Customer Reviews
A great book for architectural novice! - By: Gang Chen, 12 Nov 2007 
I read this bookin library when I was studyingin University of Southern Californiain Los Angeles & was looking for a book on architecturein real world. I loved it, I bought it many years later simply because I loved to have itin my book collection. It turned out to be a very good buy. The illustrations are great! Ching has a great talent to simplify complicated issues & make them very easy to understand.
Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA
Avoid - By: Buildergal, 04 Jul 2007 
Idiot overseas lecturer recommended this- & then failed anyone who referred to it.Very pretty, but useless because American- use Chudley so that your work conforms to regs. Waste of money...grrrr.
Very good - with one caveat - By: Paul, 12 Nov 2002 
Excellent book, good graphics, concise yet comprehensive - but it is an American book, so U.K. readers should back it up with something like Chudley/Greeno's "Building Construction Handbook".
Still a classic after twenty-five years - By: Robin Benson, 05 Nov 2002 I bought the first edition of this book years ago & what attracted me to it was the very accessible way it was produced, it just looked so inviting. Francis Ching writes about technical mattersin a simple straightforward style & Cassandra Adams illustrations are a joy to look at. She produced the entire book (except for the bar-code) by hand, cover, title page, contents, index & drew over a thousand technical illustrations & even hand wrote the detailed captions. This latest updated edition uses the same illustrations but the text is now typesetin a typeface (Tecton, I think) very similar to her handwritten style.
As other reviewers have said this is not a book for the DIY handyman but a guide to construction basics (though essentiallyin the US) chapters deal with the site, the building, foundations, floors, walls, roofs, moisture protection, doors & windows, finish work, mechanical & electrical, materials. The thirty-two page Appendix gives addition technical information, followed by a ten page index.
I do have one very minor criticism of this latest edition though, for some odd reason the publisher's have decided to print all the illustrationsin a tint of black which detracts them from their original beauty. However this will not stop readers from enjoying & learning from a unique looking book that can hardly be improved on. A masterpiece.
Helpful architect's reference - By: , 17 Apr 1998 This book gives simple guides to design work. Like a simplified "Graphic Standards". Ching offers super illustrations, lots of details & answers a lot of questions for me as an architecture student. I recommend to all designers.
