A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

A brick is a modular masonry unit, something that wouldn't appear to "want to be" composed into undulating surfaces. Of course this doesn't stop architects from trying, from using limitations as inspiration and opportunities for doing something new. The idea of creating curves from orthogonal materials is not new. Modern examples of undulating brick walls include such mid-century designs as Eero Saarinen's 1955 MIT Chapel , where fairly regular ins-and-outs create an embracing space for worship. [MIT Chapel by Eero Saarinen | image source ] Similar forms were created by Uruguay's Eladio Dieste , an engineer who exploited a technique of reinforcing brick walls, an innovation that could be considered his own. The Church of Christ the Worker is a stunning examples of how Dieste engineering prowess led to sensually appealing forms, undulating in plan but also leaning in section, following the roof also undulating overhead. The image below shows how he reveale...

Archigram, Issue 7 , originally uploaded by Iqbal Aalam . "Scan of a 'cut-out puzzle' from Issue 7 of Archigram 1966." To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

While doing a tad of research on site-specific art earlier today, I came across Michael Heizer 's Rift I from 1968. Immediately I was struck by the visual similarity of the trench cut in Jean Dry Lake, Nevada with Daniel Libeskind's design for the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, which opened 33 years later. [L: Rift 1 | image source ; R: Jewish Museum, Berlin | image source ] Granted that the site, circumstances, scale, and purpose of each are so different, I just can't shake the strong formal similarity. Both are (were in the case of Rift I, which has been absorbed by the now wet lake) meant to be experienced, not necessarily seen from the air as in these photos. They are meant to be moved through, and here similarities are strengthened, as the zig-zag path is shared by both, even though the spatial sense of enclosure varies. If Libeskind's "broken Star of David" was influenced by Heizer's Rift, well only the architect knows for sure, but the incision...

Webb Bridge , originally uploaded by jonolist . Webb Bridge in Melbourne, Australia by Denton Corker Marshall , in collaboration with artist Robert Owen, 2004 To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Back in July I posted a notice about " Designing the 21st Century Street ," an open design competition sponsored by Transportation Alternatives , which I thought of entering at the time but didn't evenutally do. Regardless, three winners were announced today, and my first impressions are, um, mixed. But I'll admit that it is hard to fully grasp a piece of urban design from only one image. Below are snippets of the three winners , at a large scale to show one aspect of urban design, namely the small details that compose the public realm: lights, bike racks, paving, planters, etc. ["Shared Space" by Steven Nutter, Somerville, MA. | image source ] ["Streets for Everyone" by Rogers Marvel Architects , NY, NY. | image source ] ["Streets Come Alive" by team LEVON, Philadelphia, PA. | image source ]

Project Zagreb: Transition as Conditions, Strategy, Practice by Eve Blau and Ivan Rupnik, published by  Actar , 2007. ( Amazon ) What began as a two-semester seminar at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University is documented in this book, a work of collaboration between the authors, scholars, architects, and urban historians in Zagreb and Harvard GSD. It could be described as an alternative history of the urban fabric and architectural constructions of the Croatian city over the last 150 years. Instead of analyzing and presenting the history in a linear fashion, case studies are used to focus on specific areas of the city. Much of the case studies are architectural interventions, stressing the way buildings have influenced the urban plan of Zagreb over the years, where planning didn't dictate building so much as the opposite condition prevailed. The authors...

Hotel Lone in Rovinj, Croatia by 3LHD The following text and images are courtesy of Croatia's 3LHD for their 2006 competition-winning design for Hotel Lone in Rovinj, Croatia. The 26,290 square meter (86,250 square foot) hotel is expected to open in 2010. The future Lone Hotel is situated in the attractive tourist area of Monte Mulini, the green oasis of the town of Rovinj. The hotel is loctated in a park, on a specific terrain with significant height differences within the site, in immediate vicinity of the Eden Hotel, the "star" hotel in the 70's, with aesthetic characteristics of the time when it was constructed. The ground plan in the shape of the letter Y has been defined by the size of the building (250 rooms), the surrounding woods and terrain elevations, while the height differences in the interior provided for creating a vertical central lobby, the main axis around which all the facilities are centered. All levels are multi-functi...