A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Looking to buy a distinctive home in New York City? Perhaps one featured in my Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture ? Or one with a "fully retractable living room facade/wall"? If so, then you're in luck: The garden apartment at 226 East 14th Street, designed by Bill Peterson Architect , is on the market at Corcoran for just under $2.5 million . Look very closely at the bottom three images below to see the second-floor facade retract into the unit; the result is the photo at top left. [224 East 14th Street - Apt: GRDN 1 | image source ] The description from my book: "Among the bars and cheap food catering to students and East Village hipsters on a stretch of 14th Street sits a brownstone with a perforated metal storefront, also brown, that exudes a certain Zen-like calm. This CNC-milled screen is a treat in and of itself, but it is even subtler than the surprise (barely) visible one floor above. The seven-story building is basically a formal reconst...

The Architectural Detail by Edward R. Ford, published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 2011. Paperback, 336 pages. ( Amazon ) Following 2009's Five Houses, Ten Details , architect/educator Edward R. Ford broadens his scope of investigation on his favorite topic: the architectural detail. The earlier book looked at five iterations of his own house, while the latest book presents five types of details in the work of 20th century masters and contemporary architects of note. These five types of detail -- as abstraction, as a fragment in which the whole building is represented, as the articulation of structure, as the articulation of construction, as autonomous design -- move from his least to most favored, making the book an unfolding of the critical wisdom that Ford imparts upon the reader. Except for the autonomous detail -- his preferred mode -- there is a great deal of overlap between the different types, particularly when he uses the buildings of, for exa...

3D Athletics Track in Alicante, Spain by Subarquitectura, 2011 If one were to ascribe a work of architecture as surreal, initially it would probably arise from a formal similarity to Surrealist art, such as the painting of Salvador Dali where clocks droop. Surrealism presents the viewer with something familiar that is skewed in a surprising way, be it a dreamlike metamorphosis or a juxtaposition with something that doesn't belong. Antonio Gaudi's architecture, preceding the production of Surrealist art, certainly comes to mind -- what with familiar elements like windows inserted within alien, undulating walls -- but another strain of surreal architecture would be more subtle, taking the familiar and adding an element of surprise that is strongly linked to the former. Subarquitectura 's 3D Athletics Track in southeastern Spain is one such subtly surreal piece of architecture. The architects took a standard Olympic-sized running track -- 400-meter length, 36.5-meter ...

100 Ideas that Changed Architecture by Richard Weston, published by  Laurence King Publishing , 2011. Paperback, 216 pages. ( Amazon ) Laurence King Publishing's 100 Ideas series has to date covered fashion and architecture, with soon-to-be-released titles tackling film and graphic design. It is a simple format: chronicle the most important influences on an art/design field with one idea per spread, 100 total. I'm surprised it hasn't been done before (I don't think it has). It serves to reflectively look at the state of contemporary architecture, in the case of Richard Weston's contribution to the series, and straddles the line between history and theory by tracing architecture in a roughly chronological order and by focusing on the ideas that have shaped it. Yet the book is more history than theory because, as the author asserts in his introduction, an "architectural idea" is not necessarily one that is philosophical or theoretical, since all creatio...

B.U.G.S, London Zoo by Wharmby & Cozens by Iqbal Aalam , originally uploaded by Iqbal Aalam . B.U.G.S (Biodiversity Underpinning Global Survival), London Zoo's house for "creepy-crawlies" by Phil Wharmby and Mike Cozens, 1999. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

On Wednesday architect Tom Kundig -- of Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects -- spoke at the New York Public Library , conversing with Town & Country editor Mark Rozzo about Tom Kundig: Houses 2 , published by Princeton Architectural Press . In the lecture portion of the evening Kundig spoke about his inspirations, ranging from his architect-father to the landscape of eastern Washington state where he grew up and even hot rodding. In line with the DIY mechanics of the latter is Jean Tinguely's fountain in Basel, what Kundig described as straddling the "thin line between highbrow and lowbrow art." See for yourself: The aspect of Kundig's architecture that these kinetic sculptures influence is obviously the moving walls and other elements found especially in his residences. One case in point is the Chicken Point Cabin in northern Idaho, found in the first monograph on his houses : The project features a huge 7-ton window wall that is raised and lowered...

This is too funny -- to architects that read history and theory books, at least -- not to pass along. In an issue last September The Onion 's advice column was Ask The Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz . I'll guess this elicits either a smile that something so architecturally esoteric would make it in The Onion , or a "huh?" [Christian Norberg-Schulz | image source ] Here's a taste: Dear Concept Of Phenomenology In Architecture As Developed By The Norwegian Theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz, I'm as open-minded as the next person, but my neighbors regularly wander around their apartment in the nude and don't close the curtains. I guess they are "liberated," but I'm bothered by their, in my opinion, disrespectful disregard for basic boundaries (our backyard faces directly into their family-room picture window) and so is my wife. How do I get them to show some s...

The 2011 Bau des Jahres -- Building of the Year -- at Swiss-Architects.com is Janus, the redevelopment the City Museum in Rapperswil-Jona by Biel-based :mlzd . The selection is the result of readers choosing from the 50 projects featured in the Swiss-Architects.com eMagazine last year.

Here are some photos of ROC Leiden Lammenschans Park in Leiden, The Netherlands by RAU , 2011. Photos are by Klaas Vermaas . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Wonderland Manual for Emerging Architects edited by Wonderland - Platform for Architecture, Silvia Forlati and Anne Isopp, published by Springer, 2011. Paperback, 352 pages. ( Amazon ) Some years back I downloaded the first issue of Wonderland - Platform for Architecture , a magazine that was distributed with A10, New European Architecture . Even though I only had a PDF, I was intrigued by the page layout, as well as the graphics and the means of visualizing information, the latter with its surveys on the state of architectural practice. Geared at helping young architects in Europe to start up a practice, the first issue, "Getting Started," came across as a fresher and more readable alternative to the US-equivalent, AIA's The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice . This comparison, while unfair in that one is aimed at European architects and the other at American architects, illustrates what makes Wonderland unique: it surveys firms and col...

Shou Sugi Ban in Maarn, Netherlands by BYTR Architects, 2010 Photographs are by Ossip van Duivenbode, courtesy BYTR Architects. The monicker of this small house addition in Maarn, Netherlands, a town in the province of Utrecht, is a traditional Japanese method of burning cedar boards for a house's siding. Shou-sugi-ban , or yakisugi , is used to make the wood ( sugi ) resistant to fire and insects. The technique has been recently popularized in contemporary houses by Terunobu Fujimori, such as in the aptly named Yakisugi House . Rotterdam-based BYTR Architects has used the technique to give the addition its distinctive "deep black glow," while making the exterior maintenance free. The addition, which consists primarily of a kitchen and dining area, wraps a one-story "L" around a square, two-story 1950s brick house. Therefore the addition faces the backyard and the side yard, with a small portion facing the street. The architects shaped the volume at...

Here are a couple photos of Unipark Nonntal (University of Salzburg) in Salzburg, Austria by Storch Ehlers Partner , 2011. Photos 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

The other day I was in Midtown and caught my first glimpse of the facade going up on the International Gem Tower , designed by SOM and developed by Extell . Unfortunately I only had my phone with me to snap a photo from the plaza on 46th Street east of Sixth Avenue: Located on a stretch of West 47th Street that is home to the Diamond District, the building is appropriately billed as "New York's only 21st century commercial condo designed specifically for the diamond, gem and jewelry trade." And while SOM's web page does not have any mention of the project, it seems like a safe bet that diamonds and gems influenced the building's skin. Here's a close-up of the above photo. The bulk of the facade is made of mirrored glass that is faceted along the spandrel and in verticals that alternate on every floor. These combine to give the whole wrapper a repeated stepping pattern. Renderings, like these and the one below, give the wall more transparency than t...

Today The Architect's Newspaper posted a review by Jan Lakin of my Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture (W. W. Norton, 2012). Lakin's review is very thoughtful, picking up on my predilection for architecture at the level of the pedestrian rather than of the skyline. To wit: "Hill is focused on assembling contemporary designs that engage us in interesting ways at street level throughout New York’s neighborhoods. The result is a nuanced perspective of the city’s recent architecture." I could easily pull more flattering quotes like the one above, but instead head over to Archpaper to read Lakin's review.

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed I have a thing for the intersection of architecture and advertising , be it iconic buildings used as a backdrop for a product, clothiers using the profession for style "cred," or an architect hawking merchandise . The last two converge in a J.Crew ad I noticed today on the inside cover of February's Fast Company : Pushing the Ludlow Suit , the ad features six gents sporting six variations on the "bespoke-inspired" suit. Two are restauranteurs, one is a journalist/activist, one is a business analyst, one is a creative director, and one is an architect, Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro . Given the firm where he is partner, his name is fairly well known with architects, but not his mug. This ad will certainly change that, while also making people wonder what his sock drawer looks like. Each of this six stylish professionals has their own idiosyncratic way of personalizing the J.Crew suit. Renfro has...

A potpourri of buildings from the archidose flickr pool: [Bilbao City Hall in Bilbao, Spain by IMB Arquitectos , 2011 | Photograph by Wojtek Gurak ] [House K 05 in Buggenhout, Belgium by Graux & Baeyens , 2012 | Photograph by Philippe Brysse ] [Menomonee Valley Community Park Pavilion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, designed and built as part of the SARUP Marcus Prize by students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning, taught by Barkow Leibinger Architects and Kyle Talbot, 2008 | Photograph by trevor.patt ] [Tenement House in Prague, Czech Republic by DaM spol. s r.o. , 2011 | Photograph by M. Correia Campos ] [ Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall in Bilbao, Spain by Federico Soriano & Dolores Palacios, 1999 | Photograph by Wojtek Gurak ] To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

SHoP: Out of Practice by SHoP Architects, published by  The Monacelli Press , 2012. Hardcover, 420 pages. ( Amazon ) Given their output, it is probably surprising to many people that this is the first monograph on New York City-based SHoP Architects . But given the firm's distinct levels of diversity, control, and perfection -- evident in the fact they designed the branding and graphic design that defines the look and feel of the book -- this shouldn't be a surprise after all. Founded in 1996 by Christopher Sharples, Coren Sharples, William Sharples, Kimberly Holden, and Gregg Pasquarelli, the firm's name starts to describe the defining traits of the now 60-person firm. As an acronym of the five partner's last names, SHoP expresses the founding individuals but also a focus on the larger team and the desire to build. The last, as it becomes apparent reading the introduction by Philip Nobel and the various essays by SHoP, is what drove the five to start t...

Pier 15 in New York City by SHoP Architects, 2011 A month ago the latest addition to the East River Waterfront Esplanade , which stretches for two miles along Manhattan's old industrial waterfront from the Battery Maritime Terminal to Montgomery Street, opened without fanfare . The uneventful opening of Pier 15 probably stems from the fact it happened at the beginning of winter, but also because, while the two-level park is complete, the glass pavilions that sit on the lower level are empty. The planned restaurant and maritime museum are yet to be, but nevertheless Pier 15 is a strong destination jutting into the East River just south of the South Street Seaport Mall on Pier 17. Designed by SHoP Architects with Ken Smith Landscape Architect , the pier's presence is shaped by its edges: To the west is the elevated FDR Drive; the tall ships of the South Street Seaport are docked directly to the north; the south is all water until Wall Street's Pier 11 (desi...