A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

The Power of Pro Bono: 40 Stories About Design for the Public Good by Architects and Their Clients edited by John Cary and Public Architecture, published by  Metropolis Books , 2010. Hardcover, 288 pages. ( Amazon ) In writings on architecture, particularly contemporary collections, the voice of the client is often missing. Some articles may incorporate quotes from the client about the positive experience and results, but for the most part the architect's point of view prevails. This can be chalked up to the fact that the venues, be they print or online, are typically for promoting architects and architecture, and their audiences tend to be the same practitioners, eager to look at what others are doing. Therefore to give equal copy to a client alongside an architect in coverage of a project would be pretty novel these days. It would also run the risk of painting the architecture in not-so-nice a light, bringing to the fore considerations that were not atte...

Holmenkollen Ski Jump in Oslo, Norway by JDS Architects, 2011 On the cover of JDS Architects ' monograph Agenda is a collage that features the Eiffel Tower; well, more accurately a leaning Tower of Eiffel. This form is certainly meant to refer to Julien de Smedt's design for the Holmenkollen Ski Jump, the host of the 2011 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships ; the leaning cantilever and the curves seem to follow the Parisian tower's lead. Inside the book the project is given more ink than any other project, or at least it appears that way interspersed throughout. Needless to say, the project is a very important one for the architects, and it has the potential to give Smedt a prominence like his old partner Bjarke Ingels . The current jump is not the first incarnation for this hill in Holmenkollen, a small village twenty minutes from Oslo. As far back as 1892 the village has hosted competitions, but it was determined in 2005 by the International Ski Federation ...

An email just landed in my inbox about Museo Soumaya , opening next month in Mexico City. The building is designed by FREE Fernando Romero , and seeing the below image I couldn't help think of the synchronicity with yesterday's post , a photo of two undulating towers outside Toronto. We'll see if more iconic curves make their way onto my web pages in the coming days. [Museo Soumaya by FREE Fernando Romero | Photo by Adam Wiseman ] The text from the photo link above: “Museo Soumaya” was conceived as a sculptural building that is unique and contemporary, yet serves to house a collection of international paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects dating from the fourteenth century to the present. From the outside, the building is an amorphous shape that inspires different perceptions in each visitor, while on the inside the museums varied topology reflects the diversity of the collection. The shell of the building is constructed with steel columns of different ...

Untitled , originally uploaded by picturenarrative . Buildings D and E of the Absolute Condos , now under construction in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, by MAD . Many more photos can be found in picturenarrative's 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

This video reminds me of a few architectural projects from years ago: - The Digital House (1998) by Hariri and Hariri , a house "organized around a Touch Activated Digital Spine...a glass enclosure made of active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs)." The project was sponsored by House Beautiful Magazine . - The Kramlich Residence and Media Collection (1997) by Herzog and de Meuron, an "inhabitable media installation tailored to meed the daily requirements" of the clients, avid collectors of media art (video, films, slides, etc.). Glass would have been the surface for the projection of their media collection. - The Phantom House (2007) by Diller Scofidio + Renfro , a project that proposes "a green architecture that satisfies our quest for the good life." The project, located somewhere in the American Southwest, was commissioned by The New York Times. Corning's vision, "A Day Made of Glass," which seems to integrate some of the...

This graphic from Earth (The Book) by The Daily Show with John Stewart is, like much of the book, funny... [Dustbin of History: Suburban Homes, from "Dwelling," page 53 | click image for larger view] But there's something not quite right about the floor plan. Can you find it?

The following text is courtesy Carlos Teixeira for his installation, "The Other, the Same," part of the 29th Sao Paulo Internatinal Art Biennial . Photos are courtesy Nelson Kon, Camila Piccolo, and Carlos Teixeira. Summary With the theme “There is always a cup of sea to sail in”, the 29th. Sao Paulo Art Biennial incorporated six "terreiros," or areas for events and rest, spread across the Biennial pavilion. Invited by curators Moacir dos Anjos and Agnaldo Farias, this text presents the author's participation in the exhibition with terreiro The Other, The Same; an arena for dance events, theatre and music that can be rearranged in other ways. The Other, the Same Six works differentiate among all the 159 that are part of the 29th Sao Paulo Art Biennial: Idealised by artists and architects for the Biennial, the so called terreiros are a curatorial strategy to shelter events, to create conviviality areas and to foment discussions that integrate the exhib...

The Language of Towns & Cities: A Visual Dictionary by Dhiru A. Thadani, published by  Rizzoli , 2010. Hardcover, 804 pages. ( Amazon ) A quick glance at the cover of Dhiru A. Thadani 's massive "encyclodictionary" -- as Léon Krier calls it in his foreword -- is quite revealing: The roughly 800 pages inside deal with traditional aspects of towns and cities, the streets and streetscapes, the civic squares, the pedestrian zones. It addresses these via traditional means, the solid-void diagrams, aerials, street sections, and plans that architects and urban designers are familiar with. In other words what follows is a sourcebook for New Urbanism , a resource for designing traditional towns based on CNU's principles. Yet these are only twelve images among hundreds, so maybe a book can't be judged by its cover after all. Thadani, who penned the majority of the entries but enlisted numerous contributors in this large undertaking, has created a book that is per...

The Crystal & Cloud 1 , originally uploaded by jgo_mo . The Crystal & Cloud in Copenhagen, Denmark by Schmidt Hammer Lassen , 2010. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

American Art Museum Architecture: Documents and Design by Eric M. Wolf, published by  W. W. Norton , 2010. Hardcover, 272 pages. ( Amazon ) When I received this book "exploring the intersections of art, architecture, and design, at both renowned institutions and cutting-edge contemporary collections," I first thought it was simply a coffee table book. The paper size (11x10.4") is quite large, numerous photographs and other illustrations are included, and even the font size is fairly large (not bordering on the "large type" category, though). But delving into the text on museums in New York City ( Frick , Whitney , MoMA ), Chicago ( Art Institute ), Houston ( Menil ) and Sante Fe, New Mexico ( Georgia O'Keefe ), it's apparent that the book is a serious study of how these institutions have created buildings over time for their singular collections and approaches to presenting art. Eric M. Wolf is Head Librarian at the Menil Collection, ...

Federal Way Library in Federal Way, Washington by Mithun, 2010 Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington between Tacoma and Seattle, bordering the Puget Sound. It is basically suburban in layout, but symptomatically of the region it is blessed with an abundance of trees. This latter condition is particularly evident where 1st Way South bends around Panther Lake Elementary School and Federal Way Library ; the first is a colorful design recently completed by DLR Group, and the second is an unremarkable 25,000 sf (2,325 sm) postmodern design from 1991 (architect unknown) recently added to and renovated by Seattle-based Mithun . The library's 1991 building is set at a 45-degree angle to the vehicular entry's intersection with the street, a siting that pushed parking to the south of the building. Also the relationship of the old building to the intersection appears that it was geared towards giving the building a civic presence rather than relating to its natur...

Manny - Tetrarc Architecture - Nantes , originally uploaded by Sipane . Manny in Nantes, France by TETRARC , 2009. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

" What defines a good (architecture/design) book for you? Ninety-seven percent is rubbish, I wouldn't touch it with a ... [sic] The rest is woth living for. For example Max Bill's Maillart . Lovely. Perfect. Not too thick. Super proportions. Fantastic typeface. Balanced. Nice bridges of course. Something contemporary? [...] Nine Swimming Pools by Ed Ruscha. It's old too, and an artist's book, sorry. Can't think of anything else. It's dreadful. No good Zumthor book, the one by Lars Müller just scrapes through. The book about Vals is a disaster [...] The Herzog & de Meuron book by Peter Blum, it's got something. [...] Honestly, it drives me nuts, all I can think of is rubbish. Even the Dhaka book I did for Louis Kahn, it was successful but I wouldn't say it's that good. [...] In short: Less is more. Little books, choice books, thin books, 'unpolished' books, normal books. Or an eight-pound door-stopper like the Valerio Olgiati ...

Here are a few photographs of the McKinley Residence in Venice, California by David Hertz Architect , 2003 . Photos are by jaredé . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

" Holding Pattern " is Interboro Partners ' winning design for MoMA PS1's Young Architects Program , to be built this summer in the courtyard of the Long Island City arts institution. The installation will follow on the heels of the redesigned entry to the courtyard, designed by Andrew Berman and set to be done at the end of May. For the inaugural YAP at MAXXI in Rome, the winner is stARTT , with "WHATAMI." ["Holding Pattern" by Interboro Partners | image source ] Interboro describes their design as such: "Holding Pattern" is the product of a sustained dialog with MoMA PS1's courtyard and its neighbors. Instead of telling it what it should be, we patiently listened to what it and its neighbors had to say, then responded in kind. The result of this dialog is a scheme doesn't so much redesign the courtyard as reveal it. Thanks to its neighbor, 2201 Jackson Avenue, which managed to muscle its way into MoMA PS1's court...

Think of buildings made from logs, and small cabins along the lines of the below image probably come to mind. These distinctive buildings date back to the 17th century in the United States, centuries or millennia earlier in Europe. Exterior walls are constructed of stacked round or square logs made from local trees; the space in-between is filled with mud and grass. The logs interlock those of the perpendicular walls at the corners, where the ends of the logs are then visible. In Stovewood or Stackwood buildings the end of the log is all that is visible. Exterior walls are built from logs about one foot long that are normally used for stoves (hence the name), at least centuries ago when the method was popular in Canada and the United States. The space in between is filled with lime mortar. Of course it was not as popular as log cabins like the ones above, but the influence of stovewood walls, directly or indirectly, and the use of logs as an architectural elemtent is found in some...

Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change by Peter Calthorpe, published by  Island Press , 2010. Hardcover, 225 pages. ( Amazon ) In the last few months, a debate has been underway between New Urbanism and Landscape Urbanism, or more accurately between the former's Andrés Duany and the latter's Charles Waldheim, spurred by Waldheim's appointment as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University. (See a good synopsis of the debate and links to articles at Landscape+Urbanism .) New Urbanism is a popular reaction to sprawl in the United States that creates new towns and other large developments -- following the Congress for New Urbanism 's (CNU) Charter -- with a higher density than suburbia, with mixed uses, with walkable neighborhoods, and with well defined civic spaces, all harking to a traditional pre-automobile communities. Landscape Urbanism, on the other hand is an academic movement with growing momentum that basically see...

The Woven Nest in London, England by atmos studio, 2010 The following text and images for this residence in Stoke Newington are courtesy atmos studio . This home for an actress and musician carefully slots between buildings and sightlines, and wraps built-in furniture into every available surface. The massing was generated from the view-lines along the High Street below, tucked carefully out of sight to achieve planning permission for a new story with front outdoor space hidden within the row of listed buildings. The roof-form deploys a double-pitched butterfly roof, angling upwards from low flank walls to greet the arriving visitor with taller walls at the central stairwell. A crystalline valley skylight hangs above, flooding the void with light. Staggered floor sections carefully borrow space from below. The V-shape in section repeats in plan to ease a tidy outdoor terrace between new and old façades, the doors from hall and bedroom folding neatly together. The project’s pal...