Practical Building Conservation

How did a small church in Silicon Valley grow into a worldwide movement of spiritual renewal? In Envision Without Limits, Pastor Tong Liu reveals the keys behind River of Life Christian Church’s remarkable growth. From breaking growth barriers to building strong small groups and inspiring men and women to lead—this book is packed with practical strategies and spiritual insight for churches today.

Adaptive reuse refers to reusing an old building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed. This conservation approach has become increasingly popular around the world. However, there are few publications that focus on its application in Asia. This book fills this gap by looking at both unique and shared aspects of adaptive reuse in three Asian urban centers: Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore. Building on government policy documents and extensive field work, this book contextualizes adaptive reuse in each city and reveals the impetus behind a wide range of projects from revitalization in Hong Kong, commercial development in Shanghai, to community building in Singapore. The introductory chapter sets adaptive reuse within an international perspective, noting salient differences and similarities between Asia and other parts of the world. It also anchors the discussion within a regional perspective, focusing on the similarities and differences between Hong Kong,

Modern architecture has become increasingly concerned about the integration and harmony between the natural and built environments. Terms like environmental protection and management, energy conservation, renewable energy, sustainability and ecology have been pouring into our ears on a daily basis. In fact, all these concepts are not new from an ancient Chinese point of view; Feng Shui or more academically, Kan Yu, is exactly the traditional Chinese wisdom aimed at creating harmony between the environment, buildings and people. Feng Shui is the philosophy which has influenced traditional building design in China for thousands of years. Based on Scientific Feng Shui for the Built Environment: Fundamentals and Case Studies published in 2011, this enhanced new edition has further taken into account the enhancements and new inputs in theories and applications. Emphasis is placed on two themes, sustainability and science. New case studies regarding sustainable design as viewed from a Feng

The book provides guidelines and practical creative exercises which equip creative-major students in early semesters as well as creative practitioners with fundamental knowledge on creation methods. Combination of functionality, simplicity and aesthetics in modern design is considered a fundamental design principle in the Bauhaus School in Germany,and, inspired by the School, the creative handcrafting exercises and the concepts introduced in this book are primarily coherent with this principle. The book draws a direction between two and three dimensional material-based design and modern digital creation process. The first part of the book introduces various creative handcrafting exerciseson proportion, geometry and modularity, among other fundamental design principles. The creative exercises will sensitise students on aesthetical and structural issues, and thus serve as an essential building block for application of the design principles to computer-based creative processes, which ar

Feng Shui practice has become an important reference for the planning and design of buildings, monuments and even entire cities. In fact Feng Shui is an evolved study of the natural and built environment. By utilizing the natural elements and practical environmental changes, we may improve upon our well-being, relationships, prosperity, health and living environment. People in many advanced countries seek to establish a deeper understanding of these relationships between human and natural environment. Architects from around the world also begin to recognize Feng Shui as a broad ecologically and architecturally connected paradigm. To remove the shadow of superstition for Feng Shui practice, it is essential to use a scientific approach in the hope of combining and fusing ancient wisdom with modern knowledge in building science. Scientific Feng Shui has two meanings, namely (1) the verification of Feng Shui principles scientifically and (2) studying Feng Shui logically in a scientific wa