A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

"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 can find their way into reviews on my daily or weekly pages. Number 12 in this series focuses on some titles in Princeton Architectural Press's Conversations with Students series, slim volumes that focus on a single architect or designer. 1: Tadao Ando: Conversations with Students edited and translated by Matthew Hunter | Princeton Architectural Press | 2012 | Amazon The most recent installment in the series features six lectures by Tadao Ando at the University of Tokyo in 1998, a time when the Great Hanshin-Awaji Quake hit Kobe. This English-language publication comes a year after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, a fact that Ando makes explicit in the preface. In response to both events the...

Here are some photos of Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart in Stuttgart, Germany, by Eun Young Yi ( Yi Architects ), 2011. Photographs are by Frank Stahl . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Terunobu Fujimori: Architect edited by Michael Buhrs and Hannes Rössler, published by  Hatje Cantz , 2012. Paperback, 240 pages. ( Amazon ) This book on Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori was published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition at Museum Villa Stuck in Munich. Fujimori, known for his quirky teahouse designs, contributed a " trojan pig " on wheels for Villa Stuck, though he changed it to a coffee house, since that drink is more popular in Germany than tea (but less so than beer, which he didn't think would work in a small space). The "walking cafe," as the architect calls it, is one of more than 20 projects collected in this very welcome book on the architect who practiced as an architectural historian for two decades before realizing his first building at age 42. This now well-known past has led to designs that are highly idiosyncratic, neither repeating modernist tactics nor traditional ones. Fujimori actually spells this...

Niemenranta Elementary School in Oulunsalo, Finland, by alt Architects + Architecture Office Karsikas, 2012 The following text and images are courtesy alt Architects . Photographs are by Ville-Pekka Ikola and Kalle Vahtera. Niemenranta Elementary School is located in a new residential area in Oulunsalo Municipality, surrounded by detached houses and other small-scale houses. Most of the area is still in construction phase. The school center is the only public building in the area, thus creating the obvious center point for it. The school center has three parts: the elementary school for 300 students (the project at hand), the kindergarten, and the junior high school. The first two are complete, but the the junior high school has delayed. Although the school is mainly used for education, it also functions as a common space (sports, hobbies, clubs, and gatherings) for the community. The building form is a synthesis of the functional and urban goals. The free formed brick wall fac...

When I snapped some photos of the FDR Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island during its Archtober Open House (posted as Today's archidose #628 ) there were some large tents occupying the lawn for opening festivities. On my second visit a week later the tents were gone, so below are photos of the lawn, moving from the north to the south (note the optical illusion that happens with the tapered plan of the lawn, visible in the second-to-last photo). To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

I couldn't decide on one building for today's archidose, so I chose three, each represented with three photos. Garden Terrace Hotel and Resort in Miyazaki, Japan, by Kengo Kuma and Associates (2012), photographed by Ken Lee : Hermès Rive Gauche in Paris, France, by Rena Dumas Architecture Interieure with Bollinger + Grohmann Ingenieure (2010), photographed by trevor.patt : Bastionder in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, by Van Roosmalen Van Gessel Architecten with landscape design by Martien van Osch (2009), photographed 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

Friday is the kickoff of the first Designers & Books Fair , taking place over three days at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan. I'm getting excited about the fair, which is split between the exhibitors and some great programs . In regards to the latter, I'm happy to extend a Friends Ticket Offer to readers of this blog. Most of the tickets are cut in half using the discount codes found on the offer page , which lists all of the programs. Below is also a schedule of the programs (click image for larger view ), and at bottom are my picks for the weekend, with links to the respective discount pages. Buildings and Books: Four Architecture Critics in Conversation Sat., Oct. 27: 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Special offer price: $15  (regular price $25) Go to: bit.ly/DBFairspecial3 Enter code: BUILD2012 ___________________________________________________________________   From Type to Tablet: Publishers ...

Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies: Lafayette Park, Detroit edited and with text by Danielle Aubert, Lana Cavar, Natasha Chandani | Placement, published by  Metropolis Books , 2012. Paperback, 288 pages. ( Amazon ) While I'm a big fan of book-length case studies on buildings, I'll admit that most tend to focus exclusively on architecture and process at the expense of social concerns, especially how a building is used after the architect is out of the picture. One book counter to this that comes to mind is Peter Friedl's Working at Copan , which features interviews with workers at Oscar Niemeyer's Edificio Copan in São Paulo, but I'm hard pressed to think of a book that makes the users the subject of a book. So Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies is a refreshing arrival this fall, not only for looking at architecture through the lens of Lafayette Park's residents, but for crafting a marvelous book that gives a full sense of the place through text and images....

Integrated Elementary-Middle School Complex in Rome, Italy by Herman Hertzberger and Marco Scarpinato, 2012 Writing about this recently completed school in the Romanina section of Rome is not an easy feat, given that Herman Hertzberger 's buildings beg to be visited to be understood (more than many other buildings) and are designed to be "completed" by the users (as described in an article at Domus by Massimo Faiferri). Therefore the task runs the risk of being an architectonic exercise, mentioning those traits but focusing on plans, sections, and materials, and speculating on the success of the project once the teachers and students figure out how to use the various spaces, indoor and out. For the duration of the project Hertzberger worked with Marco Scarpinato ( AutonomeForme ) as Hertzberger + Scarpinato. The duo developed a plan with a repeated courtyard structure that is reminiscent of Hertzbberger's "cellular" designs, in which rooms ...

The SodaBIB Project is "a prototype project to reuse plastic water bottles to form a thatch roof -- to help people to create shelter from discarded materials." The design of SodaBIB (Soda-Bottle Interface Bracket), developed by professors and students at New York Institute of Technology ( NYIT ), consists of a custom shipping pallet that breaks down to serve as an armature for mounting empty water bottles. Therefore water bottles can be shipped to people and places in need, and then everything can be reused for shelter. The NYIT folks have already created a 5-foot-square prototype, but now they're aiming to build a barrel-vaulted mock-up on the Old Westbury campus. As is becoming the norm, Kickstarter is being used to help fund the project . A short video on the project is below, but much more information on SodaBIB can be found on its Kickstarter page .

Today I snapped some photos of the FDR Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island during its Archtober Open House . The park, designed by Louis I. Kahn and completed four decades after his death by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects , opens to the public on October 24. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose