A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Seeing a TV commercial for Verzenio  the other day, I was reminded of that day I made the cover of my local newspaper after getting an architectural commission. Oh, wait. That never happened. Because architects DON'T MAKE IT ON THE FRONT PAGE OF NEWSPAPERS! Much less above the fold – and with a photo, a smiling photo. Sure, there are exceptions: your name is Frank Gehry; the newspaper is The Architect's Newspaper ; or the design contract being awarded is the most coveted one in the entire world, and you're a young architect from a small "central community" nobody's ever heard of. In that case, this example of architectural advertising is, unlike others, spot-on.

The "So You Want to Learn About" series highlights books focused on a particular theme: think "socially responsible architecture" and "Le Corbusier," rather than broad themes like "housing" or "modern architects." Therefore the series aims to be a resource for finding decent reading materials on certain topics, born of a desire to further define noticeable areas of interest in the  books I review . And while I haven't reviewed every title, I am familiar with each one; these are not blind recommendations. This year's release of Michael Sorkin's latest collection of critical essays,  What Goes Up: The Rights and Wrongs to the City , prompted me to put together a "learn about" post on the influential critic, educator, and designer of buildings and cities. An outspoken critic of misguided architecture, urban inequality, oppressive ideologies, and other impediments to truly egalitarian and sustainable societies, Sork...

Here are some photos of the Campinarana House in Manaus, Brazil, by Laurent Troost and Raquel Reis. See also photographs by Leonardo Finotti . View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laurent Troost (@laurenttroost) on Apr 28, 2018 at 5:52am PDT View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laurent Troost (@laurenttroost) on Mar 24, 2018 at 5:29am PDT View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laurent Troost (@laurenttroost) on Jan 27, 2018 at 4:45am PST View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laurent Troost (@laurenttroost) on Apr 14, 2018 at 5:42am PDT View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laurent Troost (@laurenttroost) on Mar 13, 2018 at 8:37am PDT View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laurent Troost (@laurenttroost) on Mar 3, 2018 at 4:54am PST 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...

On Monday, October 29 at 6:30pm, Kongjian Yu, founder of Turenscape , is giving the 2018 Kenneth Frampton Endowed Lecture at Columbia GSAPP. The lecture is a must. Michael Van Valkenburgh describes Yu, on the back cover of the new Terreform/UR book, Letters to the Leaders of China: Kongjian Yu and the Future of the Chinese City , as "the Olmsted of China." [Harbin Qunli Stormwater Park in  Haerbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China,  by Turenscape] From Columbia GSAPP's website : Creating Deep Connections and Deep Forms A lecture by Kongjian Yu , founder of Turenscape, Beijing. Response by Kenneth Frampton . Kongjian Yu is the Dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape at Peking University and the founder of the award-winning landscape and architecture firm Turenscape, based in Beijing. His pioneering research on ‘ecological security patterns’ and ‘sponge cities’ have been adopted by the Chinese government as the guiding theory for national land use pla...

Exposed Architecture: Exhibitions, Interludes and Essays by LIGA Park Books, 2018 Paperback, 312 pages Five years ago, coinciding with a couple conferences on architectural exhibitions, I did a short survey of venues devoted to architecture for World-Architects. With only eleven institutions, the survey was far from comprehensive, though it made up for this with a diversity of locales and approaches to displaying architecture. One of the youngest – two years old at the time of publication – of the bunch was LIGA, Space for Architecture in Mexico City, which I had only marginal knowledge of at the time. An "uneven balance between lots of construction and no discussion" in Latin America led to the creation of LIGA and made it "a necessary platform to create a local architectural culture." Amazingly, the ambitious impetus of LIGA and its diverse seasonal programming (four exhibitions per year) took place in a corner storefront of only 160 square meters (photos...

Last night I attended the opening of LUSTER , an installation designed by Jenny Sabin Studio  and curated by Art Production Fund for House of Peroni . LUSTER transformed the top floor at 463 West Street (part of Westbeth Artist Housing - PDF link) into a pop-up bar for a few days, after which the piece will travel to LA, Miami, and DC this fall. Before the party got going Jenny Sabin spoke with Christoph a. Kumpusch about the installation and the work of her studio based in Ithaca. Sabin's work came to my attention, like most people I'm guessing, when she won the MoMA PS1 YAP last year with  Lumen , a lightweight canopy of digitally knitted, robotically woven, photo-luminescent, solar-active yarns. Unfortunately, I only saw Lumen during the day , not at night when it glowed in various colors. Thankfully, last night's discussion took place just after sunset, when LUSTER 's color-changing lighting kicked in, distracting me from whatever Sabin and Kumpusch were sayi...

[All photographs by John Hill, unless noted otherwise] Twelve years I've lived in New York City and Wednesday morning was my first visit to Liberty Island, home to the most famous statue in the world. I didn't go to walk up the 350-plus steps to the crown of the Statue of Liberty though. I was there for a hard hat tour of the Statue of Liberty Museum. Designed by FXCollaborative , with exhibitions by ESI Design, the building is expected to open in May 2019. [Rendering of Statue of Liberty Museum by FXCollaborative] The current museum is housed in the base of the Statue of Liberty at the eastern end of the island. This location means that many people don't visit the museum, since thousands more people take a ferry to the island than get inside the statue's base. The new freestanding museum, located next to the existing Flagpole Plaza on the western end of the island, will enable more people to visit the museum and it should alleviate congestion on the island. Its...

The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in America by Alan Mallach, published by  Island Press , 2018. Paperback, 326 pages. ( Amazon ) Although I live in New York City, I haven't lived here all my life and therefore I like to think I'm more aware of some biases held by New Yorkers. With twelve years now as a NYC resident, following decades in Chicago and half a decade in Kansas, I've grown to understand, for instance, why people here are so focused on the city, as if blinders shut out the world – or at least parts not deemed worthwhile – beyond the shores of the five boroughs. Not as cliché or hyperbolic is the way the media in NYC shapes issues well beyond the city, something natives might not be so aware of. Take gentrification, a very real issue for residents of lower-income neighborhoods that witness rezonings, public works improvements, widespread development, and then displacement. With rising rents, stagnant wages for working classes, and rising inequality, ...