The Earth-Sheltered House: An Architect's Sketchbook (Real Goods Solar Living Book)

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The striking common sense of the author's perspective on design and the building process is based on millennia of use of earth-sheltered homes by animals and humans, using the earth to warm in winter and cool in summer. A cartoon on the book jacket summarizes Wells's perspective. One panel is called "20th Century," and has four steps of traditional building: love nature, kill it, build building, plant grass. The second panel, called "21st Century," says: love nature, leave it alone, find ruined land, build underground, restore natural habitat.

Wells's remarkable and imaginative architectural drawings, sketches, and landscaping and structural design plans are surrounded by his handwritten commentary about Earth-friendly building and design, cryptic remarks and humorous asides that make this book a pleasure to browse or read cover to cover. He offers a breathtaking assortment of some of the most creative and unusual home and building designs ever assembled in one book; site-appropriate structures for both urban and rural settings; and delightfully imaginative, dramatic, simple, and highly complex buildings for all purposes. Some are fully underground structures, some partially earth-sheltered, but all make the best use of light sources, designed to benefit from the sun and seasonal changes, and to protect or restore the natural habitat around and above them.

Wells's designs seem almost fanciful, but are indeed based on practical considerations and currently usable techniques and materials, helping open up a whole new concept of building based on one of the oldest known: caves and burrows. These are "caves and burrows" of soaring imagination and creative, 21st century brilliance. --Mark A. Hetts

Customer Reviews:

why I don't understand Malcolm Wells.......2007-04-16

It seems that most of the reviewers have not read Malcolm's books other than this one. Mac never contends these to be guidwlines or tech-point renderings. But he is a master at formulating underground architecture. The reason that many homes didn't get built is that budget for this form of building DOES cost more,and more more efficient and earth friendly, whereas otherwise non-sustainable homes are not. This is a sketchbook, not a building manual, he does in fact sell architectural plans outside of this. These are to illuminate and vibrate the stagnant soul. It appears that some souls are more stagnant than others. Mac's books do read journal-wise and are more storylike. That's merely the way he writes. He is a warm, engaging and socially responsible human being that has found a better way to build. So, people, off the high horses.

Not a how-to, but a great book for ideas.......2006-04-07

This is a great book, if you take it for what it is - a collection of sketches and ideas working to tackle the problems of underground house design. Unlike Rob Roy or Mike Oheler, who have their set methods for how to build your underground house, and who aren't much interested in other methods, Wells is interested in exporing the full spectrum of possibilities for underground structures. Many of his ideas are for larger (commercial or institutional) buildings, but houses are included as well.

The real strength of this book is in learning, along with Wells, why some of his ideas (sketches) wouldn't or didn't work. If you want a step-by-step how-to on building a home, this is not the book for you. If you're seriously considering building your own underground home (particularly if you are the builder) this book is a very important resource.

The Earth-Sheltered House: An Architect's Sketchbook (Real G.......2005-05-10

The cover looks good. PLEASE don't waste your money on this book. The information is useless. I'm not a designer but I believe I could draw (and even do a better job) some pictures of what I think an earth shelter would look like and do better than making a Fantasy hobbit home.

Inspiring Book.......2004-05-31

From an architects point of view, I found this book to be very intersting in that it proposes design concepts rarely considered in a world where everyone wants a stainless steel refrigerator and granite countertops. It certainly isn't meant as a "how to" book for the weekend warrior who wants to save a few bucks on his electricity bill. I found it to be a resource for opening minds, not just opening the ground.

hard to read.......2004-04-17

As others have pointed out none of the plans shown in the book seem to have been built. Every single one looks to have been cancelled because of budget problems. Which makes you wonder, if people with enough money to go to a professional architect find an earth-sheltered house too expensive to build, what hope do the rest of us have of building one in our lifetimes? Lots of interesting ideas but not much practical application that I can see.

However my biggest gripe is the font used in the book: a script font that is an attempt to make the book look like a hand written journal. I just found it very hard to read large amount of text with that font. They should have stuck with a normal typeface instead of trying to get cute.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on January 1, 1991. The length of the article is 1028 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Notes from underground. (an architect's sketchbook)
Author: Malcolm Wells
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1991
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v25 Issue: n1 Page: p29(4)

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The Care and Handling of Art Objects Practices in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Marjorie Shelley
Manufacturer: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Museum Studies & Museology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Care and Handling of Art Objects, The: Practices in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Anthropologist Simonelli writes vividly, her prose a moving testimonial to the courage farming takes....--The Book Review

TOO WET TO PLOW: THE FAMILY FARM IN TRANSITION. Photographs by Charles Winters.

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TOO WET TO PLOW: THE FAMILY FARM IN TRANSITION. Photographs by Charles Winters.
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In this latest illustrated adventure, based on the original Game Boy game, as Bill and Lt. Surge face their darkest hour, help unexpectedly comes from Red! Then, high above the caves of Cerise Island, Blaine and Yellow's battle against Lance intensifies as both sides bring out the most powerful Pokemon in their arsenals. Just as victory seems within reach, Blaine's time runs out with Mewtwo. Ultimately, it's up to Yellow to finish the job.

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Keynes's General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (published in February 1936) is probably the most influential and controversial economics book of the twentieth century. Keynes claimed to have undermined the foundations of orthodox economics and to have developed a radically new way of thinking about unemployment.

This volume brings together forty of the reviews published before the end of 1936, showing how a wide range of economists and political and literary figures responded to the book. It shows a variety and intensity of the reactions evoked by Keynes. Because they are all very early reviews, they antedate the articles (notably by J. R. Hicks) that appeared early in 1937 and which provided the framework (the so-called IS-LM model) through which economists have come to interpret Keynes's ideas. Here we have perspectives on Keynesian economics that are untainted by the work of subsequent interpreters.

Customer Reviews:

How not to read the General Theory.......2006-02-13

Backhouse has compiled a set of past book reviews of J M Keynes's General Theory(GT,1936).The only reason for buying this book is that it demonstrates how not to read the GT.Every single reviewer of the GT in this volume(as well as every single economist-historian-philosopher in the 20th century)skips the mathematical modeling done by Keynes in chapters 19,20,and 21(as well as the comparison-contrast that Keynes makes between his mathematical model and the mathematical model put forth by A C Pigou in his 1933 book,The Theory of Unemployment,in the appendix to chapter 19) of the GT.Every single reviewer in this volume reads the GT as if it were a literary novel,allowing them to "interpret" Keynes's meaning in any way that they wish.One can see in these essays how the "What did Keynes mean?" industry got started and why it continues to flourish.Underlying each of the reviews is the explicit or implicit claim that either Keynes had no mathematical model of his theory in the GT or that his model,whatever it was, is filled with all kinds of mathematical and/or logical errors.It is a sad commentary on 20th century social science that not a single academic economist,historian,or philosopher,who had written on the GT, decided to check out Keynes's formal mathematical analysis in chapters 10,19 plus appendix,20,and 21 by simply integrating the derivatives that appear in those chapters,especially on pp.55-56,ft.2 and on pp.282-286 of the GT, to see what the original mathematical functions consisted of.This reviewer did so in 1981 when he was writing a dissertation on Keynes's GT and A Treatise on Probability.Every part of Keynes model is not only mathematically correct,but incorporates Pigou's model,the same model used by all neoclassical economists,such as monetarists,rational expectationists,real business cycles,etc.,as a special case.Keynes's actual aggregate demand function turns out to be Y=C+I =bY+(1-b)Y=PO,where b is the marginal propensity to consume and (1-b)is the marginal propensity to invest,a function of the marginal efficiency of capital and the rate of interest,O is real output and P is defined as the actual price level within the context of the mathematical model presented in chapter 10 of the GT only.Keynes's expected aggregate supply function,Z(= Z1 + Z2),is equal to wN +P ,where w is the money wage,N equals aggregate employment, and P is defined as expected profit within the context of the mathematical model(the D-Z model)contained in chapters 20 and 21 of the GT only.Z is always a linear function that will shift up and down as expectations of future profits and future prices change over time.Keynes's expected aggregate demand function is D (=D1+D2)=pO,where p is an expected price.The aggregate supply curve is the locus or set of all possible different D=Z outcomes,one for each different expected price.The D=Z function can be linear or convex.Keynes derives the following mathematical condition:w/p=mpl/(mpc+mpi),where mpl is the marginal product of labor derived from an aggregated neoclassical production function defined by Keynes on pp.283 and 285 of the GT.Unfortunately,Keynes expressed his results in the form of elasticities(p.116;p.283) so that a reader of the GT could compare his elasticities with the elasticities that Pigou derived from his model in 1933.Pigou's main result(as well as the main result of Friedman,Lucas,Sargent,Barro,etc.)is that w/p=mpl defines a full employment outcome macroscopically.It is obvious that this is a special case of Keynes's general result that can only occur if,and only if, mpc+mpi=1=mpc+mps,where mps is the marginal propensity to save.If mpc+mpi <1=mpc+mps,you obtain a set of stable ,multiple unemployment equilibriums.The conclusion one can derive from rereading these book reviews of the GT is that none of the reviewers knew how to apply basic differential and/or integral calculus or how to simplify an elasticity.It is also apparent that the editor,Backhouse,is mathematically illiterate.He has no idea of what Keynes's Y,D,and Z functions are or what they mean.It is a queer state of affairs indeed when economists publish huge amounts of books and articles about Keynes's general theory while having no knowledge of the mathematical model used by Keynes or even the mathematical model constructed by Pigou in 1933 that Keynes generalized,especially when Keynes told Dennis Robertson point blank in 1935 that his D-Z model(Z'-Z) was in a chapter called " The Employment Function ". Anyone who can follow a table of contents will find this listed as chapter 20 in the GT.

Book Description

Crash Landing is about a business failure: specifically the 1986 collapse of Park Bank of Florida, the seventh largest bank failure in the United States at the time. But in a broader sense, Crash Landing is about leading a business during the most perilous of times-during crisis when there is no visible end to trouble and when there is no solution that seems to work. It is about the "right executive stuff" that turns out to be the "wrong executive stuff"; it is about the painful lessons and emotions that emerged from the wreckage of the Park Bank. It is a timely and serious lesson for today. Crash Landing examines the inside details of what happened at Park Bank, explores the ideas and philosophies found in current business and management practice, and then compares that advice to the author's personal Park Bank experiences.

Crash Landing: Surviving a Business Crisis.

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Crash Landing: Surviving a Business Crisis.
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Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
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Crash Landing Surviving a Business Crisis
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A Machine to Make a Future represents a remarkably original look at the present and possible future of biotechnology research in the wake of the mapping of the human genome. The central tenet of Celera Diagnostics--the California biotech company whose formative work during 2003 is the focus of the book--is that the emergent knowledge about the genome, with its profound implications for human health, can now be turned into a powerful diagnostic apparatus--one that will yield breakthrough diagnostic and therapeutic products (and, potentially, profit). Celera's efforts--assuming they succeed--may fundamentally reshape the fabric of how health and health care are understood, practiced, and managed.

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In the intimate context of domestic service, power relations take on one of their most personalized forms. Domestic servants and their employers must formulate their political identities in relationship to each other, sometimes reinforcing and sometimes challenging broader social hierarchies such as those based on class, caste or rank, gender, race and ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, and kinship relations.

This pathbreaking collection builds on recent examinations of identity in the postcolonial states of South and Southeast Asia by investigating the ways in which domestic workers and their employers come to know and depict one another and themselves through their interactions inside and outside of the home. This setting provides a particularly apt arena for examining the daily negotiations of power and hegemony.

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HOME AND HEGEMONY:.(Review) (book review): An article from: Pacific Affairs

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HOME AND HEGEMONY:.(Review) (book review): An article from: Pacific Affairs
Leonora C. Angeles
Manufacturer: University of British Columbia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by University of British Columbia on March 22, 2001. The length of the article is 1120 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: HOME AND HEGEMONY:.(Review) (book review)
Author: Leonora C. Angeles
Publication: Pacific Affairs (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2001
Publisher: University of British Columbia
Volume: 74 Issue: 1 Page: 126

Article Type: Book Review

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Humorous tale of a girl with AD/HD.......2001-07-01

This book would be good a for girl with AD/HD. She could identify with the successes and the mishaps of a character who shares some of her characteristics. Since girls with AD/HD often feel isolated and "defective," this book could her realize that she is not the only person in the world like this. She may see that one can succeed with AD/HD, and that one doesn't have to be the perfect student to be a successful person.

Paige daydreams during class, so much in fact, that her classmates call her "spacey." Her class is having a competition to see who can write the best paper on a particular topic. Paige is absent-minded, so she forgets about her paper until it becomes an urgent priority. Paige's dog provides distraction for her when she least wants it. The dog is stealing toys from children and animals. Despite all of these challenging events, Paige ends up getting at least part of what she wanted.

This book would be a good addition to the library of a child with AD/HD. It is a bit more of a "teaching" book than simply an entertainment book. However, some of Paige's situations are funny and keep the plot moving.

the first star I see.......2000-10-05

My daughter has ADD and she has been diagnosed for 3 years. Now she is in the fourth grade and is starting to ask questions about why she is differant. She wants to know if she can succeed with ADD, she is yearning for information that will help her understand herself, I think she is saddened and feels lonely and truly tries to do what she is supposed to....The First Star I see is a wonderful believable story about a 4th grade girl who always feels like she is behind the 8-ball...she finds someone who cares enough to show her that she has attention deficit and in finding out she starts to accept herself through understanding. It describes being teased, forgetting homework, missing details.....humorous story line, emotional and best of all relatable....Good starter book that is loaded with information about ADD/ADHD but presented in fiction form! Emphasis on the positive aspects of ADD .

the first star I see.......2000-10-05

Book Description

Blood and Iron tells the story of one of the most dramatic campaigns of World War II, the German conquest of the Crimean Peninsula and the port of Sevastopol in 1941â€“42. Sevastopol was the worldâ€™s most strongly fortified city and home of the Soviet Black Sea fleet. As German forces penetrated deeper and deeper into Soviet Russia, their supply lines became vulnerable to attack from this Soviet stronghold on the Crimea. To remove the threat, Hitler sent one of his best field commanders, Col. Gen. Erich von Manstein, to lead the offensive. German forces, aided by Axis allies, fought a series of daring and bloody battles that nearly resulted in defeat. Manstein eventually outfoxed his Soviet opponents, and the campaign culminated in the epic siege of Sevastopol. To break Sevastopolâ€™s formidable defenses, the Germans used massive siege guns, including the incredible 80cm â€œDora,â€ the largest artillery piece ever constructed. With the fall of Sevastopol in July 1942, Hitlerâ€™s forces appeared to be well-positioned to deal the Soviets a knockout blow, but the warâ€™s momentum would radically shift a few months later at Stalingrad.

C. G. Sweetingâ€™s account of this important but little-known campaign contains more than one hundred rare photographs and other illustrations, and his narrative brings to life the experiences of the soldiers who fought the battles. World War II buffs will appreciate his in-depth descriptions of German and Soviet weapons and equipment. This fast-paced, gripping history is essential reading for anyone interested in the war on the Eastern Front.

Customer Reviews:

An extremely disappointing book.......2007-09-09

The Crimean Campaign culminating in the siege of Sevastopol, is a fascinating one but you are not going to learn much about it from this book. This is a superficial and inadequately reseached book. Much of the very few pages of text is either general or largely irrelevant. The appendicies are mostly worthless. This book is a waste of time and money.

great book very informative.......2007-01-10

Sweeting provides an excellent account of the great german victory at sevastopol. He also give's a good account of the stuborn russian defenders, who put up a good fight, and the madness of the self destructing red comissars in massive suicide attacks. But nonetheless the wehrmacht's iron will and excellent leadership,under by many considered to be one of the most talented commanders of the 20th century, Erich von Manstein. He also gives a detailed description of the weaponry deployed by both side's wich was very to my liking. good book, i reccomend it to evryone interested in the eastern front 1941-45

There's another book that covers this topic! Get it as well!.......2005-07-25

It is Dr Joel Hayward's critically praised book called "Stopped at Stalingrad". As a reviewer below notes, Hayward's book has almost 90 pages that analyse the German assault and the Soviet defence of Sevastapol at length, utilising a commendable array of previously unknown primary sources and providing a thorough and insightful analysis. Hayward's book deals with air, sea and land operations in and around Sevastopol, and is almost faultless. It is a very strong book, not like this far weaker work.

good and bad news.......2005-02-23

The good news (for me) was that I read a friend's copy of this book and so did not waste my own money.

The bad news (for everyone) is that this book is terrible - very short, superficial, incomplete, one sided, padded out with irrelevant appendices and lacking even the most rudimentary historical analysis of the subject.

Be like me, don't waste your money.

A great general history of the W2 battle for Sevastopol .......2005-02-15

I thoroughly enjoyed Sweeting's new book Blood and Iron. Sweeting hit his target presenting this general review of the little known WW2 battle for Sevastopol. It is packed with unpublished photos as well as data on uniforms, weapons and other useful information appealing to the collector as well as novice historian. Not for the self styled military tactician or those suffering from a gaming fetish, I highly recommended this work for someone who is looking for a layman's look at a little known WW2 theater of operation.

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Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse Including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies
Steve; McGowan, Philip J.K. Madge
Manufacturer: Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLYOFC

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