A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

The recent publication of two books prompted me to ponder the future of cities and do a write-up of them together: Implementing Urban Design: Green, Civic, and Community Strategies  by Jonathan Barnett, published by  Routledge , June 2023 ( Amazon  /  Bookshop ) Renewing the Dream: The Mobility Revolution and the Future of Los Angeles  edited by James Sanders, published by  Rizzoli Electa , September 2023 ( Amazon  /  Bookshop ) Implementing Urban Design is the latest of many books about urban design and planning by Jonathan Barnett, whose career and CV span around fifty years. Over that time he has served as an architect, planner, educator, and an advisor to cities in and beyond the US, including Charleston, South Carolina, Omaha, and New York City, where he was Director of Urban Design in the Department of City Planning. When I received  Implementing Urban Design , one of the first things I did was scour my bookshelves for other books by B...

Writing a blog devoted to architecture books means featuring monographs — lots of monographs. Not exclusively, of course; but before this blog transitioned to its current weekly format, one of the thematic days of the week was appropriately devoted to monographs: Monograph Monday . Monographs are an unavoidable part of architecture books. No matter how often they are decried as passé, endangered , or even dead, monographs persevere as one of the best means of presenting a firm's built and unbuilt works  and  for marketing the same to new clients. These "uses" of monographs find their origins in books on Frank Lloyd Wright but were most influential in Le Corbusier's Oeuvre Complete , put out in eight volumes between 1929 and 1970, the last one posthumously. Though edited by others, the series of monographs were strongly controlled by Le Corbusier, which enabled a comprehensiveness many contemporary monographs forget about in their photo-heavy presentations. These three...

American Modern Home: Jacobsen Architecture + Interiors by Simon Jacobsen Rizzoli , October 2022 Hardcover | 11 x 11 inches | 224 pages | English | ISBN: 9780847872053 | $75 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Hugh Newell Jacobsen, the legendary architect and late co-founder with his son, Simon, of Jacobsen Architecture, once said “the best house is polite to her neighbors and never shouts.” This statement is a key to the philosophy of the firm, whose houses are suffused with a kind of quiet sophistication that mingle elegant, subtle modernism, with respect for local vernacular traditions. Low-key on the outside, on the inside these houses offer dancing symphonies in white. Unmarked by moldings, walls and ceilings express simple volumetric forms composed of solid planes and voids, while, upon floors of burnished wood or travertine, furniture, much of it designed by the firm, allows for serene repose and practical, unfussy use. Featured here are exemplars of the firm, from Harbor Hill — a ...

Adjaye: Works 2007-2015: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings Edited by Peter Allison Thames & Hudson , October 2022 Hardcover | 10-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches | 300 pages | 500 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9780500343807 | $90 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Following Adjaye: Works 1995-2007, this second volume looks back on the impressive portfolio of work created by architect David Adjaye between 2007 and 2015. During the years covered in this book, the acclaimed architect embraced expansive projects, taking him outside Europe to work on major ventures, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver and the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo. Designing buildings around the world, including two projects connected with the post-Katrina reconstruction program in New Orleans, Adjaye carefully tailored his approach to each place, sensitive to the important role architecture plays in affirming a sense of community and identity. Adjaye: Works 2007-2015 brings together these recen...

Parks of the 21st Century: Reinvented Landscapes, Reclaimed Territories by Victoria Newhouse with Alex Pisha Rizzoli , September 2021 Hardcover | 8-1/2 x 11 inches | 356 pages | English | ISBN: 9780847870622 | $75 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Parks are essential to our well-being; this has never been clearer than it is today, and a recent surge of park development offers us much to celebrate. Parks of the 21st Century presents 52 parks in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Europe, and China that have turned despoiled and polluted land (including former factories, railroads, and industrial waterfronts) into beneficial landscapes.   Landscape architects have been referred to as “the first environmentalists,” and Parks of the 21st Century shows how parks are being designed as proactive, dynamic green spaces. The High Line in New York is an early example of how an obsolete railroad could be transformed. Opened in 2009, it now attracts nearly 8 million visitors a year. In addition to providin...

Architecture Unbound: A Century of the Disruptive Avant-Garde by Joseph Giovannini Rizzoli , November 2021 Hardcover | 9 x 11 inches | 876 pages | 698 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9780847858798 | $50.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : In Architecture Unbound , noted architecture critic Joseph Giovannini proposes that our current architectural landscape ultimately emerged from transgressive and progressive art movements that had roiled Europe before and after World War I. By the 1960s, social unrest and cultural disruption opened the way for investigations into an inventive, antiauthoritarian architecture. Explorations emerged in the 1970s, and built projects surfaced in the 1980s, taking digital form in the 1990s, with large-scale projects finally landing on the far side of the millennium.   Architecture Unbound traces all of these developments and influences, presenting an authoritative and illuminating history not only of the sources of contemporary currents in architecture bu...

MAD Rhapsody by Ma Yansong Rizzoli Electa , November 2021 Hardcover | 10-1/4 x 12-1/2 inches | 288 pages | English | ISBN: 9780847869626 | $75.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Conceived and designed by Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects, MAD Rhapsody documents the buildings of this avant-garde architecture firm and traces the development of their ideas through associated practice including art, research, and exhibition projects. With photographs, drawings, and models, the book highlights 23 projects from the past six years, both built and in process. Known for their “organic and dreamlike architecture” that creates a dialogue with nature, earth, and sky, MAD projects reach all over the globe.   At age 46, Ma Yansong is one of China’s best-known architects. His curvilinear, free-form, and futuristic designs are often compared to those of his mentor, Zaha Hadid. Ma’s greatest inspiration is nature; his opera house in the northern Chinese city of Harbin resembles a snow-capped mo...