Book Briefs #42
Here is the 42nd installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring short first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that publishers send to me for consideration on this blog. Obviously, these briefs are not full-blown reviews, but they are a way to share more books worthy of attention than those that end up as standalone reviews.
Critique of Architecture: Essays on Theory, Autonomy, and Political Economy by Douglas Spencer | Birkhäuser | December 2020 | 5-1/2 x 7-1/2 inches | 228 pages | $34.99 | Amazon / Bookshop
Critique of Architecture is the 168th title (!) in the Bauwelt Fundamente series started by German architectural historian Ulrich Conrads in 1963. Most of the titles are in German, though many English-speaking architects might be surprised to know they have the first in the series: Programme und Manifeste zur Architektur des 20. Jahrhunderts, edited by Conrads and published in English by MIT Press as Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture in 1971; the book is a staple of history/theory classes in architecture school, one I still have in my library. Number 168 in the series is authored by Douglas Spencer, professor in Iowa State University’s Department of Architecture and author of the 2016 book The Architecture of Neoliberalism: How Contemporary Architecture Became an Instrument of Control and Compliance. A focus on neoliberalism continues in these dozen essays spanning a decade, most previously published in such venues as Radical Philosophy, Volume, and e-flux architecture, plus a handful of them, including an insightful interview with Miloš Kosec, new for the book. With a strong belief in critique as a progressive tool, and an opposition to architecture as a market-driven field beholden to neoliberalist practices, Spencer's book is a textbook of sorts for the critical left. It is a book (one of Edwin Heathcote's must-read titles of 2021, it should be noted) that left-leaning intellectuals interested in reorienting architecture's position in society should have — if they don't already, as I'm guessing many do.Designing a World for Everyone: 30 Years of Inclusive Design by Jeremy Myerson | Lund Humphries | July 2021 | 7-1/2 x 10 inches | 144 pages | $69.99 | Amazon / Bookshop
This book presents thirty projects over the same number of years undertaken by research associates at the Royal College of Art's Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, established in 1991. As the subtitle indicates, inclusive design is the emphasis. While this means design for people with arthritis, limited mobility, dyslexia and other conditions (many, but clearly not all, are related to aging) are in abundance, some designs have unexpected aims. Researchers in the program, for instance, devised pint glasses made with bio-based resin as an alternative to traditional glasses that are used far too frequently as weapons in drunken brawls; those fights might continue, but there would be fewer emergency room visits and scarred faces with the redesigned glasses. This is just one example where design is used to improve the lives of many, in ways they might not even realize. All of the projects result in pieces of product or industrial design (a glass, a font, advertisements, apps, etc.), though it's not clear if any of them have reached market — as surely some of them should.
This book presents thirty projects over the same number of years undertaken by research associates at the Royal College of Art's Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, established in 1991. As the subtitle indicates, inclusive design is the emphasis. While this means design for people with arthritis, limited mobility, dyslexia and other conditions (many, but clearly not all, are related to aging) are in abundance, some designs have unexpected aims. Researchers in the program, for instance, devised pint glasses made with bio-based resin as an alternative to traditional glasses that are used far too frequently as weapons in drunken brawls; those fights might continue, but there would be fewer emergency room visits and scarred faces with the redesigned glasses. This is just one example where design is used to improve the lives of many, in ways they might not even realize. All of the projects result in pieces of product or industrial design (a glass, a font, advertisements, apps, etc.), though it's not clear if any of them have reached market — as surely some of them should.
On the Tarmac: Rules, line-work, shadows and space by Dennis Pieprz | Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers | July 2017 | 8 x 10-1/4 inches | 192 pages | $30 | Amazon / Bookshop
Architects are a peripatetic lot, flying to distant cities and countries for projects, conferences, biennials, or just to see in person the architecture of another place. This book captures travel through the eyes of an architect, but instead of photographs of famous or unfamiliar buildings, it focuses on that uber-"non place," the airport, specifically the markings on the runways and taxiways outside terminals. Published before the pandemic literally grounded ambitions of traveling to faraway places, On the Tarmac features just 250 photographs of the tens of thousands taken over a three-year period by Dennis Pieprz, an urban designer at Sasaki. Abstract compositions of "accidental art," Pieprz's photos are most interesting when other layers of activity appear across the markings of paint: the skid marks of takeoffs and landings; the shadow of the photographer's approaching plane; or a "marshaler" with orange batons captured through a rainy window. Looked at now, the book is an invitation to dream, once again, of traveling to faraway places; next time that happens, you'll probably look closer at the markings on the tarmac.
Drawing as Metaphor by Deanna Petherbridge | Drawing Matter | 2022 | 8-1/2 x 11-1/2 inches | 75 pages | £14
Drawing as Metaphor presents fifteen large drawings by Deanna Petherbridge, an artist I'm ashamed to say I was not familiar with until Drawing Matter sent me a copy of this book. I'm not sure how the pen-and-ink and ink-and-wash/watercolor drawings completed over the last few years compare to her output over the previous decades, but I'm drawn (no pun intended) to the way the artist uses architectural elements and perspective to convey emotion and political commentary. While the vertical lines of walls and other "constructions" are parallel, also consistent across the drawings are downward-looking points of view, which removes the sky and horizon line from the compositions. The drawings of destruction and ruin are bleak at times, aided, I think, by the views being angled toward the underworld rather than the heavens. Accompanying the drawings are short essays by Petherbridge that explain the ideas behind the diptychs and triptychs whose meanings are sometimes obscure, sometimes in your face.
Drawing as Metaphor presents fifteen large drawings by Deanna Petherbridge, an artist I'm ashamed to say I was not familiar with until Drawing Matter sent me a copy of this book. I'm not sure how the pen-and-ink and ink-and-wash/watercolor drawings completed over the last few years compare to her output over the previous decades, but I'm drawn (no pun intended) to the way the artist uses architectural elements and perspective to convey emotion and political commentary. While the vertical lines of walls and other "constructions" are parallel, also consistent across the drawings are downward-looking points of view, which removes the sky and horizon line from the compositions. The drawings of destruction and ruin are bleak at times, aided, I think, by the views being angled toward the underworld rather than the heavens. Accompanying the drawings are short essays by Petherbridge that explain the ideas behind the diptychs and triptychs whose meanings are sometimes obscure, sometimes in your face.
Stories from Architecture: Behind the Lines at Drawing Matter by Philippa Lewis | The MIT Press | October 2021 | 6 x 9 inches | 216 pages | $34.95 | Amazon / Bookshop
Like Drawing as Metaphor, Stories from Architecture collects contributions to Drawing Matter. The similarities end there, as Philippa Lewis's fictional stories were written as responses to a few of the many drawings held at the institution's archive in Somerset. Rooted in facts — both of the drawings themselves and the circumstances that led to their creation — the short stories enliven the drawings in ways that are unexpected, bringing attention to details one may miss at first glance. Why is the "Rolls Garage," for example, in Richard Neutra's house for Joseph von Sternberg (1935) sticking out past the footprint of the adjacent two-car garage? Lewis imagines a short phone call between Neutra's assistant and Von Sternberg's secretary, the former trying to ascertain exactly how big the client's Rolls Royce is. Lest one think the answer of "as big as Marlene Dietrich's Rolls Royce in Morocco" sounds like it was plucked out of thin air, the back matter includes notes that should please more factually inclined readers, showing the fiction is based in reality. The majority of the drawings date to the 1800s, but the 20th-century ones are a fun and varied lot, with Neutra accompanied by a fashionable collage by Rex Savidge, Samuel Hardy's competition entry for an "All-British £1,000 House," Robert Bray's design for a "Playboy Duplex Penthouse," and a story on Frank Lloyd Wright's house for Edith Carlson.
Survey: Architecture Iconographies by Matthew Wells, edited by Sarah Handelman | Park Books & Drawing Matter | November 2021 | 9 x 11-3/4 inches | 176 pages | $50 | Amazon / Bookshop
Of the three Drawing Matter books featured here, Matthew Wells's book on the role of surveying in architectural education and practice is my favorite. From its paperback dust jacket that doubles as a poster to the 59 full- and two-page plates culled from the Drawing Matter archives, the book is a visual feast that illuminates the myriad ways architects survey buildings and sites for research and in the early stages of designing. Before delving into case studies of surveys in the work of John Soane, Viollet-le-Duc, Peter Märkli and a few others, in the book's introductory essay Wells grounds the act of surveying in the efforts of his students at ETH Zurich. There they measure and draw the HIL Building, the home of the school's architecture department, learning firsthand the value — and also the limitations — of surveys. Knowledge is gained about existing conditions, but it's revealed how personal preferences come to the fore and how gaps in documentation are inevitable. Still, the craft of surveying continues, with new technologies accompanying the hand drawing that proliferates in this lovely book.
Of the three Drawing Matter books featured here, Matthew Wells's book on the role of surveying in architectural education and practice is my favorite. From its paperback dust jacket that doubles as a poster to the 59 full- and two-page plates culled from the Drawing Matter archives, the book is a visual feast that illuminates the myriad ways architects survey buildings and sites for research and in the early stages of designing. Before delving into case studies of surveys in the work of John Soane, Viollet-le-Duc, Peter Märkli and a few others, in the book's introductory essay Wells grounds the act of surveying in the efforts of his students at ETH Zurich. There they measure and draw the HIL Building, the home of the school's architecture department, learning firsthand the value — and also the limitations — of surveys. Knowledge is gained about existing conditions, but it's revealed how personal preferences come to the fore and how gaps in documentation are inevitable. Still, the craft of surveying continues, with new technologies accompanying the hand drawing that proliferates in this lovely book.