A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Metro Stops in Hanover, Germany by Despang Architekten, 2000   The following text is excerpted from Phyllis Richardson's Big Ideas, Small Buildings , published in 2001 by Thames & Hudson, for Despang Architekten 's Metro Stops in Hanover, Germany. "Urban space is not always treated very kindly," says Martin Despang, whose firm won a competition to design thirteen tram platforms and waiting facilities for the new D-South urban-rail line in Hanover. In a "holistic approach" to the functional, technical and economic parameters, Despang created a system of vertical rectangular blocks that could be covered in a range of materials, and to which could be added the structure's individual "attire". [The architect] conceived different claddings and finishings in response to each facility...

Mitchell-DeCario House in Galiano Island, Canada by Stephanie Forsythe Todd MacAllen Architecture, 1998 The following text and images are by Stephanie Forsythe Todd MacAllen Architecture for their design of the Mitchell-DeCario House on Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada. This long narrow house consists of a series of rooms arranged along a hallway which has a gallery on one side and a library on the other. Following the shape of a natural stone plinth, the house is slightly kinked. The shape is perceived in the gallery/hallway as a transition from the public spaces of the house to the private areas. The kink also affects views and the way south light enters. Sunlight bounces off wood and white plastered surfaces and renders soft indirect light onto the artwork. Ever shifting splashes of reflected color (yellow, blue, green, pink ...

LOOK UP in Gelsenkirchen, Germany by Anin + Jeromin + Fitilidis & Partner Based in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, the young advertising agency LOOK UP looked to the Dusseldorf-based firm Anin + Jeromin + Fitilidis & Partner to design their headquarters near Essen. The simple, rectangular building, composed primarily of concrete and glass, was the second building completed in the industrial redevelopment area. Light and heavy, clear and opaque, the box fits into the industrial landscape while providing an identity for the ad agency. The rectangular box is violated only by the entry stair, which connects the first two of the three office floors, and two cantilevered concrete balconies. Production spaces are contained on the ground floor, a heavy base with few punched openings in the poured-in-place concrete. "Creativity zones...

2281 NW Glisan in Portland, Oregon by Allied Works Architecture The following text and images are by Brad Cloepfil's Portland, Oregon-based firm Allied Works Architecture . Featured is 2281 NW Glisan, a mixed-use project, also in Portland. The more particular the act of architecture, the greater the resonance created by it. When a building establishes a strong position, a determined sense of inclusion and exclusion, it can clarify a moment in history. The 2281 NW Glisan Building is an urban in-fill project incorporating office and retail spaces with a penthouse apartment. A taut skin of glass, metal mesh, and stone tile wraps the neutral structural grid. Floor to ceiling glass on two exposures maximize the available light while the mesh panels serve as sunscreens and rails for operable doors. The building asserts a simple volume...

House at Sagaponac in Southampton, New York by Marwan Al-Sayed, 2001   The Houses at Sagaponac , started by Coco Brown, president of The Brown Companies, and architect Richard Meier is a development of 34 houses in Southampton on New York's Long Island. Rather than continue the trend of "mega-mansions" typical to the Hamptons since the 90's, the development envisions modest, yet contemporary homes by well-known architects in a setting sensitive to the wooded landscape. Featured here is Phoenix, Arizona-based Marwan Al-Sayed 's design for parcel #39, a prominent corner site at the entry to the development. The south-oriented, 3,600 s.f. house, with 3 bedrooms and a study, sits in an oval clearing of the dense woods, allowing more sunlight to infiltrat...

StudioPlex Lofts in Atlanta, Georgia by Brock Green Architects & Planners, 1999 The following text and images are by Brock Green Architects & Planners for their design of StudioPlex Lofts in Atlanta, Georgia. The loft conversion is a 220,000 sf mixed-use development, built at a cost of $10 million and completed in 1999. An adaptive re-use project in the 1904 Southeastern Cotton Warehouse (listed as the oldest concrete building in Atlanta), StudioPlex is a mixed-use commercial, retail, and residential development. This project is an arts based development envisioned as the catalyst for the revival of the Martin Luther King Historic District. Brock Green prepared the masterplan, including historic facilities survey, programming, preliminary construction pricing, and presentation/marketing package. Documentation ...

9 Stock Orchard Street in London, England by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, 2001 The following text and images are by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects for the husband and wife team's house and studio in London. Faced with a blank sheet of paper and a couple of buildings to design, where do you start? Any novelist will tell you: write about what you know. What we know is that living and working from the same building means our two lives (work and home) are never easily distinguished, but rather are irrevocably intertwined. An architect's response to this might be: separate the two physically; clarify zones; keep activities distinct; apply order. The person who lives and works there knows this is impossible. The building sits at the end of a row of Victorian terraced houses. One block, the office, bounds a railway ...