A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Here are a some photos of the Maison de Verre (1932) in Paris, France, which Pierre Chareau designed for gynecologist Dr. Jean Dalsace. The house is owned now by architectural historian Robert Rubin, who allows visits by appointment months in advance . For those who are unable to travel to Paris anytime soon but will be in NYC, the Maison de Verre is beautifully presented by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design , on display at the Jewish Museum until March 26 – highly recommended. (Photographed by August Fischer .) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

"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 worthwhile books than I'm able to review. The Cornell Journal of Architecture 10: Spirits  edited by Caroline O’Donnell | Cornell AAP Publications, distributed by Actar D | 2016 |  Amazon In the introduction to Spirits , O'Donnell and her fellow editors assert the issue "examines a range of spirits haunting architecture today." Colin Rowe, who taught at Cornell for much of his life, must be one of those spirits, for the editors find phantoms in his writings, occupying the realm between buildings and the interaction or people "reading" them. Heady stuff but a great starting point for a mélange of essays on the theme of spirits, ranging from data and the Anthropocene, to Louis Sullivan and meloncholia in citie...

Here are a some photos of the National Art Schools in Havana, Cuba, which were designed by Ricardo Porro, Roberto Gottardi and Vittorio Garatti in the early 1960s but then abandoned in 1965 when the Communist Party came to power. Made a National Monument in 2011, the site was added to the World Monuments Fund's 2016 World Monuments Watch , which "aims to build on its new-found international prominence and highlight the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to the management of the site." (Photographed by Trevor Patt , who has many more photos of the National Art Schools in his Flickr set .) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

eVolo Skyscrapers 3  edited by Carlo Aiello, published by  eVolo , 2016. Hardcover, 656 pages. ( Amazon ) Every year since 2006 the eVolo Skyscraper Competition  has asked architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the world to submit "outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution." Those familiar with the competition know these are not "shovel-ready" designs; the winners will not jump from the drawings boards to reality any time in the near future – if at all. These are experiments: speculations on density, cities of the future, and how technology can be harnessed to envision and realize new realities. Or in the words of eVolo's Carlo Aiello, the submissions "are not traditional skyscrapers by any means but instead they are dee...

I've been a fan of the berm at Brooklyn Bridge Park, an earthwork that drowns out the sounds of the double-decker BQE, ever since visiting it and realizing just how well it worked. I wrote about the feature, part of Michael Van Valkenburgh 's design for the park, back in 2014 , the same time I snapped this photo: Last fall I was walking the Brooklyn Heights Esplanade when I noticed another berm, south of the existing one but winding instead of straight: New earthwork underway at Brooklyn Bridge Park A photo posted by John Hill (@therealarchidose) on Oct 11, 2016 at 2:25pm PDT Here is MVVA's better shot of the berm's construction: A photo posted by MVVA (@mvva.inc) on Oct 24, 2016 at 5:57am PDT Yesterday Curbed posted a rendering by MVVA of the berm and the rest of the Pier 5 uplands, which is located between Montague and Joralemon streets just across from One Brooklyn Bridge Park. And here's how it compares to the construction as it was about four month...

Here are a handful of photos of the  Netzquartier 50Hertz  (2016) in Berlin, Germany, by  LOVE architecture and urbanism . (Photographed by Artur Salisz ) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose

I'll admit I have a love-hate attitude toward the trend of coloring books geared toward grown-ups. Although I like coloring books, even for adults (the mix of patience, concentration, relaxation, and mind/hand skill is beneficial) their popularity means there are just too many of them – 50,450 in Amazon's "Coloring Books for Grown-Ups" category! And with so many, they all tend to look the same, even if they take on different themes: cities, fantasy, flowers, animals, etc. That said, find the bare-bones simplicity of Marc Thomasset's The Brutalist Colouring Book  appealing. [All photos by Geert De Taeye] If Thomasset, who emailed me about his coloring book and sent me these photos, wanted to be funny, he would include one or two gray colored pencils in every order. After all, what is Brutalist architecture but concrete? But just as other coloring books for grown-ups invite juxtapositions of color that could never be found in nature or whatever is bein...

"Old + New" is a new series that pairs two books: one old and one new. Most of the reviews on this blog are fairly recent titles sent to me by publishers, but I wanted to expand the reviews to include older books from my library. To do so I'm using this series to review new books and, when appropriate, dig out an old book and include it as part of the review. This series does not replace my typical book reviews or book briefs  or my Unpacking My Library blog; it merely expands how I present books on this blog. Architecture in Austria: A Survey of the 20th Century edited by Sasha Pirker (Architekturzentrum Wien), Jaime Salazar (Actar), published by  Birkhäuser / Actar , 1999. Hardcover, 334 pages. ( Amazon ) Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries edited by Architekturzentrum Wien, published by AzW/ Park Books , 2016. Flexicover, 440 pages. ( Amazon ) Ever since undergraduate architecture school in the early 1990s, I've been a fan of Au...

Here are a handful of photos of the Campus North Residential Commons and the Frank and Laura Baker Dining Commons (2016) in Chicago, Illinois, by Studio Gang Architects . (Photographed by Trevor Patt ) To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool To contribute your Instagram images for consideration, just: :: Tag your photos  #archidose