Saturday, December 5, 2015

Green Building with Concrete: Sustainable Design and Construction

With superior fire resistance, strength, and a long service life, concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world. A sustainable material, concrete is also easily and affordably reused and rehabilitated. The first book to provide an overview of sustainability and concrete, Green Building with Concrete: Sustainable Design and Construction surveys the material's history in the green building movement and presents state-of-the-art methodologies and best practices.

From the manufacturing of cement to the rehabilitation of concrete, this comprehensive book explains how concrete can be used for sustainable design and construction. It offers insight into new technological and social developments guiding the introduction of green buildings and examines the attributes that concrete has to offer the green building movement. The text also highlights research on economic analysis-particularly life cycle costing-to provide a full picture of the economic benefits of concrete. Expert contributors from around the world offer diverse viewpoints on global sustainability.

Topics covered include:

Principles of sustainable design
Benefits of concrete's thermal mass
Mitigation of urban heat island effects
Surface runoff and the application of pervious concrete for sidewalks and parking areas
Reduction of construction waste
Leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) standards

Emphasizing environmental impact and occupational and consumer health and safety, this book explains how to make the most of concrete in sustainable design. Written for university and concrete industry continuing education courses, it also serves as a reference for building owners and industry professionals who recognize the value of green building.



Architecture for Islamic Societies Today

Since the Aga Khan Award for Architecture was begun in 1977 it has been in the forefront of recognising the full impact of social and environmental upheaval on the built environment in Third World countries. In this volume the jury's selection for the fourth cycle of the awards is presented.

The selected projects, which deal with issues pertinent to both the developing and developed world, demonstrate their timeless relevance. The visionary philosophy behind the awards has been to seek to encourage architects, builders, clients and users to learn from and add to the Muslim heritage. The idea has not been to compete with the established scholarship of Islamic culture but to reflect on the continuous relevance of the contemporary expressions of Islam as a religion, culture and civilization.



Prescriptions for a Healthy House, 3rd Edition: A Practical Guide for Architects, Builders & Homeowners

Although there is nothing complicated about constructing healthier homes, building for health is still not standard practice, and in fact there are many aspects of conventional home construction that are detrimental to human well-being.

From foundation to rooftop, to home care and repair, Prescriptions for a Healthy House takes the mystery out of healthy-house building, renovation, and maintenance by walking the owner/architect/builder team through the entire construction process. Chapters include:

- Frame construction alternatives
- Thermal and moisture control
- Flooring and finishes
- Furnishings

The authors-an architect, medical doctor, and restoration consultant-bring a singular combination of expertise and perspectives to this book. The result-now in its third completely updated edition-is a unique guide to creating healthy indoor and outdoor spaces, including many new resources, as well as specialized knowledge from several nationally recognized experts in the field of building biology.

This unique guide will appeal to architects, designers, contractors, medical professionals, and homeowners.

Paula Baker-Laporte is the principal architect and founder of Baker-Laporte & Associates and EcoNest Design. John Banta is a senior indoor environmental consultant for Restorations Consultants, Inc. Erica Elliott, MD is a medical doctor specializing in environmental medicine and family practice.



Rendering in SketchUp: From Modeling to Presentation for Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design

The sure way for design professionals to learn SketchUp modeling and rendering techniques

Rendering In SketchUp provides instructions for creating 3D photoreal graphics for SketchUp models using integrated rendering programs. The book serves as a beginner rendering manual and reference guide to further develop rendering skills. With an emphasis on step-by-step process, SketchUp users learn a universal approach to rendering varied SketchUp projects, including architecture, interiors, and site design models.

The book focuses on tasks and principles at the core of photorealistic rendering, including:

- Rendering process: Learn a step-by-step process focused on workflow within SketchUp’s familiar workspace.
- Universal method: Understand how the process can be used to work with a variety of different integrated rendering programs, including Shaderlight, SU Podium and Twilight Render**. These programs are easy to learn and function in SketchUp.
- Textures and materials: Discover how to obtain, apply and edit texture images representing surfaces.
- Component details: Learn how to acquire and organize model details to allow for rich, expressive settings while maintaining computer and SketchUp performance.
- Exterior and simulated lighting: Learn to set exterior lighting with the SketchUp’s Shadow menu or illuminate a scene with simulated lights, lamps, and bulbs.
- Render settings: Use specific settings for various rendering programs to quickly set texture character, image quality, and graphic output.
- Computer specifications: Find out how computers produce renders and the type of computer hardware required to streamline the process.
- Photoshop post-processing: Learn how to further refine rendered images in Photoshop.
- **Free online chapters: The book reviews specific settings for SketchUp and the rendering plug-in Shaderlight. Given the ever-changing nature of technology, free, online accompanying chapters detail settings for additional integrated rendering programs including SU Podium, Twilight Render, and more.



Professional ASP.NET 4 in C# and VB


ASP.NET is about making you as productive as possible when building fast and secure web applications. Each release of ASP.NET gets better and removes a lot of the tedious code that you previously needed to put in place, making common ASP.NET tasks easier. With this book, an unparalleled team of authors walks you through the full breadth of ASP.NET and the new and exciting capabilities of ASP.NET 4. The authors also show you how to maximize the abundance of features that ASP.NET offers to make your development process smoother and more efficient.



Head First C

Ever wished you could learn C from a book? Head First C provides a complete learning experience for C and structured imperative programming. With a unique method that goes beyond syntax and how-to manuals, this guide not only teaches you the language, it helps you understand how to be a great programmer. You'll learn key areas such as language basics, pointers and pointer arithmetic, and dynamic memory management. Advanced topics include multi-threading and network programming - topics typically covered on a college-level course.

We think your time is too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First C uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.



Head First jQuery

Want to add more interactivity and polish to your websites? Discover how jQuery can help you build complex scripting functionality in just a few lines of code. With Head First jQuery, you'll quickly get up to speed on this amazing JavaScript library by learning how to navigate HTMLdocuments while handling events, effects, callbacks, and animations. By the time you've completed the book, you'll be incorporating Ajaxapps, working seamlessly with HTML and CSS, and handling data with PHP, MySQL and JSON.

If you want to learn - and understand - how to create interactive web pages, unobtrusive script, and cool animations that don't kill your browser, this book is for you.