Traditional Construction Patterns ─ Design & Detail Rules-Of-Thumb

Steve Mouzon ... has produced a manual that is clear, easy to use, and targeted to the most common errors ... Traditional architects can now sweep their own house clean." -- Andres Duany, Architect Planner Looking at a building and seeing a building are two very different things. To truly understand traditional architecture you must train your eye to see the difference between the Dos and Don'ts. Steve Mouzon's beautifully illustrated book provides an essential resource for anyone seeking this knowledge." -- Marianne Cusato, Author "... to see a town or a building through the eyes of a gifted architect like Steve Mouzon is to truly experience it ... this book is an inspiration to building our world better again ..." -- Kristen Payne, Southern Living ...absolutely essential ... a new town or new neighborhood is simply more profitable when the architecture is correct ..." -- Nathan Norris, Developer "... the first book in my library and the only book I take into the field ..." -- James B. Wagnon, Jr., Historical Home Crafters, Inc. This book explains, in layman's terms, the vague sense of unease we've all had with traditional architecture done incorrectly for the past half-century, and provides the tools for doing it right again. The first tool is a fully illustrated Lexicon of nearly 240 terms we should all know, but probably don't. It's hard to ask for something if you don't know what to call it. It's also hard to say it if you don't know how to pronounce it, so the Lexicon provides pronunciation of all of the words that are not obvious. The primary tool, however, is a collection of 108 patterns illustrated as Dos and Don'ts with diagrams and photographs. These patterns represent the most common errors of traditional construction, and are the things we really need to start getting right if we hope to build more of the most-loved places again.

Stephen A. Mouzon and Susan M. Henderson are architects and town planners, and are principals of PlaceMakers, which is headquartered in Miami, Florida. Steve is a founder of the New Urban Guild. He has authored or contributed to a number of publications in recent years, including the Public Works Manual, Charles Barrett: The Architectural Drawings, Biltmore Estate Homes, and 1001 Traditional Construction Details. He continues to shoot the photographic Catalog of the Most-Loved Places, which currently includes over 25,000 digital images in 52 volumes. The PlaceMakers Pattern Books are currently the only Transect-based pattern books in existence and are meant to be companion pieces to this book.