A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

A couple new competitions that landed in my inbox: Scion Floorplan "A competition, open to the design community, where you are asked to design Scion 's new dealership showroom. The competition is an opportunity for designers to work with real world design constraints, get noticed by judges working in the design industry, be creative, and possibly win $5,000." The World Mammoth Museum A two-stage competition for the International Mammoth and Permafrost Museum in Yakusak, Russia as "part of an ambitious program of creation of a park dedicated to individual and family excursions according to the environmental, ethnography and history themes [and which] lays a great emphasis on the findings of woolly mammoths, frozen more than 10,000 years ago."

Here's a site I learned of in studio yesterday. It's called Project New Orleans . It aims to be a complete archive of all the (student?) projects being done for the reconstruction of New Orleans, from Single Family Housing and Urban Design to Flood and Transportation Infrastructure. Big and small, they have it all...or do they? It appears that many gaps exist on the page as of today (expect some "Not Found" errors on certain links), though this points to the need for people involved to fill in those gaps. So if you've worked on a job for reconstruction in New Orleans, be it listed on the PNO web page or not, contact the site administrators to help them with their ongoing research...whenever they get the contact information up there. If you just want to browse the projects that are posted, here's some of interest: :: ecoMOD2:preHAB by students at the University of Virginia :: URBANbuild by students at Tulane University :: High Density Housing by students at...

Neurosciences Wedges by ken mccown The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, California by Tod Williams and Bille Tsien . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

IMG_1080.JPG by Evan Burr Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

As a way to kick-off the year long South American project in our Urban Design studio, our class watched Werner Herzog's 1981 feature Fitzcarraldo . (Warning: some spoilers follow.) The film tells the story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (called Fitzcarraldo by the locals), an eccentric foreigner in the jungles of early 20th-century Peru determined to bring opera to the frontier town (as he calls it) where he lives. To raise money for the construction of an opera house he sets out to extract rubber from trees in an inaccessible part of the jungle. Rather than battling rapids upstream, his plans involves "coming from the rear" by carrying a steamship over land from one river to another where they almost meet. But the land between the two rivers is extremely steep and requires strength, ingenuity, and time to traverse. Fitzcarraldo is aided by a tribe of indigenous peoples that have other motives for the seemingly impossible feat. Still found at Images Although I hadn't hea...

Zaha Hadid: BMW Central Building edited by Todd Gannon, published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 2006. ( Amazon ) The seventh book in Knowlton School of Architecture's Source Books in Architecture series focuses on the Central Building at BMW's Leipzig Plant by Zaha Hadid . The already immensely popular building can be seen as part of a series of works by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect that also includes the completed Phaeno Science Center and the Contemporary Arts Center now under construction in Rome. Each project continues her exploration of long, linear spaces, though in these we see an overlapping and integration of spaces that's much more fluid and complex...

BMW Plant Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany by Zaha Hadid Architects In early 2002 Zaha Hadid Architects beat out 25 other architects in an invited competition to design BMW's Central Building at its new manufacturing plant in Leipzig , Germany. With its highly-functional brief of offices, meeting rooms, a cafeteria, and public relations facilities, Hadid responded with an adventurous proposal based on fluid lines extending from the building outwards to its context. Her approach knit the various facilities together, in an unconventional design that broke aesthetically from the other shed-like structures. In the words of the architect, "The Central Building is the active nerve-center or brain of the whole factory complex [where] all the threads ...

Inside a rainbow by rutger_spoelstra Offices La Defence in Almere, Netherlands by UN Studio (Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos). To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

One:: Corflot notifies me that their 2006 Design Salary Survey is up and running. Unlike previous years, this survey features an architecture concentration in addition to the other design-oriented areas of concentration. Take it now . Two:: Good Magazine features the article " Chasing Zero " by Ben Jervey, author of The Big Green Apple . In it the author documents his "month-long experiment in extreme urban environmentalism." Three:: My DSL modem arrived in the mail last night! After some initial problems connecting, it's now up and running. What does this mean? Mainly that when I get home tonite I'll send out my backlog of subscription notices to my weekly readers. And after that those notices will return to their regular frequency, once a week.

The Chicago Architectural Club today announces the winner of the 2006 Burnham Prize, Learning from North Lawndale: Defining the Urban Neighborhood in the 21st Century . The Burnham Prize, a three-month fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, will be awarded to Kim Nigro of Chicago Illinois. Ms. Nigro recently received her Masters degree in Architecture from the University of Illinois-Chicago (with a B.Arch from Kansas State University, like me), and is working as a project manager at the Chicago-based architecture firm, Wilkinson-Blender Architects . Her project rethinks the traditional Greystone of North Lawndale with affordability, sustainability, and prefabricated construction as the overriding concepts. An opening reception is tonight, Wednesday September 20, 2006, 5:30 PM at the Chicago Architecture Foundation's Atrium Gallery, 224 S. Michigan in Chicago.

Did Someone Say Participate? An Atlas of Spatial Practice is a book responding to "globalization at work." Editors Markus Miessen and Shumon Basar contend that a "new atlas is being re-drawn for the 21st century" and that their book "re-draws the map of participatory, spatial practice that is a function of such shifts." The thick and heavily illustrated book has the requisite eye candy (check out the book's web page for some sneaks) set within a highly theoretical and potentially controversial topic, namely the architect's role in globalization.

This last Sunday was my first "day off" since Labor Day and the start of Urban Design studio. Rather than relaxing at home, my wife and I took the train into Manhattan and walked around the Upper West Side and Central Park, two beautiful areas of the city. Here's some pictures that I've posted on Flickr . The Lotus Garden , a hidden gem of a garden on the roof of a parking garage. It takes a key to gain entry, except on Sunday afternoon. I'm happy to say I have one now and can go there and relax whenever I feel like it. A few more pics of the garden here . Pomander Walk, a group of small, London-esque buildings done in 1921. They are now dwarfed by their neighbors, making their small size seem even smaller. Symphony Space by Polshek Partnership. Entry detail. The recently-completed Gaynor School by Rogers Marvel Architects . View of Midtown East skyscrapers from Central Park.

Rotating its way to the sky by bjorn_cph Santiago Calatrava 's Turning Torso tower in Malmo, Sweden. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Cisar reports about the unveiling of a tower for Roche, a health-care company, by Herzog & de Meuron. If built, the tower would be located in Basel and would be Switzerland's tallest building. Estimated completion is 2011. This design follows from the recent trend of torquing, twisting, and spiraling towers, particularly those of Santiago Calatrava. Here, the result is not so much mathematical in nature but in response to zoning requirements, program, organization, and a series of voids that traverse the tower, per this diagram . In some ways, this trend is born from the attempt to distinguish certain designs from others, but the more they are created the more they tend to resemble each other. More photos are available in scisar's flickr set on HdM. (via Archinect )

Beverly Skyline Residence in Austin, Texas by Bercy Chen Studio Bercy Chen Studio 's design of the 2,800 s.f. Beverly Skyline Residence is a good example of the firm's philosophy of adopting various vernacular cultures to contemporary conditions. This philosophy most likely springs from the partner's backgrounds, as Bercy is from Belgium as Chen is from Taiwain. They met during school at the University of Texas in Austin, where they are now based. For the Skyline Residence, the architects combine a number of traditional materials (glass block, wood, concrete, steel, and flat glass) in an unconventional manner to create something altogether unique. Numerous touches reinforce this interpretation. For example, the sloping roof, while being a tr...

FYI, readers: After 8 months and 88 posts the Michielangelo blog moves to a new site: www.eikongraphia.com . The name "Eikongraphia" is derived from the original Greek word for Iconography. The new Eikongraphia blog has some important new features: :: The iconography database is easily accessible by a new interface that presents all filed projects by Theme and within a Top 10 chart . :: The Narrative gives an insight in the theoretical background of iconography. :: The Article that Michiel wrote in advance of the Projective Landscape Conference. This change has been made in my sidebar. Thanks for the update, Michiel.

DSC02595 by sterne_nkr707 WoZoCo's Apartments in Amsterdam by MVRDV . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

New York-based architect Margaret Helfland writes a two-part coverage of the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale over at ArchNewsNow . One of my professors, Grahame Shane, called the show superficial but with some interesting exhibitions, though Helfland seems to be taken with the show, calling it "a call-to-arms for advocacy and engagement in the political process." Part one here and part two here .

DSCF1895.JPG by schopaia Rock Valley College Starlight Theatre in Rockford, Illinois by Studio Gang/O'Donnell (now Studio Gang ). Check out schopaia's extensive Flickr set on the Theatre. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Having my fourth of four classes start yesterday, I thought I would briefly describe each of them for those interested. For those who haven't been "following" this page, I'm talking about the Urban Design Program (PDF link) at City College (part of CUNY). The department is headed by Michael Sorkin and is two semesters in length. Urban Design Studio Unlike previous years (since the institution of the studio component in 2000) where each semester focused on a separate project -- one ideal and hypothetical, the other in NYC -- our studio has one project for the whole year. It is the design of a self-sufficient town in South America. Also, unlike previous years, this project is more practical, in that we'll work with the town (in conjunction with a local university) with the intention of implementation of the plan in some form, probably over time long after the studio's completion. It's highly ambitious and exciting for what's a relatively short period ...

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, published by  North Point Press, 2002. ( Amazon ) Picking up this environmental treatise on manufacturing goods, one notices something different about the physical book itself: the pages lack a familiar texture, grain, even sound as one flips through them. This difference comes from the fact the pages aren't paper -- derived from trees or recycled from other paper -- but synthetic, a plastic. While this might seem to go against common sense (surely paper made from renewable trees or recycled paper is better for the environment than man-made plastic?), it is just one of the many conventional wisdoms that the authors -- McDonough ...

Garden of Planes in Richmond, Virginia by Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect The appeal of Italy is undeniable, to those who live there, have visited, or even those that have only seen it in pictures. The intimate settings of places like Tuscany and Umbria and the rich tradition of man interacting with nature, be it at the scale of agriculture or a garden, leave impressions on the mind that stays with them long after returning home. These impressions might just be what led Charles and Carter McDowell to create their very own Italian terraced garden in a courtyard of their Richmond, Virginia home. Landscape architect Gregg Bleam approached the project, based on the final product, with both a literal and an interpretive eye. In the former vein, grape vines ...

Denver Civic Center Masterplan by c.boschen Daniel Libeskind's proposal for a revamped Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose