Today's archidose #941

Here are a some photos of the Maison de Verre (1932) in Paris, France, which Pierre Chareau designed for gynecologist Dr. Jean Dalsace. The house is owned now by architectural historian Robert Rubin, who allows visits by appointment months in advance. For those who are unable to travel to Paris anytime soon but will be in NYC, the Maison de Verre is beautifully presented by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, on display at the Jewish Museum until March 26 – highly recommended. (Photographed by August Fischer.)









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Book Briefs #28: A Half-dozen Journals

"Book Briefs" are an ongoing series of posts with two- or three-sentence first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that make their way into my library. These briefs are not full-blown reviews, but they are a way to share more worthwhile books than I'm able to review.



The Cornell Journal of Architecture 10: Spirits edited by Caroline O’Donnell | Cornell AAP Publications, distributed by Actar D | 2016 | Amazon
In the introduction to Spirits, O'Donnell and her fellow editors assert the issue "examines a range of spirits haunting architecture today." Colin Rowe, who taught at Cornell for much of his life, must be one of those spirits, for the editors find phantoms in his writings, occupying the realm between buildings and the interaction or people "reading" them. Heady stuff but a great starting point for a mélange of essays on the theme of spirits, ranging from data and the Anthropocene, to Louis Sullivan and meloncholia in cities, to haunted houses and the uncanny in Gothic romance novels. And what would a journal called Spirits be without an essay on The Shining's Overlook Hotel?

GSD Platform 9: Still Life edited by Jennifer Bonner with Michelle Benoit and Patrick Herron | Harvard GSD, distributed by Actar D | 2016 | Amazon
It goes without saying that the output of the Harvard GSD is voluminous. So when it comes time to assemble some of it into a year-end document to share with the world outside of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the ways of organizing the information are extremely important. And given that we're talking about architecture, each Platform cannot repeat its predecessors. Last year the editors organized the student projects, faculty information, guest lecturers, exhibitions, and so forth like an index, so it resembled a dictionary or encyclopedia. This year the projects and other materials are presented in "compositional groupings" based on still lifes of primarily models, with chapters like "Form Ruckus," "Glam Craft," and "Hold the Color." Given that not all of the student projects on display in the still lifes are presented in detail in the pages that follow, it's too bad these pages were not made into gatefolds or small posters so the overlooked projects were larger on the page.

Kerb 23: Digital Landscapes edited by Georgia Aldous, Sophia Horomidis, Rebecca Pike and Robert Williamson | Actar | 2016 | Amazon
Unlike architecture, which has a plethora of journals devoted to the field, landscape architecture could use more of them, particularly since the profession is one of the few with the ability to deal with this century pressing ecological problems. Kerb, "an annual cross-disciplinary design publication produced by the RMIT University School of Architecture and Design," is one of the few journals devoted to landscapes, one I've appreciated since discovering their 16th issue, on "future cities," when I was in grad school. Their 23rd issue tackles "digital landscapes," which I take as a focus on the tools that landscape architects use to not only design landscapes but also understand the ecologies that their designs are a part of. No profession today is free from the digital realm, even something as earthbound as landscape architecture. Nevertheless, how digital tools are used in landscape design is up for debate, as evidenced by at least a few essays and projects in the pages of this issue.



MAS Context 28: Hidden edited by Iker Gil | MAS Context | 2015
As in all of its other issues, number 28 of MAS Context is geared around a one-word theme. Hidden asked contributors to explore things not readily visible, be it tunnels and other infrastructural elements, spaces where people can hide from authorities, lives lived outside of the everyday realm, or even hidden tracks on records and CDs. The acts of revealing the hidden in the issue come across primarily visually, with only the occasional text-based essay; most contributions are photo essays, with a few architectural projects thrown in for good measure. Standing out on red pages near the middle of the book is a highlight: Sergio Lopez-Pineiro's "Archipelagos of Detritus," which presents a wide variety of leftover spaces, from highway interchanges and crawl spaces to those "virtual" disk fragments that build up over time on computer hard drives.

MAS Context 29: Bold edited by Iker Gil | MAS Context | 2016
One of the best parts of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015 was BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, which I described as an "exhibition within an exhibition." Although Chicago was host to the Biennial (and will be again later this year for the second go-around), many of the participants were from outside the city. But Iker Gil's BOLD exhibition focused purely on local talent, with projects by such familiar names as Stanley Tigerman, Margaret McCurry, Helmut Jahn, and Krueck + Sexton, as well as studios, such as UrbanLab, PORT Urbanism, Weathers, and Design With Company, which are making marks inside and outside the city. While I was fortunate enough to visit the inaugural Biennial, many people were not, so this special issue of MAS Context is very welcome. It's also beautiful, with some of the journal's best graphic design (which is saying a lot) and big images of the various speculative projects. Like other MAS Context issues, a free PDF is available, but I recommend ordering one of the limited-edition printed copies for the full effect.

New Geographies 07: Geographies of Information edited by Ali Fard and Taraneh Meshkani | Harvard GSD | 2015
The seventh issue of New Geographies, the journal of the doctoral New Geographies Lab at Harvard GSD, would go nicely with the above issue of Kerb. Just as digital information and data flows impact landscape architecture, they are integral to our understanding of geography, in both physical and virtual spaces. Geographies of Information touches on just about every digital aspect affecting places: data centers and other physical network infrastructures (both contemporary and historical); the oft-buzzed-about big data, smart cities and internet of things; surveillance; representation through digital technologies; and social aspects of digital technologies. Familiar experts (familiar to me, at least) are found in these pages, including Stephen Graham (on data centers), Adam Greenfield (on Uber) and Kazys Varnelis (on historical networks). They are part of an ambitious issue that reveals the how the production of space works in a world driven by information and its communication.

Today's archidose #940

Here are a some photos of the National Art Schools in Havana, Cuba, which were designed by Ricardo Porro, Roberto Gottardi and Vittorio Garatti in the early 1960s but then abandoned in 1965 when the Communist Party came to power. Made a National Monument in 2011, the site was added to the World Monuments Fund's 2016 World Monuments Watch, which "aims to build on its new-found international prominence and highlight the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to the management of the site." (Photographed by Trevor Patt, who has many more photos of the National Art Schools in his Flickr set.)













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Book Review: eVolo Skyscrapers 3

eVolo Skyscrapers 3 edited by Carlo Aiello
eVolo, 2016
Hardcover, 656 pages



Every year since 2006 the eVolo Skyscraper Competition has asked architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the world to submit "outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution." Those familiar with the competition know these are not "shovel-ready" designs; the winners will not jump from the drawings boards to reality any time in the near future – if at all. These are experiments: speculations on density, cities of the future, and how technology can be harnessed to envision and realize new realities. Or in the words of eVolo's Carlo Aiello, the submissions "are not traditional skyscrapers by any means but instead they are deep investigations of many aspects of contemporary architecture and urbanism."



The third limited-edition Skyscraper book collects 150 submissions, what are considered the best from the last three competition cycles. At 656 pages, it's a sizable book, big enough to give each project two spreads. Each project is documented through a consistent layout: colored background with title, author(s), project description at top, and four boards/images below that take up most of the pages' real estate. Each project is found in one of six color-coded sections/themes: Technological Advances (red), Ecological Urbanism (green), New Frontiers (orange), Social Solutions (blue), Morphotectonic Aesthetics (purple), and Urban Theories & Strategies (tan). Based on a purely quantitative measurement of how many projects are in each section, ecological urbanism and social solutions are the most popular themes explored by entrants.

Although the book is long and the projects are numerous, the book lacks an index. Combined with the fact the table of contents lists projects by name only (not the authors) and the winners are noted only subtly within their pages, the book is set up for browsing: This is a book to flip through and discover the "deep investigations"based on their images and words. But the book rewards a slow browse for those willing, since a quick flip can be overwhelming to the senses, given a degree of formal similarities and an abundance of hyper-realistic (and quite bleak at times) renderings.

That said, it's interesting to note, as evidenced through a map of all the submissions from the last three cycles included in the book, that the country building the most skyscrapers today (China) is not submitting to the annual competition as much as the United States, whose output of tall buildings last year was less than 10% of China's, per CTBUH's Year in Review. Nearly 300 competition entries came from the USA, though less than half of that (146) were submitted by people from China. Although I wouldn't ascribe too much meaning to this statistic, I'd wager that more submissions will come from China in future cycles, as younger architects in the country experiment with how tall buildings can be more than mundane, extruded masses of concrete peppered across new and old cities alike.

Speaking of submissions, those interested in participating in the 2017 Skyscraper Competition have until tomorrow to register (pardon the late warning) and until February 7 to submit.

BBP's New Berm

I've been a fan of the berm at Brooklyn Bridge Park, an earthwork that drowns out the sounds of the double-decker BQE, ever since visiting it and realizing just how well it worked. I wrote about the feature, part of Michael Van Valkenburgh's design for the park, back in 2014, the same time I snapped this photo:


Last fall I was walking the Brooklyn Heights Esplanade when I noticed another berm, south of the existing one but winding instead of straight:

New earthwork underway at Brooklyn Bridge Park

A photo posted by John Hill (@therealarchidose) on Oct 11, 2016 at 2:25pm PDT

Here is MVVA's better shot of the berm's construction:

A photo posted by MVVA (@mvva.inc) on Oct 24, 2016 at 5:57am PDT

Yesterday Curbed posted a rendering by MVVA of the berm and the rest of the Pier 5 uplands, which is located between Montague and Joralemon streets just across from One Brooklyn Bridge Park.


And here's how it compares to the construction as it was about four months ago:

A photo posted by MVVA (@mvva.inc) on Oct 18, 2016 at 3:45pm PDT

Lastly, in case you were wondering about the two structures being built on either side of the berm, they are the park's maintenance & operations building:


And boathouse, both designed by ARO:



According to the Brooklyn Bridge Park website, this new section of the park will open later this year.

Today's archidose #939

Here are a handful of photos of the Netzquartier 50Hertz (2016) in Berlin, Germany, by LOVE architecture and urbanism. (Photographed by Artur Salisz)









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Coloring Book of the Moment

I'll admit I have a love-hate attitude toward the trend of coloring books geared toward grown-ups. Although I like coloring books, even for adults (the mix of patience, concentration, relaxation, and mind/hand skill is beneficial) their popularity means there are just too many of them – 50,450 in Amazon's "Coloring Books for Grown-Ups" category! And with so many, they all tend to look the same, even if they take on different themes: cities, fantasy, flowers, animals, etc.

That said, find the bare-bones simplicity of Marc Thomasset's The Brutalist Colouring Book appealing.


[All photos by Geert De Taeye]

If Thomasset, who emailed me about his coloring book and sent me these photos, wanted to be funny, he would include one or two gray colored pencils in every order. After all, what is Brutalist architecture but concrete?





But just as other coloring books for grown-ups invite juxtapositions of color that could never be found in nature or whatever is being depicted, there's no reason such Brutalist masterpieces as William Pereira's Geisel Library in San Diego can't be jazzed up with color in more than just their glass surfaces.

The first edition of The Brutalist Colouring Book is limited to 500 numbered copies. "Designed and printed with love in Brussels" on thick recycled paper: 36 pages (cover 4 pages - inside 32 pages), 148 x 210 mm (5,8" X 8,2"). Only €12.00.

Old+New Book Review: Architecture in Austria

"Old + New" is a new series that pairs two books: one old and one new. Most of the reviews on this blog are fairly recent titles sent to me by publishers, but I wanted to expand the reviews to include older books from my library. To do so I'm using this series to review new books and, when appropriate, dig out an old book and include it as part of the review. This series does not replace my typical book reviews or book briefs or my Unpacking My Library blog; it merely expands how I present books on this blog.

Architecture in Austria: A Survey of the 20th Century edited by Sasha Pirker (Architekturzentrum Wien), Jaime Salazar (Actar)
Birkhäuser/Actar, 1999
Hardcover, 334 pages

Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries edited by Architekturzentrum Wien
AzW/Park Books, 2016
Flexicover, 440 pages



Ever since undergraduate architecture school in the early 1990s, I've been a fan of Austrian architecture. I've never taken the time to understand or explain why this is, but I've noticed my appreciation for everything from the early modern designs of Otto Wagner and his other Viennese contemporaries, to the avant-garde projects in the 1960s by Coop Himmelb(l)au and others, to the wooden buildings that draw people to Vorarlberg, and even to Raimund Abraham's Austrian Cultural Forum New York, which is still my favorite building in New York City from this century. Perhaps the appeal is found the diversity of the country's modern and contemporary architecture, which encompasses even more variety than what is found in these four examples. Whatever the case, I'm drawn to these two books that round up the country's best buildings from the last 100-150 years.


[Spread from Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries showing the timeline]

I found Architecture in Austria: A Survey of the 20th Century at a used bookstore in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, one of the many used bookstores in the city that had to close, since people now buy their books – new and old – online. It is a book of its time, and by that I mean the post-S,M,L,XL era of making architecture books: it is thick and square in format, a sizable book that glares at you from your bookshelf with its big "AA20" binding. It has about 100 projects presented in chronological order, with most of the selection (around 60%) from after 1975. The pages are heavy and matte, which contributes to the book's size but leaves room for improvement when it comes to the few color photos included. The selection of buildings is strong if unsurprising and the descriptions are short, but for a book that propounds the quality of a country's architecture, rather than scholarship into the buildings, the book's shortcomings are easy to overlook.


[Spread from Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries showing projects]

More than fifteen years later, the Architekturzentrum Wien, which produced the first book, updated it with more ambition and lots of improvements. The most dramatic difference is the new book's size: at what looks to be A4 size, the pages can hold a lot of information, and in some cases multiple projects, with the most important projects given two pages. Although the descriptions remain small, there is more real estate for photos to help in explaining the buildings. With glossier pages, the colors pop much better than the previous book. Furthermore, the strong binding and flexicover allow the book to lay flat on a table, making it easy to browse.


[Spread from Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries showing "war damage and reconstruction"]

With about 100 more projects than the previous book, the most dramatic change is the diversity of what's presented. There are plenty of buildings, but urban plans, unbuilt projects, and even texts are also included this time. Austrian architectural output is considered in a wider spectrum, echoing the ambitions of its architects and the varied ways of dealing with problems, be it postwar reconstruction, the revolutions of the 1960s, or today's sustainability. As in the first book, the last chapter is devoted to housing, and at nearly 100 pages it is a sizable chapter, with apparently more projects than the preceding chronological chapters combined. This chapter alone is worth the price of admission; it, like the book it's part of, it capably traces the social and architectural history of Austria over the last 150 years.

Today's archidose #938

Here are a handful of photos of the Campus North Residential Commons and the Frank and Laura Baker Dining Commons (2016) in Chicago, Illinois, by Studio Gang Architects. (Photographed by Trevor Patt)







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