A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Designing Suburban Futures: New Models from Build a Better Burb by June Williamson, published by  Island Press , 2013. Paperback, 160 pages. ( Amazon ) Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in China by Bianca Bosker, published by University of Hawai'i Press, 2013. Paperback, 176 pages. ( Amazon ) What is the appropriate form for the city in the 21st century? How will cities deal with the circumstances—crises, really—that dominate their discourse, namely dwindling resources for a growing population? These two books look at a couple unique morphologies—the American suburb and the Chinese new town—that are worth considering in the larger context of 21st-century urbanity, though also as separate cases. While at first glance the two geographically remote types would hardly bear any similarities, they share a number of characteristics, even as one book examines cities as they are being built and the other offers alternative futures. June Williamso...

Ama'r Children's Culture House in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Dorte Mandrup Architects, 2013 The following text and images are courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Architects . The Ama'r Children’s Culture House is an innovative project developed with the fanciful and fun input of children. The Culture House is a Danish Villa Villekulla that offers a unique range of spatial experiences and cultural activities. Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter considered the children’s countless ideas and wishes throughout the design process. They have created a house with many intriguing angles, caves and stairs that pro- vide a wealth of opportunities for creative expression and exploration. Just like the kids wished for! A dream come true! -Nild Regout, Head of Ama’r Children’s Culture House The Children’s Culture House mediates the varying scales of adjacent buildings through extruding and cutting their forms. The joint of the building, where the extended lines of the existing buildings meet, is lowe...

Here are some photos of the extension to the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture (ENSAS) in Strasbourg, France, by Marc Mimram (2013), photographed by Lucas Matagne . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

The "So You Want to Learn About" series highlights books focused on a particular theme: think "socially responsible architecture" and "phenomenology," rather than broad themes like "housing" or "theory." Therefore the series aims to be a resource for finding decent reading materials on certain topics, born of a desire to further define noticeable areas of interest in the books I review . And while I haven't reviewed every title, I am familiar with each one; these are not blind recommendations. With the exhibition Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes opening Saturday, and the architect occupying much of my time and thoughts since seeing the exhibition before the Le Corbusier/New York symposium last week, I've put together a list of books and essays by and on the architect. Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, 1887-1965) wrote more than 30 books, and the books written about him must be well over 100 — not t...

Mark your calendars for what promises to be a must-see show at the Gagosian Gallery on West 21st Street in New York City. The opening reception for Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Fragments is Thursday, June 27, from 6-8pm. A snippet from the Gagosian Gallery press release: Knowing how to do things not just with the head, but with the hands as well: this might seem a programmatic and ideological goal. It is not. It is a way of safeguarding creative freedom. —Renzo Piano In collaboration with Fondazione Renzo Piano , Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present “Fragments,” an exhibition of more than thirty years of architectural projects by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Equal parts library reading room, school classroom, and natural history gallery, the exhibition consists of twenty-four tabletop displays of scale models, drawings, photographs, and video. Each tells the involved, inspiring story of the design process of a single building, from museums, libraries, and airpor...

With the recent opening of the 2013 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, designed by Sou Fujimoto , here are some photos of the pavilion and an exhibition in Switzerland. Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, photographed by James Attree : Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, photographed by Iqbal Aalam : Sou Fujimoto - Architecture as Forest exhibition at Maison de l'Architecture in Geneva, Switzerland (12 April - 13 June 2013), photographed by trevor.patt : To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Instigations: Engaging Architecture, Landscape, and the City edited by Mohsen Mostafavi and Peter Christensen, published by  Lars Müller Publishers , 2012. Paperback, 560 pages. ( Amazon ) How does a school celebrate its 75th anniversary? With a historical timeline? With an archive? With a presentation of important milestones? For the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), the answer is "all of the above, and more." Instigations is an appropriately large book that covers the first 75 years of the GSD across six thematic chapters: Design as Research, Design as Critique, City and Environment as Process, City and Environment as Form, The Continuous Institution, and The Shifting Institution. As these labels make clear, there is a further tripartite division into three contexts: architecture/design, city/nature, and the school itself. It's also clear that the book is not a simple timeline, archive, or presentation; it is a mix of these inserted into the var...