, as is expressly stated in the first sentence of the preface.Binary representation, CPU operation, etc. are not subjects for graduate study. This text was used in a first year, county college computer architecture course, and as such, the book is nearly worthless. Burd so obviously has no idea of the difference between telling or listing information, and presenting didactically, i.e. teaching.Do not use this book unless you have no choice.And this is from someone who is pulling an A in the course.

Wow there is lots of stuff in a computer.
Who knew?These computer macheines have many parts that all have to work together just right to make them work.It has all kinds of parts that don't just go left and right but do all kind of things that are kind of like magic.I am just amazed and shocked by all the fancy things inside this thing called a computer. ... Read more

Product Description
From chaos and complexitytheory totopology, fromoptimization to datascapes:the design and constructionof complex, sublimebuildings that will changethe way we perceivemajor structures.Ever since building began, architecture has relied on mathematicsto achieve visual harmony, structural integrity, and logical construction.For most of the history of building, architects have applied theprinciples of Euclidean geometry, the description of points, lines,and volumes according to the three axes of space.

Recently, however, digital design tools and massive computerprocessing power, along with an increasing interest in physics andpure mathematics, have given architects the means to describe andbuild spatial constructs that would have been inconceivable eventen years ago.

This carefully researched survey of some forty internationalprojects—largely built—offers an overview of how differentstrategies are being employed through accessible illustrations andclear text. Each section presents case studies of projects by globallyrecognized architects through diagrams, photographs, and texts. 300 color and 200 black-and-white photographs and illustrations ... Read more