A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

For advertising agency Mother, Clive Wilkinson renovated " Derwent Valley's Tea Building in Shoreditch, a burgeoning arts community on the fringes of the City of London." Since Mother's inception in 1996, their employees have worked around a communal table. As the company grew, so did the table, until now the concrete table in their new digs accommodates 200 and resembles an interior racetrack, a la Fiat's rooftop track in Turin, Italy. To connect the different floors, stairs interrupt the table, blurring the line between table and floor. At some points one is the extension of the other, making for quite the impression on potential clients. Links: :: Mother, London :: Clive Wilkinson :: Interior Design :: Frame Magazine

I'm coming a bit late to this issue, but just today I saw images of the draft master plan for Navy Pier. According to Hello Beautiful! - who has a large chunk of its latest show (worth a listen) devoted to this plan - the city of Chicago, asked a Canadian company specializing in theme and water parks to propose a new design to bring Navy Pier into the future. Their suggestions include a floating hotel, an indoor water park, and a monorail stretching the length of the pier. Here's Forrec's imagery: Said monorail bisecting the existing mall/winter garden space. Forrec's proposal to bring Navy Pier into the future seems to resemble an old-fashioned postcard, planes and all. The inside water park to keep tourists off the streets of Chicago. For further amusement, read Blair Kamin's biting critique of the plan.

This weekend as I traded in some books at a used bookstore in my neighborhood* I saw the distinctive binding of Diller + Scofidio's Flesh . If you're not familiar with the book, the front cover is a right butt cheek (Diller's?) and the back cover is a left butt cheek (Scofidio's?), making the binding, yep, the butt crack. Back and front covers sans crack binding Seeing this crack peering at me at the very back of the store, it reminded me of a time when I worked in a bookstore in college. Although I worked there less than a year, I was entrusted with some money every month to stock the store with architecture books, something apparently still going strong . At the time I dug (and still do) D+S, so it was an easy choice to order Flesh: Architectural Probes (its full title). Well, the owner saw the binding and stubbornly refused to put it on the shelf, instead keeping it out of sight behind the counter and making it rather difficult to sell. A few weeks later or ...

Every once in a while a building comes along that fulfills your faith that architecture can be a noble profession... So gushes Blair Kamin in a review where he heaps praise upon Thom Mayne's soon-to-be-opened design for the Campus Recreation Center at the University of Cincinnati. These photos from a tour of the center show the all-too-familiar dynamism of Mayne's architecture. What appeals to Kamin (and me) is the urban qualities of the architecture, not a stand-alone building but an assemblage of the Rec Center as well as the Tangeman University Center by Gwathmey Siegel and the Steger Student Life Center by Moore Ruble Yudell . Common geometries (curves) and common materials (zinc and other metals) tie the buildings together, though it's the car-free Main Street that links them together spatially. (via Archinect )

Living Big in Small Apartments , by James Grayson Trulove. ( Amazon ) As can be expected with a book of this name, New York is the setting for these architectural solutions that economize on small spaces. Even though the eighteen projects presented have a variety of sizes, plans, and building types (lofts, new condos, renovations, etc), some design solutions span across them. One is transparent and translucent glass, which make rooms appear larger and their edges softer than solid walls. Second, sliding panels appear in many of the apartments, allowing for flexible arrangements and shifts in size and scale of rooms. Third, built in storage and walls that do double duty as storage are a...

Magritte's in Tokyo, Japan by Atelier Tekuto Atelier Tekuto is a prolific architectural studio in Tokyo that's able to produce single-family house design at the rate of at least one per month. If that weren't enough, each house is a distinct design, sometimes fitting into strains (Skin-House Project, PC Project, etc) but each standing out on their own. As an illustration, Skin-House #6 is a cube completely wrapped in glass block while Skin-House #7 is an extremely narrow and long pointed space clad in polycarbonate with the humorous moniker Lucky Drops. This house - known as Magritte's and #6 in the PC-Project - is notable for its brutal concrete enclosure and interior. This is clearly not a house for the faint of...

Rob decided to pass along some annoyance , though I rather like this sorta thing. So here goes: Four jobs I've had: 1. Caddy 2. Vegetable preparer (I washed lettuce in a basin full of cold, cold H20) 3. Dishwasher 4. Bookstore clerk Four films I can watch repeatedly: 1. Groundhog Day (no joke) 2. Being John Malkovich 3. School of Rock (formerly Dazed & Confused) 4. Taxi Driver Four places I've lived: 1. Northbrook 2. Manhattan (The Little Apple) 3. Castiglion Fiorentino 4. Chicago (4 places in the city, coincidentially...wait. 5 actually) Four television programs I like to watch: 1. The Simpsons 2. Lost 3. This Old House 4. Poirot Mysteries (on dvd) Four places I've been to on vacation: 1. Italy 2. Japan 3. Wales 4. New York City Four of my favorite dishes: 1. Grilled Cheese 2. Pancakes 3. Pesto 4. A good cheeseburger Four websites I visit daily: 1. Bloglines (most of my "browsing" these days) 2. Archinect 3. The Archi-Tourist (Another plug for my latest u...

An interesting building and installation over at the always-reliable we-make-money-not-art : A ball gown made of steel A small apartment building in The Hague by Archipelontwerpers reminiscent of Frank Gehry's " Fred and Ginger " building in Prague. Dark places A badass looking installation for the Dark Places exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art by Servo , like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Glancing around CAF's Exhibitions page , I found a link to the web page competition: public process for public architecture , which is currently on display in the Cityspace Gallery. Curated by Edward Keegan, "the exhibition will introduce the general public to the competition process for selecting the architect or the design of a building," specifically American buildings. The case studies include: :: The White House (1792) :: Tribune Tower (1922) :: Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1980) :: Harold Washington Library (1988) :: World Trade Center (2002-present) :: Freedom Museum (2005-present) The extremely thorough and graphic-heavy site* should keep you busy for a while, especially with the local Freedom Museum (housed in the 1922 Tribune competition building), set to open this spring. *Inexplicably, the exhibition is hosted on the web site of Cynthia Plaster Caster , an artist who "began making plaster casts of rock stars' erect penises in 1968...[and] in 2000...

The Chicago Tribune posts graphics and images (registration req'd) for the Wrigley Field bleachers renovation, part of a larger plan that also includes a parking garage, restaurants and retail. For the passer-by, the most notable change will be the walkway will cantilever over the sidewalk. Granted this ain't exciting architecture, but it's been a heated debate... ...because of these neighbors and their right to peer into Wrigley Field during games, charging admission and receiving $$ that might otherwise go to the Cubs (and its parent, the Chicago Tribune). Notice the construction at the bottom of the image.

Last April I posted about an ongoing project Initiated by A. Laurie Palmer with support from Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago called Notions of Expenditure , a "request for speculative proposals to re-design exercise equipment to generate and store energy; and/or to retrofit gyms to function as local power sources linked to the grid." At the time there were only two projects uploaded, but now there's close to twenty, worthy of an updated post here. Also, the comments to my earlier post have recently attracted people undertaking similar endeavors who have questions I unfortunately can't answer. So look those over, and if you can help them out, please do.

My friend Brandon brought this small building to my attention, and now I'm passing it along to you, dear readers. Winner of a 2005 AR Award for Emerging Architecture , this showroom by Stuttgart-based FNP Architekten is a renovation of a pigsty, the humorous relationship between these two uses apparent in the project's parenthetical naming ( saustall =pigsty; schaustall =showroom). To deal with the crumbling 18th-century structure, the architects created a "house within a house", a wood container that fit within the old stone walls but without touching them. A new roof protects old and new from the elements. The awards jury mentions that the existing windows now look fashionably random, even though they are derived from the building's original function, a decidedly humorous take on the renovation. In the end, the project is more dignified than humorous, the architects able to extend the life of an old building through simple yet clever means. Links: :: FNP Archite...

Commodification and Spectacle in Architecture edited by William S. Saunders, published by University of Minnesota Press , 2005. ( Amazon ) Certainly living needs, as opposed to desires, demand to be met but surely not in such a way as to ruin the world for generations yet unborn. Thus ends Kenneth Frampton's introduction to a collection of essays previously published in Harvard Design Magazine . But while Frampton clearly expresses the need to balance capitalism with sustainable foresight, it's a point of view that's altogether missing from an otherwise strong collection of critical writing. The targets of the ten essays range from the obvious (Las Vegas, Michael Graves @ Target ) to the less so (a villa by OMA). Not ...

Fujy House in Madrid, Spain by Fujy Sustainable Architects The following text and images are courtesy Fujy Sustainable Architects of Barcelona. Fujy, directed by Italian architect Luca Lancini, is dedicated exclusively to sustainable architecture and applying an articulated vision of sustainability to the building industry. Besides the subject of planning energetically efficient buildings with low environmental impact, Fujy introduces one virtuous dynamic in the construction industry: choosing partners concerned in environmental sustainability. The project demands environmental certificates now available in order to improve the productive chain and lower the impact on nature. Moreover a powerful campaign of environmental awareness has been planned, in ...

I'm not talking about jeans , I'm talking about buildings. In places like Chicago, tall buildings tend to get all the press. But not all sites are suitable for 30+ story condo and office towers — especially with the city's parking requirements — so the occasional low-rise building rises with a bit of flair or at least some design sense. The best the city has seen lately is definitely Ralph Johnson's Contemporaine in River North. But has that design spawned more quality output? Let's look at some recent and under-construction buildings and see. 630 North Franklin This eleven-story residential building in River North is by the same developer as the Contemporaine, CMK Companies . Credited to both Brininstool + Lynch and Perkins + Will on the Emporis web site , the design is more flat and restrained than the Contemporaine. Half the residences face the street, while the other half face the back alley. The only corner units face the elevated tracks, a somewhat un...

As you can see from my paltry posts lately, this week has been busy. To partially make up for this, I've provided some links below that will hopefully be of interest and are worth a look and/or a read. :: A bookstore organized by color ( via ) :: Hidden Landmarks of Manhattan :: Defying Death (on Arakawa) :: Scandal Becomes Her :: Green Yale Degree :: Cardinals Stadium (by Peter Eisenman, below) :: Two films to see :: Map of World Heritage Properties :: The Bird Man :: Renzo Piano Interview :: Now you see it... As always, many links via .

Once again Taschen goes over the top, this time with Richard Meier . This Artist's Limited Edition (100 copies worldwide, including a signed and numbered print) is a steal at only $1500...well, it's a steal compared to a multi-million dollar condo in one of his Perry Street towers . (Thanks again to Jeff S. for feeding me the good stuff)

Taschen is set to publish four books in its Contemporary Architecture by Country series: Switzerland , Japan , Netherlands , and United Kingdom in April. Like the publisher's other architecture titles, such as the Architecture Now! series, these promise to be full of delectable eye candy. (via dezain )

In the Sun-Times today, David Roeder has a good piece about the GSA's interest in the Berghoff property, bringing into question the circumstances behind the family's closing of the restaurant (set for February 28). Beyond that unofficial speculation, the article tries to illuminate the city's landmark policy, which rated close to 10,000 buildings in the city about a decade ago (transcribed below). Note: these ratings are separate from official Chicago landmarks . WHAT COLOR IS A SHADOW LANDMARK? The City of Chicago developed a kind of shadow landmark system by color-coding buildings that might have architectural or historic importance. A shadow designation is easier to impose than official landmark status. The highest ratings are red and orange. Any attempt to demolish a red- or orange-rated building triggers a 90-day hold on permits while city employees determine whether the property should be saved. RED BUILDINGS Red buildings have the highest ratings. There are 171 red...

Core77 reports that " The School of the Art Institute of Chicago ...is adding three new graduate programs in Fall '06: Architecture , Interior Architecture , and Designed Objects ." (Another new degree the school will also be offering is a Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies .) Tonight from 6-9pm, the school is hosting a chat specific to the design programs mentioned above. More information here .

Seven Interviews with Tadao Ando , by Michael Auping. ( Amazon ) Auping, the chief curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, spoke with the architect of the institution's new home on seven occasions, when Ando was in town for design meetings and later construction visits. Given Auping's role and his relative lack of experience about architecture and its history, his questions tend to be specifically about the museum in Texas or generally about architecture and Ando's life. This leads to the reader learning a great deal about Ando and his views on architecture. His atypical education (once a semi-professional boxer, he traveled to Europe and other parts of Asia in lieu of a standard architectural ...

Ecologic Farm in Haren, Netherlands by Onix Built on the concrete foundation of a former sewage plant, this biological farm in Haren, Netherlands by Onix may look typical from certain views but it is far from typical. Rather, it is a contemporary design of a traditional building type infused with additional uses beyond those related to farming. In addition to the specific farming functions, this program also includes a teahouse, a shop, an educational space, a children's farm; in effect it becomes an ecological farm with a community focus. Each programmatic element has its own spatial requirement, both in plan and in section. Grouping certain pieces together - both horizontally and vertically - a variegated "skyline" was created. ...

The Modern List is an impressive new site "for the design conscious interested in experiencing modern architecture, design, art, food and culture." At the moment, only Manhattan and Seattle are available, though more are in the works, including Chicago.

A couple recent posts indicate a trend, or backlash, against anti-sprawl advocates and towards pro-sprawl positions that see the phenomenon as not only a good thing, but something natural and unavoidable, a trend that finds its greatest voice in Robert Bruegmann's Sprawl . First, Safety Neal posts on a Joel Kotkin piece in the Wall Street Journal. The author specifically discusses sprawl in Portland, Oregon, a city that enacted legislation to halt sprawl. Apparently it backfired in Portland by pushing development even further out from the city. Kotkin goes on to quote statistics that confirm what pretty much everybody knows: people like the suburbs. Basically Kotkin indicates that sprawl continues unabated, despite widespread criticism of it and legislation against it. Neal asserts "our current patterns of consumption and overpopulation cannot continue unabated," even though "we will continue to see the growth of suburbia into farmland, wetlands, and wilderness area...

The sun finally made an appearance in Chicago today. The scenic view out my living room window.