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I would like the GBF community to get involved with the planning of the forth edition which we may have to do before the end of the year. To get the ball rolling, please tell me what you hate or is just plain annoying about the third edition.
As a newbie and as a start , may I suggest (a) much more detailed indices? (b) each volume's index to include references to the other volume's contents? (c) more exhaustive technical source data - for example where in either volume is a full list of common U values especially of existing trad building materials - neither indices help at all; & (d) larger and more detailed climate conditions maps to allow to allow a specific location to be assessed also h add an overlay of at least motorways or perhaps main contours.
(The Whole House book's index is also weak by the way).
Good points John. I was very aware during indexing the difficulty of index linking between volumes. I may look into more computer based auto linking/indexing in future which will dynamically update links as pages change during development.
A piece on building with Compressed Earth Blocks in the Low Impact Building section and one on Masonry Stoves (inc. use for heating water and cooking) would be of interest to me.
Hi Keith Yes, a small section on whole life costing would be useful with cross-reference from embodied energies (eg page 277): Reason for this is that you can't accurately assess embodied environmental impact without reference to both the durability and also versatility of the built environment (it is, for instance, possible to prove that some concrete and brick technologies produce less C02 than imported timber per anum of lifespan). Rgds Jon M
Also it might be useful to standardize units. A mini conversion table for those that use imperial might be useful as an aide to vol2 (if you want to sell to the US market). Also make sure that the geographical location of data is shown if you want to expand abroad.
Also: Not sure I agree with the idea of standard details unless it is perhaps a few example details: Much of what is happening in this field relies on innovation and Standard details as used by the industry, whilst making design quicker, generally stifle the learning process.
Also, it might be worth, if you have resources, to have your web links to the green building bible website rather than direct so that you can update the links as required (it also gives people a link into this site)
You are right Jon. links are like phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Often short lived. But the idea would strap our staff to regular checking and updating rather than just checking and updating at the next hard copy publishing date.
True,. The way I've seen it done is to put a 1 second autodelay on the link so that your index.html shows up (with a little message saying something like, 'if the link is broken, click here to notify us') which puts the onus onto the reader to keep your links up to date for you. On the other hand, having links die does help to persuade people to update their editions. On the other hand again, if a link is dead and people try to use it, you could use your index.html to inform them that a new edition is available.
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