A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Extension to the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück, Germany by Studio Daniel Libeskind, 2011 Daniel Libeskind won the competition for the Jewish Museum in Berlin in 1989, months before the Berlin Wall came down. The Polish-born architect's design -- an exploded Star of David sliced by a void space -- is one of the most important projects of the last decade of the 20th century. Yet even though the museum is Libeskind's first notable commission (he produced mainly hard-to-understand drawings before it), it was not his first to be realized. The year before the Jewish Museum was completed in 1999, Libeskind's design for the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück opened. Twelve years later the architect added to his first realized project with an extension that includes an entrance hall with museum shop and a learning center. In a number of ways Libeskind's design for Felix Nussbaum Haus is similar to the Jewish Museum: it's an addition to an old building, cr...

I'm in New Orleans for the AIA Convention. Posts will resume on Monday. [ Make It Right house at 1708 Tennessee Street by Trahan Architects with John C. Williams Architects ; photographed by Kyle Rogers .]

Bracket 1: On Farming edited by Mason White & Maya Przybylski, published by  Actar , 2010. Paperback, 252 pages. ( Amazon ) Bracket, a collaboration between Archinect and InfraNet Lab , is "an annual publication documenting issues overlooked yet central to our cultural milieu that have evolved out of the new disciplinary territory at the intersection of architecture, environment and, now, digital culture." The first issue is On Farming , which the editors define as "beyond its most common agricultural understanding ... the modification of infrastructure,urbanisms, architectures, and landscapes toward a privileging of production." The collection of roughly forty projects and texts on the topic embodies the broader diversity of this definition, be it a framework for tissue engineering , a look at gas exploration in Texas , a project reintroducing horses into Luxor , or a look at the Body Farm -- yes, there really is a body farm . Uniting the m...

The year 2011 is so far a BIG one for Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), with no less than four competition wins in as many months and their first project in the United States. Four of these new projects are discussed here; click the image thumbnails at bottom for side-by-side comparisons of the projects. The Mosque and Museum of Religious Harmony in Tirana, Albania is part of a "complete reconceptualization of Skanderberg Square." BIG won the competition for this cultural complex in early May. It is designed around the city's grid and the need to orient the Mosque towards Mecca. These important lines are downplayed in the way the three buildings torque themselves and cantilever over the plaza, creating an outdoor room that is inviting to those outside of Islam. In early February BIG revealed their design for the Greenland National Gallery of Art, in a competition they won with TNT Nuuk + Ramboll Nuuk + Arkitekti. A number of strands run through BIG's oeuvre, one being th...

Here are a number of abstract architectural photos by Ximo Michavila . I'm not sure the building or buildings that are the subject. Any guesses? To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Paris, Masséna Housing. Beckmann N'Thépé , originally uploaded by z.z . Masséna Housing in Paris, France by Beckmann N'Thépé , 2004. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

On display at next week's AIA Convention in New Orleans will be the winning entries in the student design competition for the 2015 Pan American Games Award Pavilion for the games to be held in Toronto , Ontario, Canada. The competition -- presented by AIAS , the Vinyl Institute , and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association -- asked students to design a pavilion utilizing vinyl that "should showcase the athletes’ accomplishments and Toronto’s pride in hosting the Pan Am Games." The winning entry, "Tkaronto I gs2v," is by Manuel Gross, Yannick Vorberg, Patrik Staub, and Stefan Vetsch, recent graduates of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ( ETH ) in Zurich, Switzerland. [Image courtesy winning team | click for larger view] The Awards Pavilion is located on the site of the Pan American Village near the waterfront and downtown Toronto. The Village and Pavilion are designed for use beyond the games; the former as housing and parkland, and the latter...