A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

IMG_8342-43 , originally uploaded by trevor.patt . Galaxy Soho in Beijing, China by Zaha Hadid Architects , 2012 (under construction). The description from the architect's web page : Five continuous, flowing volumes coalesce to create an internal world of continuous open spaces within Galaxy Soho – a new office, retail entertainment complex devoid of corners or abrupt transitions – a re-inventing of the classical Chinese courtyard which generates an immersive, enveloping experience at the heart of Beijing. To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Here are some detail photos of a couple Carlo Scarpa-designed showrooms in Italy. Photographs are by d.teil , whose captions follow each photo. Be sure to check out d.teil's Scarpa's world flickr set for more photos of these and other Scarpa projects. Olivetti Showroom, Venice (1957-58): ["The magical servant entrance door."] ["The greatest stair on earth (or something like this)."] ["d.teil [sic] of a small built-in closet on the first floor (for electricity?) inside a column."] Gavina Showroom, Bologna (1961-63): ["d.teil of the facade."] ["d.teil of the column-like closet."] ["After making space in the toy shop i was able to see the full built in closet."] To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

Last month I spotted The Good Wife passing off the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (SOM, 2011) in New York City as the FBI Headquarters, presumably in Chicago. In Sunday's episode there was another moment of "what's that modern space?": [The Good Wife's "Pants on Fire" | image source @ 17:10] This scene takes place in what is supposedly the medical examiner's office, as gurneys with body bags are rolled through the corridors (in the distance, between Kalinda and the medical examiner, above). The narrow, single-loaded corridor is what caught my eye. Lined with translucent wall panels (aka Kalwall) on one side and burnished CMU on the other, I immediately thought of the below project, Pratt Institute's Stabile Hall by PKSB : [PKSB's Pratt Institute Stabile Hall | image source ] But none of the details match: Unit heaters are not found in The Good Wife Corridor; neither is the cove lighting along the CMU wall; nor are there an...

Here are some photos of the New Western Concourse at King's Cross Station by John McAslan + Partners , 2012. Photographs are by Kevin Louage . To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just: :: Join and add photos to the archidose pool , and/or :: Tag your photos archidose

The Sleepwalkers Box by Doug Aitken Princeton Architectural Press and DFA Records, 2012 Box Set: 96-page book, poster, vinyl disc, two flipbooks, cd, dvd How does one document an artwork that is temporary, fleeting? Artist Doug Aitken 's 2007 Sleepwalkers installation projected on the facades of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is a good example. Photos, like the ones I captured on my chilly visit, give a sense of the scale and imagery, but they fail to convey many of the important aspects of the piece: timing, movement, narrative, juxtaposition. As well, MoMA's book on Sleepwalkers gives plenty of background and insight into the film installation, but those same aspects are missing. Enter the handsome Sleepwalkers Box , a limited edition, multimedia "remix" produced with the artist, Princeton Architectural Press , and DFA Records , and inspired by Andy Warhol's 1960s journal Aspen . Sleepwalkers Box arrives just as Aitken fuses film and ...

Architectural Concrete in Detail: Four Buildings by Miller & Maranta edited by Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Design and Building Construction Chair Michael Loudon, Florian Kirfel and Daniel Reisch, published by  Quart Verlag , 2011. Paperback, 88 pages. ( Amazon ) My initial familiarization with Basel, Switzerland's Miller & Maranta -- the duo of Quintus Miller and Paola Maranta -- was ten years ago with their Market Hall , a wood building inserted into the urban fabric of Aarau. The simple open-air building is defined by a repetitive grid of tightly spaced wood fins, but the structure and overall form inflects to follow the street it occupies. The site and program make it a unique piece of architecture, but the blending of simplicity and contextual response is found in other Miller & Maranta buildings as this excellent book with case studies of four concrete structures attests. The four buildings are: Volta School Building, Schwarzpark Residential...

Miami Science Museum in Miami, Florida by Grimshaw Miami has been fairly busy lately adding contemporary architecture to its urban landscape. Completed in the last couple years are Frank Gehry's New World Center and Herzog & de Meuron's 1111 Lincoln Road . The latter is a parking garage, a type that Zaha Hadid is also working on in Miami. Under construction are the Miami Art Museum by Herzog & de Meuron and Grimshaw 's design for the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, which broke ground earlier this year and is located adjacent to the art museum. The rendering of the Miami Science Museum at the top of the page illustrates one of the must-have components of any contemporary science museum: the planetarium. Being a full dome, these pieces are often a difficult fit inside a new or existing building. The Rose Planetarium by then Polshek Partnership (now Ennead Architects) is one of the better examples of how to articulate a sphere -- inside a cu...