Böcker av Austin Williams

"The concoction of pills an individual takes really tells you all you need to know about a person."Cain was brought up in a broken city where drug use has become the norm and tents filled with the homeless line city blocks. Life has become bleak for so many that the only slice of heaven they can find is wrapped in a plastic dime bag. Cain, coming from a crime-ridden family, is no stranger to seeing and using violence on a regular basis. For him, dope offers some kind of escape from the grim reality of crime he's taken up in order to survive on the streets. When a chance encounter causes Cain to fall for Alexis, a pastor's daughter from the wealthier side of town, the two begin popping, injecting, and snorting whatever they can to find a reprieve from their bleak environment. After Cain becomes witness to a murder, however, he finally decides enough is enough and takes measures to get him and his newly found love out of town. Will these two dope-dependent lovers be able to escape the city as well as their own addictions?

By 2025, China will have built fifteen new 'supercities' each with 25 million inhabitants. It will have created 250 'Eco-cities' as well: clean, green, car-free, people-friendly, high-tech urban centres. From the edge of an impending eco-catastrophe, we are arguably witnessing history's greatest environmental turnaround - an urban experiment that may provide valuable lessons for cities worldwide. Whether or not we choose to believe the hype - there is little doubt that this is an experiment that needs unpicking, understanding, and learning from. Austin Williams, The Architectural Review's China correspondent, explores the progress and perils of China's vast eco-city program, describing the complexities which emerge in the race to balance the environment with industrialisation, quality with quantity, and the liberty of the individual with the authority of the Chinese state. Lifting the lid on the economic and social realities of the Chinese blueprint for eco-modernisation, Williams tells the story of China's rise, and reveals the pragmatic, political and economic motives that lurk behind the successes and failures of its eco-cities. Will these new kinds of urban developments be good, humane, healthy places? Can China find a 'third way' in which humanity, nature, economic growth and sustainability are reconciled? And what lessons can we learn for our own vision of the urban future? This is a timely and readable account which explores a range of themes - environmental, political, cultural and architectural - to show how the eco-city program sheds fascinating light on contemporary Chinese society, and provides a lens through which to view the politics of sustainability closer to home.

The first survey of China's leading female architects, featuring 20 established and emerging talents making an impact on the national scene.

Shortcuts provides an eclectic mix of at-a-glance guides to the minefield of regulations, new materials, and technologies that confront building designers today. Comprising hand-drawn sketches, technical drawings,and punchy articles. Each Shortcut is a quick, reliable, and incisive clarification of the welter of diverse technical guidance.