Detail in Contemporary Residential Architecture: ... (ISBN 1856694828)

Good, but kind of misses the point.:
An account of the 2 hours I spent flipping through this book after it arrived at my door: 1. When I saw that the intricacy of the illustration on the cover is produced by overlapping several drawings, I thought, "uh-oh." 2. After looking through a few projects, I was a little disappointed with the haphazard organization of the "details." For example, full wall sections were more often than not excluded. Envelope details were presented as partial sections, thereby losing the context. The different lineweights were also practically indistinguishable. 3. I was impressed, however, with the comprehensive list of materials/components accompanying the drawings. 4. I was disappointed with the choice of photographs, in general, of the projects. Most projects had photos that basically show the same part of the building, but from a different angle, or slightly zoomed in. 5. More overlapping drawings. This bothers me quite a bit, since these are just page-fillers, and do not offer anything except examples of what not to do when presenting construction details. 6. One project was entirely devoted to the detailing of a window box, when that building had used a very interesting roofing material (handcrafted lead sheets), what appeared to be hidden gutters, and a very well integrated envelope from roof to grade. I flipped through this section repeatedly to check if I had missed some pages, then I grew a little angry that these very worthwhile details were forgone in favour of a single window. 7. After going through the entire book, I flipped through it quickly to see if there were any projects from South America since I didn't remember seeing any. I recalled only two projects from Central America. A quick look through the list of projects seem to indicate a coastal North America and Western European bias. 8. I wished I could afford a subscription to the German version of Detail. I would not recommend this book for something that one expects from well-drafted construction documents. The method of reference and presentation is a little messy. Drawings seem to be organized by how well they fit together on a single page, rather than their as-built relationship. Given the precious lack of real-estate dedicated to photos, certain photographs could be omitted and replaced by more telling shots. Perhaps coordinate the details presented with a photo of the detail in situ and in context? A larger-scale foundation-to-roof envelope section can be a good organizational tool for subsequent details. Did I mention that overlapping drawings bother me? What I find good is the abundance of projects, the organization by material, and the list of components used. While I have a lot to complain about in terms of the drawings, there is still quite a bit one can take away from them. It would be a good book to go to for initial ideas. In short, this book is a coffee-table architectural book - a lot of pictures without definite purpose - disguised as a technical book. Sort of misses the point for a book that's about details.

Great Book-terrible CAD drawings:
This is a terrific book with many interesting residential projects. However, if you are an architect buying this book for the supplementary CAD details included on CD.....don't. The details actually lack detail, making many of them somewhat worthless. Although I was disappointed in the drawings, the book has been insightful and definitely worth the purchase.

Detail In Contemporary Residential Architecture:
This was a gift to my son, an architect student at CU. He loved the book and wouldn't put it down. He also loved the way it was arranged (by building materials). The accompanying CD has been loaded into his computer (which all ready had the Auto-Cam software needed) and thinks its fantastic. Its a book that he will use probably throughout his new career.

Very useful Book:
As a new professional in Architecture, I found this product useful for showing modern details on a number of very interesting projects. While this is not unabridged access to construction documents for each of the projects, it does give insight on materials and clear drawings showing how they go together. There were details on projects that I would have wanted in the book that weren't included, but it is understandable that not every detail could appear in the book. There is a very good organization of details within the book. One improvement that I would like to see is close-up photographs of the real-life details next to the associated drawing of the detail. This would help to clarify what exactly is being drawn. I love the CD that is included.

Interesting book:
A book that try to be a reference. The projects are well chosen and there are good images that have not been published really much so far. Many detail are made for building with a ''not that cold'' climate, I've appreciate it even if we have to deal with winter in Canada...