Bøker av Avi Friedman

From cabins to containers, this international overview showcases a new generation of innovative homes that save space, are kinder to the planet and cost less to build.

A presentation of contemporary houses that demonstrates how domesticity can be beautiful and still help the planet.

This book offers ideas and practices on contemporary design concepts and illustrates them with plans and photographs of outstanding examples. Current planning and design modes of dwellings and neighborhoods are facing challenges of philosophy and form. Past approaches no longer sustain new demands and require innovative thinking. The need for a new outlook is propelled by fundamental changes that touch upon environmental, economic and social aspects.The depletion of non-renewable natural resources and climate change are a few of the environmental challenges. Increasing costs of material, labor, land and infrastructure have posed economic challenges with affordability being paramount among them. Social challenges are also drawing the attention of designers, builders and homeowners. Walkable communities, aging in place and multigenerational living are some of the concepts considered. In addition, live-work environments have become part of the economic reality for those who wishto work from home¿which has become possible through digital advances.The text would be of interest to scholars working in: architecture, urban planning, and construction.

This book explores the rise of technology-centered urban planning and the diffusion of these practices around the world. Seven axes of urban planning have been selected to highlight how data and technology currently work and how these systems can be improved going forward. Each aspect is explored in its own chapter that combines narrative description, illustrations, and case studies to show how technology currently shapes our cities and how this may impact the urban environments. Topics include infrastructure, mobility, energy use and distribution, work, public health, and knowledge transfer among others. The book also demonstrates how these aspects are tied to and affect the four pillars of sustainability: environment, society, economy, and culture.

Current planning and design modes of dwellings and neighbourhoods are facing challenges of both philosophy and form. Past approaches no longer sustain new demands and require innovative thinking. The need for a new outlook is propelled by fundamental changes that touch upon environmental, economic and social aspects.The depletion of non-renewable natural resources, elevated levels of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are a few of the environmental challenges that force designers to reconsider conceptual approaches in favour of ones that promote a better suitability between communities and nature. Consideration of overall planning concepts that minimize the development's carbon footprint, district heating, passive solar gain, net-zero residences and preserving the site's natural assets are some of the contemporary strategies that architects, planners and builders are integrating into their thought process and residential design practice.Increasing costs of material, labour, land and infrastructure have posed economic challenges with affordability being paramount among them. The need to do with less brings about concepts that include denser places, adaptable and expandable dwellings, and smaller-sized yet quality designed housing. Also, the need to reduce utility costs gave rise to better insulation, which benefits both the environment and the occupant.Social challenges are also drawing the attention of designers, builders and homeowners. As the "e;baby-boom"e; generation plans for retirement, housing an elderly population will take priority. Walkable communities, ageing in place and multigenerational living are some of the concepts considered. In addition, live-work environments have become part of the economic reality for those who wish to work from home - which has become possible through digital advances.The need to think innovatively about neighbourhoods led to the idea to write this book. The intention is to offer information on contemporary community design concepts and illustrate them with outstanding international examples.

New challenges on a global scale have forced a rethinking about the way homes and communities are designed. Future Homes provides an engaging and in-depth analysis of possible solutions.

Despite a prolonged slump in the housing market, the demand for residential green building remains strong. More than ever, professionals need reliable information about how to construct or retrofit livable, sustainable, and economical homes. With Fundamentals of Sustainable Dwellings, Avi Friedman provides that resource. While other books on residential green building are often either superficial or overly technical, Friedman gets it just right, delivering an illustrated, accessible guide for architects, developers, home builders, codes officials, and students of architecture and green design.Friedman charts a new course for residential building-one in which social, cultural, economic, and environmental values are part of every design decision. The book begins with a concise overview of green building principles, covering topics such as sustainable resources and common certification methods. Each following chapter examines a critical aspect of green home construction, from siting to waste managemoptions. Friedman provides basics about energy-efficiwindows and heating and cooling systems. And he offers innovative solutions like edible landscaping and green roofs.Friedman knows that in green building, ideas are only as good as their execution. So in each chapter valuable data is assembled and a contemporary project in which designers strove to achieve sustainability while adhering to real-world constraints is featured. The result is a practical guide for every professional in the burgeoning field of residential green building.

Everybody sneers at the suburb, but two-thirds of us now live there. Friedman's book shows how we might make the suburb liveable, affordable, adaptable and environmentally sustainable -- make them into real neighbourhoods.

Sustainable Residential Development presents a much-needed process for planning and designing green communities, written by one of North America's foremost and most in-demand experts in sustainability.