A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Here are some photos of the A'Beckett Tower in Melbourne, Australia by Elenberg Fraser , 2011. Photographs are by William Veerbeek . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

[The proposed Barnsworth Exhibition Center - source for all images] Mies van der Rohe designed the Farnsworth House next to the Fox River in Plano, Illinois taking into account flooding. Yet even though it is raised five feet above the ground, the house has still been affected by flooding over the years, most recently in 2008. [The wardrobe (far end of room) inside of the Farnsworth House] These floods and the damage they inflict on the house's interior has necessitated the removal of the 12-foot-long wardrobe that is perpendicular to the large kitchen casework. [Wardrobe removal] But where to put the wardrobe? This is where students from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) come in. The IIT Design Build Studio is proposing the Barnsworth Exhibition Center , "a contemporary round barn" that would house the wardrobe and contain exhibition space. It takes its name from an adjacent barn building about a half mile from the Farnsworth House at the entran...

In one week -- Wednesday, February 22 at 6:30pm -- I'll be giving a book talk at The Skyscraper Museum , which is located at 39 Battery Place in Battery Park City. Of course the book I'll be talking about is Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture (W. W. Norton, 2011). The talk will give a little bit of background on how I did the book, but the focus will be tall buildings, going hand in hand with the mission of the host museum. For those who can make it, please be sure to say hello before or after the talk (preferably before, as I'll probably be a bit nervous beforehand!).

Here are some photos of the Alto de Pinheiros House in São Paulo, Brazil by Arquiteto Paulo Bastos and Associados , 1970. Floor plans: lower and upper . Photographs are by Flavio . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

A, B, C Lecture Halls at Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland by Zalewski Architecture Group, 2011 In undergraduate architecture school I recall hearing a professor say, during a crit for a proposed addition to the art school on campus, that about the only spaces that can be given any sort of architectural flair are circulation. Aimed at the educational program of our project, the professor asserted that classrooms, offices, and support spaces are driven by concerns (function, acoustics, wear) that necessitate fairly straightforward designs. In this regard, another space that is more aligned with circulation than classrooms would be auditoriums, aka lecture halls. Lecture halls can be considered over-sized classrooms, but their size, sectional tiering, and acoustical/technological requirements make them both more complex functionally and more ripe for architectural exploration. These three lecture halls for Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice,...

For the fourth year in a row the Times Square Alliance has commissioned an architect to create a heart in Times Square just in time for Valentine's Day. This year's installation is by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with FLATCUT_ and Local Projects and it is appropriately titled BIG♥NYC. As the placard next to it, visible in the photo above, describes it: More people = more love. A BIG red heart pulses with glowing light in a grove of glass rods. A single person can activate the beating heart, but joining hands with others will make the heart beat even faster to create a brightly burning heart. These 400 acrylic tubes -- a 20 by 20 grid -- create a 10-foot-tall cube that recedes or holds its own in the Times Square environ. The installation alters between these impressions depending on the glow of the LEDs in the center of the cube: Between "beats" the tubes almost disappear, but when glowing the heart shape is well-defined and it pulls one towards it. The above ...

Here are some photos one of my favorite buildings I've never seen in person, the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop , 1998. Photographs are by Ximo Michavila . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose