A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, NY by Steven Holl and Vito Acconci, 1993 Opened in 1993, the facade renovation for the Storefront for Art and Architecture was constructed on a budget of only $45,000. Architect Steven Holl and artist Vito Acconci 's concept for the project of inside becoming outside is achieved by composing the facade with hinged panels. Each panel's unique shape, relationship to other panels, and open or closed condition creates, when combined with environmental conditions, a different facade each day. The design takes its concept and finds a clear solution within a small budget, but the project is also indicative of much of Holl's work in its focus on creating space through detailing, proportion, and the manipulation of light. Pie-shaped in plan, the design opens to the street on one facade; the ...

Casa Lavados in Villarrica, Chile by Mathias Klotz, 1995 Born in 1965 in Santiago, Chile, Mathias Klotz has built extensively in his native country, mainly in single family residences. His work illustrates a strong combination of modernity and vernacular tendencies. A balance is created through the use of local materials and construction techniques with a modernist approach to planning and looking at space. Casa Lavados is a good example of these design sensibilities, though indicative of the unique approached required when designing a house for a family. Constructed in 1995 and sited on the slopes of the Villarrica Volcano, the Lavados house's main occupant who wanted a place to live after retirement where he could welcome his children and grandchildren without disturbing his independence. This requirement is achieved through a vertical distribution of spaces, separating the guests from the inhabitants. The de...

Carlson-Reges Residence in Los Angeles, California by ROTO, 1996 Michael Rotondi and Thom Mayne's partnership in the firm Morphosis created a balance between their two design approaches; emphasizing aspects of construction and theory respectively. When Rotondi left Morphosis and formed ROTO , with Clark Stevens, the exploitation of a building's construction and its inherent process leading to this phase became the focus of the new firm. The Carlson-Reges Residence is indicative of ROTO's unique client interaction, design process, and construction: in this case a design build with the client as builder, a loose experiential modeling coupled with stricter geometrical analysis, and minimal construction documents with much on-site improvisation. The residence is located in an old electric company cabling structure north of downtown Los Angeles. Having lived there for a long time, the couple have amassed a c...

REMU in Amersfoort, Netherlands by UNStudio, 1994 Basically a sealed container, REMU is a substation located in Amersfoort, designed by Van Berkel & Bos in 1994. The building is indicative of both the firm's design sensibilities and the Dutch attitude towards architects, much different that in the United States, where a substation is treated economically and without design concern. Ben Van Berkel, along with art critic Caroline Bos is part of a group of Dutch architects (see also Wiel Arets and MVRDV ) that balance theory, practice, and an involvement in architectural education. This well-balanced approach to architecture, coupled with affection for architects in Holland (a trait shared by much of Europe), helps to create unique buildings like REMU. Consisting of two interlocking volumes, the substation's design is governed by its use (a container for three electrical transformers) and its site (a highly visible location). The two volumes are clad...

"Steel Cloud" in Los Angeles, California by Asymptote, 1988 Envisioned as a west coast equivalent of the Statue of Liberty, the 1988 West Coast Gateway competition was won by Asymptote , New York-based architects Hani Rashid and Lisa Ann Couture. The design attempts to give a physical form to the contemporary nature of the city and the importance of information and technology in our lives. Straddling a freeway in Los Angeles, the (regrettably) unbuilt project consists of multiple uses: galleries, libraries, cinemas, parks, plazas, and an aquarium. This conglomeration of uses and their intentionally disconcerting scale acts as a monument to late twentieth-century life and its characteristics: the linearity of the freeway and its inherent movement, airplane as mode of movement for immigrants (as opposed to water for the Statue of Liberty), and the importance of technology as a cultural link. The Steel Clou...

B 018 in Beirut, Lebanon by Bernard Khoury, 1998 Situated underground, like a bunker or bomb shelter, B 018 is a new nightclub in the Levant area of Beirut. Descending a narrow, dark corridor, the visitor is confronted with bouncers acting as soldiers and a view of the club through a sniper's window. Inside the bartenders and servers dress in white uniforms resembling nurses at a sanatorium. Although this scenario does not seem ideal for a night out, it is just the atmosphere desired by architect Bernard Khoury . Sited in an area of Beirut stormed by militia forces during the Lebanese civil war in 1976 (a Palestinian refugee camp at the time), the club acts as a reminder of this dark, yet relevant, history. The client, Nagi Gebrane, and his friends ran B 018 out of Gebrane's apartment as an escape from the fighting and massacres that occurred for the remaining fifteen y...

Taller de Arquitectura in Barcelona Spain by Ricardo Bofill, 1975 Ricardo Bofill arrived on the world architecture scene when the Postmodern movement gained popularity, both by the general public and architects. His early structures, mainly large residential complexes, consisted of classical elements in overscaled facade compositions. These buildings received mixed criticism, though were popular enough that Bofill became a well-known name in the world of architecture. Built in the mid-1970's, his residence and architectural workshop, the Taller de Arquitectura, parallel his earlier designs but is more successful compositionally and spatially, creating an intimate environment not readily found in his multi-residential buildings. The Catalan architect purchased a decrepit cement factory and spent two years remodeling it. Comprised of silos, underground p...