A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Managing Energy Use in Modern Buildings: Case Studies in Conservation Practice Edited by Bernard Flaman and Chandler McCoy Getty Publications , October 2021 Paperback | 8-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches | 192 pages | 166 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9781606066973 | $59.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : This timely volume brings together case studies that address the urgent need to manage energy use and improve thermal comfort in modern buildings while preserving their historic significance and character. This collection of ten case studies addresses the issues surrounding the improvement of energy consumption and thermal comfort in modern buildings built between 1928 and 1969 and offers valuable lessons for other structures facing similar issues. These buildings, international in scope and diverse in type, style, and size, range from the Shulman House, a small residence in Los Angeles, to the TD Bank Tower, a skyscraper complex in Toronto, and from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a cultur...

The Ecologies of the Building Envelope: A Material History and Theory of Architectural Surfaces by Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Jeffrey S. Anderson Actar Publishers , July 2021 Hardcover | 7-3/4 x 10-1/4 inches | 464 pages | English | ISBN: 9781948765183 | $59.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : While the façade is one of the most thoroughly theorized elements of architecture, it is also one of the most questioned since the end of the 19th century. Within the discipline of architecture, the traditional understanding of the façade focuses primarily on semiotic and compositional operations (such as proportional laws and linguistic codes), which are deployed on the building’s surface. In contrast to this, our material and environmental theory of the envelope proposes that the exponential development of building technologies since the mid-19th century, coupled with new techniques of management and regulation, have diminished the compositional and ornamental capacities of the envelope in favo...

Pisé – Rammed Earth. Tradition and Potential Edited by Roger Boltshauser with Cyril Veillon and Nadja Maillard Triest , 2019 Paperback | 8-3/4 x 12 inches | 304 pages | 400 illustrations | English (also available in French and German editions) | ISBN: 9783038630289 | €60 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : This book for the first time illustrates the history and significance of rammed earth construction in Central Europe, particularly in Switzerland, using historical examples to investigate the potential of that building technique for contemporary construction. As such, it represents a pioneering comprehensive documentation that will contribute to safeguarding existing architectural monuments, while also providing the foundation for further research. Based on that evidence, the editors investigate the material’s potential for modern day edifices, especially from the perspective of regional architecture claiming to establish identity and save resources. Due to the material’s advantages –...

Upcycling:  Reuse and Repurposing as a Design Principle in Architecture Daniel Stockhammer (Editor) Triest , March 2020 Paperback | 6-1/4 x 8-1/4 inches | 204 pages | 230 illustrations | German/English | ISBN: 9783038630463 | $54.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Exploitation and destruction of the environment call for an inevitable paradigm shift as regards our resource consumption: “innovative” building will have to break away from the dogma of new build. We need to reconsider the existing building stock as a wealth of resources and ideas, just as we should understand recycling and upcycling building stock as architectonic potential. New approaches in architecture reveal a trend towards concepts of the frequently used but theoretically and historically rarely defined term upcycling. In that context, one often forgets that the history of building has also always been a history of, firstly, recycled and upcycled building materials and components, and secondly, of building knowledge a...

Things Fall Together: A Guide to the New Materials Revolution by Skylar Tibbits Princeton University Press , June 2021 Hardcover | 5-1/4 x 8 inches | 224 pages | 42 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9780691170336 | $24.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Things in life tend to fall apart. Cars break down. Buildings fall into disrepair. Personal items deteriorate. Yet today’s researchers are exploiting newly understood properties of matter to program materials that physically sense, adapt, and fall together instead of apart. These materials open new directions for industrial innovation and challenge us to rethink the way we build and collaborate with our environment. Things Fall Together is a provocative guide to this emerging, often mind-bending reality, presenting a bold vision for harnessing the intelligence embedded in the material world. Drawing on his pioneering work on self-assembly and programmable material technologies, Skylar Tibbits lays out the core, frequently counterintuit...

Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Space - Detail - Light by Edgar Stach Birkhäuser , July 2021 Hardcover | 9 x 11-2/4 inches | 160 pages | English | ISBN: 9783035614602 | 39.95€ PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : The Pritzker laureate Renzo Piano is recognized worldwide as one of the most renowned architects of our time. Central elements of his aesthetics include the playful use of natural light, the transparency of his buildings and their fine detailing. This publication documents nine museum buildings by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Prof. Edgar Stach , College of Architecture and the Built Environment, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. REFERRAL LINKS :       dDAB COMMENTARY : One of the highlights of a trip to Dallas a decade and a half ago was an afternoon spent at the Nasher Sculpture Center , the downtown museum designed by Renzo Piano with a generous sculpture garden by Peter Walker and a "skyspace" by James Turrell . The museum being open past sunset afford...