Charlie Hailey

On this blog I've reviewed books from Princeton Architectural Press's "Architecture Briefs" series numerous times, including a Book Brief devoted to four of the titles back in 2012. It's good to see the series still going, especially when other series (PAPress or otherwise) appear but then fade away just as quickly. Their Architecture Briefs are targeted primarily to students and young architects, so it makes sense to have one devoted to design/build. Instead of Rural Studio, which has published three books with PAPress, the lesser-known but no-less-important Jersey Devil is the subject of this book. The trailblazing group, which started doing funky design/build projects in the 1970s, is still going strong; as the cover attests, though, the funkiness is a bit more subdued. The small book is crammed with practical information throughout (building a water tube level is just one standout), while also including a few in-depth case studies.… (plus d'informations)

I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme; thank you to the author and publishers for this opportunity.

I loved this book so much! The prose is beautiful, and particularly in the parts where he was writing about sitting on the porch and looking at what he could see within and beyond the porch, the writing felt like the water lapping on the river shore - I felt totally immersed in the place, thanks to the hypnotic writing; it was like I was sitting on the porch looking out myself. I also enjoyed the forays into architecture and philosophy as well as nature. A fantastic book, highly recommended.… (plus d'informations)

The Porch from Charlie Hailey is an enjoyable read that both grounds and transports the reader. A wonderful book for the world we are all currently inhabiting.

The prose, beautifully written, grounds us in the real and everyday world around us. Using the porch as the focal point, we examine both it (in all its many forms) and what can be experienced from peering from it. From these very common sights and sounds we are then transported both to other physical places as well as other intellectual and/or spiritual places.

While this traveling in place with Hailey is a wonderful journey, that is in many ways the smallest aspect of what the reader is offered here. More important, I think, is the invitation to take our own journeys using whatever in our own lives might serve a similar function as his porch. The textures of our own musings will be very different but will, much as Hailey's did for him, give us a better appreciation of where we are and what we need or should do to make the world a better place.

I highly recommend this to readers who enjoy taking these trips through places both real and imagined while never losing sight of our roles in the bigger picture.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (plus d'informations)