Architecture Style

It's competition months now since things are slowing down with recessions and economical downturn. For you guys who are looking for competitions, here's some useful links to find out:-
http://www.thearchitectureroom.com/
http://www.deathbyarchitecture.com/
http://www.architecture.com/Competitions
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/architecture_competition.htm
http://www.umsitio.com/architecture-competitions/
http://bustler.net/index.php/competitions/
http://www.arplus.com/competition/competiton.htm
http://www.arquitectum.com/index.php

I have a confession to make: I really dislike animal printed anything. Sure, it may be 'fun'....but...I just think they're sort of Atlantic City; Plus they glorify the killing of exotic endangered animals. I know they've been trendy for awhile now and I've kept silent...but I couldn't keep it in any longer!
I'm LOVING this room by Palmer Weiss though! This color combination is just beautiful -what a cheerful room for winter! The white accents such as the lamp keep it from going over the top.

That printed cushion in the center of the sofa though.....ugh. Thats the best he could do?? What do you think? Like the pillow? Love animal prints? I'd love to hear!

I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend! I hope yours is as relaxing as mine :-)
Caption this photo, just for fun!

The December 2008 issue of Metropolitan Home features the home of 2 architects in Portland, Oregon. A husband and wife effort, she sewed together fabric panels and he painted a scene of a traditional room as a sort of stage set for their master bedroom. I could see this done very easily straight on the wall for contrast in a modern home such as this. I love this idea! The more sketchy the mural the better! Note to self: file this away in 'things to consider'

Like the last three years, I'm presenting a list of gift books just in time for the holidays. This year I'm presenting one each by 38 publishers.

010 Publishers:

Space and Learning by Herman Hertzberger
The third of the architect's "lessons in architecture" looks at schools, "one of the few areas in architecture today where designers are still able to define and influence human conditions."

Actar:

The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles edited by Kazys Varnelis
"A collection of photography, essays, and maps [that] looks at infrastructure as a way of mapping our place in the city and affecting change through architecture."

a+t:

The Public Chance by Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Arpa
The first book in a+t's in common series presents 30 urban landscapes in the publisher's thorough and well-presented way it's known for.

AVA Academia:

Basics Interior Architecture: Form + Structure by Graeme Brooker & Sally Stone
One of a series of books on interior architecture aimed at students, the abundance of projects and illustrations make it appealing for others as well.

Birkhäuser:

Architecture a Synoptic Vision: A Prospectus of Developments from 1900 to Today by Adrian Meyer & Susanne Kuhlbrodt
It's a book. It's a poster. It's a book and a poster.

Black Dog Publishing:

Building Happiness: Architecture to Make You Smile edited by Jane Wernick
"The nature of our environment and how we use it and how we are conditioned by it is considered in detail, particularly the ways this affects our sense of wellbeing or happiness."

Charta:

Giuseppe Ripa: Lightly by Walter Guadagnini & Roberto Mutti
Italian photographer Giuseppe Ripa sets up his camera in the city's new convention center, the Milan Trade Fair, designed by Massimiliano Fuksas.

Chronicle Books:

California Academy of Sciences: Architecture in Harmony with Nature by Susan Wels
A case study of the building by Renzo Piano that aims to become "a model for sustainable design at an unprecedented scale."

daab:

Contemporary Ecological Architecture by Daab Books
"A selection of extraordinary international projects that impress thanks to their design and environmentally friendly construction."

Danish Architectural Press:

Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space by Jan Gehl
A classic text is back in print.

Elsevier:

Dictionary of Architecture and Building Construction by Nikolas Davies & Erkki Jokiniemi
"The most extensive and comprehensive dictionary for architects and construction professionals."

GG:

Lacaton & Vassal by Andreas Ruby
A monograph on the French architectural office.

Hatje Cantz:

J. Mayer H. by Henry Urbach
A monograph on the architect of the Parasol.

Institute for Urban Design:

New York 2030 Notebook edited by Jeff Byles and Olympia Kazi
Proceedings (and more) from a panel discussion of academics and professionals last year.

Lars Müller Publishers:

Conditions: Snohetta : Architecture, Interior, Landscape by Snohetta
The first monograph on the Norweigan firm.

Laurence King Publishing:

A World History of Architecture, 2nd Edition by Marian Moffett, Michael Fazio and Lawrence Wodehouse
"A detailed survey of Western architecture, including Pre-Columbian America, and an introduction to architecture from the Middle East, India, Russia, China and Japan."

MIT Press:

Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City by Fumihiko Maki
"This collection of essays documents the evolution of architectural modernism and Maki's own fifty-year intellectual journey during a critical period of architectural and urban history."

MoMA:

Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling edited by Barry Bergdoll and Peter Christensen
The companion to this summer's exhibition on prefab housing.

NAi Publishers:

Manuel de Solà-Morales: A Matter of Things by Manuel De Solà-Morales
A monograph on the Spanish architect "with projects at the interface of architecture and urban planning."

Papadakis Publishers:

Essays on Architecture edited by Alexandra & Andreas Papadakis
A collection of essays from Papadakis's popular books on contemporary architecture.

Phaidon:

Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture by the Editors of Phaidon Press
The sequel to the popular (and HUGE) atlas, with 1,000 projects built since the year 2000.

Princeton Architectural Press:

Integrated Design in Contemporary Architecture by Kiel Moe
"Taking sustainability to the next level, the emerging practice of integrated design provides the strategies to achieve high performance, low energy, and cost-effectiveness."

RIBA Publishing:

Eco-Minimalism: the Antidote to Eco-Bling by Howard Liddell
A book that realizes "going green" is really about paring down.

Rizzoli:

American Masterworks: Houses of the Twentieth & Twenty-first Centuries, Revised Edition by Kenneth Frampton and David Larkin
A revised edition of the intelligent coffee table book on American residential architecture.

Routledge:

Heterotopia and the City: Public space in a postcivil society edited by Michael Dehaene & Lieven De Cauter
A pricey academic book that seeks to clarify the concept coined by Foucault in the late 1960s.

Skira:

Aldo Rossi Drawings by Germano Celant and Diane Ghirardo
A complete collection of Rossi's "sketches, drawings, concepts, watercolors, and collages from the early 1960s through to 1998."

Springer:

Marte.Marte: Architects edited by Stefan & Bernhard Marte
A monograph on the Austrian firm.

William Stout Publishers:

Aaron Siskind and Louis Sullivan: The Institute of Design Photo Section Project by Jeffrey Plank
"A comprehensive photographic survey of Sullivan's architecture, [presenting] over 60 buildings."

Taschen:

Arts & Architecture, 1945-54: The Complete Reprint by David Travers
Ten volumes with ten years of reprints of the magazine famous for its Case Study House Program.

Thames & Hudson:

Formulas for Now edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist
A unique volume with a diverse list of contributors, including Marina Abramovic; David Adjaye; John Baldessari; Matthew Barney; Louise Bourgeois; Thomas Demand; Elizabeth Diller; Olafur Eliasson; Brian Eno; Damien Hirst; Rem Koolhaas; Jeff Koons; Harry Mathews; Yoko Ono; Gerhard Richter; Nancy Spero; Rosemarie Trockel; Wang Jian Wei; James Watson.

TOTO:

Glenn Murcutt: Thinking Drawing / Working Drawing by Glenn Murcutt
One of two recent books on the Pritzker Prize winner, this one focuses on the architect's process as documented in hand drawings.

University of Chicago Press:

Global Environmental History by I.G. Simmons
The author looks "from 10,000 BCE to the modern day to present an incredibly rich and deep time overview of how we have come to our current state of ecological crisis."

University of Minnesota Press:

Relearning from Las Vegas edited by Aron Vinegar and Michael J. Golec
"For the contributors, as for scholars in an array of fields, the pioneering book [Learning from Las Vegas] is as relevant to architectural debates today as it was when it was first published [in 1972]."

WalkerBooks:

On Architecture: Collected Recollections on a Century of Change by Ada Louise Huxtable
A selection of essays from fifty years of some of the best architectural criticism.

Wiley & Sons:

New Urban China by Laurence Liauw
"This issue [of AD] focuses on how cities are being ‘Made in China’ today and how their development is to impact on the future of cities worldwide."

W.W. Norton:

Green Roofs in Sustainable Landscape Design by Steven L. Cantor
A thorough and diverse selecion of case studies on one of the most popular design elements today.

Yale University Press:

Felix Candela: Engineer, Builder, Structural Artist by Maria E. Moreyra Garlock & David P. Billington
A monograph on the late Spanish architect and structural engineer.

Zone Books:

La Jetée: ciné-roman by Chris Marker
A beautiful shot-by-shot book (designed by Bruce Mau) of a classic science-fiction film is back in print.

I hope everyone in the USA is having a great Thanksgiving full of family, friends and good food! Enjoy the Thanksgiving joke!

A young man named Mike received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. Mike tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, Mike was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. Mike shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. Mike, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, Mike quickly open the door to the freezer, the parrot calmly stepped out into Mike's outstretched arms and said, "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

Mike was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

Another year, another Thanksgiving break. Posts will resume on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.


Image found here

I've been working with stone a lot at work recently, which led me to randomly think of the Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest.Located in the Castle district, it was originally designed by the architect Frigyes Shulek between 1901 and 1903 as an adjacent structure to the Church of our Lady or Matthais Church, out of remaining stones from the nearby old castle wall. It received its name from the neighborhood it rises above, Fisherman's Town.

This point is high above the city and offers spectacular views over all the surrounding neighborhoods - because of the stunning architecture and views, this is the most popular tourist attraction in the city. Hopefully someday I'll get there to see it for myself!

Last week the Kimbell Art Museum unveiled Renzo Piano's design for its new building opposite Louis I. Kahn's 1972 landmark. While the site plan and section don't reveal a heck of a lot about the design, it made me wonder why Piano is chosen not only for every other museum design (it seems) but for additions to important, and in some case iconic, pieces of Modern architecture.


[Kimbell site plan (click for expanded image) | image provided by Kimbell Art Museum | © Renzo Piano Workshop]

In addition to the Kimbell in Fort Worth, Texas...


[Kimbell section (click for expanded image) | image provided by Kimbell Art Museum | © Renzo Piano Workshop]

...is Piano's controversial (PDF link) visitor center next to Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France...


[Notre Dame du Haut visitor center | image source]

...his unrealized addition to Marcel Breuer's Whitney Museum of American Art in New York...


[Whitney Museum expansion | image source]

...and finally his addition to Richard Meier's High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, which opened in 2005.


[High Museum expansion | image source]

I would argue that Piano's treatment of the vertical and the horizontal, the facade and the roof, is a formal reason for his position as the "go-to guy" for these sorts of commissions. Specifically by focusing focus on the overhead plane, most often in the form of innovative skylights, the relatively windowless facade is able to drop into the background, much like Gwathmy Siegel's extension of the Guggenheim, which didn't even try to compete with Frank Lloyd Wright's swirling masterpiece. This is surely the case with the High Museum, and the Whitney facade is a lesson in restraint, but the two latest designs for the Kimbell and Ronchamp attempt to use the landscape to "blend" into their context. In the case of the former the landscape berms over the partially underground, Nasher-esque building, while in the latter case the visitor center would be built into the hillside to be hidden from the chapel above. Of the two the Kimbell has the best chance of being realized, so I'm looking forward to seeing more fleshed-out images that give a stronger impression of the formal relationship between old and new.