The Innovative Use of Materials in Architecture and Landscape Architecture

This book is about materials. The fundamental properties and technical aspects are reviewed within a context of a material’s history, the theories of its meaning and making, and its use.
Information about the sustainability aspects of each material is included (as a critical necessity in construction). Innovative design comes from an understanding of materials for what they are, how they have been used in the past, and how they can support human activity. The author provides essential information to students and professionals concerned with advancing their design at a time when the consumption of natural resources and the consequences of wasteful practices are of urgent concern. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Caren Yglesias is an architect. She has taught architecture and landscape architecture at Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland and lives in Washington, D.C.

Caren Yglesias

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 216
Bibliographic Info: 79 photos (16 in color), appendix, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2014
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7080-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1464-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
1. Concrete 5
2. Fire 22
3. Metals 34
4. Brick 49
5. Ceramics 63
6. Glass 74
Between pages 86 and 87 are 16 color photographs
7. Water 87
8. Stone 101
9. Wood 115
10. Earth 130
11. Air 143
12. Plastics 155
13. Vegetation 166
Conclusion 179
Afterword: With Measured Materials in Mind 181
Appendix: Biographies 185
Bibliography 188
Index 193

“Caren Yglesias has written a most ambitious book. It offers a practical guide for architects about the materials they employ, and helps decision-making by offering an account of the history of their use and the associations and symbolism of each of them. She has succeeded in her ambition so that every student of architecture…and most architects, for that matter…should have this book!”—Joseph Rykwert, Professor of Architecture emeritus, University of Pennsylvania.