Author: Stewart Brand
By Viking Books

Loved it, 2010-05-29
There's a surprising amount of hope in this book, compared to any other books I've read on climate change and environmental issues - the suggested survival strategy seems not only applicable but almost the natural course for mankind. It's definitely the time to gather around the fire and listen to the wise man speak.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Atlantic Books

Loved it, 2010-05-29
There's a surprising amount of hope in this book, compared to any other books I've read on climate change and environmental issues - the suggested survival strategy seems not only applicable but almost the natural course for mankind. It's definitely the time to gather around the fire and listen to the wise man speak.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Atlantic Books

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Loved it, 2010-05-29
There's a surprising amount of hope in this book, compared to any other books I've read on climate change and environmental issues - the suggested survival strategy seems not only applicable but almost the natural course for mankind. It's definitely the time to gather around the fire and listen to the wise man speak.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Weidenfeld & Nicolson

This book should be a manifesto to lead the architectural profession out of its bankruptcy, 2010-04-11
If you have ever lived or worked - and suffered - in a building designed by a star architect (or a wannabe - the differences in habitability between them tend to be slight), Brand's book is a must read. Not being an architect himself, he looks primarily at the functional aspects of buildings, as places of habitation and places of work. The book then proceeds to examine how the demands for buildings change over time and what buildings adapt best / what approaches to use to make the adaptation process easiest for the inhabitants.

Brand calls for adaptable and liveable architecture, for buildings which can easily be repurposed to suit the ever changing needs of the inhabitants and which can grow appropriately and sensibly. The focus is also on functionality in the sense that it needs to take precedence over stylistic concerns - especially those, which are achieved at the cost of buildings being functionally impoverished as a result. In keeping with the title not only extensions and remodelling are covered in great detail, the author also devotes sufficient attention to upkeep, maintenance and appropriate design to incorporate those aspects at the construction stage already.

In addition to being a very well illustrated (myriad of evolutionary pictures of the same buildings over time) and easy to read book, one can in many instances use it as a framework as well as a practical guide when making building decisions oneself. It might not tell you specifically what material and design solution is best for each circumstance - even if it often does provide sound advice - but more importantly, it lays down some very sound fundamentals that need to be followed by your architect, if you want a building that will work well, and continue working well for its users over a long period of time.

Returning to the opening statement, I very much hope that something along the lines of this book makes it into the core curriculum of architectural education - the profession would go a long way towards redeeming itself, if the practitioners were generally knowledgeable about the holistic way of looking at buildings, including over time, as prescribed by Brand here. As for the star architects, I wish they were forced to learn the contects by heart, from cover to cover, before being allowed to design as much as an outhouse ever again.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Basic Books

"How do we make long-term thinking automatic and common," asks Stewart Brand, "instead of difficult and rare?" Or, to put it another way, how does one get people to develop a natural perspective of their present moment that extends beyond a few days in either direction? The Clock of the Long Now describes a potential solution from the Long Now Foundation, a digerati braintrust co-chaired by Brand, the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog. The other chair, computer scientist Daniel Hillis, gave the group their initial premise in a 1995 Wired magazine article dreaming of a "Millennium Clock" that would measure time on a 10,000-year scale, and musician Brian Eno, who came up with the concept of the "Long Now." Although there is a lot of discussion of the clock itself--where to build it? how to design it?--Brand's main theme is about accepting responsibility for the long-term consequences of our actions. "We are not the culmination of history," he warns, "and we are not start-over revolutionaries; we are in the middle of civilisation's story ... We don't know what's coming. We do know we're in it together." The Clock of the Long Now is a deceptive...
One of the best collections of essays on sustainability and resilience, as well as long term planning, 2010-01-26
While I have been intensely interested in long term planning and sustainability - both professionally and personally - I only discovered this gem of a book rather late. It is a collection of essays, joined by the common theme of the 'Clock of the Long Now' project - with the aim of building a mechanical clock designed to last 10,000 years.

The questions addressed by the essays differ in the framing of the problems and their solutions - namely the change in perspective from a week, month, year or even decade to hundreds, thousands or 10,000 year timespans. Over that period of time many problems are much more amenable to solving. On the other hand taking that perspective also leads to designing solutions maximising the resilience of the systems designed - to be as good under as many possible futures as possible, rather than optimising them for a single future, which seems likely in the short run but is in effect increadibly unlikely to materialise over a period longer than a couple of years.

I feel the examples are much more eye opening and powerful than the regular 'scare tactics' employed for the purpose. The book will also nicely complement other such volumes, which mostly work on a shorter time scale such as The Limits to Growth: The 30-year Update, The Living Company: Growth Learning and Longevity in Business, Brain of the Firm (Classic Beer Series) or Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to Management and Organization. As opposed to several of these mentioned above, the book can easily be read by a layperson and does not require much in terms of background reading, either.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Basic Books

"How do we make long-term thinking automatic and common," asks Stewart Brand, "instead of difficult and rare?" Or, to put it another way, how does one get people to develop a natural perspective of their present moment that extends beyond a few days in either direction? The Clock of the Long Now describes a potential solution from the Long Now Foundation, a digerati braintrust co-chaired by Brand, the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog. The other chair, computer scientist Daniel Hillis, gave the group their initial premise in a 1995 Wired magazine article dreaming of a "Millennium Clock" that would measure time on a 10,000-year scale, and musician Brian Eno, who came up with the concept of the "Long Now." Although there is a lot of discussion of the clock itself--where to build it? how to design it?--Brand's main theme is about accepting responsibility for the long-term consequences of our actions. "We are not the culmination of history," he warns, "and we are not start-over revolutionaries; we are in the middle of civilisation's story ... We don't know what's coming. We do know we're in it together." The Clock of the Long Now is a deceptive...
One of the best collections of essays on sustainability and resilience, as well as long term planning, 2010-01-26
While I have been intensely interested in long term planning and sustainability - both professionally and personally - I only discovered this gem of a book rather late. It is a collection of essays, joined by the common theme of the 'Clock of the Long Now' project - with the aim of building a mechanical clock designed to last 10,000 years.

The questions addressed by the essays differ in the framing of the problems and their solutions - namely the change in perspective from a week, month, year or even decade to hundreds, thousands or 10,000 year timespans. Over that period of time many problems are much more amenable to solving. On the other hand taking that perspective also leads to designing solutions maximising the resilience of the systems designed - to be as good under as many possible futures as possible, rather than optimising them for a single future, which seems likely in the short run but is in effect increadibly unlikely to materialise over a period longer than a couple of years.

I feel the examples are much more eye opening and powerful than the regular 'scare tactics' employed for the purpose. The book will also nicely complement other such volumes, which mostly work on a shorter time scale such as The Limits to Growth: The 30-year Update, The Living Company: Growth Learning and Longevity in Business, Brain of the Firm (Classic Beer Series) or Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to Management and Organization. As opposed to several of these mentioned above, the book can easily be read by a layperson and does not require much in terms of background reading, either.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Viking

This book should be a manifesto to lead the architectural profession out of its bankruptcy, 2010-04-11
If you have ever lived or worked - and suffered - in a building designed by a star architect (or a wannabe - the differences in habitability between them tend to be slight), Brand's book is a must read. Not being an architect himself, he looks primarily at the functional aspects of buildings, as places of habitation and places of work. The book then proceeds to examine how the demands for buildings change over time and what buildings adapt best / what approaches to use to make the adaptation process easiest for the inhabitants.

Brand calls for adaptable and liveable architecture, for buildings which can easily be repurposed to suit the ever changing needs of the inhabitants and which can grow appropriately and sensibly. The focus is also on functionality in the sense that it needs to take precedence over stylistic concerns - especially those, which are achieved at the cost of buildings being functionally impoverished as a result. In keeping with the title not only extensions and remodelling are covered in great detail, the author also devotes sufficient attention to upkeep, maintenance and appropriate design to incorporate those aspects at the construction stage already.

In addition to being a very well illustrated (myriad of evolutionary pictures of the same buildings over time) and easy to read book, one can in many instances use it as a framework as well as a practical guide when making building decisions oneself. It might not tell you specifically what material and design solution is best for each circumstance - even if it often does provide sound advice - but more importantly, it lays down some very sound fundamentals that need to be followed by your architect, if you want a building that will work well, and continue working well for its users over a long period of time.

Returning to the opening statement, I very much hope that something along the lines of this book makes it into the core curriculum of architectural education - the profession would go a long way towards redeeming itself, if the practitioners were generally knowledgeable about the holistic way of looking at buildings, including over time, as prescribed by Brand here. As for the star architects, I wish they were forced to learn the contects by heart, from cover to cover, before being allowed to design as much as an outhouse ever again.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Penguin Books

This book should be a manifesto to lead the architectural profession out of its bankruptcy, 2010-04-11
If you have ever lived or worked - and suffered - in a building designed by a star architect (or a wannabe - the differences in habitability between them tend to be slight), Brand's book is a must read. Not being an architect himself, he looks primarily at the functional aspects of buildings, as places of habitation and places of work. The book then proceeds to examine how the demands for buildings change over time and what buildings adapt best / what approaches to use to make the adaptation process easiest for the inhabitants.

Brand calls for adaptable and liveable architecture, for buildings which can easily be repurposed to suit the ever changing needs of the inhabitants and which can grow appropriately and sensibly. The focus is also on functionality in the sense that it needs to take precedence over stylistic concerns - especially those, which are achieved at the cost of buildings being functionally impoverished as a result. In keeping with the title not only extensions and remodelling are covered in great detail, the author also devotes sufficient attention to upkeep, maintenance and appropriate design to incorporate those aspects at the construction stage already.

In addition to being a very well illustrated (myriad of evolutionary pictures of the same buildings over time) and easy to read book, one can in many instances use it as a framework as well as a practical guide when making building decisions oneself. It might not tell you specifically what material and design solution is best for each circumstance - even if it often does provide sound advice - but more importantly, it lays down some very sound fundamentals that need to be followed by your architect, if you want a building that will work well, and continue working well for its users over a long period of time.

Returning to the opening statement, I very much hope that something along the lines of this book makes it into the core curriculum of architectural education - the profession would go a long way towards redeeming itself, if the practitioners were generally knowledgeable about the holistic way of looking at buildings, including over time, as prescribed by Brand here. As for the star architects, I wish they were forced to learn the contects by heart, from cover to cover, before being allowed to design as much as an outhouse ever again.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Atlantic Books

Loved it, 2010-05-29
There's a surprising amount of hope in this book, compared to any other books I've read on climate change and environmental issues - the suggested survival strategy seems not only applicable but almost the natural course for mankind. It's definitely the time to gather around the fire and listen to the wise man speak.

Author: Stewart Brand
By Penguin Books Ltd