A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

The Working Drawing: The Architect's Tool , edited by Annette Spiro and David Ganzoni and published by Park Books, is a must-have book for architects who love drawings...which should pretty much be all of them. A selection of drawings from the book can be found in this week's World-Architects eMagazine . Text from the publisher : Large-size working drawings are an elementary means in the architectural process and the actual construction of a building. Yet very little has been written and published about the architect’s quintessential tool. This new book aims to close this gap. It draws on a vast collection of working drawings from many centuries held by the Department of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). The collection, put together and categorized under the direction of Annette Spiro, comprises plans for a wide range of architectural tasks and features manifold representational techniques. The book presents around 100 of t...

American-Architects Building of the Week : 6th Street House in Boulder, Colorado, by Arch11: Last week's Building of the Week (which I forgot to post): Animo Leadership High School in Inglewood, California, by Brooks + Scarpa Architects: American-Architects is taking a state-by-state look at architecture in the United States for our 2014 Building of the Week feature. " 50x50 - 50 Projects in 50 Weeks " presents one recent project from each state in alphabetical order, from Alabama to Wyoming. Projects are added every Monday.

Crossover by Cecil Balmond, published by  Prestel , 2013. Hardcover, 720 pages. ( Amazon ) The more I read books, at least non-fiction, the more I realize that the middle of a book is often the most important part. This it not a universal rule, but something I've noticed particularly in monographs. Placing something important in the middle of a books seems intentional, for doing such at the beginning would front-load the book and make the rest like a downhill path, while doing such at the end would make the journey seem longer than it should. Putting it in the middle gives a more natural, bell-curve-like arc to a book's narrative, making the experience of reading more enjoyable. This hypothesis comes to mind in the case of Cecil Balmond's follow up to his popular book Informal . Occupying just over 100 pages in the middle of Crossover is OMA's CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, easily one of the most important projects in structural engineer Cecil Balmond's caree...

Here are some photos of the Sunny Hills Japan (2013) in Tokyo, Japan, by Kengo Kuma and Associates , photographed by Ken Lee . And a video on the project (via Sunny Hills Japan ): To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the  archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos  archidose

Wanted to go to last week's MoMA Conversation but couldn't make it? Nowhere near NYC but curious about what was said that evening? Whatever the case, the Architectural League has posted a video of the 2-hour event, embedded below. Click the link above for my coverage from last week.

Here are some photos of the Gare Postale (2012) in Sion, Switzerland, by DV Architectes & Associés , 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

On Saturday the Billings Public Library, designed by Will Bruder Architects , was dedicated. Here is a video tour inside the library shot by the Billings Gazette: