Materials and Their Applications in Landscape Design

摘要

In Materials and Their Applications in Landscape Design, Rob Sovinski, ASIA, gives an overview of the materials palette of the landscape architect or designer. The hardcover book is compact at just nine by six inches. Its emphasis is materials' general characteristics rather than when to choose which material and how to detail it. The chapters cover stone aggregates, asphalt, brick, cast-in-place concrete, precast concrete, metal, stone, wood, and combinations; each gives an overview of the characteristics of the material and some of its advantages and drawbacks in use.rnThis is an introductory text, not a reference book that one returns to repeatedly. For example, you will learn that common wood species used in landscape construction are southern pine, Douglas fir, western red cedar, ponderosa pine, redwood, and teak, but you won't be able to tell the difference between Douglas fir and teak by sight because there are no illustrations of grain and color at all. The chapter on brick is the strongest, with a lot of useful information about brick bonds and the appropriateness of a bond for a particular use, although not all bonds illustrated are named.