Prestel
Вес 548

Описание:
This fascinating sourcebook presents the most remarkable, beautiful, and innovative building facades in contemporary architecture. A building's facade sets the aesthetic tone for it's entire design while serving a variety of functions, from regulating light and protecting against the elements to providing insulation for temperature and sound. This absorbing book details hundreds of examples of interesting and progressive facades from around the world. Presented in colorful double-page spreads, each facade is photographed from different angles and includes engaging texts that describe their significance. Readers can learn how traditional mashrabiyas in Abu Dhabi are being engineered to respond to light and to regulate heat, how a hospital in Mexico City has been constructed with "smog-eating" tiles, and how a "bio-adaptive" facade in Germany uses algae to generate energy and provide shade. Informative and accessible, this compendium is a highly useful resource for architects, engineers, and designers.

Описание:
This stunning edition of one of the most celebrated and highly valued natural history books of all time features impeccably reproduced images of Audubon's original watercolors, along with an introduction by world-renowned ornithologist David Allen Sibley. First published in installments between 1827 and 1838, John James Audubon's collection of life-sized watercolors of North American birds is the standard against which all wildlife illustration is measured. Fewer than 120 copies survive today, locked away in museums and private collections around the world. For this volume, the Natural History Museum in London disbound one of the two original editions it owns, and each of the 435 exquisite hand-colored prints of the original watercolours were photographed using the latest digital scanning technology. From an avocet grazing in a tidal pond to a zenaida dove perched on a flowering branch, each of Audubon's subjects is depicted with the grace and beauty of a living bird in it's natural habitat. An avid outdoorsman and explorer, Audubon traveled from Florida to Labrador to Texas and the Dakotas to study and collect his specimens. Straddling the line between science and art, this book mesmerized 19th century audiences around the world; today it stands as a reminder of the spectacular biodiversity of the North American continent, and of the pioneer spirit that Audubon himself revered.