Architecture in Detail II

Beautifully laid out, this book was an excellent resource for my final year project for architectural technology degree

This might just be the 2nd best technology book I own. The best being Barrys Introduction to construction and building. Excellent details and good 3d imagery to aid visualising 2d drawings.

Good book for reference.

As described

good book

As a recent architectural graduate, I find Architecture in Detail II a valuable resource in professional practice, not just as a copy + paste reference book, but as a way to stimulate ideas about how the certain technical challenges I face everyday can be overcome. I read this book just after I had finished my RIBA part II and I wish I had discovered it earlier. In my experience, students are often inept at the detailing and technical aspects of their projects as the emphasis in many schools rarely lies in the detail. This has led to a generation of architects who can create sensational images and concepts on their computers, but don't have an understanding of how their buildings will work in the physical world. In the introduction, the author highlights the growing divide between `building technicians' and `design architects'. I feel like this book is trying to bridge that gap, highlighting how architects must embrace all scales, from the city to the door handle. It helps to illustrate how technical detailing and construction methods must be integral to the overall idea and how interesting and challenging they can be. This book is not a dry technical manual. Instead of black and white 2D diagrams, it has full colour photographs, project descriptions, plans and excellently drawn large coloured perspective sections, which focus in on particular aspects of each project. It is clear enough for anybody to understand, not just those in the industry. It gives a rare insight into how some of the best recently completed buildings are actually constructed. The excellent selection of 40 projects ranges across all scales and sectors and includes some of the most respected names in contemporary architecture. I would highly recommend this book to architects, students, construction professionals and anybody who has an interest or curiosity how the buildings around them are put together.

As a recent Part 1 graduate I would strongly recommend this book. For me, it fills a void between the glossy books and magazines packed with eye-capturing but often uninspiring architectural visuals and the sterile, text heavy detail books (or worse construction manuals). The generous preface places the innovative construction detailing in its rightful place at the centre of a wider discussion on some of the key contemporary issues facing architects and the profession. Within this discussion the diverse projects are introduced; each selected for demonstrating contemporary construction innovation. Each project is then covered in more detail. As opposed to copy and pasted conceptual spiel from the practices website, the book tells the story of the project (through concise text, key orthographic drawings and images of the construction), revealing the truly interesting and particular constraints and subsequent innovative construction techniques and details that were chosen . As a result they provide genuinely useful case studies for students and architects in practice alike. Furthermore the majority of the projects are located in the U.K so have been built to the same regulations. All this encourages a richer understanding and enhanced appreciation for the skill of those involved in projects shown beyond what the building looks like from a certain angle. Each project is concluded with a 3D sectional cutaway encompassing the key construction detailing explained in the project overview. These are very successful, the extra dimension makes them very easy to understand, underlying the three dimensional assembly of the building which is easily lost when staring at two dimension detailed drawings.

Whether you are new to architecture or a seasoned architect this book is a must. It gives you the detail that is often frustratingly missing from similar architecture books. There are 40 diverse projects explored, described, photographed and drawn in detail. The case studies are thorough and cover buildings from within Arts and Culture, Civic and Leisure, Schools, Education, Health, Residential, Housing, Offices and Transport. Architects included are Niall McLaughlin, DSDHA, Alison Brooks Architects, FAT, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and Hopkins Architects to name but a few. Each project gets a double page spread with vivid colour photographs and detailed text. Turning the page you are presented with plans, sections, diagrams, cutaway details and renderings on the project. Each project includes a beautifully drawn full-page colour 3d detail, which is accompanied by a key describing the structure, components and materials. The 3d detail drawings contain an enormous amount of detail - from large structural elements running through the building, down to a single bolt fixing on a balcony. The 3d details are referenced on the plans and sections showing where the cutaway is taken. This book allows you to appreciate some of the problems the design team have had to overcome to realise the architecture and satisfy the clients brief. Each case study presents and displays answers to the `how?' and `why?' questions of architecture, and once these answers are considered new ideas can flourish.