A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Houses for Sale Michael Meredith, Hilary Sample Corraini Edizioni / CCA , November 2019 Hardcover | 8-3/4 x 12-1/2 inches | 126 pages | 128 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-8875707040 | $45.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : In Houses for Sale , architects Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample of MOS Architects invite readers on their family’s quest for a new home through the annals of architectural history, exploring details and peculiarities from some of the greatest names in architecture. When they realize that there isn’t any one house that suits them perfectly, they decide to design their own. In doing so, Meredith and Sample come to the conclusion that no building is perfect and that architecture is an exciting, ever-evolving project in which the process of bringing a new building to life through design and construction can be even more satisfying than the final product itself. Published in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Houses for Sale is a charming...

Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture edited by Giovanna Borasi and Mirko Zardini, published by  CCA / Lars Müller Publishers , 2012. Hardcover, 376 pages. ( Amazon ) This book accompanies the exhibition Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture , which ran at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal from October 2011 to April 2012. While CCA is one of the best architectural institutions in the world, not everybody can make it to Montreal for its exhibitions. So companion books like this become particularly valuable, as they broaden the reach of CCA's programs. Yet the inclusion of ancillary essays, interspersed among the catalog of artifacts on display, create a book that goes beyond this value; the book becomes a tool that explores its topic beyond the limitations of the visual exhibition material. In this regard, the book reminds me of Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes , a 2008 exhibition at the Walker Art Center (that I ...

Books on books are a strange breed, tailor made for people that actually read books but unnecessary at the same time; after all do people who read want to read about something they've read or the act of reading itself? Of course the reasons for books on books vary, such as critical analyses of texts, explorations of the act of reading through books, or documents of books as artifacts. The strangely cover-less book that arrived in my mailbox today, CCA on Paper , falls into the last category. It is "a guide to all of the publications of the Canadian Centre for Architecture since it opened to the public twenty years ago." [image source | animation by archidose] The book -- available also as a PDF and online -- chronologically documents CCA's output, companions to their exhibitions but not catalogs of them. As Phyllis Lambert states in an interview with Peter Sealy and Mirko Zardini here, they "do books because they are long-term references," focusing ...