 | Selected Product:
| A-frame
Hardcover
Edition: 1
Author: Chad Randl
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Release Date: May 2004
ISBN-10: B000W91SVY
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
"A" was the architectural letterform of leisure building in postwar America. Eager to stake out mountain and lakeside retreats, an entire generation of high-end homebuilders and weekend handymen found the A-frame an easy and affordable home to construct; its steeply sloping triangular roof distinctive and easy to maintain )almost no exterior walls to paint!). Fueled by A-frame plans and kits, the style became something of a national craze, with tens of thousands of houses built.
Indeed, the A-frame was an icon for recreation, and acceptable form of modernism (although its origins go back thousands of years), and a convenient tool for marketing a wide range of products, including gas-powered toilets, motorcycles, and canned vegetables; Fisher-Price even made one for children. So popular on the domestic front, the A-frame was eventually adapted to other building types, from roadside restaurants to churches.
In a fascinating look at this architectural phenomenon, Chad Randl tells the story of the "triangle" house from prehistoric Japan to its lifestyle-changing heyday in the 1960s. Part architectural history and part cultural exploration, A-Frame documents every aspect of A-frame living using cartoons, ads, high-style and do-it-yourself examples, family snapshots, and even an appendix with a complete set of blueprints in case you want to build your own!
A-Frame History
| Customer Rating:  | As a kid I remember these things going up. I remember helping others build their vacation home but never got the opportunity to help build an A-frame. When I saw this book, it became the next best experience to building and/or living in one.
The author does a good job capturing the history of A-frames. Of interesting note is R.M. Schindler's A-frame house of 1922. Schindler worked on Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House. You can see the FLW influence in the elevations.
The author also does a good job of explaining the decline of A-frames: The evolution of American lifestyles to make the jump from a "second home" to the consolidation of the permanent home with the vacation home.
The biggest complaint I have is the size of this book. If you buy this book, make sure your bi-focal prescription is current. I found myself having a difficult time reading the tiny little words from this little book.
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Fabulous little gem!
| Customer Rating: | I don't remember where I got this..sorry, not from Amazon. I don't have an A-frame but I have a casual interest in architecture. This book is just exceedingly well done. As many have mentioned, the cover and design have a retro 50/60's look which is very eye-catching. Inside, the images are again fabulous. The whole book is logically and well written with the author delving into the origin and then history of the A-frame to its apogee in the 60's and beyond to today. Interspersed are period photos and advertisements. At the end are plans for an A-frame.
This is not a coffee-table, glossy picture, no substance kind of book. A fascinating fun read and it does look good on our little coffee table. I sincerely hope Mr. Randl delves into similar subjects in the future. |
a-frames coffee table book
| Customer Rating: | | big beautiful book, lots of pictures, an easy read, lots of interesting history. I was hoping for something a little more technical, with details for a do-it-yourselfer to actualy build one but its not here. A fun book if you're interested in a-frames. |
I live in an A-Frame
| Customer Rating: | | I live in an A-Frame so this book has much meaning for me. I loved reading about the history and seeing many A-Frames from around the world. I certainly would have let the author come to my house. It's a bit larger than most in the book - 2,800 sq. ft. I highly recommend the book to anyone with interest in the subject. |
A-Frame is Clever and Compact: A Review by Michael Hawker
| Customer Rating: | A wonderful survey of the A-frame, including many photos and plans of architect-designed versions. Included are interesting designs from those many Modern lovers will know. Rudolph Schindler was the first to have designed one, back in the 1920's. There is also a refreshing and very modern design by Campbell & Wong, and the one by Robert Broward in Florida from 1960 whose front end cantilevers over the sandy beach is exceptional. The rendering portrays its drama. Broward's design was one of the few structures along the Ponte Verde beach to survive Hurricane Dora in 1964.
But Mr. Randl does not stop at architect-designed A-frames. He carefully traces the historical development of the A-frame and how it became an icon in post-war America, weaving it with plenty of photographs, construction drawings, ideas on variations, and vintage advertisements from magazines to demonstrate its high popularity between the 1950's and 1970's.
The author does well to support the premise that the A-frame became an American icon, making its way from vacation homes to restaurants and motel designs as well as religious buildings. He cites its influence upon Googie's (Lautner) and the Unitarian Meeting House in Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin (Wright). Even the now popular Lindal Cedar Homes of today grew out of Mr. Lindal's first design: an A-frame.
If I had a critical wish for this book, it would be a much larger size, an oversize that perhaps presented many more architect-designed A-frames. I am sure more modern and organic architects have done them and it would be interesting to see those designs. Randl has in fact inspired me to consider one for a country retreat in my own home state. With this book's small size as the only demerit, I give Chad Randl's A-Frame an "A".
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