A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

In 2019, the first year for A Daily Dose of Architecture Books (dDAB), I featured nearly 200 books in six day-of-the-week categories: Monograph Monday , Technical Tuesday , World Wednesday , History/Theory Thursday , Free-for-all Friday , and Wayback Weekend . With the year drawing to a close, I've decided to take a look back at all these books and pick my favorite in each category. This is not a "Best of 2019" list, though, since the books I reviewed in 2019 weren't necessarily released in 2019 (obviously this is the case with the Wayback Weekend books). Below are my favorite books reviewed on dDAB in 2019, with just minor commentary provided for each. Reviews on dDAB will resume the second week of 2020. Monograph Monday ( 31 books ): Studio 804: Design Build. Expanding the Pedagogy of Architectural Education by Dan Rockhill with David Sain (Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, October 2018)  This long-overdue monograph covers the first 25 years of Studio 804, the ...

The Story of New York's Staircase Prestel, November 2019 Paperback | 10 x 10 inches | 144 pages | 100 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-3791384733 | $25.00 Publisher's Description : A public space like no other, the staircase was designed by the award-winning Heatherwick Studio to give New Yorkers and visitors a unique vertical experience. In this book, readers can witness every part of its development, from initial designs to the finished structure. They'll learn why and how the staircase came to be and the significance of its placement in the Nelson Byrd Woltz-designed Public Square and Gardens at Hudson Yards. An essay by architecture critic Paul Goldberger explores the importance of public spaces, while additional texts explain the evolution of the neighbourhood and discuss the staircase’s dramatic design. A wealth of photography follows the structure's incredible path to completion and the final result, with a total of 2,500 steps, 154 interconnected sta...

MoMA PS1: A History Klaus Biesenbach, Bettina Funcke (Editors) The Museum of Modern Art , October 2019 Hardcover | 9-1/4 x 10-3/4 inches | 304 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1633450691 | $65.00 Publisher's Description : Since its inception in the early 1970s, MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, has been a crucible for radical experimentation. Committed to New York City as well as to maintaining an international scope, PS1 has always put the artist at the center, engaging practitioners at work in every discipline from performance, music, dance, poetry and new media to painting, sculpture, photography and architecture. This groundbreaking publication captures the vibrancy of a long and venerable tradition that began with the legendary series of performances and events organized by founder Alanna Heiss under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1971. Organized into four main sections that delve into the former school’s rich history as an art center during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s up to ...

The Revolution Will Be Stopped Halfway: Oscar Niemeyer in Algeria Jason Oddy Columbia Books on Architecture and the City , September 2019 Paperback | 9 x 11 inches | 208 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1941332504 | $35.00 Publisher's Description : Of all of the Brazilian modernist Oscar Niemeyer’s many built works, his Algerian projects are among the least well known. Beginning in 1968, Algeria’s President Houari Boumediene commissioned Niemeyer to build two universities and an Olympic sports hall, as well as a series of large-scale, never-realized projects across Algeria, in an attempt to forge a modern, independent nation. In 2013, Jason Oddy produced an in-depth photographic survey of these buildings as they exist in Algeria today. The Revolution Will Be Stopped Halfway collects those images alongside archival documents and Oddy’s further research into Niemeyer’s Algerian work in order to explore the revolutionary politics that inspired and formed these buildings. dDAB C...

Peter Salter – Walmer Yard Peter Salter, et. al. Circa Press , July 2019 Hardcover | 11-3/4 x 10-1/4 inches | 156 pages | 140 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-1911422075 | $60.00 Publisher's Description : Peter Salter is an architect and teacher whose work has influenced several generations of students. The culmination of ten years of planning, Walmer Yard, in Notting Hill, is his first residential project in the UK and one of only a small number of buildings he has completed worldwide. Although modest in scale, the project is extraordinary in many ways. On an irregularly shaped site, Salter’s design brings four houses into a complex relationship with each other that is half formal, half familiar, interdependent, yet solitary. Similarly, the relationships between the core team members are more nuanced than in most architectural projects, since they all met at the Architectural Association in Peter’s unit, where Crispin Kelly (the client) and Fenella Collingridge (Peter...

Almost Nothing: 100 Artists Comment on the Work of Mies van der Rohe Christian Bjone Park Books , June 2019 Hardcover | 8-1/2 x 11 inches | 226 pages | 215 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-3038600800 | $49.00 Publisher's Description : Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) was one of the most significant and influential architects in history. His designs and buildings—to say nothing of his thought and writing—continue to this day to spark heated debates on achievement and failure in modern architecture. And he’s the rare architect whose influence and reputation spread beyond the field—which this book demonstrates powerfully. Almost Nothing collects work by one hundred painters, sculptors, photographers, film directors, designers, cartoonists, and architects that comment on or appropriate buildings, designs, and statements by or images of the legendary architect. New York–based architect and writer Christian Bjone amplifies the selections with a commentary offering rich...

OMA/Rem Koolhaas: A Critical Reader Christophe Van Gerrewey (Editor) Birkhäuser , October 2019 Hardcover/Paperback/eBook | 8-3/4 x 11 inches | 464 pages | 100 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-3035619775 (pbk) | $44.99 (pbk) Publisher's Description : The activities of Rem Koolhaas and his staff were widely discussed even before the foundation of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1975. Today, many contributions on the work of OMA can be found in the international architectural press, including Koolhaas’ own writings. The book contains about 150 selected texts—interviews, feature articles, essays, lead articles, reviews, letters, introductions, appraisals, and competition reports that have been compiled for the first time. This compilation not only provides a fresh and critical view of the oeuvre of one the most important contemporary architects, but also represents an account of the debate on architectural and urban design in recent decades. dDAB Commentary ...