A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Basics Architecture: construction + materiality by Lorraine Farrelly, published by AVA Academia, 2008. Paperback, 176 pages. ( Amazon ) The Fundamentals of Architecture by Lorraine Farrelly, published by AVA Academia, 2007. Paperback, 176 pages. ( Amazon ) AVA Academia -- "creative publishers for the applied visual arts" -- targets their books to students, with varying levels that range from Foundation and Introductory to Intermediate and Readers. Five titles are currently available for architecture, two falling into the Introductory category and the rest in Intermediate. Three of the architecture books are authored by Lorraine Farrelly, an architect in the UK who "co-ordinates degree courses in architecture and interior design at the University of Portsmouth." The Fundamentals of Architecture obviously fits into the Introductory category. Across six chapters it gives students an understanding of how architects approach design, from site analysis and co...

House by William Russel, Bacon Street, London , originally uploaded by *-*-*-*-*-* . House on Bacon Street in London, England by William Russell (now with Pentagram Architects ), 2001. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

A few recent projects incorporate that most typological of architectural elements , the gable house. Of course each does it in a way that departs radically from the reality of the square and triangle diagram that most people at a young age associate with house and home. [Childhood House | image source ] Herzog & Meuron 's addition to the Vitra campus, Vitrahaus is home to the Vitra Home Collection, where visitors can "discover furniture arrangements here in different style genres - inspirational ideas for your home and your own taste in design." Is that why the architects adopt the form of extruded gable houses, haphazardly stacked, to create a context akin to people's homes? Herzog & de Meuron previously played with this traditional form earlier in their career, such as the House in Leymen . [Vitrahaus by Herzog & de Meuron | image source ] Domus features a project by Sou Fujimoto that likewise throws gable-shaped forms atop each other. Tokyo Ap...

Requiem: For the City at the End of the Millennium by Sanford Kwinter, published by  Actar , 2010. Paperback, 122 pages. ( Amazon )   Reviewing Sanford Kwinter's collection of essays Far From Equilibrium a couple years ago, at least twice I pointed out the difficulty and density of his theorizations on architecture, technology, and the city. This follow up of sorts could also be considered dense, but in a different way: Kwinter packs a plethora of ideas and perspectives in a small package, yet the result is much more readable than its predecessor. As Thomas Daniell points out in his introduction, Kwinter's reticence about his background gave way here to some surprising autobiographical moments, and this fact may lend the book an increased readability. The book is billed as covering the new world that came into being at the end of the millennium, a world "that design thinking has yet to fully take into account." Across nine essa...

The Diana Center at Barnard College in New York City by Weiss/Manfredi Photographs are by Albert Vecerka/Esto . Featured previously in project form as the Barnard College Nexus , the Diana Center -- named for Diana Vagelos, a Barnard alumna who, with her husband, donated $15 million towards the building -- opened earlier this year. Barnard's small campus sits across Broadway from its "parent" Columbia University, and the Diana Center is coincidentially right across the street from another piece of high-profile architecture, Columbia's Northwest Corner Building by Rafael Moneo. But where Moneo expresses an engineered aesthetic, Weiss/Manfredi opt for a contemporary update of the brick buildings of both campuses. The Diana Center is a seven-story glass box that tapers in plan towards the south, opening up views and green space towards Millbank Hall to the north. The building replaces the school's old student center and adds to those functions education...

Walking around SoHo, the West Village, and Chelsea the other day, a couple spaces unbeknownst to me caught my eye: the Phaidon Store on Wooster Street and ET Modern , at the corner of 11th Avenue and 20th Street. [Phaidon Store | photo by archidose] Phaidon's third store (the other two are in London) -- open since May -- is located in a cast iron building's lofty ground floor one block west of publisher Taschen's own store . Unlike Taschen's Philippe Starck-designed trendiness, Phaidon opts for minamilism, with white cube displays inserted into a painted white space. The books, most large-format, stand out from the colorless context. As much as I like many of Phaidon's books, this sort of store just isn't as good as an old fashioned bookstore built for browsing. For one, the books are all Phaidon, of course, so the surprise quotient is close to nil; one basically knows what they'll find at the store. And because of this limitation, the stor...

A book and a journal with free PDFs, both worth downloading and reading. [ Design for Reuse Primer | by Public Architecture ] "'Building green' is often linked with higher levels of energy efficiency or improved air quality. Even when considered, the sustainable materials market tends to focus on sustainably harvested materials or materials with recycled content. Yet, repurposing materials directly from the waste stream is the ultimate form of resource conservation. The 15 diverse projects in the Design for Reuse Primer demonstrate new models of 'building green.' Material reuse is always integral to a sustainable vision of how to tread lightly on the earth, be economically pragmatic, and nurture a community. From a school for children with learning differences to a center for holistic living, these case studies are intended to provide insights about the material reuse process in a wide variety of context. By discussing the challenges and demonstr...

Cone heads , originally uploaded by *-*-*-*-*-* . UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 by Heatherwick Studio . Note the Coneheads. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

"Book Briefs" are an ongoing series of posts with two- or three-sentence first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that make their way into my library. These briefs are not full-blown reviews, but they are a way to share more books worthy of attention than the ones that are reviewed on my daily or weekly pages. 1: Light Perspectives edited by David Kuntzsch | ERCO | 2009 | Amazon Architectural lighting company ERCO sees themselves as "selling light, not luminaires," and that assertion comes across in this guide to the effects of light, both artificial and natural (though primarily the former). Abundant illustrations aim at giving designers a thorough understanding of the qualities of light, as well as knowledge of different fixtures that allow certain effects to be achieved. Most helpful are renderings that illustrate the sometimes subtle differences between types, placement, and other lighting variables. (Sample chapter PDF ) 2: The Austrian P...

Sukkah City | Fractured Bubble , originally uploaded by roccocell . Fractured Bubble by Henry Grosman and Babak Bryan , at the Sukkah City installed in Union Square Park, New York City, 2010. Fractured Bubble was selected as the People's Choice and is on display in Union Square Park until October 2nd. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places by Sharon Zukin, published by  Oxford University Press , 2009. Hardcover, 312 pages. ( Amazon )   A brief history of US urbanism in the last half a century starts with the flight to the suburbs after World War II, moves on to the subsequent deterioration of cities and urban renewal plans that replaced so-called slums with public housing and other "towers in the park," and arrives at the present day with reinvestment in cities and the gradual reintroduction of suburbanites (and other new residents) into the spaces they abandoned. Needless to say, change in cities during that time has been great. The most recent phase includes the retrofitting of industrial buildings to residential uses, among other reconfigurations, but also new construction that reshapes skylines and transforms the lives of longtime residents. As cities like New York find themselves catering to developers that ...

Museum Villa Vauban in Luxembourg by Philippe Schmit architects Photographs are by Lukas Roth. The Villa Vauban Musee d'Art de la Ville de Luxembourg displayed "its collection of painting originally acquired by wealthy private collectors in the 18th and 19th century" in, appropriately, an urban villa dating to 1873. In 2002 the City of Luxembourg commissioned architect Philippe Schmit for a renovation and extension of the villa, which opened on the first of May this year. The Museum asserts that the "contemporary extension engages in a stimulating architectural dialogue with the historic building." How does this occur? The first two images at left indicate how, depending on one's location, the extension either overpowers the existing villa or respects it by stepping back and staying low. Schmit's design basically grips the old building like a capital "T" in plan, with the top forming the road elevation to the north and the stem ...

Spurred by a comment in a recent post , I rented Atom Egoyan's film Chloe , in which the below house by Teeple Architects plays a small role, among other buildings, in the story. The basic plot (don't worry, no spoilers in this post) involves a married couple--a doctor and professor played by Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson, respectively--and a prostitute (Amanda Seyfried) hired by the wife when she suspects her husband is cheating on her. The prostitute is supposed to flirt with the husband to see if he would be unfaithful with her, but of course things get complicated in ways the viewer may not anticipate. In the film the Heathdale House is the home of Moore, Neeson and their high-school-age son (Max Thieriot). Or is it? Heathdale House - Teeple Architects , originally uploaded by Scott Norsworthy . Actually the house just plays the front, giving a suburban context to the three-person family. But the inside is played by the Ravine House by Drew Mandel Design , a house th...

Historical Museum Bern , originally uploaded by asli_aydin . Extension to the Historical Museum Bern in Bern, Switzerland by KUBUS/TITAN (Eduard von Rodt and Andre Lambert), 2010. Correction: Extension to the Historical Museum Bern (aka KUBUS/TITAN) in Bern, Switzerland by :mlzd , 2009. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Spurred by a recent today's archidose , I ventured to the Lower East Side (before Jan Gehl's great lecture ) to check out SOFTlab 's installation CHROMAtex.me at bridgegallery . The gallery is located next door to the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street. The colorful vortex is a jarring juxtaposition with the old-law tenements and other old buildings on the street. Like one of Anish Kapoor's inaccessible voids, the red-to-green funnel draws one's gaze into the gallery space. Access inside is via a plain-Jane door next to the storefront window, not through the tunnel of color. Inside the installation is the inverse of the space it creates. The small pieces of colored paper are clipped together with good old generic binder clips. Names of donors are printed on some of the pieces. The individual pieces of paper are assembled like a cut-out model: Cut here, fold here, clip here, repeat. The folds are perforated, allowing light from the gallery to enter...

Here are a couple photos of Black House in Utrecht, Netherlands by Bakers Architecten, 2010. Photographs are by pedro kok . See Arch Daily for more 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

Earlier this evening I attended Jan Gehl's talk at the Center for Architecture , coinciding with the launch of his new book Cities for People . Gehl is an excellent public speaker, combining his extensive knowledge and experience on the design of public spaces with a humbleness, good sense of humor, and a willingness to call things as he sees them. These all lead to some great soundbites, a few collected below. [Jan Gehl before his talk to a packed house at the Center for Architecture.] "Shit." - Gehl's description of Brasilia at the "people scale ,"the third and smallest of the scales urban planners/designers deal with, also including "city scale" and "site plan scale." "Bird-shit architects." - Creators of plans that are a collection of towers. "An exhibition of perfume bottles." - Dubai . "They took out the cars, and next year we were Italians." - In regards to concerns Copenhagen residents ...

chromatex_06 , originally uploaded by a tanz . CHROMAtex.me by SOFTlab , on display at the Bridge Gallery (98 Orchard Street in NYC's Lower East Side) until September 26.   To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose