The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green
Starre Vartan

SAVE THE WORLD IN STYLE!

Lower your carbon footprint—in your favorite pair of stilettos—with THE ECO CHICK GUIDE TO LIFE. Here you’ll find hundreds of ideas on how to be ecologically smart and still be stylish and trend-setting. You don’t have to sacrifice to go green—you can eat well, dress well, and live well once you learn how to:

Learn where to shop for  vintage and recycled jewelry (mining practices for gold and silver are notoriously pollutin...

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The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green
Starre Vartan

SAVE THE WORLD IN STYLE!

Lower your carbon footprint—in your favorite pair of stilettos—with THE ECO CHICK GUIDE TO LIFE. Here you’ll find hundreds of ideas on how to be ecologically smart and still be stylish and trend-setting. You don’t have to sacrifice to go green—you can eat well, dress well, and live well once you learn how to:

Learn where to shop for  vintage and recycled jewelry (mining practices for gold and silver are notoriously polluting).

Wear sustainable threads—organic cotton, peace silk, bamboo—or look for funky reconstructed designs made from vintage fabrics.Find shoes made from naturally tanned and dyed leather, hemp, or made from recycled materials...that still look incredibly chic.Party it up- with the planet in mind! Make your next fiesta fabulous with organic beverages, seasonal food from the farmer's market, and more.

Pretty-up with organic, biodegradable hair products, body washes, moisturizers, and make-up—better for you and the planet’s water supplies! We'll explain why and what to look for.How to earn points while convincing your boss to go green in your office.

Travel green and still see the world in style!Save cash with some Earth-loving swaps around your apartment, dorm or house.

…and more. Let these and other easy-to-follow, fun and fashionable tips help you to feel great while doing good. You and Mother Nature will look fabulous!

This book is printed on recycled paper.

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The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World
Thomas J. Campanella

China is the most rapidly urbanizing nation in the world, with an urban population that may well reach one billion within a generation. Over the past 25 years, surging economic growth has propelled a construction boom unlike anything the world has ever seen, radically transforming both city and countryside in its wake. The speed and scale of China's urban revolution challenges nearly all our expectations about architecture, urbanism and city planning. China's ambition to be a major player on ...

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The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World
Thomas J. Campanella

China is the most rapidly urbanizing nation in the world, with an urban population that may well reach one billion within a generation. Over the past 25 years, surging economic growth has propelled a construction boom unlike anything the world has ever seen, radically transforming both city and countryside in its wake. The speed and scale of China's urban revolution challenges nearly all our expectations about architecture, urbanism and city planning. China's ambition to be a major player on the global stage is written on the skylines of every major city. This is a nation on the rise, and it is building for the record books.

China is now home to some of the world's tallest skyscrapers and biggest shopping malls; the longest bridges and largest airport; the most expansive theme parks and gated communities and even the world's largest skateboard park. And by 2020 China's national network of expressways will exceed in length even the American interstate highway system. China's construction industry, employing a workforce equal to the population of California, has been erecting billions of square feet of housing and office space every year. But such extensive development has also meant demolition on a scale unprecedented in the peacetime history of the world. Nearly all of Beijing's centuries-old cityscape has been bulldozed in recent years, and redevelopment in Shanghai has displaced more families than 30 years of urban renewal in the United States. China's cities are also rapidly sprawling across the landscape, churning precious farmland into a landscape of superblock housing estates and single-family subdivisions laced with highways and big-box malls. In a mere generation, China's cities have undergone a metamorphosis that took 150 years to complete in the United States.

The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World sheds light on this extraordinary chapter in world urban history. The book surveys the driving forces behind the great Chinese building boom, traces the historical precedents and global flows of ideas and information that are fusing to create a bold new Chinese cityscape, and considers the social and environmental impacts of China's urban future.

The Concrete Dragon provides a critical overview of contemporary Chinese urbanization in light of both China's past as well as earlier episodes of rapid urban development elsewhere in the world-especially that of the United States, a nation that itself once set global records for the speed and scale of its urban ambitions.

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The Chinese Dream: A Society Under Construction
Neville Mars

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The Chinese Dream: A Society Under Construction
Neville Mars

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Deconstructivist Architecture
Philip Johnson

Rear cover notes: "This book presents a radical architecture, exemplified by the recent work of seven architects. Illustrated are projects for Santa Monica, Berlin, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Paris, Hamburg, and Vienna, by Frank O. Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha M. Hadid, Bernard Tschumi, and the firm of Coop Himmelblau. 104 pages, 153 illustrations."

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Deconstructivist Architecture
Philip Johnson

Rear cover notes: "This book presents a radical architecture, exemplified by the recent work of seven architects. Illustrated are projects for Santa Monica, Berlin, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Paris, Hamburg, and Vienna, by Frank O. Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha M. Hadid, Bernard Tschumi, and the firm of Coop Himmelblau. 104 pages, 153 illustrations."

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Folding in Architecture (Architectural Design Profile)

This seminal book from Architectural Design was originally published in 1993, at a time of crucial change and on the eve of the digital revolution.

It brought together a series of essays that many believe created the favourable environment in which computer-based design could thrive. Considered one of the most influential architecture publications of the 1990s, this book ranks as a classic and in itself is a crucial chapter of history, though one that has been out of print si...

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Folding in Architecture (Architectural Design Profile)

This seminal book from Architectural Design was originally published in 1993, at a time of crucial change and on the eve of the digital revolution.

It brought together a series of essays that many believe created the favourable environment in which computer-based design could thrive. Considered one of the most influential architecture publications of the 1990s, this book ranks as a classic and in itself is a crucial chapter of history, though one that has been out of print since 1999. This faithful reprinting includes a substantial new introductory essay by Mario Carpo, Head of the Study Centre at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, which examines the impact of the original texts and their ongoing significance. Thereafter, the book is true to its original content showcasing projects by ground-breaking architects such as Greg Lynn, Jeffrey Kipnis, Bahram Shirdel, Frank Gehry and Philip Johnson.

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New Directions in Contemporary Architecture: Evolutions and Revolutions in Building Design Since 1988
Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi

Rem Koolhaas has defined architecture as a chaotic adventure. Nothing could be more true than that of the last two decades. Never has architecture been so unbridled and so extraordinary: the architectural cast has never been so wide and their works so diverse. What though if you are new to the subject? How is it possible to make sense of this seemingly unruly architectural landscape? There are so many different types of architecture, so many designers with such varying and even contradictory ...

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New Directions in Contemporary Architecture: Evolutions and Revolutions in Building Design Since 1988
Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi

Rem Koolhaas has defined architecture as a chaotic adventure. Nothing could be more true than that of the last two decades. Never has architecture been so unbridled and so extraordinary: the architectural cast has never been so wide and their works so diverse. What though if you are new to the subject? How is it possible to make sense of this seemingly unruly architectural landscape? There are so many different types of architecture, so many designers with such varying and even contradictory approaches.

This book is a much needed navigation guide for anyone interested in modern architecture. Organised chronologically, it enables you to find your way through one of the most prolific periods of building design. It looks at buildings in often contrasting styles that have been built almost simultaneously across the world with their roots in very different tendencies and schools of thought. A loose but effective framework is provided, which pulls all these multiple threads together, while key buildings are described individually with a unique clarity and precision.

• Covers seminal works, such as Guggenheim Bilbao and the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
• Features key architects: Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, Toyo Ito, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel and Renzo Piano
• Illustrated with more than 220 colour images

Order your copy today.

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Newly Drawn: Emerging Finnish Architects
Meri Louekari

Newly Drawn presents nine Finnish architects offices that are achieving rising international recognition, and the young architects who work there. How did they start working together? How do they collaborate? What have they achieved so far? What do they expect of the future? Their careers are only just beginning, but several competition victories, honorary mentions and significant commissions show that the future is theirs. The book?s personal and intimate approach brings the offices closer t...

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Newly Drawn: Emerging Finnish Architects
Meri Louekari

Newly Drawn presents nine Finnish architects offices that are achieving rising international recognition, and the young architects who work there. How did they start working together? How do they collaborate? What have they achieved so far? What do they expect of the future? Their careers are only just beginning, but several competition victories, honorary mentions and significant commissions show that the future is theirs. The book?s personal and intimate approach brings the offices closer to the reader. Following interviews with the personnel and presentations of the offices, the book proceeds to the projects and their unique characteristics. In this way readers can acquaint themselves not only with the projects but also with the design process. Each office presents 4-6 projects, both completed works and those still awaiting construction. The varied and rich illustrations range from portraits of persons and offices to project illustrations and photos of completed buildings.

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The Architecture of Harry Weese
Robert Bruegmann

This study tells the story of one of America’s most gifted architects of the postwar years.

During a career that spanned half a century from the 1930s to the 1980s, Weese produced a large number of significant designs ranging from small but highly inventive houses to large urban scale commissions like the Washington, D.C., Metro system. Although influenced to some degree by the rational, and often austere, work of European modernists like Mies van der Rohe, in most of his...

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The Architecture of Harry Weese
Robert Bruegmann

This study tells the story of one of America’s most gifted architects of the postwar years.

During a career that spanned half a century from the 1930s to the 1980s, Weese produced a large number of significant designs ranging from small but highly inventive houses to large urban scale commissions like the Washington, D.C., Metro system. Although influenced to some degree by the rational, and often austere, work of European modernists like Mies van der Rohe, in most of his own oeuvre Weese instead followed the example of Nordic architects like Gunnar Asplund and Alvar Aalto in favoring natural materials, human scale, and comfort; his work was characterized by a deep respect for older buildings and existing urban patterns and a fondness for unexpected, often idiosyncratic design decisions.

This book takes its place within a fast-growing revival of interest in the work of Weese and a number of his friends and contemporaries with shared assumptions and sensibilities, notably Eero Saarinen, Edward Larrabee Barnes, I. M. Pei, Ralph Rapson, and Paul Rudolph. As important as Weese’s buildings were, though, they were only one part of what almost all his contemporaries recognized as his seemingly inexhaustible creativity. Because Weese believed that design was essentially problem-solving, he was willing to apply his skills to everything from a piece of furniture to an entire city. The city on which he lavished the most attention was his own city, Chicago, where he seemed to be everywhere at once, praising, criticizing, cheerleading, and pouring out ideas for creating a humane and livable place for citizens of all walks of life.

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Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet
James Glave

"Reading Almost Green is like getting a new pair of glasses when you thought you could see just fine. Many important shades of distinction and subtle insights fill the book. A smart, contemplative read."—Douglas Coupland

James Glave, a self-proclaimed "child of suburbia," learns about the real implications and sacrifices involved in sustainable living when he practices it at his home on Bowen Island, British Columbia, where "eco-yuppies" and local hunters are engaged...

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Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet
James Glave

"Reading Almost Green is like getting a new pair of glasses when you thought you could see just fine. Many important shades of distinction and subtle insights fill the book. A smart, contemplative read."—Douglas Coupland

James Glave, a self-proclaimed "child of suburbia," learns about the real implications and sacrifices involved in sustainable living when he practices it at his home on Bowen Island, British Columbia, where "eco-yuppies" and local hunters are engaged in a turf war. Employing gurus and energy-savvy builders, Glave sets out to build a "green" writing studio on a budget of $50,000. But he remains skeptical of the current trends in the eco-movement, and questions the high-and-mighty "conservationist" rigmarole. How can a family man on a modest salary afford to live a green lifestyle? At what cost to his children? How do you get rain to go to your garden? How much eco-destruction is too much? The book that results from Glave's attempts to answer questions such as these is a surprisingly funny, informative, and refreshingly irreverent take on green issues and a candid look at the costs and benefits of living an eco-friendly lifestyle.

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Empire of the Sun
J. G. Ballard

The classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.

Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.

Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, h...

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Empire of the Sun
J. G. Ballard

The classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.

Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him.

Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.

Ballard's enduring novel of war and deprivation, internment camps and death marches, and starvation and survival is an honest coming-of-age tale set in a world thrown utterly out of joint.

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The Edible City: Toronto Food from Farm to Fork

If a city is its people, and its people are what they eat, then shouldn't food play a larger role in our dialogue about how and where we live? The food of a metropolis is essential to its character. Native plants, proximity to farmland, the locations of supermarkets, the effects of immigration, food-security concerns, how chefs are trained: how a city nourishes itself might say more than anything else about what kind of city it is. With a cornucopia of essays on comestibles, "The Edible City"...

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The Edible City: Toronto Food from Farm to Fork

If a city is its people, and its people are what they eat, then shouldn't food play a larger role in our dialogue about how and where we live? The food of a metropolis is essential to its character. Native plants, proximity to farmland, the locations of supermarkets, the effects of immigration, food-security concerns, how chefs are trained: how a city nourishes itself might say more than anything else about what kind of city it is. With a cornucopia of essays on comestibles, "The Edible City" considers how one city eats. It includes dishes on peaches and poverty, on processing plants and public gardens, on rats and bees and bad restaurant service, on schnitzel and school lunches. There are incisive studies of food-safety policy, of feeding the poor, and of waste, and a happy tale about a hardy fig tree. Together they form a saucy picture of how Toronto - and, by extension, every city - sustains itself, from growing basil on balconies to four-star restaurants. Dig into "The Edible City" and get the whole story, from field to fork.

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Food (Alphabet City)

Shortlisted for the 2008 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Food is essential to our sense of place and our sense of self, but today—as fast food nation meets the slow food movement and eating locally collides with on-demand arugula—our food habits are shifting. Food examines and imagines these changes, with projects by writers and artists that explore the cultural and emotional resonance of food, from the "everyday Dada" of mashed potatoes and Jell-O to the rocket science of f...

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Food (Alphabet City)

Shortlisted for the 2008 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Food is essential to our sense of place and our sense of self, but today—as fast food nation meets the slow food movement and eating locally collides with on-demand arugula—our food habits are shifting. Food examines and imagines these changes, with projects by writers and artists that explore the cultural and emotional resonance of food, from the "everyday Dada" of mashed potatoes and Jell-O to the rocket science of food eaten by astronauts in space.

In Food, an artist photographs everything he ate in 2006 (and some things he didn't eat, including "Food I Left in the Fridge Too Long") and finds the results both "seductive and repulsive"; a writer describes the global agro-assembly line that produces an organic bento box for Japanese commuters containing rice and vegetables from California, pork from Mexico, and salmon from Alaska; a short story writer offers an eight-page graphic novel, Eating in Cafeterias; a landscape architect compares a commercial orange with an organic apple using visualized data; an award-winning New York City food writer tells a postmodern tale about small-town Chinese-American cuisine (featuring chop suey, egg rolls, and flaming lava cocktails); an expert explains the principles of urban food sustainability. Other projects include a map of the free food from fruit trees on public land in a Los Angeles neighborhood, a visionary plan for farms in skyscrapers, and a surprising report on food security. The essays, artwork, and stories in Food offer readers a full menu of intellectual nourishment and aesthetic delight.

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Shelter

Shelter is many things - a visually dynamic, oversized compendium of organic architecture past and present; a how-to book that includes over 1,250 illustrations; and a Whole Earth Catalog-type sourcebook for living in harmony with the earth by using every conceivable material. First published in 1973, Shelter remains a source of inspiration and invention. Including the nuts-and-bolts aspects of building, the book covers such topics as dwellings from Iron Age huts to Bedouin tents to Togo's ti...

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Shelter

Shelter is many things - a visually dynamic, oversized compendium of organic architecture past and present; a how-to book that includes over 1,250 illustrations; and a Whole Earth Catalog-type sourcebook for living in harmony with the earth by using every conceivable material. First published in 1973, Shelter remains a source of inspiration and invention. Including the nuts-and-bolts aspects of building, the book covers such topics as dwellings from Iron Age huts to Bedouin tents to Togo's tin-and-thatch houses; nomadic shelters from tipis to "housecars"; and domes, dome cities, sod iglus, and even treehouses.

The authors recount personal stories about alternative dwellings that illustrate sensible solutions to problems associated with using materials found in the environment - with fascinating, often surprising results.

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Shelter II

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Shelter II

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Cities for People
Jan Gehl

For more than forty years Jan Gehl has helped to transform urban environments around the world based on his research into the ways people actually use—or could use—the spaces where they live and work. In this revolutionary book, Gehl presents his latest work creating (or recreating) cityscapes on a human scale. He clearly explains the methods and tools he uses to reconfigure unworkable cityscapes into the landscapes he believes they should be: cities for ...

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Cities for People
Jan Gehl

For more than forty years Jan Gehl has helped to transform urban environments around the world based on his research into the ways people actually use—or could use—the spaces where they live and work. In this revolutionary book, Gehl presents his latest work creating (or recreating) cityscapes on a human scale. He clearly explains the methods and tools he uses to reconfigure unworkable cityscapes into the landscapes he believes they should be: cities for people.

Taking into account changing demographics and changing lifestyles, Gehl explains how to develop cities that are lively, safe, sustainable, and healthy.

The book is extensively illustrated with over 700 photos and drawings of examples from Gehl’s work around the globe.

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New Architecture in Japan
Yuki Sumner

This informative and beautifully illustrated book showcases projects of all types, sizes and budgets from the last decade in Japan, and includes museums, private houses, schools, shops, hospitals, airports and chapels. Both cutting-edge, emerging young practices such as Sou Fujimoto and Junya Ishigami and established, internationally known architects among them Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma and SANAA are featured, as are international practices working in Japan (such as Rogers Stirk Harb...

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New Architecture in Japan
Yuki Sumner

This informative and beautifully illustrated book showcases projects of all types, sizes and budgets from the last decade in Japan, and includes museums, private houses, schools, shops, hospitals, airports and chapels. Both cutting-edge, emerging young practices such as Sou Fujimoto and Junya Ishigami and established, internationally known architects among them Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma and SANAA are featured, as are international practices working in Japan (such as Rogers Stirk Harbour, Foster + Partners and Herzog & de Meuron). Stunning images by leading architectural photographer Edmund Sumner are accompanied by accessible critical texts and drawings. This illuminating survey is essential not just for architects and designers but also for anyone fascinated by Japan's unique and increasing influence on architecture worldwide.

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Sorry, Out of Gas
Caroline Maniaque

The year 1973 marks one of the most important turning points in the history of the twentieth century. Prior to that year, the world had become accustomed to a plentiful supply of inexpensive fossil fuels--especially oil. During this first major international oil crisis, however, the western world's dependency on unstable eastern energy resources became dramatically clear.
Published to accompany the comprehensive and enlightening 2008 exhibition, 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas, hosted by t...

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Sorry, Out of Gas
Caroline Maniaque

The year 1973 marks one of the most important turning points in the history of the twentieth century. Prior to that year, the world had become accustomed to a plentiful supply of inexpensive fossil fuels--especially oil. During this first major international oil crisis, however, the western world's dependency on unstable eastern energy resources became dramatically clear.
Published to accompany the comprehensive and enlightening 2008 exhibition, 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas, hosted by the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, this beautifully designed, frightening and strangely inspiring volume examines the oil crisis of 1973 as the major precedent of contemporary concerns about energy resources and fossil fuel dependency. The 1973 shortage triggered research and development of renewable energy sources, improved technologies and sparked social experiments that were to have an enduring impact on the fields of architecture and policy in both America and Europe.
Put together by the acclaimed Italian book designer Massimo Pitis, this volume includes a monumental stash of documentary photographs, ephemera, documents, transcripts and original writings on all things related to the oil crisis--from Jimmy Carter to underground utopias. Reproductions cover everything from impossible traffic jams leading up to empty gas stations to board games with names like Energy Quest and Petrol. Specially conceived for this occasion, an illustrated tale by Harriet Russell, whose work is regularly featured in Time Out and the Guardian, introduces the ideas behind this book from a child's point of view. Russell's amusing drawings depict ironic and humorous situations that will familiarize children with energy saving and oil dependency concerns.

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Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World
Patrick M. Condon

Questions of how to green the North American economy, create a green energy and transportation infrastructure, and halt the deadly increase in greenhouse gas buildup dominate our daily news. Related questions of how the design of cities can impact these challenges dominate the thoughts of urban planners and designers across the U.S. and Canada. With admirable clarity, Patrick Condon discusses transportation, housing equity, job distribution, economic development, and ecol...

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Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World
Patrick M. Condon

Questions of how to green the North American economy, create a green energy and transportation infrastructure, and halt the deadly increase in greenhouse gas buildup dominate our daily news. Related questions of how the design of cities can impact these challenges dominate the thoughts of urban planners and designers across the U.S. and Canada. With admirable clarity, Patrick Condon discusses transportation, housing equity, job distribution, economic development, and ecological systems issues and synthesizes his knowledge and research into a simple-to-understand set of urban design rules that can, if followed, help save the planet.

No other book so clearly connects the form of our cities to their ecological, economic, and social consequences. No other book takes on this breadth of complex and contentious issues and distills them down to such convincing and practical solutions. And no other book so vividly compares and contrasts the differing experiences of U.S. and Canadian cities.

Of particular new importance is how city form affects the production of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The author explains this relationship in an accessible way, and goes on to show how conforming to seven simple rules for community design could literally do a world of good. Each chapter in the book explains one rule in depth, adding a wealth of research to support each claim. If widely used, Condon argues, these rules would lead to a much more livable world for future generations—a world that is not unlike the better parts of our own.

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Toward a Zero Energy Home: A Complete Guide to Energy Self-Sufficiency at Home
David Johnston

A Zero Energy Home (ZEH) – a home that produces as much energy as it consumes – is an idea whose time has come! Authors David Johnston and Scott Gibson (Green from the Ground Up) explore the design and construction of self-sufficient houses from start to finish. They make the case for a ZEH; cite climate and geographic challenges; describe exactly how to go about building an energy-efficient home; and feature ten houses that were built for zero energy living. With unequ...

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Toward a Zero Energy Home: A Complete Guide to Energy Self-Sufficiency at Home
David Johnston

A Zero Energy Home (ZEH) – a home that produces as much energy as it consumes – is an idea whose time has come! Authors David Johnston and Scott Gibson (Green from the Ground Up) explore the design and construction of self-sufficient houses from start to finish. They make the case for a ZEH; cite climate and geographic challenges; describe exactly how to go about building an energy-efficient home; and feature ten houses that were built for zero energy living. With unequaled knowledge and a passion for the subject, the authors walk readers through the process of building and living in a truly green home.

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On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time
Mohsen Mostafavi

On Weathering illustrates the complex nature of the architectural project by taking into account its temporality, linking technical problems of maintenance and decay with a focused consideration of their philosophical and ethical implications. In a clear and direct account supplemented by many photographs commissioned for this book, Mostafavi and Leatherbarrow examine buildings and other projects from Alberti to Le Corbusier to show that the continual refinishing of the building by ...

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On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time
Mohsen Mostafavi

On Weathering illustrates the complex nature of the architectural project by taking into account its temporality, linking technical problems of maintenance and decay with a focused consideration of their philosophical and ethical implications. In a clear and direct account supplemented by many photographs commissioned for this book, Mostafavi and Leatherbarrow examine buildings and other projects from Alberti to Le Corbusier to show that the continual refinishing of the building by natural forces adds to, rather than detracts from, architectural meaning. Their central discovery, that weathering makes the "final" state of the construction necessarily indefinite, challenges the conventional notion of a building's completeness. By recognizing the inherent uncertainty and inevitability of weathering and by viewing the concept of weathering as a continuation of the building process rather than as a force antagonistic to it, the authors offer alternative readings of historical constructions and potential beginnings for new architectural projects. Mohsen Mostafavi is Associate Professor of Architecture and Director of the Master of Architecture I Program at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. David Leatherbarrow is Chairman of the Department of Architecture and of the Program in Urban Design at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania.

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