Using Alice was a new experience for me. I easily understood how to search for a word and how to apply a different ‘brain’. What I did not immediately understand was the usage of Alice’s topic. After I got familiar with how Alice works, I started my research using the topic ‘architecture’ and the brain ‘Xenotheka’.
Since my book-friend is called Architectura Hydraulica, I started my search using the key word ‘hydraulica’. One of the first results I came across was Eighteenth Century Architecture from Van Eck. This book is about Krubsacius who visualized the structure of hydraulic and hygienic systems on papers which measured approximately five by seven meters. When I read this passage, I instantly thought of the big drawings in Architectura Hydraulica. However, their size is still much smaller with one to three book pages. Although both of those books talk about water, it seemed to me that my book focused more on hydraulic systems than hygienic ones, whereas Van Eck wrote about some kind of sewage system. He mentioned that architects thought about the cleaning a place would need to have from time to time.
The second search result was Modern Architectural Theory from Mallgrave, which appeared on Alice when I searched for the word ‘water’. It is about a person named Moore who studied at Princeton University. He wrote his dissertation, which was hardly historical or theoretical, about water in architecture. Moore then developed a sense for historical context under the tutelage of Enrico Peressutti. In my opinion, this book is more about people than architecture itself. Already in the small passage I found through Alice are mentioned ten names and two universities. In my opinion, it almost seems like the book tries to brag about its popularity by calling names. I can not find as many similarities between my friend and this book as with the one from my first search result. Nevertheless, their titles are very similar if it was not for the language difference.
In conclusion, there are many search results for terms matching my book. Some are of a similar type of book or text while others are completely different. The two books I came across are both much younger than Architectura Hydraulica and I think that is quite obviously when one reads, or tries to read, them. It is very interesting how different texts approach the same topic in a different manner.