Review: Construction Materials Manual

Construction Materials Manual -- front cover

The Review

Construction Materials Manual could be used as a valuable design tool, rather than just another book to illustrate the use of building materials through seductive imagery, and will prove more than useful to any practitioner in the long run.

No other book available in the market can match the depth and spread of its contents, research and illustration.

Books on building materials, their use and detailing are often hard to come by. Even if they do, they are generally overtly technical, and are represented in uninteresting ways that fail to engage most readers.

This is coupled with the fact that even if they are technically sound, these books often fail to provide a broader historic, cultural and phenomenological point of view.

In this regard, Birkhauser's 'In Detail' series and its 'Construction Manuals' have filled up a considerable void.

The Construction Materials Manual featured here is the latest in a series that has included seminal volumes on roofs, glass, steel and stone.

What sets this book apart, as the introduction clearly states, is the attempt to, for once, combine the three formats that dominate building materials-related publication today -- the technical, the sensual as well as the ignored but increasingly important aspect of the ecological.

The book also focuses on the increasing importance of surface and materiality in contemporary architecture, and how newer materials or traditional materials used in new ways are changing the face of architecture today.

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Book Details

Title

Construction Materials Manual

Authors

Hegger, Auch-Scwelk, Fuchs, Rosenkranz

Publisher

Birkhauser -- Publishers for Architecture

Year

2006

Format

Hardcover

Dimensions

9.5 x 12 x 1 inches

Content pages

250+

Language

English

ISBN-10

3764375701

ISBN-13

978-3764375706