A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Michiel van Raaij, aka Eikongraphia , has just posted the 25 Most Popular Architecture Blogs of this moment, or MoPo 2007 , and this page manages to break the top five, clocking in at number four. Not surprisingly the fantastic, bar-raising BLDGBLOG tops the list, which "measures the popularity of architecture blogs by linking blogs (Technorati), subscribers (Bloglines), and hits (Google, and Google Images)." Link-heavy (and one of my favorite sources) Things Magazine comes in second place, with the lately-stagnant Pruned in third place, and New York-centered Tropolism rounding out the top five below me. 1. BLDGBLOG 2. Things Magazine 3. Pruned 4. Archidose 5. Tropolism 6. Dezeen 7. Edgar Gonzalez 8. Subtopia 9. Eikongraphia 10. Anarchitecture 11. Noticias Arquitectura 12. Mirage Studio 7 13. Brand Avenue 14. Architecture.mnp 15. Archispass 16. Archinect News 17. Architechnophilia 18. Bird to the North 19. Dezain 20. ecAr 2.0 21. PartIV 22. Blog Like You Give A Damn 23. Death...

Bankok Suvarnabhumi Airport , originally uploaded by crazyegg95 . The new Bangkok International Airport by Murphy/Jahn . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

In the absence of a common language or system of understanding, the kind of communication proposed by Postmodernism could not reach the wider public. Inherited symbols remain dependent on a particular cultural moment or context and cannot survive changing conditions. If architecture is to remain convergent with culture, it needs to build mechanisms by which culture can constantly produce new images and concepts rather than recycle existing ones. - Farshid Moussavi from The Function of Ornament (2006)

STEEL unfolded , originally uploaded by !architect4! . A manipulation of Ralf Stockmann's "Steel Rhythm" . Hypnotic. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Tools of the Imagination: Drawing Tools and Technologies from the Eighteenth Century to the Present edited by Susan Piedmont-Palladino, published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 2006. ( Amazon ) Notions of tools as extensions of the hand have been usurped by contemporary conditions of "abstract machines" that absorb both human and instrument into larger functional systems. This quote by Paul Emmons in his essay, "The Lead Pencil: Lever of the Architect's Imagination," sums up much of 2005's Tools of the Imagination exhibition at the National Building Museum and its accompanying book, in which the essay is included. Finely crafted and sculpted instruments that exhibit their use and ...

Surry Hills Police Station, Sydney , originally uploaded by fabian-f . The Surry Hills Police Station in Sydney, Australia. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

The last time I snapped some photos of Herzog & de Meuron's 40 Bond in NoHo the building was awaiting its glass exterior and had mock-ups of the curved glass pieces that would cover the concrete frame. Walking by yesterday, over seven months later, it appears installation of the glass covers is almost complete. While the original design featured cast glass covers, the glass as installed is (I'm guessing) 1/4" curved laminated glass curved over reflective metal pieces. Unfortunately the caulk between pieces is gray and stands out more than it should, or at least did in the renderings , especially at the intersections. Before walking away I noticed something strange, one of the curved glass sections sitting in a pile of trash: Getting "up close and personal" with one of these pieces, I could look at the size, profile, and surface characteristics that aren't as apparent from a distance. While the piece is bigger up close than far away, and th...