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John Taylor
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John Taylor is an Architectural Designer with a degree from the University of Virginia and an abiding interest in the way people at different times, in different cultures, and in different places built structures. John has traveled to places as different and remote as Japan, the Gilbert Islands, Fiji, Boston, Siberia, Italy, and Arizona. With sketch pad in hand, he has recorded how people have used what they have had to build. With an eye for detail, John Taylor filled his sketch books with notes and drawings about roofs, walls, and doors, as well as information about vessels for storing food, fireplaces for cooking and heating, and windows for ventilation.
In an effort to foster creativity and to help school-age children appreciate the role of architecture in their life, John Taylor founded and now directs the Children's Design Project. This interdisciplinary educational program for students and teachers in grades kindergarten through twelve encourages students to come up with creative solutions when designing structures to support the activities of everyday life.
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A Shelter Sketchbook - Timeless Building Solutions is a collection of hundreds of pen and ink sketches made by the author as he traveled around the world observing how people of different cultures, in different places and at different times, build their shelters.
A Shelter Sketchbook is divided into three sections. In the first section, "Protection from the Environment," there are sketches of a log cabin in Quebec which uses "a layer of earth on the ceiling" for insulation, and an early Japanese building which uses "stones placed on wooden shingles to prevent the wind from blowing [the shingles off]." In the second section, "Accommodation of Human Need," there are sketches of stoves and fireplaces in Japan, Florida, Denmark, Venezuela, and New Hampshire. The last section, "The Building Itself," includes sketches showing how people used the material at hand, stone, plant, earth, mud, and animal hides, to build structures to protect them from the environment.
Anyone interested in architecture or in how people in different places and at different times lived, will enjoy A Shelter Sketch Book.
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