A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Here are some photos of the Tchoban Foundation - Museum for Architectural Drawing (opening June 4, 2013) in Berlin, Germany, by SPEECH Tchoban&Kuznetsov ; photographed by bcmng . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Where Are the Utopian Visionaries?: Architecture of Social Exchange edited by Hansy Better Barraza, published by Periscope Publishing, 2012. Paperback, 160 pages. ( Amazon ) With one of the most intriguing names of any recent architecture title, Where Are the Utopian Visionaries? asks architects to "consider the people routinely consigned to silence and invisibility in the design process." "Social exchange" is the important term that directs the reader's gaze beyond business-as-usual; away from architecture as an exchange of services and toward architecture as a process for and with (a particularly important consideration) people who could hardly afford to commission architects. Or to put it another way, as Barraza does in her introduction, this is the "polar opposite of [Ayn Rand's] hero, Howard Roark," from The Fountainhead . This book began its life in a 2004 symposium at the Rhode Island School of Design called Social XCha...

The Public Theater in New York City by Ennead Architects, 2012 Sometimes the smallest and most discrete of projects can have the greatest impact. Such is my take upon experiencing the new lobby for The Public Theater at Astor Place, and hearing the history of the building and project from Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partnership). The Public occupies the former Astor Library, which actually consists of three buildings constructed over the course of 30 years in the middle of the 19th century. The Byzantine landmark nevertheless appears as one entity, with bilateral symmetry about its taller middle section. Over the years the building changed from a library to a boarding house and then to a theater, when Joseph Papp persuaded the city to save the building from demolition in the 1960s. Small physical changes had large effects, especially the relegation of the library's exterior steps to the interior, a situation that made the lobby of The Public's five thea...

Yesterday I stopped by Leslie Feely Fine Art on Manhattan's Upper East Side to check out the exhibition Frank Gehry At Work , on display until June 29. The exhibition collects about 30 process models, some for buildings that were completed, others as studies for projects never realized. Below are some of my photos and impressions. Given the focus on Gehry "at work," the models range from messy to really messy—tape and hot glue are evident where needed to hold the metal, plastic, paper, wood, and even cloth into Gehry's distinctive forms. Easily my favorite piece is the one done in lead (below photo); even though it is undeniably Gehry, the fact it is made from one sheet of lead and is self supporting (no wood armature like the model above) brings it closer to a piece of art than the others. Some of the models are more like presentation models than process models, such as these above and below. Yet as a close-up of the above photo reveals, globs of hot glue...

Here's a photo of The Shed (2013) in London, England, by Haworth Tompkins , photographed by Andy Matthews . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Last night at the Harvard Club was the announcement of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design's 2013 Wheelwright Prize winner. For the first time since its inception in 1936, the $100,000 Wheelwright Prize (formerly known as the Arthur Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship) is open to architects beyond the walls of Harvard GSD. Nevertheless the winner, Brooklyn-based architect Gia Wolff (who was chosen from among 231 applicants from 45 countries), graduated from the GSD in 2008. Her winning proposal, Floating City: The Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats , can be seen as an extension of a practice focused on performance through set designs, installations, and other creations. K. Michael Hays, a juror for the prize, spoke of the strong connection between her portfolio and proposal, something not always evident in other applicants. Wolff described her work—in particular with the Phantom Limb Company and its marionettes—as "dress rehearsals for architecture,...

I took a walk at lunch and snapped a few photos of Morris Adjmi Architects ' recently completed building at 254 Front Street at the South Street Seaport. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose