A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Urbanisms: Working with Doubt by Steven Holl, published by  Princeton Architectural Press , 2009. Hardcover, 240 pages. ( Amazon ) In the foreword to what seems like his umpteenth book for Princeton Architectural Press, architect Steven Holl describes Urbanisms as an accompaniment to the previous House: Black Swan Theory , with a focus on the macro scale where the predecessor dealt with the microscale. These books present the buildings and unbuilt projects of Holl's office back to the days of Anchoring and Intertwining , his first two PAPress monographs and examples of chronological coverage. Urbanisms and House become more summary than the architect's early monographs, th...

Concrete Studio in Austin, Texas by Mell Lawrence Architects Photographs are copyright Mell Lawrence Architects. The aptly named Concrete Studio is tucked into a hillside of the property of a creative couple who are also avid gardeners. Design by Austin, Texas-based Mell Lawrence Architects , the poured-in-place structure certainly stands out with its exposed surface, scale-like texture and faceted form. In the last it appears to be one monolithic object carved to make way for openings and, one would guess, some sort of interior. At first glance it's intriguing, to say the least. In plan the studio resembles a slightly irregular pentagon with one-and-a-half sides built into the hillside. The studio space itself sits on the second floor, above a garage. Where car access is at one end, the couple's entry in...

Here are some photos of Donnybrook Quarter in London, England by Peter Barber Architects , 2006. Photographs are by suburbanslice . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

The following text and images are courtesy studio octopi for their extension to the Victorian end of a terrace house located in North London, UK. The project is shortlisted for a 2010 AJ Small Project Award . [photo by Lyndon Douglas Photography ] The original builder was also the house’s first resident, and made the most of his triangular plot by allowing the side of the building to fan out to meet the line of the adjacent public footpath. On the ground floor this resulted in an additional fillet of space splitting the living and dining rooms. It was the divisional nature of this space (used as a utility room) that the client asked studio octopi to resolve. By relocating the utility room, the plan was reordered and paved the way for an extension that linked the living spaces. [photo by Lyndon Douglas Photography ] The design was developed through a series of folded paper sketch models exploring the nature of the triangular plot, the geometry and aspect. The lines of the roof ridges w...

Last night my friend and old CCNY classmate Matt informed me about NYIT professor Michele Bertomen's house under construction in Williamsburg. The distinctive design at 351 Keap Street (address via Curbed ) is certainly one to consider for my guidebook to NYC contemporary architecture, because it's a project actually built from stacked shipping containers, not just envisioned and unbuilt, as so many designers have tried to realize shipping container architecture in recent years. [351 Keap Street by Michele Bertomen | image source ] Proposals for New York City have typically fallen into the unbuilt category, such as David Wallance Architect 's proposal for 372 Lafayette Street in NoHo... [372 Lafayette Street by David Wallance Architect | image source ] ... or this striking design I showed on this blog almost six years ago, in regards the popularity of designing with shipping containers. Shigeru Ban 's Nomadic Museum falls into the built category, but the ...

Here are a couple Tadao Ando-designed buidlings, photographed by etogh33 . [ Langen Foundation in Neuss, Germany, 2004] [Vitra Conference Center in Weil Am Rhein, Germany, 1993] To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

"Plaza Redo, Again" published in edited form in The Architects's Newspaper , February 3, 2010 The federally owned plaza where Richard Serra’s controversial Tilted Arc sculpture once stood—and now sprawls landscape architect Martha Schwartz’s composition of planted mounds and bright-green curling benches—is getting another makeover this spring. The General Services Administration (GSA) has confirmed that Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) will redesign the public space in front of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, working under lead architect Wank Adams Slavin Associates (WASA). The new design for the plaza, at the intersection of Lafayette and Worth streets in Lower Manhattan, will be the site’s fourth iteration in just over 20 years, taking into account temporary landscaping that occupied the space for eight years between the 1989 removal of Serra’s wall of weathered steel and the construction of Schwartz’s design. The GSA said the work is being principall...