![Vila Taguai / Cristina Xavier Arquitetura - Housing, Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5427/1bfd/c07a/809a/0e00/01dd/newsletter/vilataguai_002.jpg?1411849205)
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Architects: Cristina Xavier Arquitetura
- Area: 1250 m²
- Year: 2010
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Professionals: Construction Ita, Hagaplan, Sandretec
Thom Mayne recently sent us his latest book, Combinatory Urbanism: The Complex Behavior of Collective Form. MIT Professor of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, Alan Berger, hails this book as “nothing short of a tour de force and should be required reading for landscape urbanists and landscape architects. Students and general audiences of design and planning will find it difficult to go back into their disciplinary silos.” The twelve projects featured in this book “were generated over a ten-year period. They are assembled here for the first time as a single collection of our urban work. Ranging from sixteen acres–the World Trade Center–to fifty-two thousand acres–the New New Orleans Urban Redevelopment–these proposals are situated on different parts of the architecture-to-urban-design-scale continuum. Each project inhabits an ambiguous in-between territory in which physical scale exceeds architecture but the manifestation still requires architectural qualities in order to make sense in its context.”
We recently received a monograph of Cebra’s work. This young firm is energetic, pushes the boundaries, goes after competitions, and has been successful in pushing many projects into reality. We are fan their work and have featured Cebra 16 separate times here on archdaily. Additionally, David Basulto, co-founder of ArchDaily, has become good friends with Mikkel Frost through an email correspondence interview that took place over the 4 months. The interview is prominently featured in the introduction of the book and makes for an interesting read.
We recently received one of the limited editions (n=500) of eVolo Skycrapers. At 1224 pages (9″ x 11.5″ x 2.5″), it is less of a coffee table book than it is an actual table. The book grew out of the 2006 eVolo Skyscraper Competition. “The contest recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations. Studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution are some of the multi-layered elements of the competition. It is an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of dynamic and adaptive vertical communities. Over the last six years, an international panel of renowned architects, engineers, and city planners have reviewed more than 4,000 projects submitted from 168 countries around the world. Participants include professional architects and designers, as well as students and artists. This book is the compilation of 300 outstanding projects selected for their innovative concepts that challenge the way we understand architecture and their relationship with the natural and built environments.”
Our friends from Studio Gang Architects recently sent us their new book Reverse Effect. ”The culmination of a yearlong collaboration between Studio Gang Architects and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Reverse Effect is dedicated to exploring the importance of the Chicago River and the possibilities for its 21st-century transformation. Both an information-rich resource and a catalyst for action, this book’s diverse content, perspectives, and visions illuminate potential trajectories for the future of our city.”
We recently received KieranTimberlake’s newest book, Inquiry. Instead of listing one project after the next, as in most monographs, this book is organized around ten gerunds: bending, coupling, filtering, inserting, offsetting, outlining, overlapping, puncturing, reflecting, and tuning. This is a lovely and informative way to view their work. The reason behind the book’s organized is explained by Karl Wallick in the preface. Wallick writes, “Architecture is not exactly whole: we remember instances, elements, and details, but rarely are the experiences and sensations in architectural experience comprehensive. The context of what we do as architects is also fragmentary, even as it seeks to be resolved comprehensively. Rather than insisting on the totality of complete works, architecture might be better understood as an infinite matrix of detailed moments.”
The Exploratorium is an interactive science museum that is moving from its current home of 40 years near the park-like Presidio to a prominent waterfront site in downtown San Francisco. The project involves the renovation of two decrepit piers, and the removal of a large parking lot/loading dock on pilings to provide net zero energy buildings (LEED Gold) and 2 acres of newly accessible public open space to accommodate large scale outdoor exhibits.
Landscape architect: Østengen & Bergo AS landscape architects MNLA Location: Lørenskog, Norway Architect: L2 architects AS Design: Collaboration between architect and landscape architect Budget: 1,630,000 Euro Project Area: 1,8 daa Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Østengen & Bergo landscape architects AS