A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Casa Zapata Vieco , originally uploaded by Mejia#8 [sick] . Casa en Ladera in El Retiro, Antioquia Colombia by Paisajes Emergentes , 2008. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Below are upcoming lectures and ongoing exhibitions in and around New York City for the next 31 days. This calendar is curated by me and powered by Bustler ; click the links to visit the Bustler entries for more information.

forms , originally uploaded by my lala . On the left is the Philharmonie (2005) by Atelier Christian de Portzamparc with L'Hotel Evenement de la Place de L'Europe (2009) by Jim Clemes in the center, in Luxembourg's Kirchberg Plateau . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

On Sunday, city crews closed sections of Broadway in Times Square (from 42nd to 47th Streets) and Herald Square by Macy's (from 33rd to 35th Streets). In a New York Times article by Nicolai Ouroussoff, and an accompanying slide show , we see the dramatic change that occurs when cars give way to people on foot, but we also read about how much work still needs to be done to make these actually well-designed spaces in the city. While I have experienced last year's improvements of the 34th-42nd Street and Madison Square Park stretches of Broadway (lifeless or lively depending on weather and time of day), I've yet to walk these new pedestrian promenades. Nevertheless their repetition of last year's combination of safety bollards, tables and chairs, and (maybe) some surface aggregate and paint is a rudimentary response to a long-term vision for making parts of the city more amenable to pedestrians. It's clear from photos that the city's urban designers need to step...

Eric Sanderson's Mannahatta , a book , exhibition , and upcoming competition is sure to be a talked-about project this year, as it visualizes the island of Manhattan 400 years ago, when Henry Hudson arrived, and when the island was inhabited by natives. Striking and subtle juxtapositions show the differences between the island then and now. Mannahatta Project's view of Mannahatta ca. 1609 overlaid with today's footprint of Manhattan Sanderson's ambitious, decade-in-the-making undertaking reminds me of a small plot of land in Greenwhich Village that recreates Manhattan's forest from 400 years ago. Alan Sonfist proposed Time Landscape of New York for the northeast corner of LaGuardia Place and Houston Street in 1965. It is located on the same block as I.M. Pei's University Village . Construction started in 1978, during the Koch administration, though naturally the site has slowly evolved since then. The 1,000 sf (93 sm) plot is divided into three sections refle...

Here's a few views of the latest Studio 804 house, 3716 Springfield . Studio 804 is a design/build program at the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Design directed by Dan Rockhill . For more information check out my TENbyTEN article on Rockhill and Studio 804, " A Reality Dose on the Prairie ." Photographs are by archaalto , who has many more photos in his flickr set on the project. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

In early 2007 I posted about the $836.00 winning bid for Peter Zumthor Works on ebay. At that time sellers on Amazon.com were asking $974.73 for the first edition (red cover) of Thinking Architecture , another highly-prized, out-of-print title by the Swiss architect. But now that Mr. Zumthor has won the Pritzker Prize , the price of that slim volume has changed...dramatically. As of last night two sellers are vying for collectors of first editions, with only one penny separating the two: [Not sure why the author is "Princeton Arch Staff," given that the publisher is Lars Müller and the author is, obviously, Peter Zumthor.]  I held on to Thinking Architecture , even after wondering a couple years ago if I should sell my copy for close to a grand and then go see some Zumthor buildings in person. These prices make me think I made the right decision, but on second thought I don't think the title will fetch two grand. Will somebody really pay that much for this first editio...

Urban Design edited by Alex Krieger and William S. Saunders, published by  University of Minnesota Press , 2009. Paperback, 320 pages. ( Amazon ) In 1956 Harvard University held its first Urban Design Conference, organized by José Luis Sert and featuring prominent architects, planners, historians, and critics. The proceedings were published in Progressive Architecture that year, but a reconsideration of the conference, the ones that followed, and the field they spurred took fifty years. Harvard Design Magazine devoted two issues (numbers 24 and 25) to the origins, the evolution and the current state of urban design. This book collects the essays and discussions from those two issues, following on th...

Incremental Housing Strategy in Pune, India by Urbanouveau Text and images are courtesy Filipe Balestra and Sara Göransson of Urbanouveau . Filipe and Sara were invited to India in 2008 by Jockin Arputham and Sheela Patel from SPARC , one of India’s largest NGOs dealing with housing and infrastructure, to develop a strategy for incremental housing for inner-city slums. It had to be able to be implemented elsewhere and be simple enough to be carried out by the slum dwellers themselves. The project runs counter to previous slum upgrades across the world that have involved the demolition of entire neighborhoods followed by the construction of repetitive social housing blocks or relocation of the communities to places far away from their source of income a...

falling water , originally uploaded by ferrda . Fallingwater (aka the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence) in Bear Run, Pennsylvania by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1934. For those who can't visit the house in Pennsylvania or see the large-scale model in the exhibition now at the Guggenheim in New York, a LEGO kit is coming soon. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Inspired by Nature: Animals by Alejandro Bahamón and Patricia Pérez, published by  W. W. Norton , 2009. Paperback, 192 pages. ( Amazon ) In an exhibition of Andreas Gursky's photographs years ago one image made me think of the relationship between the habitations of humans and other creatures. Shanghai portrays a building's atrium, with its yellowish tone and curving form immediately recalling beehives. Trying to move beyond a merely formal comparison, I thought at the time that the "human nature" that drives us to live collectively is not too far removed from other creatures, be they insects, mammals, or maybe even birds. So the formal morphology of what we build will find a number of resonances with habitats made by animals lacking the consciousness that is our blessing and curse. This idea links us to the creatures we share the earth with, but it also makes our harmful practices excusable to a certain degree. (We are doing things naturally, just like other cr...

Title: Project Architect: Public and Design Excellence projects When: 2009-05-18 Who: Robert Siegel Architects Description: We are looking for talented and passionate architects who are excited about making buildings and working outside their comfort zone towards innovation in architecture. Hard work and dedication, combined with inspiration and drawing ability, is one thing that all staff members share. You must have truly excellent written and oral communication skills. Cover Letter with Salary History : Send us a brief, signed cover letter specific to Robert Siegel Architects that states why it makes sense to hire you. Graphic presentation is key. This is your first impression and demonstrates your ability as a designer. Use care in selecting the paper, the font, and the organization of text on the page. One-Page Resume : People who have stayed at a firm for 4-5 years are very attractive. We are looking for great experience and commitment. Limit your resume to one page onl...

Shortly after the announcement of Peter Zumthor as this year's Pritzker Prize winner, critics took aim at the Swiss architect's focus on the aesthetic and experiential qualities of space and his apparent lack of politics or confrontation with the myriad crises at hand today. Examples include Christopher Hawthorne's assertion that "Zumthor's work has nothing to do with social activism, disaster relief, sustainability, new design software, mega-cities, affordability or infrastructure -- all of which have crowded together recently near the top of the profession's agenda -- [his winning is] a boost for the idea that architecture is fundamentally an aesthetic rather than a political profession." James S. Russell calls the winner a "Swiss Hermit" and says the jury "avoids contemporary challenges" and "left me wishing it had been more adventurous." Clay Risen goes furthest in his call to " Fix the Pritzker ," stating, ...

Burnham Pavilion , originally uploaded by John Zacherle . The Burnham Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park by UNStudio , 2009. This is a construction shot of this week's dose . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Urban China Bootlegged by C-Lab for Volume edited by Jeffrey Inaba C-Lab, 2009 Paperback, 156 pages Volume is an independent quarterly magazine started by Archis , AMO and C-Lab . Urban China is a magazine exploring the process of urbanism in China today. These two platforms are "bootlegged" by C-Lab, merging the east and the west under the theme Crisis. The merger is an uneasy one, or at least it has that appearance, as content is cut from one page to the next, as if the two magazines each occupied large sheets of paper that were then arbitrarily trimmed into its final shape and order. Of course all the content was plugged into a computer and laid ou...

If the two structures that UNStudio have designed this year for New York City and Chicago are any indication, Ben van Berkel is the go-to guy for commemorative pavilions located in parks. The New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion in Manhattan's Battery Park is part of NY400 , a Dutch-American celebration of Henry Hudson's arrival in New York Harbor 400 years ago. The flower-shaped pavilion is set to be a permanent piece in Battery Park's Peter Minuet Plaza, providing food, seating and cultural events. Ben van Berkel describes the form of the pavilion as an "expression of its public function...[oriented] to all parts of the Battery," accomplished by the opening up of the four wings. This flowing form will be appreciated most by the occupants of nearby towers, but for the anti...

Here's an exterior and interior view of Antón Garcia-Abril and Ensamble Studio 's Musical Studies Center in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The building was featured a few years ago on my weekly page . Photographs are by viditocho . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward opened yesterday at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum . The exhibition marks the New York institution's 50th anniversary and runs until August 23. The exhibition follows last year's completion of the building's three-year restoration and is the first on the architect of this scope in a building of his design. This fact is much less impressive than the assertion from Phil Allsop of the Frank Lloyd Foundation that the approximately 200 drawings on 64 projects displayed is less than 1% of the Foundation's holdings. Similarly scaled exhibitions could be held once a year until 2120! [Outside the Guggenheim | photo by archidose ] Unveiled last year after repairs to the concrete and a fresh coat of paint, the exterior's current, like-new appearance is an important element in the 50-year-anniversary exhibition, one that sets the stage for one's appreciation of Wright's work. To have the building under scaffolding would dist...