A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Animal Architecture Karl von Frisch, with the collaboration of Otto von Frisch Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974 Hardcover | 6 x 8 inches | 306 pages | 282 illustrations | English (translated by Lisbeth Gombrich) | ISBN: 978-0151072514 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : The creative building activity of animals of all species is surveyed in text, drawings, and photographs in this fascinating work by one of the most eminent of animal observers. With an unrivaled grasp of his subject, Professor von Frisch unfolds the marvels of instinct and inventiveness among insects, fish, birds, and mammals. Much earlier than human technicians, termites created systems of air conditioning, dug wells to a depth of 120 feet, and built central cities with satellite suburbs. Wasps may have shown the Chinese how to make paper. Bowerbirds decorate their nests with the aesthetic sense of a painter. Animals have ingeniously used stone, wood, reeds, clay, and wax as building material. They have devised hinged do...

A-frame Chad Randl Princeton Architectural Press , June 2020 (Second Edition) Paperback | 8 x 8-3/4 inches | 224 pages | 225 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-1616899059 | $29.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : The heyday of the national A-frame craze saw tens of thousands of these easy and affordable structures built as vacation homes, roadside restaurants, churches, and even pet stores. A-frame chronicles America's love affair with the A-frame, from postwar getaway to its recent revival among designers and DIYers. In a fascinating look at this architectural phenomenon, Chad Randl tells the story of the triangle house, from prehistoric Japan to its lifestyle-changing prime in the 1960s as a symbol of play, leisure, and outdoor living. Part architectural history and part cultural exploration, the book documents every aspect of A-frame living with cartoons, ads, high-style and do-it-yourself examples, family snapshots, and an appendix with a complete set of blueprints in case y...

The Art of Earth Architecture: Past, Present, Future Jean Dethier Princeton Architectural Press , March 2020 Hardcover | 9-1/2 x 12 inches | 512 pages | 800 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-1616898892 | $125.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : For almost ten thousand years, unbaked earth has been used to build remarkable structures, from simple dwellings to palaces, temples, and fortresses both grand and durable. Jean Dethier spent fifty years researching this landmark global survey, which spans five continents and 250 sites. The Art of Earth Architecture demonstrates the wide-ranging applications and sustainability of this building material, while presenting a manifesto for its ecological significance. Featuring raw-earth masterpieces, monumental structures, and little known works, the book includes the temples and palaces of Mesopotamia, the Great Wall of China, large-scale urban developments in Tenochtitlan in Mexico, the medinas of Morocco, and housing in Marrakech and Bogot...

Tom Kundig: Working Title Tom Kundig Princeton Architectural Press , June 2020 Hardcover | 10 x 12 inches | 368 pages | 300 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-1616898991 | $80.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Striking, innovative, and dramatically sited, the twenty-nine projects in Tom Kundig: Working Title reveal the hand of a master of contextually astute, richly detailed architecture. As Kundig's work has increased in scale and variety, in diverse locations from his native Seattle to Hawaii and Rio de Janeiro, it continues to exhibit his signature sensitivity to material and locale and to feature his fascinating kinetic "gizmos." Projects range from inviting homes that integrate nature to large-scale commercial and public buildings: wineries, high-performance mixed-use skyscrapers, a Visitor Center for Tillamook Creamery, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and the Wagner Education Center of the Center for Wooden Boats, among others. Tom Kundig: Wo...

Egypt's Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster? David Sims AUC Press , September 2018 (New Edition) Paperback | 6 x 9 inches | 486 pages | 100 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-9774168574 | $29.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Egypt has placed its hopes on developing its vast and empty deserts as the ultimate solution to the country’s problems. New cities, new farms, new industrial zones, new tourism resorts, and new development corridors, all have been promoted for over half a century to create a modern Egypt and to pull tens of millions of people away from the increasingly crowded Nile Valley into the desert hinterland. The results, in spite of colossal expenditures and ever-grander government pronouncements, have been meager at best, and today Egypt’s desert is littered with stalled schemes, abandoned projects, and forlorn dreams. It also remains stubbornly uninhabited. Egypt’s Desert Dreams is the first attempt of its kind to look at Egypt’s desert development in its en...

Under the Influence: A Symposium Ana Miljački (Editor) Actar Publishers , January 2020 Paperback | 5-1/4 x 8-1/4 inches | 220 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1948765152 | $24.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : The Under the Influence book is based on the eponymous symposium, which brought together scholars and practitioners of architecture in order to focus on one of the most anxious disciplinary topics: influence. The symposium invited each of the participants to illuminate a single term—a disciplinary synonym for appropriation—and through that term, the specific strategies, historical, and disciplinary circumstances in which it is enmeshed. It was organized and hosted by Ana Miljački, and presented by the MIT Department of Architecture. With some small additions this is a reprint of that book. Influence is not easily quantified. It is elusive, even when we casually admit to it as we ogle images on the internet, or feel ourselves softening our resolve on an important issue in light of...