A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Many book series that try to boil down complex ideas, facts, and knowledge into slim volumes end up calling the reader a beginner, a dummy, or worse, an idiot. Well, the fine folks at Routledge call their audience for these books just what they are: architects; as well as what they're apparently not: thinkers. To remedy this the Thinkers for Architects Series "offers quick, clear and accurate introductions to key thinkers who have written about architecture and whose work can yield insights for designers." At first blush the series sounds 15 or 30 years late, as the time of basing architectural designs and their rationale on philosophy, critical theory and other esoteric texts pretty much ended when Peter Eisenman put down Derrida and picked up a laptop. Certainly form has reinvigorated much of architectural practice, but in a way that architecture can be seen as a hollow shell of its former self. Ideas in architecture need to go beyond the merely formal and computer-aid...

From a press release that landed in my inbox: WHAT IS GREEN ARCHITECTURE? A Talk by Jürgen Mayer H. Lecture + Dialog 02/07/08 7:00pm Goethe-Institut New York 1014 Fifth Avenue@83rd Street New York, NY 10028 English Free admission. No reservations required. 212-439-8700 This lecture and dialog is the first of four planned in the What Is Green Architecture? series, curated by MoMA's Andres Lepik, who also moderates the events. The following three conversations are Matthias Schuler on April 1, Christoph Ingenhoven on May 19, and Matthias Sauerbruch on June 16. Furthermore, "Inspiration for What Is Green Architecture? stems partly from the forward-thinking desire of the Goethe-Institut New York to transform its landmark Beaux-Arts townhouse on Fifth Avenue into a showcase of sustainable design and interior architecture." These and other programs will influence the "greening" of their home over the next couple years. Sounds like a thoughtful and unique w...

, originally uploaded by m_granados . CaixaForum Madrid in Madrid, Spain by Herzog & de Meuron (2008), with a "vertical garden" by Patrick Blanc . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

The Rise of the Network Society by Manuel Castells, published by Wiley-Blackwell, 2000. ( Amazon ) Multi-National City: Architectural Itineraries by Reinhold Martin and Kadambari Baxi, published by Actar , 2007. ( Amazon ) The term network expresses an interconnectedness created and furthered by the proliferation of technologies like telecommunications and computers. This complex idea seems to hover on the surface of the physical world, as bytes move across wireless, cable, and phone lines, culminating in what is popularly known as the Information Age. But networks -- be they financial, computer, or the flow of goods and services -- are physical. They not only inhabit physical space, they shape it and the social relationships ...

Suburban Intervention in Los Angeles, California by Oyler Wu Collaborative The following text and images are courtesy Oyler Wu Collaborative . Located approximately 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, this backyard intervention sits within a community of traditional suburban homes. Some of our initial interests grew out of looking to the existing home for points of interest, not as a vernacular, but rather as a way of rethinking things such as conventional wood-frame construction, pitched roofs, drainage systems, and shading devices. Built by our office over the course of a couple of months, the project is the result of a careful negotiation between a range of different programmatic, environmental, and tectonic conditions. One major objective of the project was to raise a portion of the roof significantly for an outdoor dining area, while still providing the necessary drainage and shade. As we increased the height of that section o...

While reading a book devoted to Tadao Ando's houses and housing, I was pleasantly surprised to see an unfamiliar project. In addition to being fresh (to me), it's also in Manhattan. Ando followers are probably familiar with his unbuilt design for a penthouse from about ten years ago, as well as his interior design for Morimoto 's home under the High Line, but if this project -- affectionately called the Crevice House, due to its small lot, tall neighbors, and zoning restrictions -- is built it will be Ando's first building in New York City. [Click image for larger view] Unfortunately the book does not provide more text or images than the spread above, though I'll be sure to keep my eyes and ears open for more in the future.

Flipping through a lifestyle magazine in a waiting room last week, I couldn't help but stop my speedy flip through the rag on an ad for Blackberry featuring Asymptote 's Lise Anne Couture. While easily more photogenic than co-principal Hani Rashid , nevertheless I was quite shocked to see an architect hawking expensive mobile electronics. I was also surprised that a more well-known architect didn't get the job. But when one pictures the most famous woman architect, Zaha Hadid , it's easy to see the shallow, surface-oriented minds of the advertisers easily making that decision, particularly with the fact that advertising isn't limited to the page these days, but also includes the requisite sound + video .

On January 23, "to reinforce the gallery’s ongoing commitment to generate dialogue and collaboration across geographic, ideological and disciplinary boundaries," the Storefront for Art and Architecture opened a "curated micro-bookshop ." The store is comprised of three sections: books selected by key figures in the Storefront's past and present, an artists' book series published by Centre for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu in Japan, and books and other material related to exhibitions held at the space. The store is added to my NYC Bookstores post, accessible via the sidebar under "series". (via Dwell Blog )

In a post at Blog Like You Give a Damn on Kowloon Walled City -- one of the most amazing self-generating entities I've witnessed via photographs and video -- commenter fred shares a reference to Baraka , a 1992 film by Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson with scenes of the walled city. [Kowloon Walled City | image source ] The generous stills on this web site include a few images of the physical conglomeration that made up the walled city, illustrating its proximity to the now-demolished-just-like-the-walled-city Kai Tak Airport. [Kowloon Walled City | image source ] Kowloon Walled City was demolished in 1993 for a number of reasons, so only images such as these are what survive for those, like me, fascinated by the place but never to visit it. [Kowloon Walled City | image source ] Glancing at some of the other stills on the film's web site, Baraka clearly resembles another non-narrative film devoted to presenting imagery of the world's populations and their respective environ...

BCN , originally uploaded by Sergio S. Pereira . The Forum Building in Barcelona, Spain by Herzog & de Meuron (2004). To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

With all the hoopla last week around Olafur Eliasson's "four man-made waterfalls , 90 to 120 feet high, [that] will punctuate New York’s waterfront for three months starting in mid-July," it seemed like an appropriate time to look at the Icelandic artists other environmental installations. [photograph by Robert McLeod | image source ] One project -- rather far removed from both the East River in geography and scale -- that stands out is this courtyard "lining" for a house/gallery by Tadao Ando in Tokyo. [image source ] With an obvious penchant for collecting art, client Takeo Obayashi named the place Yu-un, a combination of the Japanese characters for wonder and hermitage. It is a name that Ando says has quite a deep meaning, as can be expected. [photograph by Robert McLeod | image source ] Ando's signature spare, concrete-and-glass spaces are punctuated in the middle of the N-shaped plan by Eliasson's 6,800+ platinum-glazed ceramic tiles, their surfaces...

more circles , originally uploaded by andrewpaulcarr . The underbelly of the Palestra office building in London by SMC Alsop (2006). To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Red Location Museum in Port Elizabeth, South Africa by Noero Wolff Architects It would be trite to point out that site and context are important when designing a building, but to say that the historical context of a place is also important is less obvious. When confronted with the site and a program of the Red Location Museum in Port Elizabeth (part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality ), South Africa, dealing with history is unavoidable. Noero Wolff Architects ' approach to the design of a modern museum located in a "shack settlement" and dealing with the history and actions of national struggles is commendable for appreciating this multifarious context. Located in the first settled Black Township of Port Elizabeth, Red Location's ...

, originally uploaded by kwikzilver . De Citadel in Almere, Netherlands by Christian de Portzamparc . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

'Tis the season for an overflowing inbox with links to share: An Atlas of Radical Cartography :: "A collection of 10 maps and 10 essays about social issues from globalization to garbage; surveillance to extraordinary rendition; statelessness to visibility; deportation to migration." 2007-8 Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment :: "An annual invited lecture by an international figure whose work has significant implications for understanding and reconceiving the relationship between architecture and the environment, will be delivered by Shigeru Ban," in Cooper Union's Great Hall on Tuesday, January 22 at 7pm. useful + agreeable house :: Now's your chance to purchase a pre-designed house by "world-renowned architect", Neil M. Denari. Yes, you too can live in an "ergonomic world." Willa's Wonderland :: LOOM Studio's urban intervention for the Atlanta Beltline, described in comic book form with 11-year-old Willa. ...

L1020303 , originally uploaded by atelier_db . The Barcelona Biomedical Research Park ( PRBB ) in Barcelona, Spain by Manuel Brullet and Albert de Pineda. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

The outcome of 2005's Williamsburg Waterfront Design Competition -- for the water's edge between N7th and N9th Streets in the East River State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn -- resulted in a masterplan collaboration of three of the winners: Gareth Mahon; 3SAP's Alison Duncan, Petra Mager, and Stephanie Saulmon; and Fabrica 718's Julie Torres Moskovitz and Sarah Ludington. [site location and existing shoreline] Recently the collaborative team presented their unified design to the community and the New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation in an effort to establish design guidelines for the upcoming park improvements. So far the park's (temporary) implementation has been a rather uninspired mix of grass, concrete, and saplings that doesn't appear to reflect the eclectic nature of nearby Williamsburg residents, the unique site overlooking Midtown Manhattan, or any sustainable principles that are rightly popular today. This design...