A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

The Images of Architects: The Visible Origin of Architecture edited by Valerio Olgiati, published by  Quart Verlag , 2013. Hardcover, 424 pages. ( Amazon ) How does one "read" a book entirely of images? It may not be such a hard question when it comes to an artist's monograph or a photographic essay , but this book of "44 collections by unique architects" does not offer similar formulas for interpretation. With typically 10 images per architect, there isn't enough information to make conclusions about each architect or see a consistent strand in the images selected. But this does not stop the book from becoming a joy to look at and attempt to understand. Even though images are everywhere these days, the ones collected here are, at their heart, images of inspiration, not those devoted to marketing or advertising; which, if you think about it, is what the architectural imagery in publications (print and online) are ultimately about: selling...

Architectural Concrete in Detail: Four Buildings by Miller & Maranta edited by Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Design and Building Construction Chair Michael Loudon, Florian Kirfel and Daniel Reisch, published by  Quart Verlag , 2011. Paperback, 88 pages. ( Amazon ) My initial familiarization with Basel, Switzerland's Miller & Maranta -- the duo of Quintus Miller and Paola Maranta -- was ten years ago with their Market Hall , a wood building inserted into the urban fabric of Aarau. The simple open-air building is defined by a repetitive grid of tightly spaced wood fins, but the structure and overall form inflects to follow the street it occupies. The site and program make it a unique piece of architecture, but the blending of simplicity and contextual response is found in other Miller & Maranta buildings as this excellent book with case studies of four concrete structures attests. The four buildings are: Volta School Building, Schwarzpark Residential...