Adobe Houses for Today: Flexible Plans for Your Adobe Home
Most library users are interested in homes using traditional  construction methods, but comprehensive collections should offer  information about alternative technologies. These three titles  offer good options. Pearson offers instructions to build yurts,  tipis, and benders all dwellings that consist of a collapsible,  lightweight frame covered with cloth. Examples range from  simple, temporary designs to much sturdier structures  appropriate for year-round use. The examples are from all over  the world, but brief instructions allow anyone to build a rather  exotic structure inexpensively. The Sanchezes provide a wealth  of information about the history and techniques associated with  the use of adobe, an ancient material common in the Southwest.  Twelve plans for both traditional and modern homes are  included some of which look surprisingly conventional to the  casual observer. This title will be of particular interest to  readers in the more arid regions of North America. Mackie, a  well-known author and educator of log home-building techniques,  shows how to construct a log home in a low-impact,  environmentally friendly manner. The homes shown are beautiful,  with a great deal of exposed joinery; Mackie's step-by-step  instructions and excellent illustrations show how everything is  done (the author, who is in his mid-seventies, is still building  homes a feat that many half his age would find taxing). These  titles are recommended for comprehensive collections or for  those with a regional interest in the particular technology  covered.Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.