A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Here's a rundown of my ten favorite projects ( out of 49 ) featured on my weekly page in 2007, in order of their appearance. Tietgen Residence Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark by Lundgaard & Tranberg Nazarí Wall Intervention in Granada, Spain by Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas Christ Church Tower in London, England by Boyarsky Murphy Architects Housing at Westport , County Mayo, Ireland by Richard Murphy Architects & Taylor Architects Handmade School in Rudrapur, Bangladesh by Roswag & Jankowski and Anna F. Heringer Casa no Gerês in Gerês, Portugal by Graça Correia Arquitectos Centro das Artes | Casa das Mudas in Calheta, Madeira by Paulo David Instituto Rafael Arozarena in La Orotava, Tenerife by AMP Arquitectos Nebesa Mountain Retreat in Livek, Slovenia by REAL Engineering Termas Géometricas in Villarrica, Chile by Germán del Sol While I'm at it, here's my ten favorite books ( out of 46 ) featured on my weekly page in 2007, in order of appearance. Keep in mi...

The Landscape Urbanism Reader edited by Charles Waldheim. ( Amazon ) Large Parks edited by Julia Czerniak and George Hargreaves. ( Amazon ) As issues of environmental degradation, urban overcrowding, and other global concerns push landscape architecture and the more recent field of landscape urbanism into the spotlight, books responding to the landscape on the large scale are more and more common. These two books by Princeton Architectural Press collect essays and projects on the field of landscape urbanism and the phenomenon of large parks, just two aspects of how designers are approaching the shaping of brownfields, suburbia, and other "leftover" sights.   Landscape urbani...

Ann Demeulemeester Shop in Seoul, South Korea by Mass Studies Ann Demeulemeester is a Belgian fashion designer with a strong Asian presence. Stores in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul are the only ones outside her native Antwerp. The latest shop in Seoul by Mass Studies is, according to the architects, "not meant to be just another ‘object’ to be experienced externally, but rather as a synthetic organism of nature and artifice." While small in stature, and compatible in scale to its neighbors in Seoul’s Gangnam district , the building stands out with its living façade, composed of a "geotextile planted with a herbaceous perennial." Selective openings announce the first floor boutique (the project's main space), upper-floor restaurant, and a subterranean retail space. The first and last are indic...

Back in April 2006 I posted a panorama of a small area in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood undergoing a bit of a high rise building binge. About a year and a half later -- while in town on a vacation over Thanksgiving -- the shifting skyline was starting to take shape, with cranes giving way to glassy exterior walls and approximately 1,000 residential units. To reiterate from the earlier post, the five new condo towers include (from E-W; L-R in the large photo ): :: Avenue East by Built Form :: 535 North St. Clair by Brininstool + Lynch :: 600 North Fairbanks by Helmut Jahn :: Cityfront Plaza by DeStefano + Partners :: The Streeter (rentals) by Solomon Cordwell Buenz This view from the raised plaza adjacent to NBC Tower will be further crowded by the coming phases of Cityfront Plaza, which will finally steal the sunlight and views the Grand Ohio condos have been blessed with all these years. And interestingly, even though the Cor-Ten and gold-tinted glass Time...

MUBE_SNPBL_001 , originally uploaded by monarqui . Brazilian Museum of Sculpture in São Paulo, Brazil by Paulo Mendes da Rocha. (1988) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Snowflakes , originally uploaded by archidose . Posts will resume next weekend.

" How would you ask today's social question? What are in your opinion the next steps that have to be taken in order to develop a more convincing idea of sustainability? I am a researcher, not an idealogue, and I never say what must be done. However, I can see that people all over the world are increasingly critical of a civilization that has extraordinary technological and cultural potential and yet sees the persistence of humankind, together with increasing inequality, and dangerous environmental deterioration that may threaten the survival of our species (not of the planet, of us in the planet). In this sense the global movement against corporate globalization has been an important voice to activate a necessary debate about our current model of growth and social organization. Architects and planners, as experts in spatial forms of livelihood, have a major role in influencing the debate. This is indeed a political debate, but can be and must be informed by analysis and altern...

L1050734 , originally uploaded by atelier_db . Since it's been so long since I've featured a urinal on this page, here's the men's room at d'arc club in Timisoara, Romania; designer unknown. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

I saw this massive book (14x11x3 inches @ 13.7 pounds)while doing a little Xmas shopping at a local bookstore. Published by little know German publisher (to me) Verlagshaus Braun , 1000x European Architecture is a Phaidon Atlas -esque resource with an obvious focus on Europe that presents each of the 1,000 projects on a single spread with a few images and a brief description. According to the publisher: Projects from all parts of the continent have been selected to create a representative overview of the latest European architecture. The great variety of European architecture is guaranteed because there is only one project presented per architect – with high-quality pictures and plans. Particular emphasis has been placed on making sure that many small creative and surprising buildings are presented alongside much-quoted “musts”.

Lucy Daniels Foundation and Preschool - North Elevation , originally uploaded by Miller Taylor . Lucy Daniels Foundation and Preschool in Cary, North Carolina by Clark and Menefee, 1992. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

America Town: Building the Outposts of Empire by Mark L. Gillem, published by University of Minnesota Press , 2007. ( Amazon ) While the imperialist motives and actions of the United States are heavily researched, watched, and disseminated, the exportation of America's suburban sprawl to foreign soil via the construction and planning of military bases is devoid of the attention it deserves. The subject deals not only with the physical make-up of the housing, retail, and other subsidiary functions servicing the military personnel and their families, but also with the relationship between the United States and the foreign country, the host. Mark Gillem -- and architect, planner, professor, and former U.S. Ai...

Londres-Villaroel Building Complex in Barcelona, Spain by Coll-Leclerc Arquitectos In this competition-winning project located in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Coll-Leclerc Arquitectos opted for a typology not used often in the district: the "Mediterraneo" buildings of the early 20th-century, avant-garde Catalan architect Antonio Bonet. The architects describe his designs as exploring "the standardization of accidents," or veering from the regular grid system of the district to incorporate alleys and other atypical features, something the architects took to heart in their design of the mixed-use project. Situated at the corner of Londres and Villaroel -- a corner of the typically chamfered Barcelona variety -- the project reveals itself at this juncture. Instead of pr...

Last week on my weekly page I featured four hotels , one of them by Juli Capella, aka Capella Garcia Arquitectura . From one look at the intro to the Barcelona-based office's web page -- a man (Juli?) waving at the viewer and watching a snail slither across the screen -- it's apparent the group has a good sense of humor. The office portrait definitely reinforces this characteristic: Indicating that the studio "was founded at the end of last century but it will probably not outlast this one," this humor is obviously aligned with a tendency to not take themselves too seriously. But if one thinks that this attitude means their buildings do the same, then one will surely be disappointed. When they further say that they hope some of their projects will outlast this century "with dignity," it's clear that the humor and informality does not inform the building designs directly but perhaps makes the difficult process of architecture more enjoyable, or at least m...

Some items of note: :: AIA Announces Awards—Piano Wins Gold - Renzo, that is. :: Archinect Travels - The first episode of a well made video podcast. :: CCTV Building Development Construction - Looks like the two sides are now "kissing." :: Save the Laminata House - A previous " half dose " faces an uncertain future.

Today is Brazilian architect Oscar Neimeyer's 100th birthday. This marker is extra-extraordinary as Neimeyer continues to practice architecture, something that might not come as a surprise to fellow architects but is nevertheless amazing. Projects include a new city in Algiers on the drawing board and a cultural center for Avila, Spain. Sao Paulo marks his birthday with a giant 100 hanging on the Copan building that he designed. Images from BBC NEWS He plans to celebrate his birthday Saturday with a small party at his home for friends and family which includes his daughter Anna Maria Niemeyer, five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and four great-great-granchildren. [ link ] Be sure to listen to Neimeyer on BBC's Radio 4 for a piece with Jonathan Glancey. (Thanks to seier+seier+seier for the head's up.)

L1030425 , originally uploaded by atelier_db . Barcelona Auditorium (1999) in Barcelona, Spain by Rafael Moneo. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

New York Magazine features its top ten pieces of architecture in New York (and Connecticut) from 2007. Number one is the building of the moment, the New Museum. The rest of Justin Davidson 's list is a bit predictable, but it does illustrate the quality and breadth of buildings, interiors, projects, and exhibitions produced in and for the city and why the place is appealing for residents and visitors alike. "Green roofs sprouted in the South Bronx, the Glass House opened wide, bus shelters got chic, Frank Gehry finally built something in New York, Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs kissed and made up (after a fashion), and a gauzy aluminum museum rose shimmering over the Bowery." [ link ]

"[Alvar] Aalto's prize-winning entry for the Finnish Pavilion in the Paris World Exhibition of 1937 was a rhetorical display of different techniques of timber construction, each expressing certain characteristics of wood...The importance of the Finnish Pavilion lay in its demonstration of Aalto's site-planning principles, wherein the plan of the building is invariably separated into two distinct elements, and the space between them being articulated as a space for human appearance, as we will find later not only in the Paris pavilion and Villa Mairea but also in the brick-clad Synatsalo Town Hall dating from 1949." "Aalto was categorically opposed to treating the topography surrounding a building in a decorative manner. He thought that the natural movement of people in and around a building should be exploited as the primary means for shaping the site...Aalto wrote: One of the most difficult architectural problems is the shaping of the building's surroundings...

Howeler Yoon Hover 01 , originally uploaded by ehoweler . Hover installation (2007) in New Orleans by Howeler + Yoon Architecture . See more pics in ehoweler's flickr set . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

In many large cities hotels are not only places to stay, but also places to eat, drink, and even be seen. Q! in Berlin, Germany features a Hadid-esque design by Graft , where floors, walls, and ceiling of the renovation flow seamlessly into each other, a design not only eye-catching but obviously in tune with larger trends in architecture and interior design. This aesthetic starts in the lobby and extends even to the sinuous furnishings, though it's the rooms, and their integration of surfaces, lightings, and furnishings, where the skills of the architects are most apparent. Also in Europe is the Hotel Omm , located in the equally hip metropolis of Barcelona. Designed by Juli Capella and located in the city ...