3rd ed. 1998; 434 pp. Intermediate Technology Publications, www.oneworld.org/itdg/publications.html.
Since its first publication (1981), this remarkable book has been the place architects, engineers, and builders from "developed" countries learn how little they know about how the rest of the world builds. (Few US proponents look further than straw and adobe.) The best summary of technical data and how-to in one volume. Updated materials and techniques, nicely tempered by battle-scarred wisdom. Great pictorial indexing! As much of the work described is unhampered by inflexible US building codes, "appropriate" takes on new meaning.
