A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

It's been a few months since I've done one of these, so I figured it's time to start up the "half doses" again. The first time I saw a photograph of Inn The Park, a new restaurant in St. James Park by Michael Hopkins, I was pleased with its simplicity and the way it fits into the park, like it belonged there or had always been there. Though Hopkins is usually grouped with other high-tech Brits like Lord Foster and Richard Rogers, here he subdues that tendency in favor of a natural palette that nevertheless exhibits his tectonic skill. Basically, the building is a one-story structure housing a restaurant and toilet facilities. A glass wall with sliding panels and a veranda overlook the adjacent lake. The whole of the project is beneath a grass roof that makes the building blend into the park even more than these photos attest. It's refreshing to see an architect show some restraint in creating a park folly that is a pleasing extension of its natural surroundin...

Highrise of Homes  by SITE Rizzoli , 1982 Paperback, 108 pages James Wines and his art/architecture/environmental design incarnation SITE have strived to "unite building design with visual art, landscape, and green technology" for the last 35 years. This ecological ingredient is evident in 2000's Green Architecture that Wines authored, an overview of environmentally-friendly architecture of which is firm is an influential voice. As an architect, SITE is known most for their series of Best Showrooms designed and built from 1970-84. These one-of-a-kind design were a refreshing antidote to corporate branding that produce to this day repeated, cookie-cutter boxes that litter the American landscape and ...

Jian Wai SOHO in Beijing, China by Riken Yamamoto Not only is China building like crazy these day, they are building BIG. The most populous country in the world is undertaking large-scale "mega-projects" in an effort to rapidly industrialize and modernize. Many of these mega-projects are high-rise residential developments, designed to meet the country and local light and vent codes, but not much else. Their painted-concrete exteriors bend and turn to allow the required light and air into the appropriate spaces, such as bedrooms, but their sheer repetition of floors and building groups is a daunting and oppressive sight. One project that's set apart from the rest is the Jian Wai SOHO development in Beijing, designed by Japan's Riken Yama...

Taken on the bike ride into work today.

Some bits & pieces this fine Friday: :: Lynn Becker reports on some technical and algae problems at Millennium Park's Crown Fountain. :: Stage I finalists have been chosen for the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center. (via Archinect ) :: Miss Representation says Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis' latest interior, Tides , is a good thing. :: Styrofoam cups never looked so cool . :: London Architecture Diary , a great idea with an equally great interface. :: The Guttersniper is ... Jeffrey Kipnis?

Fire and Police Station in Berlin, Germany by Sauerbruch Hutton. Photograph by Bitter Bredt .

Herzog & de Meuron are one of the few popular architects who haven't gotten their act together to create their own homepage, so online searches of their work tends to yield a plethora of sites with a little bit of information, including my own . A little bit here, a little bit there. One site that comes close to being a thorough, though not exhaustive, overview of the Swiss duo is the NAI Web File , a companion to the Winter/Spring 2005 exhibition "Beauty and Waste in the architecture of Herzog & de Meuron". The "File" provides links to other web pages with information on the firm, a list of relevant books, links for artists they have teamed with, and documentation on nine key projects with appropriate links. While Herzog & De Meuron are blessed with having more than nine notable buildings, the selection - from an early Ricola warehouse to the stadium in Beijing - is varied, indicative of their output. Let's hope the duo decides to unleash thei...