A unique study of how the American Dream came to be—and came to be constantly updated and renovated: ”A pleasure to read.”—American Historical Review Each year, North Americans spend as much money fixing up their homes as they do buying new ones. This obsession with improving our dwellings has given rise to a multibillion-dollar industry that includes countless books, magazines, cable shows, and home improvement stores. Building a Market charts the rise of the home improvement industry in the United States and Canada from the end of World War I into the late 1950s. Drawing on the insights of business, social, and urban historians, and making use of a wide range of documentary sources, Richard Harris shows how the middle-class preference for home ownership first emerged in the 1920s—and how manufacturers, retailers, and the federal government combined to establish the massive home improvement market and a pervasive culture of Do-It-Yourself. Deeply insightful, Building a Market is the carefully crafted history of the emergence and evolution of a home improvement revolution that changed not just American culture but the American landscape as well. “An important topic that deserves to be widely read by scholars of business history, urban history, and social history.”—Journal of American History

Emphasizing the principles of healthfulness, durability, and comfort, a complete guide to creating a 'green' home with recycled, salvaged, and environmentally healthy mateirals offers practical suggestions for remodeling, redecorating, and building from scratch, along with tips on how to find materials, new construction techniques, and more. and m iture. Plus, learn how to discover additional storage nooks around the house. Ideal for anyone looking to reorganize, this book includes ways to contain hobbies, collections, tools, office materials, media, and more; and great ideas for using outbuildings and sheds for additional storage. 'Home Storage' is an essential resource. ovided by the nation's top designers and architects; construction blueprints available for every home; and planning and design advice, and tips throughout. lanning on building a shed or having one installed on a property. A complete guide to the types of sheds available, it offers tips for adding storage systems and other accessories, and building information that is geared to both the novice do-it-you rselfer and ith maps, photographs, illustrations, and at the out

Based on a lifelong professional and personal interest, "Traditional Buildings" presents a unique survey of vernacular architecture across the globe. The reader is taken on a fascinating tour of traditional building around the world, which includes the loess cave homes of central China, the stilt houses on the shores of Dahomey, the housebarns of Europe and North America, the wind towers of Iran, the Bohio houses of the Arawak Indians of the Caribbean, and much more. Professor's Noble's extensive travels have allowed him to examine many of the building at close quarters and the richly illustrated text includes photographs from his personal collection. With its comprehensive and detailed bibliography, the work will be welcomed by experts and non-specialists alike.

Innovations in Transportable Healthcare Architecture is the first book to examine the ways that healthcare architecture can provide better assistance in disaster-stricken communities. Aimed at architects and other professionals working across the disaster relief sector, it provides: An overview of the need for rapid response healthcare facilities; Global case studies which demonstrate real examples; Historical perspectives on redeployables used in past military and civilian contexts; Analysis of the advantages, challenges, and opportunities associated with offsite, premanufactured healthcare facilities and their component systems, for permanent installations or reuse on multiple sites; Planning and design considerations for transportable offsite-built healthcare architecture; State-of-the-art research on pop-up clinics, truck-based configurations, ISO container-based outpatient clinical and trauma care centres, and modularized facilities for contemporary military and civilian contexts. Innovations in Transportable Healthcare Architecture will be an invaluable reference source for architects, disaster mitigation planners, design and engineering practitioners, non-governmental medical aid organizations (NGOs), governmental health ministries, and policy specialists across the spectrum of disciplines engaged in disaster mitigation and the provision of healthcare in medically underserved communities globally.

In a fascinating look at this architectural phenomenon, Chad Randl tells the story of the "triangle" house from prehistoric Japan to its lifestyle-changing heyday in the 1960s. Includes an appendix with a complete set of blueprints.