A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Kolumba , originally uploaded by Atelier FLIR . Inside the Kolumba Art Museum of the Archbishopric of Cologne, Germany by Peter Zumthor (2007). See more images in Atelier FLIR's Flickr set on the building. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

One unintended consequence of hiring Jan Gehl as a consultant for improving New York City's streets -- beyond the intended consequence of actually improving the streets -- is that the plans being implemented spark discussion, they make it into the news . And discussion and exposure around urban design, to me, is a good thing. [Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times | image source ]  One plan underway is the closure of a portion of the west side of the roadway on Broadway between 42nd and 34th Streets, in order to create a bike lane and "pedestrian living rooms." The green strip above will become the bike lane, with planters taking the place of the orange and white striped construction bollards, to buffer people sitting on cafe chairs in the new pedestrian strip, per the rendering below. [Broadway Boulevard rendering | image source (PDF link)]  Locating seating in a narrow strip between two types of fast-moving traffic is the most questionable and controversial aspec...

Here's two views of Blok 14 in IJburg, Amsterdam, Netherlands by DKV Architecten . Photographs are by Flickr member kwiksilver . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Phaidon appears to be cornering the market on oversized books on architecture, with the releases this year of The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture and Le Corbusier Le Grand . The former is a follow-up to 2004's extremely successful, 18-pound Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture and will be released in September. No details are available as of yet, except that it will be 812 pages loooooong. Out now is the 624-page, 21-pound visual feast on perhaps the 20th-century's most influential architect -- for better or worse-- the man whose "work and social theories continue to be a dominant force in the world of architecture and design, while his elegant bearing, bow tie, and round black eyeglasses are still today a signature look for architects around the world." The same could be partly said for Philip Johnson, but only one deserves a book this size. A review of Le Corbusier Le Grand is forthcoming. or for Phaidon Atla...

brompton and serpentine pavilion 2008 , originally uploaded by ludd . The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2008 in London by Frank Gehry, in the distance, opening on July 20, until October 19. See also 0lll's documentation of the pavilion. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

"Until we understand what the land is, we are at odds with everything we touch. And to come to that understanding it is necessary, even now, to leave the regions of our conquest -- the cleared fields, the towns and cities, the highways -- and re-enter the woods. For only there can a man encounter the silence and the darkness of his own absence. Only in this silence and darkness can he recover the sense of the world's longevity, of its ability to thrive without him, of his inferiority to it and his dependence on it. Perhaps then, having heard that silence and seen that darkness, he will grow humble before the place and begin to take it in -- to learn from it what it is. As its sounds come into his hearing, and its lights and colors come into his vision, and its odors come into his nostrils, then he may come into its presence as he never has before, and he will arrive in his place and will want to remain. His life will grow out of the ground like the other lives of the place, ...

Kastrup Søbad in Copenhagen, Denmark by White arkitekter Photographs are by Ole Haupt . The short warm season in Northern Europe is embraced particularly strongly by the Danes, who flock outdoors when the weather invites them to do so. The sensation of sun and water against skin during the summer makes up for the more prevalent cold days the rest of the year. Given the desire to take advantage of these conditions, and the long stretches of waterfront in places like Copenhagen, a piece of architecture like the Kastrup Søbad should come as no surprise. Designed by Fredrik Pettersson of White arkitekter , this bathing and diving pavilion 100 meters (325 feet) from the shoreline, rises from a height of 1 meter (3.25 feet) to 5 meters (16 feet) above water in a circular, clockwise curve. Visitors approach the pavilion via a straight walkway lined with benches...