A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody celebrating the holiday. Posts will resume on Monday.

Here is the Brufe Social Center in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal, by Imago (Cerejeira Fontes Architects), photographed by José Carlos Melo Dias . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Designers & Books has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time with a book version of the Proust Questionnaire . Like the original, the book version aims to reveal one's personality through pointed questions, in this case about one's favorites, collection, and habits. I've liked reading the responses that D&B has been posting throughout November, so I thought it would be fun to tackle all of the 25 questions (respondents at D&B have answered between 10 and 25). It ended up being more challenging than fun, but enjoyable nevertheless. 1. Of these, your reading preference: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama: Nonfiction. I can't remember the last time I read anything else. 2. Your favorite childhood book (or favorite childhood author): The books that come to mind from my childhood are those by Dr. Seuss and P.D. Eastman, like  And To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street ...

Linda Bennett (aka the archi-ninja ) has developed the DIY Concrete House Ring , what she describes as "an elegant, audacious piece of jewelry. A hand casted concrete and resin composite is molded within a sterling silver, satin finish inner and outer piece." Bennett is seeking funding for the project via Kickstarter , where you can learn more about the design and how it works. Some of those materials are shown here, including the video pitch above (my favorite is the animated gif with the little people, at the bottom of this post). Since the ring is DIY – meaning you make your own ring with the 16 specially made pieces – each one is unique. The various combinations of shapes, sizes, pigments and smoothness means you craft the ring just the way you like it. It's like a custom home – on your hand !

Some photos of the extension to the Historical Museum Bern (aka KUBUS/TITAN, 2009) in Bern, Switzerland by :mlzd , photographed by Trevor Patt . ( Previously ) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Design for an Empathic World: Reconecting People, Nature and Self by Sim Van der Ryn, published by  Island Press , 2013. Hardcover, 164 pages. ( Amazon ) Fifteen years after the creation of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green-building rating system, it seems that sustainable principles are fairly well entrenched in architectural practice. What used to be considered a costly alternative to the usual materials and systems have become the norm in approaching the design of buildings. But do things like low-flow toilets, green roofs, and other elements within a point-based trade-off system really add up to truly green architecture? Are buildings meeting LEED Silver, Gold, or even Platinum really sustainable? The answer is increasingly "no," not only because the system is flawed but because terms like "sustainability" and "green building" have been co-opted by manufacturers, marketers, and others focused on the bo...

Taipei Sales Center in Taipei, Taiwan, by Oyler Wu Collaborative, 2013 The following text and images are courtesy of Oyler Wu Collaborative . Often the unusual circumstances surrounding the design of a project leads to the most unusual results. In the case of this temporary sales center in Taipei by Oyler Wu Collaborative, the convergence of a set of ongoing architectural interests converged with an unusual site, timeline, program, and developer to create an unexpected outcome. The existing building is really a conglomeration of different buildings, built over several decades. The outcome is a five-story volume pierced (quite literally) and interconnected by an intricate ribbon of rope, steel, and fabric. The renovation creates an entirely new identity and is suggestive of the modern intervention that will soon occupy the site. Located on the future site of a new 16-story residential tower (also designed by Oyler Wu Collaborative), the developers were interested in renovating...

For a while now the entrance to the Standard East Village on the Bowery has been behind plywood, as the hotel renovated its ground floor to move its lobby into the neighboring townhouse and reconfigure the ground floor. I found myself in the area on Friday afternoon and was shocked to see how they modified the base of the tower designed by Carlos Zapata. Here is the before condition, via Google Street View : And here is the after, via my dumbphone: So instead of keeping or continuing the language of the tower they purchased, the Standard opted to extend the blue storefront they pasted onto the townhouse around the old lobby, where it meets a new brick storefront, both appearing to sit in front of the glass walls from above. Beyond the totally odd juxtaposition of the modern tower and the brick and wood storefronts, the renovation covers up the stair that used to provide access to an elevated terrace on the back of the building. (Is the terrace gone? I'm not sure.) Whateve...

Last month I asked readers to take a shot at matching the anonymous entries in the design competition for the Nobel Center in Stockholm with the eleven firms that submitted. Today the Nobel Center announced three finalists (a winner won't be selected until April, 2014). Those are noted below as are which firm (numbers) designed which project (letters). See the jury statement (PDF link) for more information on each submission. Participating Architects (in alphabetical order): 3XN (C) BIG (H) David Chipperfield Architects (E) - FINALIST Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor (I) - FINALIST Lacaton and Vassal Architectes (K) Lundgaard and Tranberg Arkitekter (A) Marcel Meili, Markus Peter Architekten (D) OMA (B) SANAA (F) Snøhetta (J) Wingårdhs Arkitekter (G) - FINALIST Design Proposals (in alphabetical order): A. Archipelago by Lundgaard and Tranberg Arkitekter (6): B. Beyond 1210 by OMA (8): C. Butterfly by 3XN (1): D. Landing Seagulls by Marcel Meili, ...

Congratulations to SLO Architecture on winning the inaugural Dwell Vision Award for their Harvest Dome 2.0 . The project—a pavilion floating on the Bronx River that is made from old umbrellas and plastic bottles—is about as far removed from the modern residences that usually line the pages of Dwell , but as the magazine's president and publisher Michela O’Connor Abrams said in the announcement at Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn last week, the prize is about innovation that is technically and artistically groundbreaking. Below are some of my photos from the event last week. SLO Architecture is raising money to bring the Harvest Dome 2.0 to the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, so check out the Kickstarter page for more information and to make a donation. Dwell 's Michela O’Connor Abrams speaking before the award announcement: Dwell editor in chief Amanda Dameron (left) and award recipients Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi of SLO Architecture: