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are not precisely delimited; cera- mics, furniture, glass, interior de- sign, metalwork, ornament and textiles get frequent mention, while graphic design, consumer durables and typography surface only on occasion. Heavy indust- rial design, theatre design and dress design are almost wholly excluded. '

Botticelli not Brunel, Jean Quien not Mary Quant, Duncan Grant not Milner Gray.

The Introductory Essay launches a very angry attack on modern design history which is accused of adopting a 'blinkered approach', viewing 'the past through Modern spectacles' and so it is not surprising that there is a very pronounced bias away from the twentieth century in favour of the nineteenth century and its theorists. Whilst Owen Jones has an entry spreading over six columns, Sir Gor- don Russell has only two columns, the Design Council does not merit an entry and there is very little on any aspect of postwar design develop- ment. Whilst it is good to have so much information on neglected fi- gures (particularly of earlier centur- ies) made available, the overall effect is of a collection of bits and pieces often lacking balance and propor- tion. For instance, it seems very odd that Salvador Dali is included and his jewellery designs are mentioned but there is no entry for Peter Carl Faberg6. There are so many other irritating omissions that I feel that the author's enthusiasm to include the less well-known at the expense of the better known and representative (which need to act as reference points) very often completely dis- torts the relative importance of the information provided.

As a dictionary of terminology this work is much less effective than its two companions, The Penguin Dic- tionary of Architecture and The Pen- guin Dictionary of the Decorative Arts to which the reader is directed for defmitions of most technical terms. This is unsatisfactory and I hope any

subsequent edition will enrich and improve this aspect.

For all its shortcomings this dic- tionary is written with vigour, pre- senting a lot of detail in a very clear and readable form. Even though the physical appearance of the work is a bit cramped, drab and it is depress- ing to see no illustrations of any kind, the use of block capitals to indicate cross references is a neat way of linking entries and this makes the book more appealing to dip into and browse.

Anthony J. Coulson

Designing buildings Eds Powell, J. A., Cooper, I. and Lera, S. Designing for Building Utilization Transactions of a seminar sponsored by SERC Building Sub-Committee, the Brit- ish Council and the Design Research Socie- ty. E & FN Spon, London, UK (1984) 339pp £22.50

This collection of papers from a seminar on building utilisation held at Portsmouth Polytechnic is pre- sented by the editors as 'a handbook to aid des igne r s . . , to understand better how people can be accommo- dated in buildings'. Despite the assertion that this is not a traditional handbook ~ la 'building design made simple' (the phrase is mine) the use of such a term seems to be a misnom- er. It is much more in the way of a thought-book or headbook for those concerned with building design in all its fullness and complexity. The book on the whole avoids attaching a narrow and specialized definition to building utilisation and attempts to grapple with the issues as they are. This may not suit those of strict scientific mind but it should appeal to those who are concerned about the apparent over simplification of much research in this area. It certainly does not produce a typical 'handbook'.

The issues raised cover an ex- tremely wide spectrum from the changing relationship between de- s ign and behav iou ra l research

through political imperatives, quan- tification problems, design for build- ing utilisation in practice, and resear- cher - educator - practitioner com- munication to the philosophy of de- signing as a fundamental intellectual activity. With one or two exceptions the level at which issues are treated is strategic. The papers generally pre- fer to look at problems rather than discuss solutions, although it is clear from a good number of papers that the authors have developed some tentative solutions. It would have been interesting and informative to analyse some of these.

Remarks by the editors concern- ing the book's assistance to designers not withstanding the book speaks more readily to design researchers and educators than it does to practic- ing designers. This is perhaps the inevitable result not only of the strategic treatment of much of the subject matter but also of the typical- ly academic communication style. This is I think a pity because the papers are full of relevant issues for designers, policy makers, clients and anyone concerned about the level of service and quality provided by the built environment.

Collections of this nature often lack coherence; this is not true here. The papers are for the most part complimentary and there is a good deal of cross referencing. It is how- ever, unfortunate that although the editorial introductions to each sec- tion are extremely useful in co- ordinating the material they often lacked significant critical comment, which I for one would have found valuable.

There is little doubt that this book is an important contribution to our understanding of buildings and their design. At the end of it all however a hard pressed designer is perhaps entitled to say 'Designing for Build- ing Utilization is what I do. The question still remains. How do I do it?'

Malcolm Bell

Vol 6 No 4 October 1985 239