A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

What Is Architecture? An essay by John Hill (Something I dug up from my college days.) Architecture is generally considered an art but is differentiated by it in one respect: function. Regardless, defining architecture is almost, if not as, difficult as defining art. To define architecture is to set parameters, standards by which anything applied to these criteria will either fit the definition or not. The definition must take certain conditions into account that must be present in order for something to be considered architecture. Some of these may include, in reference to a candidate for a piece of architecture: it must be material, it must transcend mere function, it must be aesthetic and it must be designed by an architect. These are some criteria that are generally agreed upon by the public and most architects as necessary traits of architecture. If we look at these briefly, though, small arguments arise that c...

The following is an excerpt from R.M. Schindler's 1912 Manifesto. Images are taken from David Gebhard's 1972 book, Schindler. Director's House, Los Angeles The first house was a shelter. Its primary attribute was stability. Therefore its structural features were paramount. All architectural styles up to the twentieth century were functional. Translucent House Project, Palos Verdes Architectural forms symbolized the structural functions of the building material. The final step in this development was the architectural solution of the steel skeleton: Its framework is no longer a symbol, it has become form itself. The twentieth century is the first to abandon construction as a source for architectural form through the introduction of reinforced concrete. The structural problem has been reduced to an equation. The approved stress diagram eliminates the need to emphasize the stability of the construction. ...

The Wall: 13,000 Oil Barrels in Oberhausen, Germany by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 1999 Christo and Jeanne-Claude are known for their wrappings of structures and natural features, acquiring international acclaim outside the art world with 1995's Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin. Much of their early work though did use other materials and objects, with six completed works using oil barrels. This work, their seventh, is located inside a Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany. The structure, built in 1928 to store the gaseous by-products of iron ore processing, is 110 m (360 ft) high with a 68 m (223 ft) diameter, with the wall of oil barrels 26 m (85 ft) tall and 7.23 m (24 ft) deep, filling the diameter of the Gasometer. The installation is accompanied by two exhibitions, documenting two projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Umbrellas (Japan and USA, 1984-91) and Wrapped Reichstag (Berlin, 1971-95). Of course the wall...

Lawson/Westen House in Los Angeles, California by Eric Owen Moss, 1993 The evolution of the American house has paralleled changes in the family, both in its focus and its structure. The fireplace, long the center of the home, was supplanted by the family room and its accompanying glowing box for family gatherings. The focus moved from inward to outward; to the world outside of the family. Now in a world of constant visual stimulus (television, computers, advertising) the location for interaction with family and friends rests in the kitchen. The Lawson/Westen house in Los Angeles, designed by Eric Owen Moss , reflects this change. Both in plan and in space the kitchen has a constant presence, a multi-story space contained within a truncated and sliced cone. These two formal gestures dictate the form of the rest of the house: truncating the cone creates a skylight bathing the space in light and slicing the truncated ...

Steedman Fellowship Winner in St. Louis, Missouri by Fabio Oppici, 2000 The following is the winner of the 2000 James Harrison Steedman Traveling Fellowship in Architecture, Fabio Oppici of Rome, Italy. Click here to read an excerpt from the competition brief. The winning scheme for a new Museum of American Architecture strongly addresses one of the program brief's main issues: reconnecting the city of St. Louis and the Mississippi, while ignoring others (the possibility of a symbolic vocabulary for museums and the relationship between artwork and container, for example). Essentially the solution is a tube wrapping Interstate 70, which now inhabits a trench that severs the arch and its park from downtown, with program spaces pushed underground. This tube stitches together the park and the city at street level as a pedestrian landscape not disturbing the visual axis between the Courthouse and the ...

iN.fOrmant.system in Chicago, Illinois by Doug Garofalo and Randall Kober, 2000 The following project and text is by Doug Garofalo and Randall Kober, as part of the "MATERIAL EVIDENCE: Chicago Architecture @ 2000" exhibit currently at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. As architects we find ourselves increasingly employing digital media to shape, modify and make flexible various "performance criteria" in design and fabrication processes. Our strategy for the “Material Evidence” exhibit at the MCA Chicago configures the issues of materiality and program into a structure that can be seen to vary in form (across space) and performance (over time). The in.formant.system prototype demonstrates three ideas relative to materiality: first, that the interaction of even a small palette of materials can be treated as a flow of matter; second, that this “performance” is constructed usin...

Law Courts in Bourdeaux, France by Richard Rogers Partnership, 1998 Richard Rogers's reputation rests on structures, such as Llyod's of London and the Pompidou Centre with Renzo Piano, that display their inner workings on the building's exterior. So in these works their appearance is a residue of the buildings interior. The elevations tend to work on a micro level, though, with well thought-out details and unique structural solutions. On the macro level the buildings are a cacophony of parts, grouped together according to their corresponding functions. Therefore this design process is limiting, though instantly recognizable. Recent work by Richard Rogers Partnership has incorporated more arbitrary formal elements and shifted the focus of structure and detailing from primary considerations to design devices. The Millennium Dome in Greenwich, London, app...