A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

sacred heart , originally uploaded by stoneroberts . Church of the Sacred Heart in Prague, Czech Republic by Josef Plecnik, 1933 To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Here's a couple of new books and a new online magazine that may be of interest. Design Studio Pedagogy: Horizons for the Future Edited by Ashraf M. Salama & Nicholas Wilkinson The Urban International Press, 2007 This groundbreaking book is a new comprehensive round of debate developed in response to the lack of research on design pedagogy. It provides thoughts, ideas, and experiments of design educators of different generations, different academic backgrounds, who are teaching and conducting research in different cultural contexts. It probes future universal visions within which the needs of future shapers of the built environment can be conceptualized and the design pedagogy that satisfies those needs can be debated. Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture By Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter MIT Press , 2007 We experience spaces not only by seeing but also by listening. We can navigate a room in the dark, and "hear" the emptiness of a hous...

Storefront for Art and Architecture is posting video of this week's Postopolis! event at YouTube, great for those of you interested in this event but not in New York. I'll use this post to collect them, updating them as often as I can, with the latest on the top. Another outlet is this Postopolis! pool on Flickr, and of course there's the pages of the big four . Eric Rodenbeck ( Stamen ): Keller Easterling : Lawrence Weschler : Laura Kurgan : Kevin Slavin : David Benjamin & Soo-in Yang : James Sanders : Julia Solis : Andrew Blum : Jake Barton : Lebbeus Woods : Joel Sanders : Robert Neuwirth : Wes Janz : Monica Hernandez ( Lifeform ): Scott Marble ( Marble Fairbanks ): Mitchell Joachim ( Terreform ): Paul Seletsky : Ada Tolla & Giuseppe Lignano ( LOT-EK ): Matthew Clark ( Ove Arup ): Benjamin Aranda & Chris Lasch ( terraswarm ): Panel on Sustainability: Michael Kubo ( Actar ): Inhabitat 's Pecha Kucha: Subtopia 's Pecha Kucha: Pecha Kucha presentati...

This might be old news to some, but I just heard that "a luxury tower planned for 11th Avenue features an elevator that lifts cars to the apartment owner's floor, where they can be parked near the entry door," this according to the Washington Post . The article describes that this is one among many frills developers are using to snag the wealthy, cash-paying minority, at a time when "the collapse of subprime lenders spurs a housing crisis," and "a record [percentage] of U.S. home loans were entering foreclosure." 200 Eleventh Avenue (website includes a video of how the sky garage system works) is a 56,000 sf luxury condominium tower in Chelsea by Selldorf Architects . Even though, according to the architects, "the base of the building is clad with glazed terra cotta panels, and the tower has a custom-fabricated curvilinear stainless steel 'rain screen' system," it's the relatively invisible sky garages that steal the show. Rend...

Google is taking one more step towards helping people never leave their homes, launching Street View on Google Maps. At first sight it looks, well, awesome. After the 103-second demo you'll know enough to completely waste the rest of the day. There's only a limited number of cities and views, but knowing Google it won't be long before they have the whole world covered. In commemoration of Postopolis ! which started yesterday and runs until Saturday -- and to give you an idea of the views -- here's a street view of Kenmare Avenue and the Storefront for Art and Architecture . (via Bird to the North )

Musuem "Reina Sofia", Madrid , originally uploaded by sinor favela . The Museo Nacional Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain by Jean Nouvel , 2005. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Judging Architectural Value edited by William S. Saunders, published by  University Of Minnesota Press , 2007. ( Amazon ) This fourth issue in the Harvard Design Magazine Readers series concerns itself with "what people value in architecture and how changing values influence opinions about it." It comes at a time when aesthetic and technological concerns have displaced social ones when it comes to creating architecture, though no architect would deny that that course is in the process of reversing. Featuring twelve essays and one interview culled from the pages of Harvard Design Magazine , this issue is framed by Michael Benedikt's lengthy introduction, grounded by his typically matter-of-fact ...

Sachsenhausen Memorial in Oranienburg, Germany, by HG Merz Architekten Museumsgestalter Featured here is a recipient a 2007 International Architecture Award of the Chicago Athaneum Museum of Architecture and Design, the Sachsenhausen Memorial in Oranienburg, Germany, by HG Merz Architekten Museumsgestalter . The memorial is one of many -- the most well-known in recent years being the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe by Peter Eisenman -- where Germany confronts its horrific past and communicates this history to visitors. Unlike the memorial in Berlin, the nearby Sachsenhausen Memorial is situated on the site of a concentration camp, where 200,000 people were imprisoned in the camp between 1936 and 1945. After a brief period where ...

Australia_2006_0425 , originally uploaded by marco 2000 . The Shrine of Remembrance Visitor Centre in Melbourne, Australia by Ashton Raggatt McDougall . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

No, not that Prouvé (not 'til June 5), but some of these . In the process of doing research for a final paper on Paris I came across this Phillips de Pury & Company design auction held a few days ago (May 24) in New York. With Prouvé still on my mind after the last post, I looked around and saw a number of items of his (alone and occasionally with Charlotte Perriand) on the block, as they say. Bookshelf , 1958 by Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé So what were the results ? (PDF link) 7 of 11 lots sold for a grand total of $107,160, or an average of $15,309 per sold item. Not bad. The highest bids went to a set of six "Standard" chairs (ca. 1950) and a large "Compass" desk (1948), each for $28,800. My favorite sold piece (not surprisingly) is the bookshelf above he designed with Perriand. I'll admit I like it, but not $24,000 like it.

gárgolas , originally uploaded by TwOsE . La casa La Ricarda n Barcelona, Spain by Antonio Bonet Castellana, 1959. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from the four projects that will soon bring my year of graduate school to a conclusion, in order to take in the Maison Tropicale by Jean Prouvé, currently sitting next to the Queensborough Bridge in Long Island City. The prefabricated house was designed for mass production in Niger, Africa, but only three were built. This one will be auctioned on June 5 and is expected to nab $6 million, $2 million more than the nearby, landmarked Steinway Mansion . Go figure. The house sits on the future site of Silvercup West, a large-scale, mixed-use development designed by Richard Rogers. Designed for a completely different context -- a completely different continent -- the house's location is a bit disconcerting at first, but after spending a few minutes with the house, it seems to be "at home" in its location, for some reason. Perhaps the bridge is accommodating. Perhaps the house requires something bigger than itself. Whatever the reason, it...

Jacob Javits Plaza: Reconsidering Intentions Written for Professor Setha Low's Ethnography of Place and Space: Landscapes of Fear at The Graduate Center, CUNY May 24, 2007 Jacob Javits Plaza is a public space in Lower Manhattan currently occupied by a series of bright-green, painted benches curling around six large mounds covered with small bushes. It is an eye-catching design that carries with it – unbeknownst to most visitors – the erased history of the site, a long-demolished Richard Serra sculpture called Tilted Arc. The success – or lack thereof – of the current plaza design in turn depends upon the minimalist sculpture that preceded it, as the benches and mounds designed by landscape architect Martha Schwartz are intentionally in total opposition to Serra’s artwork. This paper will attempt to determine the success of Jacob Javits Plaza through the framework of this historical relationship via a historical analysis, a three-part mapping analysis of the space (seating po...

paulo mendes da rocha, sao paulo april 2006 , originally uploaded by seier+seier+seier . The Brazilian Museum of Sculpture in São Paulo, Brazil by Paulo Mendes da Rocha. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Postopolis! First Speaker List , originally uploaded by bldgblog . A few weeks ago I told you to mark yr calendars with Postopolis!, a five-day event (May 29-June 2) at the Storefront for Art and Architecture organized by four bloggers from four cities. Above is the updated speaker and guest list, of which I'm a part. I'll be there on Saturday afternoon during the Blogger Open House and sticking around for the closing party. Hope to see you there! For hi-res (legible) poster click here . Update 05.25: For the schedule of speakers click here , and check back next week as it may change between now and the start of the event.

DSC_2275 , originally uploaded by veneman . Theatre Agora in Lelystad, Netherlands by UN Studio. According to the architects, "The building’s envelope is composed of an overlapping multi-faceted surface that, because of perforations, creates a moiré or kaleidoscopic effect." To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

A couple of weeks ago I featured Self-Sufficient Housing on my weekly page's book review, which included a link to the follow-up competition now under way. To drum a bit more support for the contest, here's some more information (click on image for JUMBO view). The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia directed by Vicente Guallart is issuing an international summons to architects, designers and students from around the world, inviting proposals for the construction of self-sufficient dwellings with an emphasis on exploring people’s capacity to self-construct their own homes. The 2nd Advanced Architecture Contest directed by Lucas Cappelli encourage in this edition of the Self-sufficient housing competition, the design of a “SELF-FAB HOUSE” using industrial or traditional craft-based techniques generated on the basis of the knowledge of the information age, such as digital processes, software-driven manufacturing, skills and know-how in the use of new or establish...

Pamphlet Architecture 27: Tooling by Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch, published by Princeton Architectural Press , 2005. ( Amazon ) Pamphlet Architecture 28: Augmented Landscapes by Mark Smout and Laura Allen , published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 2007. ( Amazon ) The two latest contributions to the successful Pamphlet Architecture books both present young practices with strong contributions to architectural discourse, though each in their own unique ways. Aranda & Lasch 's young practice focuses on algorithms as generators of architectural form and process; in effect they are recreating architectural practice for the computer-minded generations. Smout Allen (PDF link), on the other hand, a...

Casa no Gerês in Gerês, Portugal by Graça Correia Arquitectos The Peneda-Gerês National Park is the oldest protected area in Portugal (founded in 1971) and the only national park in the country. Situated in the far north near the Spanish border, the area receives a lot of rainfall and is therefore dense with rivers, wildlife, and small villages. The construction of six dams in the area of the Park also means the area is a popular tourist spot. According to Wallpaper* the house of Micé and Eduardo Pinto Ferreira started when the couple discovered a 5,000 sm (1-1/4 acre) site by the Cávado River while water skiing in the National Park's waters. They were attracted to the desolate nature of the site -- forested and without neighb...