A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Materials for Design by Victoria Ballard Bell with Patrick Rand is "a textbook that bridges the gap between construction materials and design sensibility." Students must be taught how a choice of material affects the form and look of a structure; they must also learn how inspired design can inject any material with true personality and zeal. Materials for Design makes a thorough study of [five] material's properties, followed by a series of 10-–12 case studies of that material put to imaginative use by today's brightest architects from around the world. Projects include Future Shack , LOOK UP Office , Masons Bend Community Center , and Sauna Pavilion . Full review on my weekly page forthcoming.

Photographer Thomas Mayer has been methodically documenting the construction of the Zollverein School of Management and Design in Essen, Germany since it's groundbreaking almost two years ago. For the school, Japan's SANAA designed a cube punctuated by an assemblage of square windows of various sizes. While it looks random, most likely these apertures relate to the functions behind the wall, though compositionally the openings tend to densify at the corners of the cube. One of the evening shots . Hanging the curtains . A directory of all the Zollverein photographs can be found here . But for those without the time or desire to wade through thousands of photos, Mayer has been nice enough to provide a selection of images from the various stages of the project.

scottish parliament debating chamber by lwsdm Inside the Scottish Parliament by Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Guggenheim NY by mike_sos Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

A selection of recent articles about architecture and the built environment in everybody's favorite Midwestern metropolis. Postcard Pablum: The Failure Of Millennium Park Steven Rhodes explains why "Millennium Park sucks." A Legacy Destroyed Lynn Becker asks, "will the city let yet another Adler and Sullivan building go down?" Ghosts of the White City Kevin Nance recalls the 1893 World's Fair through the words of Erik Larsen and the images of Chris Ware.

Visionary Chicago Architecture: Fourteen Inspired Concepts for the Third Millennia edited by Stanley Tigerman and William Martin. ( Amazon ) Chicago ever lives in the shadow of many great architects, most notably Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe. But none has had such a profound effect on the ways architects look at the city than Daniel Burnham , who shaped much of the city through his planning of the 1893 Columbian Exposition and his 1909 City of Chicago Plan. In the case of this 2005 book and its fourteen projects, his influence comes through via those words he's often quoted as saying: "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will themselves not be ...

Capilla Lago Rupanco in Lago Rupanco, Chile by F3 Arquitectos Photographs are by Ignacio Infante and can be found at Europaconcorsi . For this small and unassuming chapel on a plateau overlooking Lake Rupanco in Chile F3 Arquitectos tried to "generate an area of meditation beyond the 21 m2 (225 sf) of construction," using the surrounding land as well as the building as a place of religion, allowing for the visitor to be in touch with the world around them. From various angles, the chapel takes the form of a house. This is perhaps due to the size and scale of the building, as well as the familiar gable roof form, small windows, and porch. Certainly this decision could be rooted in the desire to create a "house of worship" for the c...