A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio edited by Aaron Betsky, published by Whitney Museum, 2003. Hardcover, 244 pages. ( Amazon ) Coinciding with a recent exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art on the duo's work, this book contains essays, an interview and illustrations of their varied oeuvre, from their early performance sets to the Blur building and recent competition-winning architectural designs. The essays range in subject matter and focus, reflecting the couple's unconventional practice, with relevant projects sprinkled within the essays, the best of which deal with their investigation of the human body and their embrace of technology, particularly surveillance technology. The duo also designed...

Visitor Center in Caerphilly, Wales by Davies Sutton Architecture The following text and images (click for larger views) are courtesy Davies Sutton Architecture for their visitor center at Caerphilly Castle in Wales. Caerphilly Castle is a scheduled ancient monument in the guardianship of Cadw; founded by the Anglo-Norman earl, 'Red Gilbert' de Clare, at the end of the thirteenth century. Its revolutionary design was based upon the concentric plan. It is one of the most visited of all the Cadw monuments attracting nearly 100,000 visitors a year. The site is situated in the center of the small town just 12 miles north of Wales' capital city, Cardiff. The brief required the building to house a shop, ticketing/re...

Stadthaus in Ostfildern, Germany by J. Mayer H., 2002 Recipient of the European Union of Contemporary Architecture 's Emerging Architect Special Mention award for 2003 is the Stadthaus in Ostfildern, Germany by J. Mayer H. Architekten of Berlin. The mixed-use building is located in Scharnhauser Park, housing municipal offices, a public library, art gallery, classrooms, and sports facilities, among other public spaces. Unification of these multiple uses happens in a simple boxy volume, with interest achieved through the use of artificial light, both internally and externally, among other means. Before entering the building, the visitor experience a light and water installation in the form of computer-generated rain a...

Condemned Building by Douglas Darden, published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 1993. Paperback, 160 pages. ( Amazon ) Containing ten unrealized, "rhetorical" projects, this book presents Darden's search for architectural meaning through his unique design process, his love of literature and poetry, and the skilled hands of a master delineator. His dis/continuous genealogies - separate images superimposed to create a new, hybrid image - are an adequate analogy for the book, which layers hidden meanings beneath the surfaces and forms of the architecture. The conceptual clarity and unique point-of-view make each project memorable, though the reader is rewarded through careful investigations of t...

Deep Creek Cabins in Delamere, Australia by Max Pritchard Being a sole practitioner, South Adelaide's Max Pritchard designs two to three houses a year, since the completion of his own house and office in 1989. Each house responds to its site and the client's desires by using structure as a means to deal with these issues in unique and creative ways. Therefore, the houses don't bear the stamp of architects like Tadao Ando or Richard Meier, but instead stand as singular testaments to the task at hand. The Deep Creek Cabins in Delamere, Australia, is an extension of this methodology, even though it is not a house for a single client. Situated within the Deep Creek Conservation Park, about 60 miles south of Adelaide, the three ca...

P.S.1 Urban Beach in Long Island City, New York by Emergent LA, 2003   Since 1998, P.S.1 Museum in Queens, New York, has hosted an architectural/music collaboration in its "V"-shaped courtyard, and this year Tom Wiscombe of Emergent LA is the winner of the Young Architects Program that opened July 29. With a budget of only $60,000, the design creates an "urban beach" that will be a venue for the summer music program, Warm Up, as well as a space for socializing and relaxing. The design features two key elements: the MicroMultiple Roof and the Leisure Landscape (as coined by the architect), both of which enable the program's different uses. With the recent, temporary relocation of The Museum of M...

The Skyscraper Bioclimatically Considered by Ken Yeang, published by  Wiley , 1996. Paperback, 269 pages. ( Amazon ) Billed as a design primer, Yeang touches on each step in the process to design a skyscraper with an emphasis on the bioclimatic aspects of this building type. Each of the ten chapters focuses on a different component of a skyscraper, from vertical circulation to mechanical and electrical services and everything in-between. Graphically the vertically-oriented book uses a tripartite structure across each page to loosely break up the main text from additional information, such as charts, graphs, sketches, and case studies from the author's practice in Malaysia. Layering of images, text and color helps to liven the overall tone of the bo...