A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

Chinese Brutalism Today: Concrete and Avant-Garde Architecture Alberto Bologna ORO Editions , November 2019 Paperback | 8-1/4 x 10-3/4 inches | 300 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1943532384 | $45.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Chinese Brutalism Today: Concrete and Avant-Garde Architecture is divided into three chapters and ends with a methodological afterword that explains the reasons why the research was carried out and the scientific tools used. The first chapter is “Exposed concrete in the design process,” the second is “Identity Research: Towards an Ornate Surface” and the third is “Global ambition: towards a polished surface.” The narration takes place through a substantial written part accompanied by specific images that facilitate the understanding of the text. Transversally, in the narrative, an interpretation is given to the precise and ambiguous dictates announced in 2017 by President Xi Jinping: to pursue a contemporary architecture made of “international standards with ...

Wood Urbanism: From the Molecular to the Territorial Daniel Ibañez, Jane Hutton, Kiel Moe (Editors) Actar Publishers , November 2019 Hardcover | 8 x 10-1/4 inches | 488 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1945150814 | $54.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Wood holds unique and timely lessons for urbanization, yet it remains inadequately characterized in architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism. From under-considered thermal properties to emerging manufacturing possibilities, from changing forestry regimes to larger carbon cycle dynamics, Wood Urbanism explores the unique material and scalar properties of wood, presenting it as a critical material for design today. It brings into conversation scholars and practitioners who focus on wood from a range of perspectives: from the working forest to the mid-rise building to the basic cell. Drawing from the inherent intelligence and depth of multiple disciplines, this book offers a transcalar perspective on the role of wood in contemporar...

Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture Jane King Hession University of Minnesota Press , April 2020 Hardcover | 10 x 9 inches | 224 pages | 152 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-1517908577 | $39.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Elizabeth “Lisl” Scheu Close (1912–2011) left an indelible mark on Minnesota’s built landscape during her six decades as an architect. In 1938, with her husband, Winston Close, she founded the state’s first architecture firm dedicated to modernism. In addition to designing the first International Style house in Minneapolis, the firm also created more than 250 handsome and efficiently planned modern residences. One of few women who were practicing architects in the mid-twentieth century, she blazed a trail for future generations of women in the profession. As Jane King Hession shows, the trajectory of Lisl’s architectural career was shaped by the political, economic, and aesthetic upheavals of the twentieth century. Raised in a renowned mode...

Fear of Glass: Mies van der Rohe's Pavilion in Barcelona Josep Quetglas Birkhäuser , January 2001 Paperback | 6-3/4 x 6-1/4 inches | 200 pages | English (translated by John Stone & Rosa Roig) | ISBN: 978-3764363390 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : Barcelona at the end of the twenties: Mies van der Rohe is commissioned to design the German contributions for the 1929 International Exhibition, one of them being the German Pavilion. Today, his brief for this building reads like a manifesto of modern architecture: a contemporary building, an imposing stage, a timeless work of art -- an outstanding example of where the attempt to solve the puzzle of modern architecture took shape. Shortly before Germany embarks on a catastrophe for civilization, a German architect creates a masterpiece of the avant-garde, an icon of modern architecture. "For me, the time I spent working in Barcelona was a shining moment in my life." -- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1957 Josep Quetglas  is P...

Architecture as Measure Neyran Turan Actar Publishers , February 2020 Paperback | 6-1/4 x 9-1/4 inches | 300 pages | English | ISBN: 978-01948765299 | $39.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : In light of the current political crisis around climate change, what can architecture possibly contribute towards a new planetary imaginary of our contemporary environment beyond environmentalism and technological determinism? Instead of conceptualizing the idea of the environment as purely natural and in need of protection, as solely a problem that needs to be managed, or merely as the Earth, which limits the scope with a scalar bias, can we speculate on architecture as a measure both to assess and to act upon the world? Architecture as Measure is an elaboration on this question, and on the disciplinary and cultural potentials of such a provocation. It positions climate change as a cultural and political idea that requires a renewed architectural environmental imagination. The book takes on this...