Architectural structure and design Books

Book SynopsisRereadings 2 is a companion book to Rereadings, originally published in 2004. This second volume is testament to the growing interest and demand for clarification of the re-modelling, adaptation and transformation processes within the existing built environment. With increased interest in the sustainability and heritage agenda and emerging interest from non European-centric areas of the world in this type of work, this book explores how the re-modelling of existing buildings is a sustainable and viable alternative to the construction of new buildings. Throughout this highly-illustrated book, drawings and photos of various projects from around the world highlight how the new fits into the existing. Case studies are analysed holistically, and include information on the practical issues and challenges of individual projects.Table of ContentsAbout the Authors Introduction Chapter One: Analysis Form and Structure History and Function Content and Environment Proposed Function Sustainable Adaptation Chapter Two: Strategy Intervention Insertion InstallationChapter Three: Tactics Plane ObjectLight SurfaceOpeningMovement Chapter Four: Case Studies Frac Neues Museum Zen-Kai House The Cement Factory Flatland Inujima Seirensho Art Museum

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Book SynopsisThis book presents 25 inspirational housing schemes providing hope for the future of home building in Britain. Highlighting the need for the UK to reclaim its sense of local identity through the vernacular, these case studies are not just examples of good design but demonstrate the achievable nature of contemporary vernacular in today's society.Generating a sense of place, community and regional identity, these schemes are also affordable and highly energy efficient. Through site visits and interviews with both architects and residents, each case study explores how the schemes were delivered, how they have been received by the community, and how passive principles of vernacular design were applied to create true sustainability.Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: View on the Vernacular · Housing: The British View · What is Contemporary Vernacular Design? · Contemporary Vernacular Design Qualities Part 2: UK Case Studies · Plockton, Scottish Highlands · Derwenthorpe, York · New Islington, Manchester · Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk · Fulmodeston and Barney, Norfolk · Clay Fields, Elmswell, Suffolk · The Triangle, Swindon · Great House Farm, St Fagans, Wales · Courtyard Housing, Barking, London · Osprey Quay, Portland Part 3: European Case Studies · Vetlanda, Sweden · Biesland, Holland · Eden Bio, Paris · Vorarlberg, Austria Part 4: ROW Case Studies • Santiago, Chile • Centro Lak’a Uta, Bolivia • New generation cave dwellings, Yan’an, China (or Zaoyuan village, Yan’an, China) • Four Horizons House and Lodges, Australia • Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea Part 5: Co-housing · Sieben Linden, Germany · Springhill Co-Housing, Stroud · LILAC, Leeds · Lancaster Co-Housing, Halton · Ashley Vale, Bristol · Copper Lane, London Conclusion

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Book SynopsisIf you can set up your laptop anywhere, what is the meaning of the dedicated workspace? New Work, New Workspace argues that designated space is still needed, but that it is changing fast.As collaborative interaction is favoured over individual toil, with millenials and Gen X taking a very different attitude to work, and as social upheaval and technological innovation influence the form nthat the places take in which we are employed forever. Metrics for measuring the effectiveness of workspace show that good design, which is focused on the environment and wellbeing that a workforce needs, is still valued. At the same time, more generic spaces, such as co-working spaces, have to fit everyone – or at least all of the target community.Detailed case studies showcase all the places where people work – in large and small offices, in home spaces, in ateliers and workshops and architects’ studios. With emphasis on the design details of the space, especially the interior, this is a must-have book providing inspiration for all types and scales of workplace.Case studies include: 80 Atlantic Avenue, Toronto, Canada by Quadrangle Nick Vesey Studio and Gallery, Kent, UK by Guy Hollaway Architects Kostner House, Castelrotto, Italy by MoDus Architects GS1 Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal by Promontorio Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: The dedicated office Bloomberg Crown Estate Mitie Office, The Shard GS1 Portugal Chapter 2: Working from home Musician’s space Holloway Lightbox Kostner House Castor Jeffrey Studio Writer’s shed Shoffice Chapter 3: Other people’s places 80 Atlantic Avenue Beehive Elsevier White Collar Factory Start-up Village Second Home Chapter 4: Not just an office Alex Monroe The Flash Pack Holmen industrial area Max Rayne Centre NAIC, Warwick University Nick Veasey studio and gallery Stereo D New Lab, Brooklyn Naval Yard Chapter 5: For the professions Feilden Fowles Marcus Barnett Studio Replica House Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners AKTII Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis new edition of the popular handbook is a practical companion for Clerks of Works, Site Inspectors and anyone with the responsibility of managing construction works on site. Clerk of Works and Site Inspector Handbook, 2018 edition the book explains the traditional site inspector/clerk of works role and their liabilities, as well as duties and responsibilities linked to a more contemporary construction setting. It explores the relationship between inspectors, architects and other construction professionals, whilst providing valuable insight into reporting and what to look for, check and test every step of the way. It's an essential reference book for Clerks of Works and Site Inspectors, containing important lessons for newly qualified architects, those who carry out site inspections or act as resident site architects and Part 3 students.Table of Contents1. Appointing a Clerk of Works 2. Role and Relationships 3.Duties of the Clerk of Works/Site Inspector 4. Effective Reporting for a Clerk of Works 5. CDM Regulations 2015 6. Health & Safety 7. Trade Elements

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Book SynopsisThis user friendly guide introduces, explains, and demystifies the NEC4 contract on a practical, work-based level. Made for architects by an architect, it explores the best approach to collaborative and contractual partnering work practices. Alongside explanations of the contracts and clauses, it presents the key areas of distinction from alternative standard form contracts and examines the integrated project management principles that bring the NEC4 contracts together as a whole. It's the perfect companion book for professionals who are new to the NEC contract family and former users trying to understand the latest updates. Table of Contents1. Background to the NEC2. Structure and Content of NEC43. Contract machinery4. Collaborative working with NEC45. International use6. In conclusion: decisive features of NEC4Appendix

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Book SynopsisWhen space is tight how can a city provide the best education experience for children? Is a multi-storey school really a poor option? Can high-quality play opportunities be provided without playgrounds? This book explores the design of schools in urban settings, the increased challenges in meeting the typical expectations of school design, and what the successful new typology of a school in a city might be. A practical guide as well as a theoretical exploration of ideas, this book outlines successful international contemporary and historical case studies, providing much-needed guidance for architects and others working in education design in dense urban environments. Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Urbanisation- friend or foe? 2. The child in the city 3. Reimagining urban schools 4. Small people, large scale 5. User experience 6. Mixed use developments 7. School in a tower block 8. Access to outside- external space 9. The only way is up Conclusions

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Book SynopsisPart story, part atlas - this is a study of a city’s complexity. The most successful cities, the most interesting and sought-after ones, are those with an intrinsic and distinctive character that remain dynamic and relevant. They are complex and contradictory. And that is worth embracing. This is a visual, geographic and narrative journey that explains why London is the way it is today. Using stunning maps and artful imagery, it makes a compelling case for a finer grain understanding of density through a character-based approach to planning. Each character area is broken down, exploring the characteristics and character-based development potential. For those planning and designing projects, this is a reference book for the early stages of a design project and can help to inform site analyses which form the part of most architectural commissions and urban design studies. For lovers of maps and London, it is a must-read.Table of ContentsIntroductionPart 1: Layers of London1. What is Character and why is it Important?2. Natural Landscapes3. The Square Mile4. Ancient Routes5. Georgian Planning6. Victorian Enterprise7. 20th Century Modernity8. London's Centres9. Artificial LandscapesPart 2: A Way of Seeing10. What Does it Mean for London?11. From the Generic City to the Complex City

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Book SynopsisThe world has changed. How will society emerge post-pandemic? Will we take the opportunity to reset the status quo? And, if so, what possibilities are there for architects to take the initiative in designing this new world? This innovative design guide draws together expert guidance on designing in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic for key architectural sectors: housing, workplace, civic and cultural, hospitality, education, infrastructure and civic placemaking. It provides design inspiration to architects on how they can respond to the challenges and opportunities of a post-pandemic environment and how architects ensure they are at the forefront of the best design in this new world. Looking at each sector in turn, it covers the challenges specific to each, and how delivering these designs might differ from the pre-pandemic world. As well as post-pandemic design, the vital issue of climate change will be threaded through each sector, with many cross-overs between designing for the climate emergency and designing for a world after a pandemic. Both seek to make the world a safer, happier and more resilient place. Written by set of contributing design experts, this book is for all architects, whether sole practitioners or working in a larger practice. As well as inspirational design guidance, it also provides client perspectives – crucial for understanding how clients are planning for the future too. Contributors include: Nicola Gillen Helen Taylor Sumita Singha Ian Taylor Julia Park Adam Scott Sarah Featherstone Pippa Nissen Table of ContentsIntroductionCivic & Cultural - Pippa NissenEducation Schools - Helen Taylor Universities - Ian Taylor Healthcare - Sumita SinghaHospitality & Retail - Adam ScottHousing - Julia ParkWorkplace - Nicola Gillen

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Book SynopsisIndonesia fosters many noteworthy architects who have amassed a remarkable collection of works. Tropical Houses showcases a compilation of house designs by an outstanding group of Indonesian architects. Highly illustrated and providing a wide scope in terms of design integrity, architectural sophistication and style, this book follows closely in the wake of its incredibly successful first volume, published in 2013, disclosing each architect's distinctive approach to the contemporary residential design realm. Featuring a wide range of design philosophies, projects are presented with full-colour photographs, visualising the detailed environment of every project and fully immersing the reader into every part of the house. Complete with detailed plans, sections, and elevation drawings, this book is an inspiring source for people in the architecture and design domains.

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Book SynopsisThe Triple Folly presents the rich collaboration between artist Thomas Demand, architects Caruso St John, and textile makers Kvadrat which produced an astonishing new pavilion for Kvadrat’s Ebeltoft campus. The basis of the building is three found paper objects – a legal pad, a paper plate, and a soda jerk hat – which Demand brought to Caruso St John with the simple question: ‘Can you make this into architecture?’ In response, the architects created a sculptural tripartite folly, a kind of inhabitable still life poised on the area’s rolling seaside hillocks, encompassing a meeting room, a kitchen, and a flexible living space which holds a textile work by the artist Rosemarie Trockel. Inspired by Kvadrat’s role as a celebrated textile producer, Demand initially pursued the idea of the tent as an archetypal architectural structure with many iterations across contexts of leisure and shelter, simplicity and grandeur. Translating these concepts into his own artistic idiom of paper, he tasked Caruso St John with materialising this lightness of form, with a touch of his distinctive, duplicitous whimsy. The final building, completed in September 2022, achieves this through a harmonious sequence of steel and fibreglass structures which create their environments through the fall of light and shadow, textured opacity and welcoming transparency. This publication presents extensive images of the completed buildings alongside in-depth illustrated conversations with Frank Gehry, Denise Scott Brown, Adam Caruso, Valerie Verhack, Anders Byriel, Emilie Appercé, and Thomas Demand.

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Book SynopsisThis reference work on the core competence of architects and designers provides a thorough and considered overview of the tools and theories, means and methods and practices and possibilities of creative design. In this substantially expanded edition, a review of recent developments since the first edition has been added, the chapters on digital tools have been updated, and a new, extensive practice section describes the foundations of digital, research-based processes and social agendas in design. The author "demonstrates compellingly that design is a synthesis of creative, technical and architectural skills coupled with academic research and reflection. Enlightening!" (Christian Thomas on the first edition). "Insight into the craft of design. Light in the darkness of how ideas take shape." (Jesko Fezer).

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Book SynopsisIn Looking for the Voids, Hong Kong-based Swiss architect Géraldine Borio presents findings from 15 years of experimental urban research in Asia, proposing new ways to interpret and design urban space. Borio’s focus is on the interstitial spaces of the built environment, the back and in-between alleys and the sidewalks that are in constant flux and move between the poles of inside – outside, public – private, or legal – illegal. This lavishly and attractively designed book offers a survey of the lessons Borio has learned from analysing urban typologies in Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Seoul, and from engaging with residents and their informal appropriation of such semi-private urban spaces. The concrete design principles that Borio has derived from her fieldwork offer assistance to researchers and urban designers in their own investigations and in translating their findings into new projects for the further development of urban and metropolitan spaces.

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Book Synopsis?Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge? is an academic journal in, on, and from the discipline of architecture, addressing the creation, constitution, and transmission of architectural knowledge. It explores methods genuine to the discipline and architectural modes of interdisciplinary methodological adaptions. Processes, procedures, and results of knowledge creation and practice are esteemed coequally, with particular attention to the architectural design and epistemologies of aesthetic practice and research.?Collaborations: Rethinking Architectural Design?, Issue 05/2023, explores how collaboration impacts the processes, tools, and methods of design by examining the conditions of its integration into architectural practice and discourse. The contributors initiate a dialogue between theory and practice through visual essays, reports from teaching activities, theoretical reflections on the topic, and critical depictions of case studies.

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Book SynopsisFocusing on a private collection of 60 postcards of modern architecture in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Agra, the contributors to this volume explore the many dimensions of modern architecture in India from the 1890s to the 1970s and share their own perspective on these objects. Experts on architectural history and visual studies, as well as postcard collectors provide new insights into a territory and its architectural heritage which is still largely unknown in Europe, and reflect on the postcard as a medium for historical research.

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Book SynopsisConsidered to be sub-ordinated and sub-prime to the city, sub-urban areas receive little attention by researchers and designers. However, it's the rapidly growing areas outside the central cities that pose the biggest questions of the urban millennium: How can the scattered patchwork of urban areas and social spaces linked by networks of highways and public transportation function as a sustainable and livable urban environment? Answering this question requires understanding suburban spaces as heterogeneous urban areas with distinct local characteristics, qualities, and problems. Following this path, Variations of Suburbanism explores formation, characteristics, and trends of suburban areas all over the world. It provides insights on common features and differences of suburban governance, design, and infrastructure and discusses strategies to understand and design suburban areas in an increasingly sub-urbanizing world.

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Book SynopsisPrefabricated housing, often associated with blighted urban land­scapes and monotonous grey boxes, has evolved into an approach to housing with a wealth of aesthetic and ­structural possibilities. Modern methods of constructing and assembling prefabricated buildings – methods that can be traced back to the 19th century – are going through a renaissance. This is true across the world, from Vancouver and New York to London and Berlin through to Astana and Singapore. Moreover, prefabrication now serves a wider range of purposes than ever before. In ­Moscow, Europe’s largest metropolitan area, it is primarily used ­­­­as a means to provide ­affordable homes. But in some countries, prefabrication is surprisingly also used to build exclusive, upmarket properties. This construction and design manual presents a range of ­different production and assembly methods currently used in the field of prefabricated housing. It particularly focuses on ­efficiency, sustainability, and market relevance, and presents strategies for ­organising processes along with best-practice examples that reflect the latest trends. The manual also ex­plores the historical development of prefabricated housing in order to discover its full architectural potential. Finally, it outlines ten design parameters for prefabricated housing and presents 15 noteworthy examples, making a fresh contribution to the debate on affordable housing today.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a wealth of practical and formal information on all issues related to the organization of design competitions. It also presents 60 illustrated practical examples of successfully conducted competitions for 12 building typologies.

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Book SynopsisIn an era of accelerating population growth, mass urbanization, and increasing pressure on the natural environment, the megacities of China's eastern seaboard have become a focal point of architectural and urban-design attention. The "reform and opening-up era" has touched China's major cities in different ways, affecting the existing fabric of dynastic capitals, trade hubs, and former European colonies and concessions; this in turn has provided the setting for a range of complex reactions by contemporary architects. The Architectural Guide China provides an invaluable window into this work, with city-by-city coverage including historic maps and background information on urban form. Building on the authors' years of experience leading architectural study tours, this book is the first comprehensive English-language survey of recent Chinese architecture to be organized as a travel guide.

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Book SynopsisThis book chronicles and analyses the role of the perspective within the history and evolution of landscape architecture and design. The first part of the book examines perspectives produced at key stages of the profession’s history, beginning with their origins in Renaissance art, and moving chronologically into present day practice. It charts how both linear and atmospheric perspective helped visualize imagined landscapes, first in paintings, later real spaces, and expanding from private gardens into designs for public spaces. Used both as a visualization tool preceding construction and as a persuasive tool for publicity and prestige afterwards, it has always played a role in influencing the understanding of landscape. Shown through key images, perspective visualization has resonated between artistic influences, media, and technology, yet its role has evolved differently than it has in architecture. In distinct contrast, landscape perspectives must convey positive experiences of being outdoors while communicating key design ideas, forms, and materials. The second part of the book is an instructional chapter, which outlines and describes the perspective’s key characteristics and variables. Perspective types are explained in an easy to understand way. Step by step procedures for using grids, constructing spaces, and fine-tuning pictorial composition, encourage readers to construct perspectives themselves. The third part of the book is an inspirational chapter with many diverse examples from international landscape architecture offices and practitioners. This extensive gallery showcases the perspective’s remarkable versatility as a stage for projects of all sizes, as well as its capacity for story­telling and expression. The many eye-catching images illustrate the perspective’s power in the digital age. With its focus on history, theory and practical aspects of the perspective and its specific role in landscape architecture, the book is an invaluable reference for researchers, students, and designers.

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Book SynopsisThe cycle of production and consumption, artificially accelerated by advertising and marketing, has characterized our society for decades. This cycle has recently also taken hold of the architecture of the city, leading to a waste that is both economically and ecologically unacceptable. The destruction of buildings that are not actually obsolete is just as questionable as the production of extravagant architectures for which there is no real need. This book is a protest against the merciless globalization of the city and its dissolution into faceless, inhospitable peripheries. At the same time, it puts forward alternative strategies of urban design that can counteract this globalization and dissolution. It formulates a different approach to urbanism, one which views the city not as a carnivalesque display of vanities but as a sophisticated spatial construction that lays down the conditions for productive, peaceful, and gratifying lives.

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Book SynopsisExploring nursery schools and childcare facilities from an architectural perspective, this publication provides a cultural-historical account of their development, defines design tasks, and formulates quality standards for playing-learning architecture and environments. This publication explores nursery schools and childcare facilities from an architectural perspective. The aim is to provide a cultural-historical account of the development of educational buildings for children, to define design tasks, and to formulate quality standards for play-learning architecture and environments.

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Book SynopsisThis monograph presents the results of theoretical and experi­mental studies as well as the design and construction ­features of structural systems with rational parameters. It starts by outlining issues around the topological (bionic) optimization of structures and suggests ways to address them. The computational compiler underlying the proposed approach incorporates the finite element method and the ­adaptive ­evolution method. Thus, this volume outlines new energy principles that speak in favour of the proposed methodology. The solutions presented here were verified experi­mentally using new methods for testing structures for the effects of force and temperature. The theoretical studies also provide a methodology for assessing the technical condition, ­durability, and service life of ­structures. The book sets out the specific features of the design and construction of systems produced using the proposed approach. New reinforced-­concrete, steel-reinforced-concrete, and steel systems, as well as manufacturing and construction technologies, are described in detail. Designs for buildings, structures, and pedestrian and road bridges are shown. Examples of erected structures are cited, and ­issues with regard to designing large-span suspension systems with rational parameters are considered. The manual is intended for engineers and researchers dealing with creating, studying, designing, and erecting engineering structures and systems thereof; structural- and civil-engineering teachers and students may also find it handy.

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Book SynopsisDense, organic cities with interconnected building structures and easily accessed common urban spaces. Cities that offer variety, vibrancy and architectural qualities that tempt people to go exploring on foot or by bike. Cities that have a sense of openness, make people feel safe and create opportunities for conversations in public spaces. Cities that are rooted in tradition and a respect for cultural heritage. Cities that provide meeting places in a setting conducive to cultural cohesion. Social and sensory cities. This book points to urban blocks as the structure best suited to pro­moting sustainable building developments and cities. Its first part presents some urban qualities that have evolved from the urban block as a fundamental, flexible element. These examples have been selected from European block cities as well as from old and new urban districts in Copenhagen.The second part of the book outlines the elements of the urban block city and its potential, proposing 10 principles that underpin an action-oriented platform for transforming older urban districts or planning new ones.

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Book SynopsisIn 1960 and 1961, a group of young Indonesians ­completed their studies in Berlin and Hanover with a degree in architecture (Diplom-Ingenieur Architektur; in Indonesian: Dipl.-Ing. Arsitek). Most of these graduates returned to Indonesia. At that time, the country sought independent forms of built expression to represent a modern civil society with contemporary structures that would reflect the culture and accommodate the climate. During this highly dynamic period, those who returned soon became influential architects in their homeland. Around a third of the graduates remained in Europe, where they pursued successful architectural careers in Germany, Switzerland, or the Netherlands. Using the final diploma projects of ten of those students as a starting point, Dipl.-Ing. Arsitek: German-trained ­Indonesian Architects from the 1960s provides multi­faceted insights into this little-known aspect of German-­Indonesian relations. Many of the cited plans and documents come from the architects’ personal archives and are now available to the public for the first time. Fifteen exemplary buildings are documented in their current context in new photographs produced for this project, highlighting their unique characteristics and qualities.

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Book SynopsisLike its successful predecessor title, this book documents the competition procedures coordinated by [phase eins]. in recent years. A total of 27 projects in Germany, Austria, Albania, Ukraine, Kuwait, Belgium, Canada and Lebanon are presented with extensive illustrations and explanations.

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Book SynopsisText in English and German. Personal favourite projects selected by architects of international distinction are presented in a book for the first time. Projects that were devised and realised, but also some that were never built. Speakers in the 'Architecture Today' lecture series that has taken place for the last twenty years at Tübingen University were asked to contribute. Invitations went to 'established' master builders, provocative young developers of new forms and technologies or significant representatives of regional architecture: a promenade architectural ranges from coolly functional to free artistic design, from architecture that feels committed to the Bauhaus aesthetic to deconstructive design. The idea for this book came from the 20th anniversary of the lecture series. The result is an exciting catalogue of very different projects from the last three decades, like museums, buildings related to science and education and to music and theatre, offices and homes, government and religious buildings, right down to the architects' own houses. The scale ranges from mega-projects for whole cities in Asia to a subtle design for a lift in Salzburg or two thoughtful architectural visions expressed in a 'Tower of Dreams' or just in an exhibition. These are all projects that attach considerable significance to their inventors. A clear majority of the choice of architects lit upon realised projects originating in competitions, direct contracts or a problem the architects set themselves. The choice of projects that stayed on paper arouses even more curiosity -- buildings that did not win first prize in a competition, but still have a great deal to tell about the wealth of ideas, context and philosophy in contemporary architecture, presented in this publication because their designers definitely wanted to make their mark. A variety of answers were heard to the question of why a certain project was chosen. The fact is that ultimately favourite projects are the ones that represent philosophy and design ideals, as well a the knowledge and skill of the architects and teams in a particular way. But above all they were projects that moved the architects.

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Book SynopsisText in English and German. A yawning gap between two 1960s buildings. Not at all unusual in Cologne. A gap between two buildings, 2,56 m wide and 33 m long. Scarcely wide enough to park a few bicycles. This gap has been used as an office by the rendel & spitz advertising agency since early 1999. The architects b&k+ hooked a few concrete floors into the walls of the adjacent buildings, made sure there were stairs and a bit of infrastructure, suspended a glass facade at the front and back -- finished. To give any curious or interested parties an impression of the building, it was cleared out for a week and used by three selected European designers for a comprehensive development on the theme of 'braving the gap'. The traditional disciplines of product, furniture and lighting design were complemented with contributions addressing the other senses: music and perfume. Johanna Grawunder (Milan) devised a light installation leading from a cold area by the entrance to a warm and comfortable rest area at the end of the space. Konstantin Grcic (Munich) filled the whole volume of the space with a pink ball that fitted into it exactly.Visitors had to show that they were prepared to brave the gap by squeezing between this 'puff ball' and the wall to get to the other side of the room. They were rewarded at the end by reaching the stainless steel fireplace by Timo Salli (Helsinki). The Dusseldorf firm aerome enhanced the installation with a variety of fragrances. Finally, the Hamburg photographer Uli Mattes recorded the whole project and provided his own interpretation of the work.

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Book SynopsisText in English and German. As in 2001, during the 2002 Cologne International Furniture Fair three internationally known designers squeezed themselves into the town's best known building between buildings. There they presented their ideas on the subject of 'expanding the gap'. From Tokyo came the idea of expanding the exhibition space with an installation to make it snow. Designer Tokujin Yoshioka had 18 kilos of down whirled up by fans at the end of the room to create an everlasting blizzard, and the largest snowball of the year. -- In order to burst through the austere geometry of the exhibition building, projections from lava lamps from the London-based designer Ross Lovegrove covered the greater part of the interior. The coloured, gently moving bubbles created in these lamps by heat caused the sharp contours and hard black and white contrasts of the ceilings and walls to melt and flow. -- Greg Lynn from Los Angeles installed an over-dimensioned, organic sculpture on one of the side walls. It reached out well into the room, and so the visitors were obliged to squeeze past it and search on the other side for space.

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Book SynopsisText in English & German. Rob Krier, perhaps the only urban-planning artist among Germany's architects, has, for the first time in 30 years, completed a major urban project in his home country of Luxembourg. With regard to its authorship, this is a true "family project". With the significant contribution of his brother Léon to the masterplan for the site, which is situated opposite his parental home, Krier has, in his own words, fulfilled a "youthful dream". Krier's son-in-law and office partner, Christoph Kohl was involved in the execution, as was his distant relation and Luxembourgian contact architect, Jean Herr. The concept reaches far beyond Luxembourg's borders in its significance, as Krier's crew has formulated something of a manifesto for classical European urban architecture. Rather than a further high-rise for this European city, an entire quarter has been created with public roads, lanes and squares in which the various judicial departments are distributed across eight buildings. The plot structure, small-sized units and traditional plasterwork façades with their three-dimensional sculpted details all enhance the quarter's vitality, as does the masterful treatment of spatial divisions. This new approach is decisive in solving an ever more complex construction problem in contemporary urban planning: the integration of major administration complexes into the existing make-up of the city. In Luxembourg, the Kriers have succeeded in providing model evidence that, even today, this task can be achieved by means of top-quality architecture, without having to forfeit anything in terms of the modernity of equipment, the parsimony of economical execution, the reduction of energy consumption, or in the basic demands of public proximity. With this publication, Rob Krier has created a novelty in architectural literature. It is the first volume in sketchbook format of a series which document the design process from the first hand-drawn sketches, right through to realisation. Here, the entire spectrum of the creative process and its irrepressible joy for variation are revealed.Table of ContentsForeword; Holy Spirit Plateau & Examples of Luxembourgian Architecture; High Court Building & Entrance Pavilion; District Court Building; Pedestrian Bridge; Office of the Public Prosecutor & Juvenile Court; Tower of the Winds; Magistrates' Court; Archaeological Crypt; Design of the Grounds; Pavilion of Characters; Panoramas & Perspectives; Epilogue; On the Occasion of the Opening of Cité Judiciaire by Dankwart Guratzsch; Leo's & Rob's Hands Seen by Susan Kay; Biography; Selection of Town-Planning Projects & Selected Buildings; Sculptures.

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Book SynopsisText in English & German. Photographs of a huge building site, taken by night, show a bewildering world of machines, boards, cables and scaffolding, seemingly in total chaos and with mud and puddles everywhere. The viewer's gaze enters dim underworlds that look like a modern equivalent of Piranesi's Carceri. Behind clearly structured, transparent façades we can see office workers, politicians, hotel guests and laboratory staff. We can see what they are doing and how they interact with one another. Both everyday work and private business are on public display. The figures' various social roles are revealed by their body language, clothing and attributes. In contrast to the kind of voyeuristic view through a window we see in Alfred Hitchcock's famous film Rear Window (1954), the glass façade freely reveals what the classic perforated façade hides. Like the propaganda images turned out by totalitarian systems, the vastness of advertising spaces turns our usual sense of proportions on its head. Monumentally large, usually female human figures dwarf houses and people. They look down on the city's inhabitants from above. No passerby can evade their gaze or their attractions. Taken together, the photographs in this book represent a visual commentary on our present day lifestyle. All the pictures were taken in the centre of Berlin -- but the same scenes can be seen all over the world. The buildings are just as interchangeable as the monumental images of sex and consumerism. Stefan Koppelkamm's photographs are accompanied by selected monologues from Roland Schimmelpfennig's drama Push Up 1--3, which give the "ideal inhabitants" of this world a voice. These are people who fully subscribe to the images of success and beauty taken from adverts and from the media.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1989 by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. The fundamental significance of the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart for the history of early modern architecture should not be underestimated. Almost all the influential architects of the 20th century built their proposed solutions in response to the theme "a home for modern city dwellers" on the beautifully located slope on the north side of Stuttgart. The choice of architects and the fact that a project of this type could be implemented at all so few years after World War I and the inflation, is one of the outstanding characteristics of this building exhibition". The German Werkbund is aware, and points out most emphatically that so important a task can only be successful and have a major impact if it is not only carried out in a technically flawless manner but also creates trend-setting architectonic solutions. The Werkbund therefore recommends to the city of Stuttgart that leading architects be commissioned with planning the exhibition and thus assuming a leading role in the construction of modern housing both in Germany and abroad. This memorandum, dated January 1926, concludes with the following appeal: It is now up to the municipal council whether this event, so crucial for the promotion of our housing, will be able to take place in Stuttgart in 1927. An interesting situation thus arose: members of the municipal council had to decide on the merits of this pioneering project. The majority voted for it. The result: 25 yes votes, 11 no votes and 6 abstentions. How did this project ever come to Stuttgart, anyway? What made it possible was a favourable constellation of both personnel and chronological circumstances. Gustaf Stotz must be regarded as the project's initiator. It was he who managed to fire up the enthusiasm of the leadership of the German Werkbund and of the city about the project. It is also thanks to him that Mies van der Rohe undertook to be its artistic director. Mies and many of the architects of the Weissenhofsiedlung were relatively young and not established. They had a fine reputation in avantgarde circles, but hardly outside them. Moreover, in the German Werkbund the entire project was regarded as not really important -- a sort of practice piece for a "world building exhibition" that would take place in Berlin in 1930.

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Book SynopsisText in English & German. Manfred Sack, in an essay about bridges: The Latin word relegere' means to connect. The assumption is that this is the basis of the word religion. The chief priest in Rome was the pontifex maximus, the highest builder of bridges between man and god, between this world and the other world'. The Germanic tribes saw the bridge in the rainbow physically before them, it was their road of light to Valhalla. For those who are disheartened, drugs are the bridge of escape into other, very illusory, worlds of experience. Tradition builds bridges from yesterday to tomorrow. There are so many bridges: music, a letter, the sounds of a radio, phone conversations, light signals, Morse signals, calls. The building of bridges is thus not only a physical process, but a spiritual and emotional event, a longing felt by the soul. No wonder that those who design and calculate bridges, who build them and therefore take risks, at least subconsciously sense some of the extrasensory significance of their sensory activity. And this is all the more true when we are talking about the bridges across the Rhine, the most important European river, which is wreathed in myths and legends and has inspired poetry and music like no other. Until the 19th century it was crossed almost exclusively by means of ferries. With the onset of industrialisation, more and more goods had to be transported increasingly rapidly. Today, over 250 bridges cross the river. They too now shape the unsurpassed diversity of the Rhine landscape. Since 1987, Riehle has photographed some 150 Rhine bridges from the river's headwaters in Switzerland to the Rhine's delta in the Netherlands. The most interesting 100 bridges are published in this book.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisCircle of Form offers an informative guide to the complex discipline of mastering form, contrast and composition in Architecture. The starting point for this book is our ability to see and think what is similar and what is different. Things can be more or less diverse, but oppositions, contrasts are a particular way to convey the difference. On reflection, opposites are one of the most used methods to quickly and immediately breakdown complex compositions into simple, well-defined but connected pieces. Artists have used this knowledge for centuries because simplicity supports a clear artistic language and oppositions emphasise expression and interaction, whether it is literature, music, painting, sculpture, product design or as in this book: Architecture. The Circle of Form continues this tradition, but with a systematic and modern perspective. The theoretical approach of this book continues the authors previous research into art theories, perception, cognitive theories and neuroscience related to visual experiences.

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Book SynopsisThe book deals with a quite unknown but very dense building: a small kindergarden by Giuseppe Vaccaro. A characteristic way of thinking architecture is here expressed. In those years Vaccaro is involved in experiments on the topic of circular form or centric space. The relation among the geometrical "mark" and typology allow - such a scientific test - to seek and study reciprocal interferences. In the kindergarden the "mark" is the fence, expressing centrifugal space. This book investigate geometric schemes and variations in building to the difficult moment of refurbishment, that have made more damages than benefits, spoiling some important parts. Damages can be measured looking at the actual situation and the model here published. Watching the building and its site today stand out clear the intention of the architect: to build a place with as less parts as possible: a circumference, a line and a curved plan as a roof. The mysterious fence set in the park; its role is to "isolate" something as a clearing in the forest. Remembering the Laugier Cabane rustique, the kindergarden place the work of Vaccaro in the field of modern architecture. Seen today, the sketches and plans of this strange building seem contemporary. Their freshness make them a Koolhas or Hertzberger XXI century drawing.

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Book SynopsisThe book is dedicated to a fresh and interesting building - that can be classified as a little exhibition pavilion. Watching the old images kindly provided by the Franco Albini Foundation Archive, many theoretical and practical aspects of these works do not stand out clearly: the photographic medium seems to be unable to convey topics and suggestions of these experiments. The high concentration of contents normally given to the theme of pavilion seldom makes an architectural manifesto out of this particular typology, but when it happens, so many factors have to be taken into consideration, that the overall perception becomes harder. The fact that the eventual aim of this typology is to advertise something, happens to even raise the rate of complexity, pushing the architect towards a design that must not compete with the advertised brand. Does it seem little to you? It is, anyway, already quite enough to justify treating those "small works" as equals of the bigger and important architectures. The building is overload: proportions, rhythms, geometry and other architectural elements are shown in the book through the usual architectural 3d model and through "invisible edge" views. This way of presenting the buildings helps to understand for the first time, having removed the "chiaroscuro" and the back lighting of the photos, the structure and the exhibition apparatus designed by Albini. As a scientific experiment, important results are revealed: an astonishing presence of "transparency" and a deep and the hard battle among container and content.

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Book SynopsisThe particular type of "Seaside holiday camp" is a good sample of how the architectural research can solve problems. From 1930 to 1960 this new type is created and declined by Italian architects because many industries wanted to solve the problems of youth sickness of their worker's son. The best solution was to offer a summer period to spend in special buildings near the sea. Here child could have physical activity and have a special experience together with others. These buildings had to solve problems connected to sleeping, physical activity, free time and other normally not joined together in one building. Stefano Poli's book investigate one of the less known buildings of a quite unknown architect whose only problem was to be a Jew in a racist country. For the first time a yet existing building is completely told and drawn revealing the elegance and the architectural criteria of an important but unlucky architect.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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