A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

The Landscape of Contemporary Infrastructure by Kelly Shannon and Marcel Smets, published by  NAi Publishers , 2010. Hardcover, 272 pages. ( Amazon ) As I type this review, up to 100,000 barrels per day is being discharged into the Gulf of Mexico after a deepwater oil well blowout about a month ago. The disastrous incident brings to the fore a number of concerns, including how infrastructure -- the industrial backbone that enables a country or region to function -- is maintained and improved. The term infrastructure, popularized by now President Obama in his election campaign (PDF link) and subsequent stimulus spending , encompasses a number of types, from oil wells and other federally subsidized utilities to systems for the movement of people and goods. They all have in common a reliance upon the construction of past generations, over 100 years ago in cases like railroads. New construction, in addition to increased maintenance of existing infrastructure, is ...

Quay Housing in Zierikzee, Netherlands by Kingma Roorda Architects Text and images are courtesy Kingma Roorda Architects of Rotterdam; photographs are by René de Wit / Kingma Roorda Architects. This project, situated just west of the historic center of Zierikzee, links up the existing neighborhood Poortambacht to the historic town. As a reaction to the specific character of the site and as a response to today’s diverging lifestyles, the design for this new quay, parallel to a canal, is a reinterpretation of the quay typologies that can be found through the provinces of Zeeland and Holland. The colorful metal-clad apartment buildings stand out in the adjacent sea of individual quay houses we designed earlier. Both buildings, one at the end of the Singelkade and one midway the Kanaalkade [images featured here], interrupt the quay houses. For the design of the buildings we looked at old commercial warehouses in trading cities such as Venice, Bergen, New York and Zierikzee. Like ...

The Geotaggers' World Atlas #1: New York , originally uploaded by Eric Fischer . This is one of fifty a hundred maps marking geotagged Flickr and Picasa photos in cities. Here, obviously, is New York City. Clusters abound towards the Statue of Liberty, near the World Trade Center site, from the Brooklyn Heights promenade, on the High Line, in Central Park, at the United Nations and in most of Midtown south of the park. No surprises. The other cities are here . (via Coudal )

The Architecture of Atelier Bow-Wow: Behaviorology by Atelier Bow-Wow, published by  Rizzoli , 2010. Hardcover, 304 pages. Japanese architects Atelier Bow-Wow are known as much for the books they produce as for the houses they design. The two outputs are inextricably linked -- the former researching the urban conditions of Tokyo, where the duo lives, and the latter a fairly direct product of such research on hybrid conditions, small buildings and so forth. Made in Tokyo and Pet Architecture Guide Book are the most well-known products of their research, structured like guides but presenting unique takes on the city they call home. Behaviorology collects most of Atelier Bow-Wow's built work, art installations and their research on architecture and urbanism. In its pages one can see how the houses they've designed for themselves and other clients in Tokyo respond to the unique characteristics of the city, from its irregular plots and zoning requirements to seismic conc...

2010 02 05 vila hermina c , originally uploaded by david pasek . Villa Hermína in Černín, Czech Republic by HŠH architekti , 2010. See architektur.aktuell for an article on the building by David Pasek (in German, in English here ) with photos of the interior. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Does this graphic really surprise anyone? [Comparison of Manhattan and Walmart built areas (slightly modified) | image source ] The above is from Jesse LeCavalier's essay "All Those Numbers" at Places Journal . In it, the architect investigates "the design possibilities latent not only in Walmart’s building types but also in the organizational practices — especially its unparalleled expertise in logistics." LeCavalier's essay is recommended for clearly explaining how Walmart works, its number-centric approach that makes it so BIG but also so fiercely loathed by supporters of the local, especially in cities. This last frontier, the urban market, is partly the focus of LeCavalier's piece. And while I can't say I agree with an investigation of how the retailer can be successful in cities, the power, influence and willfulness of Walmart is certainly something to be considered, not ignored.

The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale by Steven Guarnaccia, published by  Abrams , 2010. Hardcover, 32 pages. ( Amazon ) In the oft-told tale where three little pigs build their own houses of straw, sticks and bricks, it's clear which house withstands the hungry wolf attempts to "blow your house in." But what if the houses were more complex in their design, more modern, and were designed by famous architects, who would prevail? Steven Guarnaccia retells the story with Frank Gehry, Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright as the pigs, again striking out on their own "to make their way in the world." The results are no less surprising, but the journey in this carefully illustrated version is a good deal of fun for children and their parents alike.   Within the architects', I mean pigs' houses are artifacts of modern design, be it a chair, rug or even coffee pot. These and many other designs ...

Aptos Retreat in Aptos, California by CCS Architecture Photographs are by Paul Dyer . Aptos is a small community in California's Santa Cruz County, an area marked by the beauty of the mountains and the ocean. CCS Architecture found inspiration in the natural characteristics of the 20-acre site in this residential project for a family of eight, as well as tapping into the cultural history of the place in meeting the client's desire for a sustainable home. A more accurate description for the project may be a "country compound," with the inclusion of various activities: partying, cooking, tanning, swimming, archery, horseshoes, gardening, and even wood-splitting. The project is split into two parts: a 2,800sf (260sm) Main House and a 1,600sf (150sm) Barn, with the former further separated into two overlapping pieces. The main house's "live building" houses what one would expect, living, dining and kitchen areas with a master bedroom upstairs...

BundschuhBaumhauer @ Torstrasse 3 , originally uploaded by d.teil . Linienstraße 40 in Berlin, Germany by BundschuhBaumhauer , 2010. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Here are some photos of 8 House in Southern Ørestad, Copenhagen, Denmark by Bjarke Ingels Group , 2010. Photographs are by seier+seier . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Sukkah City: New York City is an international design-build competition "that will result in 12 radically temporary, experimental structures being constructed in Union Square Park, NYC this fall." Some of the rules:

Tomorrow the New Museum is throwing open its doors for free, in celebration of SANAA's recent Pritzker Prize victory -- awarded to them in a ceremony on Monday at Ellis Island (see coveragge at ArchDaily ). Not only is admission free, building tours "by experts that were on the building’s original core architecture team" will be held throughout the day. For those who cannot make it, I highly recommend Shift , a case study on the SANAA-designed building, edited by Joseph Grima and Karen Wong, published by Lars Müller. The book features interviews with many of the players giving the tours and some excellent visual documentation of the design and construction process. [photograph by Dean Kaufman | courtesy New Museum] Schedule of Tours: 12:30 p.m. Jonas Elding, Project Architect at SANAA for the New Museum and co-founder of the architecture firm Elding Oscarson 1:30 p.m. Brett Schneider, Project Engineer at Guy Nordenson and Associates, Structural Engineer for both SANAA...

Pamphlet Architecture 32 announced: Competition theme: Resilience By addressing the capacity to cope, the ability to bounce back, and the mitigation and management of risk, proposals are welcome that showcase a fresh understanding of the possibilities and opportunities of resilience in architecture, from the large to the small scale. Whether resilience stems from natural disaster, civil conflict, global warming, catastrophe, and so on, is the applicant’s discretion. Please visit the submission site for more details. The winner will receive a prize of $2,500 and the opportunity to have their manuscript published by Princeton Architectural Press as Pamphlet Architecture 32. The registration fee is $25 for students and $50 for professionals. The winner will be announced in September.

Last week was the opening of The City We Imagined/The City We Made , an "exhibition about architecture, planning, and development in New York since 2001" by The Architectural League now on display at 250 Hudson Street. The storefront is one short block from the new Trump SoHo Hotel , as much a symbol as any of the city's 21st-century changes. The two sides evident in the exhibition's title are presented on the inside (made) and outside (imagined) of a snaking partition of cardboard, designed by locals Moorhead & Moorhead . Both sides are thoroughly documented, the former via color-coded sheets of paper describing major developments and buildings in the decade, the latter via volunteer photographs overseen by Esto . With this layout one cannot look at the city imagined and made simultaneously, as if the League wanted a clear demarcation between the two, even though such a fine line in reality is arguable. [The City Imagined (top) and Made (bottom) | image source ]...

A couple art installations/interventions: Fernando and Humberto Campana 's My Home Exhibition installation on Frank Gehry's Vitra Design Museum in Weil Am Rhein, Germany, 2007. Hugo Kaagman 's district heating plant in Roombeek, Enschede, Netherlands, date unknown. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Even though I'm immersed in the writing of my guidebook to New York City contemporary architecture, having put a kibosh on researching what buildings will be included, I still discover little gems that manage to work their way into the book. A good example of that is Peter Gluck and Partners ' Urban Townhouse, which I found on the architect's web page yesterday and saw in person earlier today. (Like just about everything else to be found in my book, this house was featured on Curbed previously , though I'll admit it's hard to keep up with a site updated so frequently.) Similar to Gluck's other recent projects , the design is an exercise in random orthogonal patterning across the facade, in this case a small-scale pixelation clearly at odds with its old neighbors. The townhouse is on East 51st Street, a pleasant street with three- and four-story buildings, steps from the towers of Midtown. Speaking with a man familiar with the area and its residents, when the hou...

The L!brary Book: Design Collaborations in the Public Schools by Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 2010. Paperback, 176 pages. ( Amazon ) Memories of the library in my grade school are strong, even though what prevails is not the physical aspects of it but the time spent there looking at books, learning how to use computers, and being shushed for talking. I'm sure the importance of the library in my early education is a trait shared by many, so it's no surprise that the Robin Hood Foundation has focused its initiative with the New York City Board of Education on these spaces, hubs for learning both in school and after school. As the traditional aspects of the library -- books and other print media -- are being challenged by the digital, the design of libraries, big and small, is changing to encompass broader and more diverse ways of obtaining and sharing information. We find ourselves on the cusp of great changes, but the book, its st...

In July last year I posted about The Manhattan Airport Foundation's absurd proposal to transform Central Park into an airport. Well, that's got nothing on William Zeckendorf 's dream airport for New York City, published in the March 18, 1946 issue of Life Magazine . According to the magazine's text (found at Ptak Science Books where I discovered this gem), the airport would have covered 144 city blocks from 24th to 71st Streets and from Ninth Avenue to the Hudson River. (The view above is looking south.) That's approximately 990 acres 200-feet above the streets of Manhattan. To quote Life , Zeckendorf thinks the $3 billion price tag "can be paid off by rental income within 55 years after the project is completed." Further, and quite optimistically, "although the Manhattan terminal is still in the drawing-board stage and has not yet had approval of New York officials, the planners expect that the increasing tide of air travel will make their idea a n...

A handful of theatrical performances this Spring, all in New York City, incorporate architecture in various ways, be it thematic or set design. Below are some details on this synchronistic phenomenon. Architecture of Dance For the New York City Ballet 's New Choreography and Music Festival, Santiago Calatrava has designed five sets for what's being called Architecture of Dance, showing now at Lincoln Center until June 27. Calatrava seems like a wise choice for this undertaking, given the inspiration he finds in the human body, the kineticism of some of his projects, and of course his name. The circles above, for example, move and overlap to activate the scenography and give the dancers something to respond to. Check out the video on the AOD mini-site for shots of this movement and explanation by Calatrava. The festival also commemorates the 50th anniversary of Lincoln Center. Attila For the Metropolitan Opera 's recent production of Attila, Jacques He...