{"title":"Galen Cranz","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"chair-book-galen-cranz-9780393319552","title":"The Chair","description":"Perhaps no other object of our daily environment has had the enduring cultural significance of the ever-present chair, unconsciously yet forcefully shaping the physical and social dimensions of our lives. With over ninety illustrations, this book traces the history of the chair as we know it from its crudest beginnings up through the modern office variety. Drawing on anecdotes, literary references, and famous designs, Galen Cranz documents our ongoing love affair with the chair and how its evolution has been governed not by a quest for comfort or practicality, but by the designation of status.Relating much of the modern era's rampant back pain to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle spent in traditional seating, Cranz goes beyond traditional ergonomic theory to formulate new design principles that challenge the way we think and live. A farsighted and innovative approach to our most intimate habitat, this book offers guidelines that will assist readers in choosing a chair-and designing a lifestyle-that truly suits our bodies. Praise for The Chair:  \"[A] concise, multidisciplinary gem.\"—Publishers Weekly \"Cranz is no sedentary historian. The Chair is a call to action.\"—Jonathan Levi, Los Angeles Times \"Galen Cranz has written a provocative book. Pull up a comfortable chair-if you can find one-and read it.\"—Witold Rybczynski","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49514015097105,"sku":"GOR003916944","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49730116452625,"sku":"NGR9780393319552","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50485387755793,"sku":"CIN0393319555G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50485387919633,"sku":"CIN0393319555A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50955933155601,"sku":"GOR002707456","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51002044350737,"sku":"NIN9780393319552","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51201234141457,"sku":"GOR008534534","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51208201634065,"sku":"CIN0393319555VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52678743556369,"sku":"NLS9780393319552","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0393319555.jpg?v=1751134323"},{"product_id":"chair-cl-book-galen-cranz-9780393046557","title":"CHAIR CL","description":"Bringing together perspectives from different fields, Galen Cranz looks at the history of the chair and its social significance. From the angles of ergonomics and body-mind healing, she comes up with criteria on how to evaluate a chair for comfort and explores new design directions for chairs and interior design. A fascinating look at one of our most common cultural artifacts, explaining the history, physiology, and politics of how and why we sit the way we do.Perhaps no other artifact of our living habitat has had the enduring cultural significance of the ever-present chair, unconsciously yet forcefully shaping the social and physical dimensions of our lives. Tracing the varied history of the chair as we know it from its crudest beginnings in the Neolithic Age up through the modern ergonomic office, Galen Cranz uses anecdotes, literary references, and famous designs to document our ongoing love affair with the chair--despite its potentially harmful effects on our bodies. Cranz skillfully reveals how the chair's evolution in Western society has been governed not by a quest for comfort or practicality, but by the designation of status--between lord and subject, man and woman, boss and employee. Part social commentary, part design history, and part manifesto for a new way of living, this book brings a critical and delightfully astute eye to the place where we spend most of our waking lives.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49561468010769,"sku":"GOR007817268","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49666184118545,"sku":"GOR003744803","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51884171919633,"sku":"CIN0393046559G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52634525991185,"sku":"CIN0393046559VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0393046559.jpg?v=1751292666"},{"product_id":"politics-of-park-design-book-galen-cranz-9780262530842","title":"Politics of Park Design","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50124703203601,"sku":"CIN0262530848VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52527591260433,"sku":"GOR014550772","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52950350463249,"sku":"CIN0262530848G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262530848.jpg?v=1750843812"},{"product_id":"environmental-design-research-book-galen-cranz-9781621318798","title":"Environmental Design Research","description":"Understanding the significance of the physical environment in our lives is important to all of us as citizens-and as future design professionals. Through this reader, we want to help urban design, architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture students develop social perspectives on their work. Accordingly, the book has several objectives: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cli\u003eAs an introduction to the field of human-environment studies, it offers working knowledge of theoretical concepts about the relationship between people and their environments.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eIt teaches content from the viewpoint of three different American subcultures, bringing home the point that American life expresses multiple experiences, not one. The readings reflect our choice to compare and contrast Anglo-American, Chinese-American, and Hispanic-American experiences as examples.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eIt engages students in research about our involvement with buildings, interiors, and places. We want students to know how to use other people's published research, and how to do their own original research. We want them to be able to contribute to programming and evaluation research. Hence, the book includes articles about data collection techniques and methodological issues.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eMany of the articles model how to think critically about the values embedded in design and the humanistic consequences for people, their behavior, and feelings.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eBecause we define environment broadly to include the object and the body up to the neighborhood and city, the readings cover all scales.\u003c\/li\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Each reading does double or triple duty. We list each one by year to encourage us all to use the varied readings for different purposes, and to show development of the field since its inception in the 1960s. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eProfessor Galen Cranz\u003c\/b\u003e, PhD Sociology (University of Chicago), has taught social and cultural processes in architectural and urban design, including research methods, since 1971 at Berkeley and Princeton. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design\u003c\/i\u003e (1998) and \u003ci\u003eThe Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America\u003c\/i\u003e (1982). Dr. Cranz has published dozens of scholarly articles. As a member of design teams, she won first prize in a national competition for an inner-city park in St. Paul, Minnesota; first prize for Parc la Villette, Paris; and seventh place in the Spectacle Island Design Competition, Boston. Current research activity includes body-conscious design, the sociology of taste, the office of the future, sustainable urban parks, and ethnographic research for designers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Dr. Cranz was recently awarded the 2011 Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Career Award.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50288964206865,"sku":"CIN1621318796VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52836942840081,"sku":"CIN1621318796G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1621318796.jpg?v=1751277788"},{"product_id":"politics-of-park-design-book-galen-cranz-9780262030861","title":"Politics of Park Design","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346302243089,"sku":"CIN0262030861G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50347428970769,"sku":"CIN0262030861A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262030861.jpg?v=1751005350"},{"product_id":"ethnography-for-designers-book-galen-cranz-9781138121096","title":"Ethnography for Designers","description":"Ethnography for Designers teaches architects and designers how to listen actively to the knowledge people have about their own culture. 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This book is a practical guide for those teaching social factors and social research methods to designers and for those using these methods in practice.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50823316865297,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50823318405393,"sku":"CIN1138121096VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1138121096.jpg?v=1750791704"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-galen-cranz.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}