Book Description

Evanescent. Restrained. Ethereal. These are some of the words used to describe the architecture of Kengo Kuma, one of the most heralded of a new generation of Japanese architects. A recent article in Architecture writes of Kuma that "he strives to give his buildings the qualities of a rainbow, composed of shimmering particles, more illusion than object, that change as you look at them."Increasingly the focus of international renown, Kuma's work is characterized by a delicate simplicity and minimalism, incorporating a wide range of ephemeral transparencies. Their ineffable vibrancy is achieved largely by the extensive and skillful use of screens: metal, wooden, bamboo, and even stone louvers or slates, as well as paper, plastic, and glass surfaces or membranes. His use of new, sophisticated, and efficient technologies, his sensitivity to site, and his attention to the ecological and prevailing social context of his work are all explored in Kengo Kuma: Selected Works, the first full-length monograph on the work of this enormous talent. Included are all of Kuma's most recent projects, including the Museum of Ando Hiroshige, the Stone Museum, the Horai Onsen Bath House in Atami, Louis Vuitton Tokyo Headquarters, and the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum. Kengo Kuma: Selected Works is an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in the best contemporary architecture. ... Read more

Book Description

The work of modern architect Albert Frey (1903-98) is beautifully presented in this volume on his life and work. Frey arrived in the United States in 1930, the first of Le Corbusier's disciples to begin building in America. In 1934 he moved to Palm Springs, California, where he established the style that we now know as desert modernism, and where most of his work still stands. In addition to providing architectural and biographical details on the architect's career, Albert Frey, Architect also contains a list of all structures designed by Frey, bibliography of writings on and by Frey, and reprints of letters between Frey and Le Corbusier. Some of the projects in this collection are the Aluminaire House, Loewy House, Palm Springs City Hall,North Shore Yacht Club, and Frey's own houses. Numerous duotone photographs, many taken by Julius Shulman, as well as plans and sketches are also included. An introduction by David Gebhard discusses Frey's relevance within the Modern Movement and Frey's connection to nature and to historical precedent in his designs. This title is an updated and redesigned edition of a 1990 publication. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Highly recommended for students of Frey's work.
Frey's life and architectural achievement is presented in an updated, redesigned edition of a 1990 classic. Archival research by Rosa and interviews with Frey and his colleagues are enhanced with black and white photos of his notable achievements, lending to an important guide.

A splendid addition to architectural studies collections.
Albert Frey established the architectural style known as "desert modernism". His technological ingenuity and sensitivity to landscape are a perfect harmony of place and time. Albert Frey, Architect showcases the best of his work, profusely illustrated with duotone photographs, plans and sketches. Albert Frey, Architect is enhanced further with an annotated list of structures designed by Frey, a bibliography of writings on and by Frey, and reprints of letters between Frey and famed architect Le Corbusier. Albert Frey, Architect is a highly recommended addition to any personal, professional, or academic architectural studies collection.

Beautiful book, floor plans and photos.
This is a wonderful book about a fascinating architect. It covers his career from beginning to 1987. Lots of information, lots of photographs. I have spent hours and hours poring over every page. I love his work. Only drawback was choice of bold typeface for various large areas of text. Princeton Architectural Press plans to republish it in December 1999. I am looking for a used copy to give someone for his birthday in March. Know anyone with a copy to spare??? ... Read more

Book Description

From the way we build to the way we live, Frank Lloyd Wright’s influence onAmericanarchitecture is visible all around us. Now, Ada Louise Huxtable, the PulitzerPrize- winning architecture writer for The Wall Street Journal—and chiefarchitecturecritic for The New York Times for nearly twenty years—offers anoutstandinglook at the architect and the man. She explores the sources of his tumultuousand troubledlife and his long career as master builder as well as his search for lasting,true love. Alongthe way, Huxtable introduces readers to Wright’s masterpieces: Taliesin, rebuiltaftertragedy and murder; the Imperial Hotel, one of the few structures left standingafterJapan’s catastrophic 1923 earthquake; and tranquil Fallingwater, to whichmillions havetraveled to experience its quiet grace. Through the journey, Huxtable takes usnot onlyinto the mind of the man who drew the blueprints, but also into the very heartof themedium, which he changed forever. A story of great triumph and heartbreak,FrankLloyd Wright is, like Wright’s own creations, an expertly wrought tribute toa manwhose genius lives on in the very landscape of American architecture. ... Read more

Book Description

Widely recognized in his own time for extraordinary architectural achievements, Leon Battista Alberti continues to influence his field more than 500 years later. This full-scale study of Alberti provides a biographical account of the Italian Renaissance architect, new reconstructions and interpretations of some of his buildings, and a detailed discussion of each of his building projects. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

New York Review of Books
One learns an enormous amount about the buildings and the man from this beautiful book. Indeed it is the place to go for Alberti as master builder.

An impressive, learned book
Alberti's buildings were mostly left incomplete, altered, or unfinished by others, his original intentions often impenetrable. Tavernor goes further than previous scholars in untangling this confusion in his impressive, handsomely illustrated study. Though complex and learned, his book has a clarity and consistency of aim in its analysis of the process by which theory is related to architecture.

The best art book of the year
Robert Tavernor's On Alberti and the Art of Building is a book for which every student of Renaissance history in my young day would have sold his soul, for it presents this seminal theorist as an architect of rich intelligence and aesthetic sensibility, his excitement irresistibly infectious. With Tavernor's help we see through the alterations, false completions and unfinish of the buildings and comprehend Alberti's original intentions; reconstructions, models and photographs of astonishing documentary clarity support the exhilarating text. This book will no doubt pass unnoticed except by those few art historians whose imaginations were touched by Alberti when they first discovered him in Florence, Mantua and Rimini, and stood in awe of flawed perfection, but this monograph is, for me, the best art book of the year. Brian Sewell, Art Critic, London Evening Standard, 11 December 1998. ... Read more

Book Description

Healthcare Spaces No. 2 is an invitation to visit impressive new work by some of the leading architects and interior designers serving the nation's health care institutions. Its vivid, four-color pages offer a personal guided tour of America's latest health care facilities, depicting more than 100 new projects with over 400 color images from more than 30 design firms. Health care administrators, physicians, medical planners and their architects, and interior designers will find this an excellent way to assess how public and private institutions are coping with the opportunities and challenges of managed care, and advances in medical science and technology. ... Read more

Book Description

The Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate for 2002, Australian architect Glenn Murcutt has created an oeuvre that is remarkably consistent, unusual in character, and yet curiously familiar. His buildings, principally residential, are a harmonious blend of modernist sensibility, local craftsmanship, indigenous structures, and respect for nature. Murcutt established his one-man studio in Sydney in 1969; even today, with few exceptions, he practices alone.

This major monograph on Murcutt spans his entire career, from his early modernist houses to larger commissions. The first section examines his training and architectural influences, while the second identifies recurring themes in his work and analyzes how his buildings attempt to "marry modern architecture to the place, the territory, the landscape," to blend modern typology with traditional Australian models to arrive at an ecological functionalism. The final section focuses on the buildings themselves, and, for this revised edition, all thirteen of his most recent projects have been included. The structures range from Murcutt's courtyard houses in Sydney to freestanding residences set in Australia's barren and isolated landscapes.

At a time when climatic considerations and the lessons of the vernacular play an increasing role in architecture around the world, this definitive monograph reveals an architect whose work is the perfect expression of these ideals. 500 illustrations, 350 in color. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great documentation
I recently saw Murcutt lecture and regretted that the wonderful (and fully annotated) construction drawings he was showing us were not published and available for a closer look.

Well, get out the magnifying glass, 'cause here they are! Unlike most architectural monographs, this one actually gives us some insight into how these designs were actualized...highly commendable.

Murcutt's work speaks for itself, but the format of this book would win with any architect...unless they don't want us looking too closely. Hmmm.

One warning: In the best of all possible worlds, we'd all have full size copies of Murcutt's documents at our local libraries. Here on Earth, however, we must settle for books like this one which reproduce the originals at half (or even quarter?) scale. So, that quip about the magnifying glass was not a joke.

Rogers? Foster? Meier? Murcutt!
While everyone in this world seems to be keen to build more and more complicated buildings, that are later called sustainable (...) you should have a look at one of the more unknown top-architects of the XX century. Glenn Murcutt began in the sixties to mix modern influences with the traditional Australian Architecture and has since then produced a new style, that is not only wonderful in design but also features a great low-tech aproach to sustainable architecture.

note: green can look really cool!

most inspiring 20th century architect
I am presently studying architecture and find this book as a excellent resource book, I am also aware of my lecturers enthusiasm on this book. It has expanded my architectural vocab enormously this last 12 months. Congratulations to the author and also Mr Glenn Murcutt himself on a striking book, hope to read more of this material in the future ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Herzog & de Meuron gehören zu den international bedeutendsten Architekten unserer Zeit. Der jüngste Auftrag für die neue Tate Gallery in London hat das einem breiteren Publikum ebenso signalisiert wie große Ausstellungen in Tokio, New York und Paris. Die Gesamtausgabe im Birkhäuser-Verlag für Architektur trägt diesem herausragenden Stellenwert Rechnung und stellt das Werk in seinem.Band 2 umfaßt die Jahre 1989-91. Unter den 32 Entwürfen sind so bekannte Bauten wie das kupferummantelte Stellwerk und das Lokomotivdepot in Basel, das Museum für die Kunstsammlung Goetz in München, die Studentenwohnheime auf dem Universitätscampus in Dijon und die Sportanlage Pfaffenholz in St. Louis. Die groß angelegte Studie , aber auch die Masterpläne für den Universitätscampus in Dijon oder den neuen Ortsteil Sils Cuncas im Oberengadin gehören zu den städtebaulichen Analysen, die einen Schwerpunkt des Bandes ausmachen. ... Read more

Book Description

Architect Preston Scott Cohen combines the use of the most advanced digital modeling technologies with a fascination for 17th century descriptive geometry. He uses familiar forms distorted by oblique projections and similar devices to create complex designs that challenge our preconceptions about the nature of order in architecture.

Contested Symmetries and Other Predicaments in Architecture features Cohen's intricate abstract geometries and lucidly describes both the mechanics and the theory behind their application. A wealth of projects, including the widely acclaimed Torus House, are represented through drawings, models, and computer-generated images. ... Read more

Book Description

Now available - the third volume in the Complete Works of Herzog & de Meuron, including the very latest projects such as the spectacular Tate Gallery in London and the Californian winery, Napa Valley. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Fortunately for the many admirers of his architecture, theories, and designs, Frank Lloyd Wright was not only a lover of space and a man of vision--he was also a man who liked to save things. Since he opened his first office in Chicago in 1893, Wright held on to drawings, sketches, notes, photographs, manuscripts, and correspondence. Many of those artifacts survive today in his official archive at Taliesin West in Arizona. Produced in conjunction with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, this extraordinary book offers a fresh presentation of the documents of one of the world's most famous architects. It is, in effect, a museum in a book. The unique book experience contains 25 interactive, three-dimensional features, removable facsimiles of original documents, never-before-published architectural sketches, and an audio CD containing excerpts from Wright's weekly addresses at his architectural compound, as well as television interviews. Following the proven success of other Wright titles, this is an engaging journey into the life and work of the iconic American architect through words, pictures, and artifacts. ... Read more

Book Description

Eero Saarinen was one of the great masters of American twentieth-century architecture, and the only whose career and work has not been documented in a comprehensive monograph-until now.

Saarinen's buildings are famous worldwide: the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the TWA terminal in JFK Airport, Dulles Airport, outside Washington D.C., the CBS Building in New York, the General Motors Technical Center in Michigan, the US Embassy in London, and many other landmarks. Equally celebrated are his furniture designs, including the Tulip Table and Womb Chair. While Saarinen's exuberant, even expressionistic, forms were lightning rods for many critics, his unique personal style is now much admired, making him a key figure for many designers practicing today.

Saarinen's was a career of innovation. His airport terminals combined the poetry of sculpture with daring structural feats and raganizational genius; his pioneering industrial complexes for GM, IBM, and Bell Labs brought rational modernism to corporate America; and his furniture and residential buildings conveyed an optimistic, humane vision for the future.

This lavishly illustrated monograph spans Saarinen's entire career, including his drawings, models, most important built works, and furniture. Eero Saarinen is a must-have for anyone interested in great modern architecture and design. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Eero Saarinen: An Architecture of Multiplicity
A handsome, long-overdue monograph on an architect who, between 1948 and his untimely death in 1961, created some of America's greatest icons-including Dulles Airport in Virginia, the Gateway Arch in St Louis, and the CBS tower in New York-as well as the classic Womb and Tulip chairs. Saarinen defied categorization, employing a different style for every job, and that damned him in the eyes of many critics. Some of his buildings soar-the TWA Terminal at Kennedy, now imperiled, was once a thrilling expression of the jet age-others, like Stiles and Morse College at Yale, and the US Embassy in London fall with a thud. Roman, a Bilbao-based architect, traces the evolution of key buildings with an abundance of plans and images. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Misses the Point
Stan Allen is one of the self-styled theorists who see architecture and urbanism as an abstract set of geometries, Allen fails to understand that most cities are living organisms and that relationships and form are pointless without comprehending the viltal, human function. Anyone who has experienced the great urban spaces of Italy or Paris will know that urban design is not a graphic exercise. Allen's lacks the mental facility to adress this component of design and his diagrams are more ignorant that one can imagine. This book is rubbish of the very worst sort. - Recommend you read Jane Jacobs 'Life and Death of Great American Cities' instead.

Forcing Form/Forming Force
This book addresses a universal question in regards to understanding and, more importantly, presenting an abstract, yet more comprehensible reference between architecture and other contextual elements. Stan Allen proposes that they are all fractions of a common system, the most complex order of 'the city' in this case. He has eloquently woven various aspects of these manifold connections through his writings, and validated them in extremely stimulating diagrams. The results are projects that are filters for seeing figures of architecture in exchange with the background of the city. Architecture is complicated; not by itself, but because it is a component in a complicated network. This condition in the city can be manipulated by (and through) architecture--in the form (and force) of a point, other times of a line, but most of the time both.

Enjoying in Singapore
Stan Allenfs gPoints and Linesh explores architectural design methods after post modern and deconstruction. His architectural and urban design in the book clearly show the contemporary problems and his unique approach to the problems. Although many of the theoretical issues are implicated, they are expressed through his design process. In addition, his comprehensive research out of architecture gives us fresh viewpoints. Therefore I think, the book is useful not only for architects and students, but also for people who are interested in cultural issues generally. Even in Singapore whose culture is different from the US, many architects and students are enjoying this book.

potential energy
This book contains some of the more useful thoughts published on diagrams to date. Although many architects frequently refer to diagrams as a methodology, Stan Allen has made them one of the focal points of his work. This book and his lectures often excite controversy over the way in which architects use diagrams. Diagrams have a kind of potential energy which can be interpreted in a number of ways to generate a piece of architecture. The book Points + Lines introduces ideas with which every student should be familiar and which each architect should address. Stan Allen makes a refreshingly clear delivery of his ideas in a contemporary architecture culture of overcomplication, vacant formalism, and thoughtless commercial production. We can only hope that the author's relatively young age will privelege us with the production of more written work.

Diagrams and thoughts
I got this book since I was attendding my first semester in graduate school. The book helps me find ways to communicate thoughts and ideas in architecture. I did research parallel to the architectural design process. Diagrams and text from the book was articulately showing a possibility to use the information for exchange. Diagrams and drawing techniques help me to weave the complex thoughts, information and propose further the other potential dimensions. ... Read more

Book Description

The New York-based architectural firm LOT/EK (pronounced "low-tech") has made a distinctive mark on the architectural landscape through a series of seemingly whimsical projects that make a point of using prefabricated industrial materials in unexpected ways. In their hands, a shipping container can be transformed into a mobile working unit, a museum, or a restaurant. In the process, they question our relation to the industrial environment and the artificiality of the urban landscape.

Lot/Ek: Urban Scan, the first and only monograph on the firm, is organized categorically and alphabetically. Twenty-three projects are presented in detail, including American Diner (a restaurant in a container), the InspiroTrainer (created for the Museum of Modern Art), Mixer (a cement mixer-cum-video immersion unit), the Meltzer Gallery, the Boon boutique, the MDU (Mobule Dwelling Unit), and the Goree Memorial and Museum. It also includes more than 1,000 photographs of infrastructural objects--everything from air conditioners to water tanks--that serve as the raw material and inspiration for this creative practice. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Catalouge of Mundane Items with Ingenious Solutions
This is worth the price, if just for the images they collect of eveyday industrial items and how these items fit into the manifesto of LO/TEK. Great Work!!

Seclusive Architecture
Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano came to our school, Carnegie Mellon, in March 2003, to give a presentation of their retrospective work. I must admit that we, as the whole audience were enchanted by what they presented to us. LOT/EK, a NYC based architectural firm, has set its focus on mostly mobile units of architecture that involves structures and modules to be used in mostfully art and entertainment contexts.

They've done a lot of small structures that bring technology and entertainment together. Their projects for MoMa, Whitney Museum, and the Guggenheim are a couple of examples. Although they're very unique designs in addition to comprehensive enhancements in media use, they have a seclusive atmosphere. That was one of the issues that was brought up by the students and faculty. The modules, however comfortable and ergonomic they can be, tend to separate individuals from the outside environment almost completely. They did not provide a good answer to the question. Yet, there's no reason for harsh criticism for that; since they devote themselves to one particular theme in architecture. Perhaps we, as either students or professionals, always have the image of Le Corbusier or Aalto in our minds, that we think that an architect should do everything. It becomes nice when a man can get a hand on many things, but it should not be disrespected when a hand does one job only. In fact, specialization becomes a must with globalism.

I really liked their project for University of Washington, where they placed literally a 'slice' of an aeroplane onto a grass area in the campus. They've designed mobile seats, that can rotate vertically and horizontally, to allow for lectures, lounge relaxing and exhibitions, as the seats move.

'Isolating functions, not people...' Yes, this is what they had said, I now remember. I agree, their intention is not to isolate people. They instead intend to isolate functions, so that they are better realized without interruption. One might disagree with that, if interruption is a personal pleasure.

LOT/EK is definitely one of the most specialized, unique, creative and technological architectural firms today. Purchase the book to see their amazing work.

Machines for Living. Finally!
I first learned about architects Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lagnano (of LOT-EK) from an article in the House and Home section of the New York Times. I was intrigued by their use of low-cost, yet structurally sound, architectural elements (used shipping containers, tanker truck tanks, etc.) to create flexible spaces that are visually striking, yet responsive to human needs. A rare combination in architecture. Reading and looking through this book, my sense of interest morphed into outright enthusiasm. Not only does their work make sense environmentally--making sane reuse of items that are often discarded--their designs are extraordinarily well thought-out, architecturally innovative, socially aware and beautiful. ... Read more

Book Description

First one-volume paperback edition of one of the most important documents in American architecture. Depicted are over 130 structures—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pierpont Morgan Library, Tiffany & Company and the original Penn Station, among others, in New York, as well as many important landmarks in other cities. 435 photographs, over 250 line illustrations. New introduction by Richard Guy Wilson.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

A book on how things used to be.
Man-o-man, I used to love looking at old buildings and would be in awe of the amount of work that went into them. All of the art work, craftsmanship, and downright labor. Well, this book really brings to the forefront through numerous period photos and floor plans. The book actually contains very little wording, but then the photos and floor plans are enough to tell you many things about the structures. Most of the buildings are in New York City and I recently had the opportunity to visit. As I walked along the many streets, I came across buildings that had been built by the architects and it was just awesome to look, of course, only from the outside at the wonderful structure and compare it to the photos and floor plans that are now etched in my mind. I look at the book and discover new things about the works of art that I hadn't known before. Sorry if it sounds a little romantic but when I pass one of the new office buildings or structures, well, I'm just not moved by them. Dave Sanchez ... Read more

Book Description

In over thirty years of practice, Robert A. M. Stern has developed a distinctive architecture committed to the synthesis of tradition and innovation and, above all, to the creation and enhancement of a meaningful sense of place. This monograph, covering the years 1999–2002, is the fourth in a series on Stern's work. The volume includes more than one hundred projects, including houses and apartments, buildings for cultural institutions and universities, office and commercial structures, government facilities, and designs for products, including fabric and tableware. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Simply amazing
This monograph of Stern's recent work is incredible. The photography is stunning, and the book covers both built and unbuilt projects. Highlighting Stern's masterful interpretation of what he calls "modern classicism" as well as his numerous successes with Art Déco and other styles, this book is a must-have for any architectural enthusiast. ... Read more