A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

50 Urban Blocks 2: How to use Form, Floor Area Ratio & Density a+t research group a+t , December 2020 55 cards | 3 x 5 inches | English/Spanish | ISBN: 978-8409253555 | 22€ PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Citadels, Patios, Archipelagos, Amoebas, Snakes, Barcodes, Clusters, Labyrinths, Dice and Chunks are the ideas that inspire this deck of cards. These urban forms breathe through their openings, through the relationships among volumes, through the participation of emptiness in the composition and through fragmentation. They connect with the environment through unexpected visuals. They avoid individualism and encourage community interaction. 50 Urban Blocks 2 combines Form, Floor Area Ratio and Density in 50 examples that organize a given block, propose housing units and add space for other uses that boost urban life. This third deck of cards is part of the collection created by a+t research group aimed at facilitating the design of a balanced and affordable city. dDAB COMMENT...

50 Hybrid Buildings: Catalogue on the Art of Mixing Uses a+t research group: Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Mozas a+t , 2020 Paperback | 5 x 6-1/2 inches | 360 pages | English/Spanish | ISBN: 978-8409188222 | 26.00 € PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Hybrid buildings are urban artifacts which are characterized by the mix of uses. They share a hazardous life, full of obstacles and setbacks. Those which manage to be built and endure are true survivors of a rare and vigorous species that grows in places of opportunity, making its way through the speculative weeds.  In this Catalogue on the Art of Mixing Uses, a+t research group rescues 50 HYBRID BUILDINGS, designed from the end of the 19th century to the present. Each of them is drawn in section, with its functions in sight, and tells us a stimulating story.  50 HYBRID BUILDINGS is a powerful learning tool for students, faculty and architects combining history, design and graphics to reveal how to break with typology. The a+t res...

a+t 52: Urban Park Strategies - Paradises Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Mozas (Editors) a+t , January 2019 Paperback | 9-1/2 x 12-1/2 inches | 120 pages | Spanish/English | ISBN: 978-8409098804 | 26.00 € Publisher's Description : Increasingly, and at a faster pace, nature becomes culture and as this occurs, so continues the construction of an increasingly artificial and imaginary paradise lost. The paradises of today are those public spaces where multiple spiritual postures fit, where each one is built while experiencing them. Javier Mozas traces a walk in search of paradise, through 5 historical models, starting in the 17th Century and ends at the beginning of the 20th Century. Aurora Fernández Per identifies and analyses within the selected works design strategies and actions with which to create accessible paradises for the citizen. The STRATEGY series, initiated in 2010, defines scalar scopes, evidences disciplinary origins and composes a grid that overlaps th...

a+t 16: Memory I Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Mozas (Editors) a+t , 2000 Paperback | 9-1/4 x 12-1/2 inches | 160 pages | Spanish/English | ISSN: 1132-6409 | 22.00 € Publisher Description : Consider for a moment opening one's eyes wiithout memory or memories; without an understanding of one's environment, without an awareness of one's individuality, without a conception of one's being and without an appreciation of one's history. What is it one would see, hear and feel? What would be the sensation? Surely, to instantaneously re-initalise one's existence without the cushion of gestation would result in confusion to say the least, an agonising over-simulation most probably and no solace in nostalgia for the womb. Memories of where one has been, of journeys an of participants, leave a particular perspective but they only 'exist' in perspective too. It is not possible to grasp memory in terms of appreciation an recollection any more than it is pos...

Japan Diaries: Architecture and More Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Mozas a+t , 2019 Hardcover | 4-3/4 x 6-1/2 inches | 480 pages | # illustrations | Languages | ISBN: 978-8409098798 | 29.00 € Publisher Description : Two voices, those of Aurora Fernández Per and Javier Mozas, tell the story of three trips around Japan: Spring 1995, Autumn 2004 and Summer 2018. One common thread, architecture, drives them to travel around the most influential country in terms of international design. Using texts, photos and drawings they interpret buildings, landscapes and everyday scenes. The publishers of a+t magazine and founders of the a+t research group provide us with the traveller’s version, that of the person arriving at a new place and narrating what they have seen. dDAB Commentary : Both the "architecture" and the "more" from the subtitle of Japan Diaries are on display on its cover. The colorful background is an information panel on Yakuri Temple in Kagawa, and...

a+t 51: Public Space Strategies - Activators Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Mozas (Editors) a+t , December 2018 Paperback | 9-1/2 x 12-1/2 inches | 120 pages | Spanish/English | ISBN: 978-8409049295 | 26.00 € Publisher Description : a + t magazine returns to the public realm through the STRATEGY series, which began in 2010 with the aim of highlighting and naming the strategies and actions underlying each project. 85 actions are identified within the 13 projects included in the issue. They are grouped according to: Scale of influence (Context, Site, Objects) and Type of strategy (Environmental, Socioeconomic, Aesthetic). This new volume of the STRATEGY series, called ACTIVATORS, includes works by MVRDV, Jaja, Adept, Nendo, Vaumm, Wowhaus, and Ola, among others. They are all projects that add new dynamics to the public space through the incorporation of facilities for leisure, sports or recreational learning. dDAB Commentary : It seems like it was...

Workforce: A Better Place to Work edited by Aurora Fernádez Per and Javier Mozas, published by  a+t , 2014. Paperback, 160 pages. ( Amazon ) [All images courtesy of a+t] Recently I picked up a couple used books that are all about work: Nikil Saval's Cubed: The Secret History of the Workplace , published last spring, and Studs Terkel's 1972 classic Working . These two books, combined with a+t's first installment in its Workforce Series , paint a picture of how work and the workplace itself has changed over the last century or so. Being that this is a blog about contemporary architecture, I'm therefore focusing on a+t's collection of recent workplace designs, but I think the book is a bit more meaningful in my mind thanks to reading parts of these other books simultaneously. Overlap can be found, for example, between Workforce and Cubed in the former's "A short history of the development of the office" by Caruso St. John Architects; in brief text...

a+t 41: Reclaim - Domestic Actions edited by Aurora Fernandez Per and Javier Mozas, published by  a+t , 2013. Paperback, 160 pages. ( Amazon ) The latest magazine series from a+t focuses on strategies of "reclaiming." The series starts with a double issue called " Remediate, Reuse, Recycle " that is followed by a single volume that moves from the large-scale realms of the predecessor – landscapes, public spaces, buildings – to the domestic interior. It is a small step conceptually, given that the same broad principles unite the projects in each issue, but it is a large step in terms of scale and typology. Not only are the domestic projects smaller, they are all private whereas the predecessor featured almost exclusively public projects. One aspect of this is shift is that Domestic Actions should have a much broader appeal – to homeowners looking to transform their houses, not just architects and other designers. The 41st issue of a+t compiles 35 projects ...

10 Stories of Collective Housing: Graphical Analysis of Inspiring Masterpieces by a+t research group, published by  a+t , 2013. Paperback, 496 pages. ( Amazon ) Spain's a+t separates its output into magazines and books, with titles in each often fitting into series. The last of the books I reviewed was Density Is Home , which documents 37 contemporary housing projects through the usual high-quality presentations that a+t is known for. But where the drawings, photographs, and statistics help readers learn about the projects and compare and contrast them, the 10 or 12 pages per project mean that there is still room for more to be learned about the buildings. Enter 10 Stories of Collective Housing , which steps back some decades (projects span from ca. 1920 to 1980) to give in-depth case studies on "inspiring masterpieces." The spreads collected here on Fumihiko Maki's Hillside Terrace give a sense of what is included for each project. Of course there ...

February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The " 28 in 28 " series features a different book every day of the month. a+t 39-40: Reclaim Remediate Reuse Recycle edited by Aurora Fernandez Per and Javier Mozas, published by  a+t , 2012. Paperback, 312 pages. ( Amazon ) One of the most distinctive things about a+t magazine is the way it presents recent architecture in themed series. Most recent was the Strategy series ; before it Hybrids , Civilities , and so forth. These topics (focusing on landscapes, large buildings, and public buildings, respectively) respond to trends in the world of architecture while also taking critical positions toward them. Choosing to look at buildings that hybridize housing, offices, recreation, and other uses, for example, is a way to present projects like Steven Holl's Sliced Porosity Block , but the act also takes a position on how the city should evolve—taking into account a mix of uses, demographics, and other features th...