Nick Grant

The Good Building Book reimagines design and construction for optimal performance and value while minimising environmental impacts. Accessible yet thorough, this book provides provocative and empowering insights and critical analysis for building users and clients, architects, engineers, builders, developers, homeowners, and students of the built environment. It bridges the gap between theory and practice, offering practical rules of thumb and design strategies for a changing climate. From approaches to strategic design and principles of good details for building elements, The Good Building Book weaves together budget, quality and functionality. Drawing from extensive experience, award-winning architect Jon Broome and design engineer Nick Grant celebrate undervalued ideas that have stood the test of time. Organised as thought-provoking essays and illustrated throughout with helpful diagrams and vivid photographs, this solution-focused book guides readers through project development for eco-friendly houses and commercial buildings. It examines performance standards and navigates commercial aspects like budgets, contracts, and consultants. Whether you're a homeowner seeking to enhance your space or a student shaping the future, this book provides a way of thinking about how we shape the built environment for sustainable living.

Twenty of the coolest vehicles ever dreamed up, ready to come to life brick by brick! Black Ops Bricks reconstructs the finest military and spy jets, trucks, and ships ever built. Inside you’ll find step-by-step, full-color illustrations showing you how to create the best and most badass military and special operations vehicles ever made. From smaller projects to the eight-hundred-plus-piece hovercraft, the twenty projects included will keep you busy for weeks, putting your brick-building skills to the test as you race to complete and test-drive a variety of fighter jets, helicopters, and much more. These aren’t wimpy diplay models that have to be handled with white gloves once assembled. These are fully usable models. All parts of the models are accessible and playable; there’s never a cockpit you can’t open. And the projects are constructed to be fully customizable; stopping points indicate breaks in a project where builders can choose to continue building with only their imaginations and ingenuity to guide them. As a useful tool, each building guide is fully annotated to show exactly which pieces are used in each step. Following along as these projects move their way toward the fully operational finished project is as easy as ever, and the majority of pieces needed to bring these projects to life are commonly available bricks, with piece substitutions offered to replace hard-to-find bricks.

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.