A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

I'm in a location that suffered power outages from Hurricane Irene, so daily posts will resume when the power does. My weekly page will resume next week. [One of the many trees felled by Irene]

Hotel Mandarin Oriental , originally uploaded by Wojtek Gurak . Hotel Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona, Spain by OAB Office - Carlos Ferrater Partnership , 2010. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

[Photographs by archidose; click for larger views.] Yesterday I found myself in Pleasantville, a small village in Westchester County, about 30 miles north of New York City. Across the street from the Metro-North station is the Jacob Burns Film Center Media Arts Lab , just down the street from the Film Center's Theater . The two comprise, combined with a residence for international filmmakers, a campus for the "nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to presenting the best of independent, documentary, and world cinema; promoting 21st century literacy; and making film a vibrant part of the community." The Media Arts Lab, which opened in 2009, is "home to dozens of filmmaking and cinema studies classes for kids, teens, adults, and families ... [in] a 27,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility ... equipped with 16 editing suites, a recording studio, a soundstage, a 60-seat screening room, an animation studio, a large Center Studio, and fo...

Procession of the creative people of Lookahs (detail), by Catarina Bessell & Pedro Kok (2011), from Imaginable cities: tales from Saint Gertrudes . See large-size, overall image here . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Combinatory Urbanism: The Complex Behavior of Collective Form by Thom Mayne, published by  Stray Dog Café Publishers , 2011. Vinyl softcover, 448 pages. ( Amazon ) Anybody with even just a leisurely interest in architecture is familiar with the buildings of Morphosis and Thom Mayne, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect from Los Angeles. This is especially the case because of high-profile buildings in his hometown ( Caltrans District 7 HQ ), in San Francisco ( Federal Building ), and in New York City ( 41 Cooper Square ). These striking forms are memorable for how they stand out amongst older buildings and how they activate their surroundings. Often controversial, these and other projects are not arbitrary; they take cues from their contexts, or as Mayne has said, context is "data for interpretive architecture." This approach infuses the dozen urban design projects collected in this latest monograph on Morphosis. The focus on single buildings is gone, but th...

Sauder School of Business in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada by Acton Ostry Architects, 2010 Photographs are by Nic Lehoux. The Vancouver campus of the 100-year-old University of British Columbia (UBC) is located at the western tip of the Point Grey Peninsula, a dramatic site surrounded by forests on three sides and overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the fourth side. At about 1,000 acres (400 hectares) the campus is large, but it is also green, earning Canada's first Gold rating in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). The renewal and expansion of the Sauder School of Business by Acton Ostry Architects is a standout building in the campus-wide efforts to reduce carbon emissions, reduce waste, reduce water usage, and increase public transit and walking. Located in the center of the campus, the new design greets students on the Main Mall with a long glass elevation that "embeds and reflects the rhythm, cadence and pattern langu...

Here is a slideshow of "a photographic essay on some fantastic and unreal usages of the Rolex Learning Center " in Lausanne, Switzerland by SANAA, 2010. Photographs are by Johann Watzke . See Half Dose #75 on the building. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

The other day my wife and I were talking about the artist Chuck Close's portraits, and ever since then he seems to be popping up. Yesterday it was in the Otherworldy show at MAD . And today it was while looking for something in the AIA Guide to New York City *. Between entries the Guide mentions a mural by Close on the side wall of 26 Prince Street, between Mott and Elizabeth Streets. Amazingly I've never noticed this mural, even though I've traversed this stretch of Prince Street many times. Where might Close pop up next for me? View Larger Map *Interestingly, I accidentally picked up an old edition of the Guide and stumbled across this bit on Close that isn't found in the latest edition.

Or that should read: Typo graphy Tr end See what I mean? [L: Volume #27 | R: Combinatory Urbanism ]

Yesterday I checked out the exhibition " Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities " at the Museum of Arts and Design. Below are some highlights from this highly recommended show. Transient Ghetto 2 by Peter Feigenbaum , 2009: Range Redoubt by Propeller Design, 2011: Canal St. Cross-Section by Alan Wolfson , 2009-2010: Consolidated Life by David Lawrey and Jaki Middleton , 2010:

Pardon the short notice, but I just today learned about this event (via the Van Alen Institute's Facebook page ) happening tomorrow evening. Sounds great to me, and I look forward to hearing what books will be discussed in the future. First Architecture and Design Book Club, with Alexandra Lange Superscript invites you to the first meeting of a new Architecture and Design Book Club, with our special guest architecture critic Alexandra Lange. Join Superscript and architecture critic Alexandra Lange as we discuss the first selection of the Architecture and Design Book Club, William Whyte’s The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. A seminal study of architecture and urban design, Whyte’s book offered New Yorkers and urban citizens everywhere new tools for looking at public space. His conclusions laid the foundation for legislation that turned this new understanding into common practice. Superscript will be hosting the first edition of ADBC in a public venue fittingly cel...

Here are a couple photos of the Visitor Center Rheinfall Schloss Laufen in Rheinfall, Switzerland by Leuppi & Schafroth Architekten , 2009. Photographs are by M. Correia Campos . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Here are a couple videos by Architecture W . NON_CARBON BASED LIFE FORMS "We have been researching new sources of inspiration and have been looking at the wildly beautiful and slightly chaotic graphs created by HFT (High Frequency Trading programs) that permeate Wall Street. We have been generating patterns and textures based on our findings and even were inspired to create a short documentary ." éphémère "Portrait of a tree under [sic] a highway, home to a homeless man."

"The New Age Steel" published in Design Today , August 2011 Cor-Ten steel, also known as weathering steel given its distinctive rust covering when exposed to the elements, is more popular today than ever in architecture. This comes even as the United States Steel Corporation, the trademark owner of Cor-Ten, asserts that the steel should not be used in architectural applications, such as roofing and siding. Yet large buildings of all sorts around the globe can be found covered in the rusty steel. Some recent ones of note include the Echigo-Matsunoyama Natural Science Museum in Japan (2003), designed by Tezuka Architects with load-bearing walls and a roof of Cor-Ten steel; the Santa Mónica Church (2008) in Madrid, Spain by Vicens + Ramos, which features a stunning periscoping façade; and Feilden Clegg Bradley’s Broadcasting Place (2009) in Leeds, UK, a 23-story mixed-use tower that was the recipient of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s 2010 Best Tall Buildin...

Sketches: From Here and There by A.J. Diamond, published by Douglas & McIntyre, 2011. Hardcover, 144 pages. ( Amazon ) Trite but true: you never see anything well until you draw it. -A.J. Diamond Watercolor is an intriguing medium for architects. It has a softness that is appropriate for depicting traditional architecture -- or making contemporary architecture appear warm -- yet it is also a highly expressive way suited to developing concepts, as Steven Holl's well known daily watercolors or CEBRA's cartoonish ones attest. They are also fitting for travel sketches; a watercolor kit can be fairly compact, and the combination of pen or pencil and watercolor captures space and surface more effectively than just a line drawing. I've never been skilled at watercolor -- though I've definitely tried -- so I appreciate well-done sketches in the medium, such as Toronto-based architect A.J. Diamond 's watercolors, which comprise the majority of the dr...

Luxbau Office Conversion in Hainfeld, Austria by synn architekten, 2011 Photographs are by Hertha Hurnaus. Previously the Luxbau construction company's offices were housed in two buildings in the center of Hainfeld, a "Wilhelminian Style Villa" and a 1930s building anchoring the corner. Faced with a situation where the employees were separated from one another, the client and synn architekten opted to build a bridge between the two structures instead of replacing the existing with a new building.  The solution -- based on social and sustainability factors over economic reasons, according to the architects -- is a striking glass and concrete addition that expresses its role as connector. The new entrance in the glass link is positioned closer to the 1930s building than the villa. From here, one can ascend or descend via steps to the former, while access to the latter is via a ramp. The undersides of both the stair and ramp are open, so, in concert with the...