A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Empowering Architecture: The Butaro Hospital, Rwanda by MASS Design Group, photographs by Iwan Baan, published by MASS, 2012. Paperback, 172 pages. ( Amazon ) Regular readers of this web page should know that I'm a big fan of books about buildings, meaning in-depth case studies about individual projects. Some previous reviews include Raimund Abraham & the Austrian Cultural Forum New York , Oyler Wu's Pendulum Plane , and Zaha Hadid's BMW Central Building . Empowering Architecture , self-published by Boston's MASS Design Group , is a welcome addition to this subject. The book carefully and beautifully tells the story of their design and the creation of the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda, so it may become a model for improved facilities elsewhere. Here I'll focus on the book, but for more information and photos of the hospital see this week's dose . Empowering Architecture is structured into six chapters grouped in three sections: User Experience, C...

Butaro Hospital in Butaro, Rwanda by MASS Design Group, 2011 Inside and out, hospitals in the United States and other developed countries tend to be instantly recognizable as just that: medical facilities. This most likely stems from a small number of architects carrying out the design of hospitals (they are some of the most highly specialized environments around), from a reliance on heavy-duty mechanical systems for venting interior spaces (one of a number of technologies that hospitals rely upon), and a related emphasis on hospital functions over a connection to a place. Some distinctive architecture is still produced, but there is still plenty lacking in terms of how hospitals serve their contexts via architecture. The Butaro Hospital, on the other hand, is a building -- or more accurately a group of buildings -- that does not scream, "hospital." The fact that the building is in Rwanda and not in, say, New York City might have actually pointed to a result that wou...

Recently I've seen a car commercial far too many times that is shot partly, of all places, in a bookstore. My first thought was not, "Gee whiz, what a nice car," it was, "My, that's a nice bookstore." [Screenshot] Digging around the internet with keyword searches "bookstore", "tree", "car commercial", and combinations of those and other words, I could not find the store. But then I considered that most likely a commercial would be shot in Los Angeles, then Hennessey + Ingels came to mind. I'd visited their Santa Monica store many years ago, and even though they no longer have that store on the 3rd Street Promenade (they moved to nearby Wilshire Blvd.) , the commercial actually happens to be shot in their Hollywood store . Space 15 Twenty is the name of "the unique retail setting" where Hennessey + Ingels is located. It is one of nine stores (Urban Outfitters is the anchor) in "the curated environmen...

Here are some photos of the Canada Water Library in Southwark, London by CZWG Architects (2011). Photographs are by Pawel Paniczko . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Last night the Design Trust for Public Space and project partner Added Value celebrated the launch of Five Borough Farm: Seeding the Future of Urban Agriculture in New York City . The book, which is accompanied by a website , surveys the more than 700 citywide farms and gardens that grow food; metrics are outlined toward gauging the success of urban agriculture; and the project is aimed at affecting policy, so that farms and gardens will be formally recognized and supported in the city. Much more will follow from the Design Trust and Added Value in the next year, but the book is a watershed in examining the benefits of urban agriculture. A review of the book on this blog is forthcoming. About the Project : Need for Five Borough Farm Urban agriculture is booming in New York City, with more than 700 food-producing urban farms and gardens citywide. In all five boroughs, New Yorkers have turned vacant lots and rooftops, schoolyards and NYCHA gardens into places to grow food. But u...

Earlier today I walked up Fifth Avenue and noticed that the Louis Vuitton at 57th Street, designed by Jun Aoki , looked a bit different. Crossing the street to take a closer look, I realized that the storefront is decked out for Yayoi Kusama's exhibition at the Whitney Museum , which is sponsored by Louis Vuitton . Corporate ties to the world of art are hardly new, and brands like Louis Vuitton are particularly well connected to artists. I remember Takashi Murakami putting his cartoon characters on their handbags some years ago, so this one doesn't come as a shock. But putting the artist in the storefront would be a shock. I must admit that I was fooled in my quick glance at this shop window. Was she taking the corporate tie-in to the next level? But photos of the 83-year-old artist around the Whitney opening and the unveiling of the polka-dot exterior show her in a wheelchair, so she is probably not up for standing in a window acting out the Abramovic Method . Neverth...

Portfolio Design, Fourth Edition by Harold Linton, published by  W. W. Norton , 2012. Hardcover, 224 pages. ( Amazon ) Harold Linton's Portfolio Design was first published in 1996. I remember referencing it as I assembled my portfolio after graduating from undergraduate architecture school the same year. A lot has changed in the last decade and a half, much of which has influenced the shape and form of portfolios. Design work is produced in the computer, rather than by hand; images are modified and portfolio pages are laid out with Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) or other software; and prospective employers would rather look at PDFs or websites before considering somebody for a position, after which they can look at a print portfolio during an interview. These are not hard and fast rules, of course, but advances in computer technology, and their influence on the production of architectural design, have necessitated three new editions ...

"Le Grand Stade" in Fontainebleau, France by Joly&Loiret, 2012 In less than a week the starting ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics will be underway in London. For two weeks the world's attention will be focused on events taking place in new facilities by Zaha Hadid, Populous, and others. Plenty of attention has already been directed to the architecture of the 2012 Olympics, so I'm heading (figuratively) to France to look at another recently completed sports facility: Joly&Loiret 's design of seating, facilities, and landscape for Le Grande Parquet equestrian stadium in the forests of Fontainebleau. The architects assert that they wanted to "invent a real architecture-landscape, where boundaries between definitions blur and merge." The primary means of doing this was through a pedestrian circuit around the whole site. This public walkway has various characteristics around the site, intertwining both with horses and forest, before ...

Recently I've been lucky enough to do a radio show and an interview around my Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture . Earlier today I was on Heritage Radio Network's Burning Down the House , and a week before my Oculus Book Talk I did a short interview. Thanks respectively to Curtis B. Wayne and Miguel Baltierra for the questions and coverage. Burning Down the House: Oculus Book Talk Interview:

Here are a couple photos by Klaas Vermaas of an oldie but goodie: REMU Electricity Substation in Amersfoort, The Netherlands by UNStudio (1993). I featured the project on my weekly page way back in May, 1999 . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Summer in New York City may be when people skip town (at least on weekends), but flipping through the Brooklyn Rail I came across some shows that look interesting. If anything, these should provide good places in and around NYC to escape from the heat. Model Theories at Ford Project, Jun 26 to Aug 10: [Artwork by Haus-Rucker-Co] Emily Kinni at 1:1, Jul 12 to Aug 4: ["Execution Chambers" by Emily Kinni] Art in Buildings at 125 Maiden Lane, Jun 27 to Oct 20: [Left: Flock House "Chromasphere" by Mary Mattingly (photo is previous installation at Battery Park City). Right: "Matrix V" by Erwin Redl, a permanent installation by appointment only.] Vivien Bittencourt: In The Arms Of Time at Ille Arts (Amagansett, Long Island), Jul 14 to Aug 8: ["Selinunte" by Vivien Bittencourt] Not in Brooklyn Rail but worth a look is a show on the tenth anniversary of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Our Haus at Austrian Cultural Forum, Ma...

Three years ago I posted about ODA-Architecture's conversion of a Long Island City, Queens, service station into a bakery. Here's the before and envisioned after: Recently the New York Times ran a story about "a clean new life for grimy gas stations," including the Breadbox Bakery by ODA , which is now complete. Oil changes have given way to baked goods, but the gas station next door is still in business. (Per the Times story, the owner eventually wants to develop a larger project on the site, which would be above the bakery and replace the gas station.) Here are a few photos by Frank Oudeman of the converted service station located on 11th Street, a couple blocks from MoMA PS1: Yes, those are rolling pins on the outer, screen-like facade. (Photos courtesy of ODA-Architecture )

[The Allen Room at Time Warner Center | image source ] Today I learned that Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show, appropriately called Anderson , is taped in The Allen Room at Time Warner Center. This large space is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center , which was designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects and is located between the development's two towers, above a large atrium that is the middle of a curving mall. A double cable-net wall designed by SOM with James Carpenter Design Associates opens up a stunning view of Columbus Circle and Central Park. [The Anderson set at Time Warner Center | image source ] While I can't say I'm excited that the space is being used for a daytime talk show, I'm glad to learn that "Unlike most TV studios, the room will continue to be used for other events and performances." Therefore Mr. Cooper is sharing the space with the jazz musicians who the space is designed for; he gets it during the day, and they get it at nigh...

The Sky's the Limit: Applying Radical Architecture edited by Robert Klanten, Sven Ehmann and Sofia Borges, published by  Gestalten , 2012. Hardcover, 288 pages. ( Amazon ) What is the state of architectural icons in the 21st century, post-2008? Frank Gehry's design of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain is the marker for icons in the decade leading up to the economic collapse of 2008, but do later attention-getting pieces of architecture offer something different? Sofia Borges asks as much in her introduction to this collection of "radical architecture." Pointing out that icons date back to ancient civilizations, the only thing separating today's crop from historical icons is the sources of power. No longer directed by governments or other public figures, corporations and other private institutions lead the way, fighting for attention in cities that are more than open to being host to the latest and greatest. Yet Borges argues that the glut...

Arts and Creative Platform in Guimarães, Portugal by Pitágoras Arquitectos, 2012 Guimarães, Portugal is one of two Capitals of European Culture in 2012 (the other city is Maribor, Slovenia), meaning it "will be hosting a major gathering of creators and creations: music, cinema, photography, fine arts, architecture, literature, thought, theatre, dance, street art." Yet the Capital of Culture designation also means it will be "a catalyst for development of the city and surrounding region, having Culture, in its broadest sense, as the main driver of this transformation." One element of this transformation is the Arts and Creative Platform designed by Pitágoras Arquitectos . The project involves the renovation of a public square and buildings and the design of a new building on a centrally located public space used as the Municipal Market. An industrial building on the site's southern boundary was demolished to make way for the new building, but the...