Holiday Gift Books: 2009.2

As in the last four years, I'm presenting a list of gift books just in time for the holidays. This time around I'm presenting one each by 50 publishers, posted in five digestible installments of ten each, in alphabetical order. Below is the second installment. Once posted, the rest can be found here.

Chronicle Books:

The BLDGBLOG Book by Geoff Manaugh
"Insights in book form, combining history, urban exploration, science fiction, design, climate change, and city planning with the view that everything is relevant to architecture."

DesignIntelligence:

33: Understanding Change & the Change in Understanding by Richard Saul Wurman
"Architect, designer, creator of the celebrated TED Conference, and prolific author Richard Saul Wurman's 33 chronicles the adventures and musings of an eccentric (yet oddly familiar) character: the Commissioner of Curiosity and Imagination."

Elsevier:

London's Contemporary Architecture: An Explorer's Guide by Kenneth Allinson
"Now in its fifth edition, the guide has been fully updated to cover the latest additions to the London skyline and buildings of architectural significance."

GG:

2G 48/49 Mies van der Rohe: Houses edited by Moisés Puente
"New, specially commissioned photographs and commentary on 16 built and 21 unbuilt houses. This eagerly-anticipated publication contains a compendium of Mies' houses, built between 1906 and the beginning of the 1960s ... showing the enduring influence he has had over the whole of the last century in both Europe and the USA." Read my review of the book here.

Hatje Cantz:

James Turrell: Geometry of Light edited by Ursula Sinnreich
"A lifelong explorer of perceptual psychology, Turrell is undoubtedly the most influential contemporary light artist, as well as one of America's most popular artists. In Geometry of Light, the first significant Turrell survey in many years, an extraordinary body of work covering several decades is assessed."

Images:

Details in Architecture by Andrew Hall
"A study of the emerging trends in architectural detailing, with a strong focus on innovative design, enviro-sustainability and many aspects of cross-cultural design."

Jovis:

Berlin-New York Dialogues edited by AIA New York
"Berlin–New York Dialogues explores the mechanisms of urban regeneration that are changing the built environment in Berlin and New York."

Knopf:

Hearts of the City: The Selected Writings of Herbert Muschamp by Herbert Muschamp
"The pieces here—from The New Republic, Artforum, and The New York Times—reveal how Muschamp’s views were both ahead of their time and timeless."

L.A Forum:

After the city, this by Tom Marble
"Using the structure of a screenplay to tell the story, architect Tom Marble takes the reader inside the minds of the people on both sides of the [Los Angeles real estate] development conflict - those seeing land as a commodity for profit, and those who see it as a valued resource for all to enjoy."

Lars Müller Publishers:

Ecological Urbanism edited by Harvard University
"While climate change, sustainable architecture, and green technologies have become increasingly topical, issues surrounding the sustainability of the city are much less developed. The premise of the book is that an ecological approach is urgently needed both as a remedial device for the contemporary city and an organizing principle for new cities."

Holiday Gift Books: 2009.1

As in the last four years, I'm presenting a list of gift books just in time for the holidays. This time around I'm presenting one each by 50 publishers, posted in five digestible installments of ten each, in alphabetical order. Below is the first installment. Once posted, the rest can be found here.

010 Publishers:

Archiprix 2009 edited by Henk van der Veen
"Each year the Dutch institutions teaching architecture, urban design and landscape architecture select their best final-year projects. The crop is unfailingly rich and varied and reflects the ambition of a new generation of designers ready to take on every imaginable design task that comes their way."

Actar:

The Function of Form by Farshid Moussavi
"A thought-provoking account of the challenges facing the 21st century built environment, and an enlivened awareness of the wider possibilities of architectural form."

A&S Books:

Manfredo Tafuri: Choosing History by Andrew Leach
"The first English-language book to consider [critic Manfredo Tafuri's] contribution to architectural culture, it opens an overdue discussion on both the premises of his practice and the historical questions that consequently emerge."

aperture:

The Transparent City by Thomas Wolf
"Bringing his unique perspective on changing urban environments to a city renowned for its architectural legacy, Wolf chose to photograph [Chicago's] central downtown area, focusing specifically on issues of voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux."

a+t:

HoCo: Density Housing Construction & Costs by Aurora Fernandez Per, Javier Mozas & Javier Arpa
"The new volume published by a+t forms part of the Density series, dedicated to the analysis of collective housing. HoCo is noted for including construction systems within the field of study and comparison, besides the costs of each project." Read my review of the book here.

Arvinius:

Nordic Architects by David Sokol
"Readers will engage with the region's enduring legacy of modernist architecture that is sensitive to both site and occupants, as well as the global currents that are roiling designers toward experimental work and provocative thinking."

AVA Academia:

Basics Landscape Architecture: Urban Design by Tim Waterman and Ed Wall
"Providing an overview of urban design from a landscape architecture perspective and a brief history and definition of urban design, it looks at the elements of urban form and the importance of contextual details."

Birkhäuser:

Visualizing Landscape Architecture: Functions, Concepts, Strategies by Elke Martens
"This books sifts through the currently commonplace and available techniques [for communicating landscape designs] and evaluates them in terms of their informative value and persuasive power, always illustrating its points with analysis of examples from international firms."

Black Dog Publishing:

Collected Essays in Architectural Criticism by Alan Colquhoun
"Collected Essays in Architectural Criticism encompasses the clarity of style and rigorous, erudite analysis that Colquhoun has brought to bear on a diverse range of subjects, including Le Corbusier, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, the Pompidou Centre, Postmodernism and the design of museums."

Charta:

Hans Ulrich Obrist: Interviews, Volume 2 edited by Charles Arsène-Henry, Shumon Basar, Karen Marta
"A rich trove of international cultural thought spanning the past 100 years. Encyclopedic in scope but intimate in tone, these exchanges provoke unexpected torrents of biographical trajectories, theoretical adventurings and inklings of projects to come."

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Olympia Avenue Student Housing in Pullman, Washington by Mithun.

This week's book review is Radical Games: Popping the Bubble of 1960s' Architecture by Lara Schrijver.

Note: All this week I'm posting my list of holiday gift books, followed by a few days off for an extended Thanksgiving vacation. Regular posts will resume the middle of next week. My next weekly page update will be on 2009.12.07.

Today's archidose #374

THE BURJ, originally uploaded by WOWHYD.

The Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emerites by SOM, 2009.

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Louvre Abu Dhabi

The idea of a Louvre branch on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island is just mind-boggling. When completed in 2013, the museum will present "works drawn from the Louvre and other French museums and from its own permanent collection." But if the numbers in Adran Hornsby's article on the end of "starchitecture" in the latest Hunch are any indication -- approximately half of the $1.4 billion budget is allotted for "Louvre art loans and management and curatorial services" -- the majority of art will be shipped to Abu Dhabi.

But what art? Curators will have to pass on paintings depicting the female nude, a rather large canon of Western art, as Hornsby points out. So when thinking about a project that buys the use of the name Louvre, borrows its art, and is still largely undefined in terms of its contents, it seems appropriate that Jean Nouvel's design is basically a big roof, a dome over a bunch of buildings and outdoor space. The name and the architecture come before the contents, which are seen as just more items of international trade and commerce.


[architect and client under full-scale mock-up]

Yet I have to admit it's a pretty cool roof, one that filters the sun to minimize the heat from it but still celebrate it. The PR text describes it and the mock-up above:

"A key design element of the Louvre Abu Dhabi will be its great dome, 180 meters (almost 600 feet) in diameter, floating above a cluster of buildings and waterways. Perforated by interlaced patterns, the dome will let a diffused light filter magically into the spaces below. The prototype, 6 meters (approximately 20 feet) in diameter, is being used to test the play of light and shadows on the site prior to fabrication of the final structure"

[architect and client inside small-scale model of the Louvre Abu Dhabi]

Well, if the Louvre Abu Dhabi can't display the nude female body, why not giant statues of Jean Nouvel and Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan? Looks good to me.

Today's archidose #373

Here are a couple Friday afternoon facades.


[Beekman Tower in Manhattan by Gehry Partners, under construction | photo by Philippe2032 from Paris]


[Campus Audiovisual in Barcelona, Spain by David Chipperfield Architects, 2008 | photo by jmtp]

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Half Dose #71: Grand Teton National Park Discovery and Visitor Center

Completed in the summer of 2007, the Grand Teton National Park Discovery and Visitor Center -- officially the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center -- by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson still racks up the awards, most recently a 2009 AIA Seattle Honor Award and a 2009 Western Red Cedar Architectural Design award. It's easy to see why in the playful yet restrained design that echoes the surrounding mountains of northwest Wyoming.


[photo by Nic Lehoux]

When I think of a national park visitor center the one overlooking Mount Rushmore, as portrayed in Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest, comes to mind, mainly because I've never been to a national park appointed with such a building. I'm not sure if the cafeteria in the visitor center in the film is modeled on the real thing, but a few things come across in the film set: a spacious interior, a modern/rustic aesthetic, and expansive views of Mount Rushmore. The Grand Teton Visitor Center has all these qualities, though its view is much less focused than the South Dakota landmark.


[photo by Nic Lehoux]

The main parti of the design is a U-shape that creates an intimate outdoor space and opens up a large perimeter of windows to the mountain views to the north. Services and other ancillary spaces are located on the east and west (an auditorium addition is planned for the west side), leaving the central spaces open with generous light from the south-facing courtyard. [floor plan]


[sketch and plan by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson]

Further, the sloping section means the north-facing glazing is taller than the exterior walls facing the courtyard. This may seem at odds with the particularly cold Wyoming winters, but it serves more of a symbolic than a practical purpose: the slope and expanse of glass open up the building towards the mountains while the serrated plan echoes their rugged topography.


[photo by Nic Lehoux | sketch by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson]

In terms of appearances, the building brings to mind the phrase "extreme vernacular," in the sense of "to the extreme!" The Visitor Center recalls traditional wood buildings -- mostly in the courtyard and solid east-west ends -- but it departs sharply from the vernacular by combining the sloping roofs with a highly irregular plan and large expanses of glass.



[photos by Nic Lehoux]

Even the tree-trunk columns and beams depart from any traditional role in the selective use of them: they are not continuous, only used in an upside-down U-formation when needed at varying angles that echo the exterior wall but do not follow them precisely.


[photo by Nic Lehoux]

This last photograph clearly illustrates the expansive views captured with the 30-foot (9-meter) high glass walls. In this large space the Discovery displays get a little lost; I can see people quickly gravitating to the glass walls and benches past them. Remembering North by Northwest, I can see a lovely cafeteria in this space.

Today's archidose #372

Nottingham Contemporary, originally uploaded by stoneroberts.

The Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, England by Caruso St John Architects, opened on November 14, 2009. See many more photos in stoneroberts' flickr set on the building.

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Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Horizontal House in Shiga, Japan by EASTERN design office.

This week's book review is The Atlas of American Architecture: 2000 Years of Architecture, City Planning, Landscape Architecture and Civil Engineering by Tom Martinson.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Build Boston
The 25th year for "the largest regional convention and tradeshow for the design and construction industry." November 18-20.

DesigNYC
A web page with "the mission of improving life in NYC by connecting community and civic groups in need of design services with professional, pro bono design resources." (added to sidebar under architectural links::new york city)

Modern Lines for the Eternal City
Ouroussoff reviews Hadid's latest, MAXXI the new museum of contemporary art in Rome.

RMB City
"An online art community in the virtual world of Second Life...an experiment exploring the creative relationship between real and virtual space, and is a reflection of China's urban and cultural explosion." Created by artist Cao Fei (China Tracy in SL).

Association of Architecture Organizations
"The AAO is made up of a network of like-minded professionals that share information about architecture, its value and benefits to society, and its ever-changing role in the 21st century and beyond." (added to sidebar under architectural links::organizations)

Today's archidose #371

Tokyo Cocoon Tower, originally uploaded by Manuel.A.69.

The Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower in Tokyo, Japan by Kenzo Tange Associates, 2008.

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Literary Dose #41

"Consumption and affluence have increased in many parts of the world, and although they seem to form a baseline of contemporary society, some counter-movements are also visible within consumer society. Not a wholesale refusal but some level of consumer savvy, such as re-use, purchasing sustainable, 'ethically produced' or local goods. Here, the market finds a way to respond. When viewed cynically, that indicates that there is no 'moral' component to the market, but that profit is the only concern. While this may be true, if the public enforces a conscience upon producers by choosing to purchase some goods over other (and price being one of numerous factors in that choice), the results are not necessarily bad. The TV-program Extreme Home Makeover encompasses a number of different features of this debate. On the one hand, it presumes the desirability of an identity expressed in architectural terms (although primarily on the surface more than in the space). Bedrooms are turned into drive-in movie theaters, incorporate pick-up truck beds, have music-themed wall decorations, grass-covered floors -- anything is possible, as long as it is based on a particular hobby or interest of the room's occupant. It also offers a 'quick', and sometimes superficial fix: although wrecking balls and sledgehammers are used extensively, the fundamental structure of the space is not typically transformed. The houses remain recognizable suburban family dwellings. It offers a spectacle: extensive demolition and construction crews are working against the clock with the design team, and the pressure builds as the deadline nears. And it offers the satisfaction of the family returning, who will forget the troubles in their life as they walk through their beautiful new home. We could say: this form of sugar-coated home makeover is no more than a temporary placebo for their problems. Or we could also say: if there is a role for architecture to play in the everyday life of suburban families, this offers a caricature of what architects could be doing -- making the home back into a castle."

- Lara Schrijver from Radical Games: Popping the Bubble of 1960s' Architecture (NAi Publishers, 2009, p. 20)

Today's archidose #370

Here are a couple photos of the Brandhorst Museum in Munich, Germany by sauerbruch hutton, 2008. Photographs are by ludd, who has many more photos of the museum.

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