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Architecture Reference Sources

Encyclopedias are great tools for gaining background information, putting your topic in context and identifying key terms, people and core resources. In addition to resources below, you can search the catalog for your topic and add the word encyclopedias, for example: gardens encyclopedias.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Online This link opens in a new window Online edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, covering all subjects.
Oxford Reference Online (5 users) This link opens in a new window Contains almost 200 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. Includes over 50,000 additional in-depth, scholarly articles from titles in the acclaimed Oxford Companions Series, plus all 20,000 quotations from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
Oxford Art Online (8 users) This link opens in a new window A comprehensive and authoritative guide with extensive surveys and in-depth articles on the history of art; provides links to museums, galleries, and art collections around the world, as well as images. Available through this site are Benezit Dictionary of Artists, Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Art History This link opens in a new window Expert recommendations on the best works available in each discipline; from a chapter, a book, a journal article, a website, an archive, or data set. Each article includes an introduction written by a top scholar in the field. Covers the theory, method, and the history of the study of art history.

Architecture Reference Ebooks (selected)

Architectural Graphic Standards by American Institute of Architects Staff; Bruce Bassler; Keith E. Hedges The gold-standard design and documentation reference for students Architectural Graphic Standards, Student Edition condenses key information from the definitive industry reference to provide students with a powerful learning resource. Covering design and documentation for a variety of projects, this book offers extensive visuals backed by expert discussion to prepare students for work in a modern professional practice. This new 12th edition has been significantly updated to provide the latest information on important architectural developments and movements, with detailed coverage of sustainability, economy, technology, and more alongside current building standards and best practices. The companion website features sample curricula, student exercises, and classroom projects to aid the understanding of developing designers, and links to additional resources include professional associations, manufacturers' websites, and architectural articles to help students stay up-to-date as the field continues to evolve. Architectural Graphic Standards is the gold-standard reference for practicing architects, engineers, and builders; this Student Edition introduces key elements in a way that's relevant to the budding designer, along with ancillary materials that facilitate internalization. Delve into the design and documentation process for building materials and elements, as used in today's real-world practice Discover the latest advances in sustainability, digital fabrication, building information modeling, and more Learn the building standards and best practices for a wide variety of architectural details Examine thousands of illustrations, richly detailed graphics, PowerPoint slides, and links to additional resources Simply "knowing" graphic and documentation standards is not enough; future architects and engineers must develop an instinctual understanding and reflexive use of much of this material. Architectural Graphic Standards, Student Edition provides the depth and breadth of coverage they need, and the expert guidance that will help them succeed.
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9781119312512
Publication Date: 2017-04-18
Manual of Section by Paul Lewis; Marc Tsurumaki; David J. Lewis Along with plan and elevation, section is one of the essential representational techniques of architectural design; among architects and educators, debates about a project's section are common and often intense. Until now, however, there has been no framework to describe or evaluate it. Manual of Section fills this void. Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, and David J. Lewis have developed seven categories of section, revealed in structures ranging from simple one-story buildings to complex structures featuring stacked forms, fantastical shapes, internal holes, inclines, sheared planes, nested forms, or combinations thereof. To illustrate these categories, the authors construct sixty-three intricately detailed cross-section perspective drawings of built projects--many of the most significant structures in international architecture from the last one hundred years--based on extensive archival research. Manual of Section also includes smart and accessible essays on the history and uses of section.
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9781616895556
Publication Date: 2016-08-23
A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture [ebook] by James Stevens Curl Containing over 6,000 entries from Aalto to ziggurat, this is the most comprehensive and up-to-date dictionary of architecture available. Beautifully illustrated and written in a clear and concise style, it covers all periods of Western architectural history, from ancient times to the presentday. It also includes concise biographies of leading architects, from Brunelleschi and Imhotep to Le Corbusier and Richard Rogers. The text is complemented by over 250 beautiful and meticulous line drawings, labelled cross-sections and diagrams. These include precise drawings of typical buildingfeatures, making it easy for readers to identify particular period styles.The first edition of the Dictionary of Architecture received excellent reviews. Now it has been fully revised, and expanded, bringing it completely up-to-date. New entries include definitions of landscape terms, and biographies of modern architects. Each entry is followed by a mini-bibliography,with suggestions for further reading. It also contains over 50 new illustrations.This is an essential work of reference for anyone with an interest in architecture. With clear descriptions providing in-depth analysis, it is invaluable for students and professional architects, and provides a fascinating wealth of information for the general reader.
ISBN: 9780192806307
Publication Date: 2006-05-04
Oxford Dictionary of Architecture [ebook]
ISBN: 9780191918742
The Oxford Companion to Architecture [ebook] by Patrick Goode (General Editor); Stanford Anderson (Consultant Editor); Colin St. John Wilson (Consultant Editor) The Oxford Companion to Architecture is a new A-Z reference book on a popular and much-debated subject. It covers all aspects of architecture, from architects, building types, and movements and styles to materials, aspects of design, and definitions. It is particularly strong in its coverageof architecture around the world, and of modern and vernacular architecture. It has been written by a team of over 150 contributors, including many distinguished architects and academics, under the editorship of Dr Patrick Goode and two consultant editors.The Companion is strongly rooted in an approach to the study and presentation of architecture that avoids the art-historical approach and looks instead at its social, technical, and practical aspects. It explores why buildings look as they do, and approaches architecture not as a fine art, but as ameans of solving certain social and technical problems while creating a visual effect.Because buildings are nearly always the product of specific social, political, individual, or religious requirements, rather than of abstract artistic expression, the Companion pays particular attention to building types, and to how the architect's achievement can be appreciated within the contextin which they were building. It covers not only the familiar building types (cathedrals, mosques, houses), but also those which are more obscure and whose architectural merits are sometimes overlooked (bus garages, power stations, or multi-storey car parks). It also gives a fairly broad answer tothe question 'what is architecture?' by including the contribution of vernacular architecture, and structures designed by engineers.As well as taking account of the social dimension, the Companion examines the technical aspects that influence architectural expression, and offers a detailed appraisal of materials, structures, and services in architecture. It also explains why certain visual effects were important at certainperiods - for example, why proportion amounted to an obsession with Palladio but is neglected by many 20th-century architects; and why some modern architects, such as Bruno Taut, were sensitive to the opportunities of colour, while others seemed quite indifferent.The Companion covers all periods, from the beginnings of architecture in ancient Egypt up to the present day. It is worldwide in scope, giving equal weight to architecture in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America as to the more familiar examples from Western Europe and the United States.The entries provide criticism, analysis, and value judgements, as well as information, making it an indispensable reference for architects, designers, and teachers and students of architecture and architectural history.Also available online for purchase by institutions from the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf (www.oxford-digitalreference.com) offering flexible search and browse functionality and multi-access either through Oxford Reference Online (www.oxfordreference.com) or as a stand-alone resource.
ISBN: 9780198605683
Publication Date: 2009-09-17
The Oxford Companion to World Exploration [ebook] by David Buisseret (Editor) Covering all aspects of global exploration, from Antarctica to the North Pole, The Oxford Companion to World Exploration examines the lives and expeditions of heroic and influential explorers. This coverage includes biographies, including Lewis and Clark, Ferdinand Magellan, Cheng Ho, HernanCortes, Ibn Battuta, Vitus Bering, and Christopher Columbus; national expeditions, including Portuguese, British, French, Chinese, Dutch, and Spanish; and navigational and marine sciences, such as navigational techniques, ancient and medieval navigation, ocean currents and winds, longitude,cartography, and aerial surveys. The Companion's temporal scope ranges from the ancient cultures of Egypt, Persia, Greece, Byzantium, China, Polynesia, and Rome, through to modern space exploration. The articles have been written by leading scholars from across the globe, utilizing the most currentscholarship in the field of exploration studies.The Companion contains 800 entries, supplemented by 150 black-and-white and 50 full-color photographs and maps. Annotated primary source materials, such as travel logs and personal letters, supplement select biographies. Each entry is signed by a leading scholar in the field, contains abibliography for further reading, and is cross-referenced to other useful points of interest within the Companion. Published in association with the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Companion will reproduce more than 100 images from its world-renowned collection.
ISBN: 9780195149227
Publication Date: 2007-01-22
Encyclopedia of Urban Studies [ebook] by E. (Earl) Ray Hutchison (Editor) The boundaries of this project may be defined as the various academic disciplines that contribute to urban studies more generally (urban anthropology, urban economics, urban geography, urban history, urban politics, urban sociology), academic programs that build upon three disciplines (cultural studies, public administration), and professional fields that comprise urban studies (architecture, economic development, urban planning). While defining "urban studies" in this manner is problematic because the field is more than simply the sum of its disciplinary parts, this encyclopedia serves an important purpose in bringing together research traditions that might receive only scant notice in particular disciplinary encyclopedia.
ISBN: 9781412914321
Publication Date: 2009-11-13
The Oxford Companion to the Garden [ebook] by Patrick Taylor (Editor) This sumptuous new Oxford Companion is devoted to gardens of every kind and the people and ideas involved in their making, in every part of the world where the designed landscape has played an important part.Its broad sweep makes this the perfect reference for garden-lovers everywhere. It combines a survey of the world's gardens, biographies of garden designers, nurserymen, and others, and entries on the worlds of horticulture and plantsmanship, with articles on a range of topics from garden visiting togarden elements and styles, and from scientific issues to the social history of gardens.The Companion provides comprehensive coverage in 1750 alphabetical entries, detailing all aspects of the garden from the ancient to the avant garde. The writing is authoritative and engaging, with careful attention paid to the correct naming of plants, and a central aim of giving a vivid impressionof what it is like to be in these inspirational gardens. There are sumptuous colour photographs by some of the world's best garden photographers, and elegant engravings of historical subjects. Well over half of the entries are devoted to individual gardens, many of them open to the public.Theseinclude every kind of garden from palace gardens such as Versailles to private gardens of outstanding design or plant interest, public gardens, botanic gardens and arboreta, late 20th-century land art, and contemporary gardens everywhere. Central to the book are the garden cultures of Italy,Britain, France, China, Japan, and the USA - unquestionably the most significant in the world - but the geographical coverage is worldwide, including such far-flung regions as Turkey, Peru, and Bali. The Companion draws on some of the expertise from The Oxford Companion to Garden s (1986) - inparticular the late Maggie Keswick's groundbreaking writing on Chinese gardens.The international team of advisory editors and contributors includes leading authorities and top garden writers from more than 25 countries around the world. Many of the entries include suggestions for further reading and the work's usefulness is further enhanced by a general bibliography, athematic listing of contents, and an index of gardens, individuals, themes, and features.
ISBN: 9780198662556
Publication Date: 2006-05-01