A new kind of architecture distinguished by unique regional characteristics emerged in the mid-1990s when in China, architects started practicing independently from government-run design institutes. The leading Chinese architects of this time succeeded collectively in producing a unique architectural body of work when so many buildings built around the world were no longer rooted in their place and culture.
In China Dialogues, Vladimir Belogolovsky charts a panorama of Chinese architecture through the words of its main participants, lifting the veil on a prolific new generation of designers, each sharing a highly intellectualized and conceptual understanding of architecture. Following the course of 21 interviews accompanied by over 120 photographs and drawings of beautifully executed projects uprooted throughout the country since the early 2000s, China Dialogues opens up the thinking process of the country's top architects, providing an insight into their ideas, intentions, and visions in unusually revealing and candid ways.
Market Street East (1960-62), Philadelphia Civic Center (1956-57).. Image Courtesy of Lars Muller Books, The Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania, Sue Ann Kahn, and the Museum of Modern Art.
In an age of ebooks and web-first publishing, Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing (Lars Müller Publishers) is a defiant throwback: a lavish, 500-plus-page book, very much an object befitting its subject, whose buildings had a weight, both literal and figurative, that was part of their power and appeal. Conceived and edited by Michael Merrill, the book is both a deep examination of Kahn’s creative process, as told through the medium of the hand drawing, as well as a revealing portrait of the man behind those buildings and illustrations. Merrill is an architect and educator and currently serves as director of research at the Institute for Building Typology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. He’s also the author of two previous books on the master architect, Louis Kahn: Drawing to Find Out and Louis Kahn: On the Thoughtful Making of Spaces.
When we look at African architecture, we see the architectural diversity of a continent which has been shaped and moulded into its present form by a combination of internal and external factors. When we look at African architecture, there is also a tendency for certain regions to take precedence over other parts of the continent. The Tropical Modernist works of Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew in Ghana and Nigeria, for example, are extremely well documented. So is the extremely well-preserved colonial-era architecture of the Eritrean capital of Asmara. Yet, there seems to be parts of the continent that “slip under the radar” in African architectural conversations – and the book Architectural Guide: Sub Saharan Africa is a welcome addition to African architectural scholarship.
If we ever wonder what the future could look like, all we have to do is take a look into our past, and observe how far we have come since thousands, a hundred, or even ten years ago. Life was radically different back then and it will be just as different in the future. And since we are well aware that the future merely resembles the present, we have the possibility to shape our future the way we want to. TASCHEN's latest BIG book installment Formgiving. An Architectural Future History explores the past, present, and future, drawing a timeline of the built environment from taking shape to giving form.
The acclaimed studio Miró Rivera Architects has published a 448-page monograph, entitled Miró Rivera Architects: Building a New Arcadia. Designed by the award-winning architects, the book features 20 of the firm’s most remarkable projects brought to life through 230 color photographs and 95 drawings. Featuring essays by notable thinkers and cutting-edge practitioners in the fields of architecture and urban design, Building a New Arcadia situates the firm’s diverse portfolio in a global context related to concepts of nature, sustainability, history, and urban design.
Collectives, is a series of aerial imageries by Brazilian photographer and artist Cássio Campos Vasconcellos, made from articulated photos captured during helicopter flights. On-going for almost 5 years, the project consists of large-format works portraying chaotic urban landscapes and exploring “jam-packed situations typical of our civilization”. Aiming to showcase the impact of human activity on the world, the collection of images is a visual investigation of our consumer society.
Etudes is a rare thing amongst architecture books. Its subject is neither built nor unbuilt projects but instead imaginary places and abstract compositions by San Francisco architect John Marx. Rendered in delicate watercolours, Marx’s places are dreamlike and akin to the structure and sentiments of his taut poetry that sits alongside pages of his paintings.
Curiously, the quiet streets and vacant landscapes of Marx’s imagination speak to us in an acutely timely fashion as we find ourselves in a new world of empty cities closed for business, a world that feels as if it has come to a standstill.
After the success of the original guide-book on underrated Soviet architecture, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art is publishing an English version of the bestselling guide: Moscow: A Guide to Soviet Modernist Architecture 1955–1991in a new digitalized format with six new chapters.
The International Committee of Architectural Critics CICA is pleased to announce an invitation to publishers, editors, curators and authors to submit their publications for consideration for the 10th CICA Awards 2020 by 30th November 2019. Award winners will be announced during the UIA XXVII World Congress of Architecture to be held in Rio de Janeiro from July 19th to 23rd, 2020.
The Awards fall into four categories:
“Bruno Zevi CICA Book Award” For published books on architectural criticism, theory and history “Pierre Vago CICA Journalism Award” For an article
Weavers on the Bauhaus staircase, 1927. From top to bottom: Gunta Stölzl (left), Ljuba Monastirskaja (right), Grete Reichardt (left), Otti Berger, (right), Elisabeth Müller (light patterned sweater), Rosa Berger (dark sweater), Lis Beyer-Volger (center, white collar), Lena Meyer-Bergner (left), Ruth Hollós (far right) and Elisabeth Oestreicher.. ImagePhotograph by T. Lux Feininger; collection of the Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
The Bauhaus was founded on the promise of gender equality, but women Bauhauslers had to fight for recognition. A new book recounts the achievements and talents of 45 Bauhaus women.
After the end of World War I, a spirit of optimism and a euphoric mood prevailed in Germany. Thanks to a new republican government and women’s suffrage, the war-torn nation was experiencing a radical new beginning.
As part of that convention-breaking wave, in 1919 German architect Walter Gropius assumed leadership of what would become the legendary Bauhaus. Initially, he declared that there would be “absolute equality” among male and female students.
Post World War II, Brutalism found its way across Europe, redefining modernist architecture and establishing a new style for mass housing and communal buildings. Although most of the light was shed on concrete landmarks in major cities, European suburbs have also housed many exceptional brutalist buildings such as the 'Hammer-shaped Tower Blocks' or the 'Houses on Chicken Legs'.
Throughout his distinguished career, Pritzker award winner Tadao Ando managed to trigger every human’s sensations upon entering his structures. It was never just the buildings’ forms that let the architect earn his status, but the manipulation of light and shadow and the impulsive sensation of sanctity that his buildings impose, are what led him to become one of the world’s most renowned architects.
To showcase Ando’s recent works and to honor their ongoing relationship with the architect, Oris House of Architecture have created a monograph titled Transcending Oppositions, celebrating his buildings and their relationship with the contemporary culture of Japan. Judging this book by its cover, readers will have a clear notion of what to expect, as the monograph reflects Tadao Ando’s architecture on fine print.
Celebrating Paddington Central’s first year as a Design Route at the London Design Festival, the design practice Snøhetta created a rotating book pavilion for British Land. Snøhetta wanted to create a project that would reimagine the traditional principles of a library through a mechanized pavilion that generates varied spatial types. Designed for visitors to immerse themselves into a world of books, the pavilion encourages exploration, interaction and reflection.
Created by paper engineer and artist Marc Hagan-Guirey, the book contains templates for creating 14 Wright-designed structures using the Japanese art of kirigami. The book leads you through the assembly of each model, which providing photographs, drawings and information for each building, including favorites like Fallingwater and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Once or twice a year, the team Odyssey Works chooses one participant to undergo a transformation, to embark on an Odyssey. Interwoven into the participant's life, the Odyssey can contain art, architecture, and design objects, friends and family, or a group of complete strangers.
Participants have been buried alive, kidnapped by people in pink onesies, and even in the case of one participant--novelist Rick Moody--found himself in Canada not knowing what he was doing there until he discovered a cello concert in a field playing just for him. Some Odysseys are short. Some go on for months.
The Society of Architectural Historians is accepting nominations for its 2017 Publication Awards. The program includes five awards that will be presented at the Society's 2017 Annual International Conference (Glasgow, June 7-11). The deadline to submit is Monday, August 1, 2016.
why? Today we are in the midst of a paradox: although fast, web-based media seems to threaten the very existence of slow architecture media, the amount of p.o.p. magazines has increased in the last few years. Furthermore, and discarding arguments about fast consumption of information, some editorial projects aimed at a slow and attentive audience have managed to succeed in the middle of a huge flow of information. It seems that once the novelty of fast media has decreased, p.o.p. architecture magazines have regained the space they once had. However, are they the same kind of magazines we once knew? How can we explain the fact that an old format may stay alive against all odds? Is it stubbornness, nostalgia, or is it something else? The reasons behind this paradox are what we would like to discuss and explore in this session.
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Adam_Mork.jpg?1650549635 "MAD Architects, Harbin Opera House, Harbin, China, 2015. Image © Adam Mork")
_schranimage.jpg?1650549533 "Studio Zhu Pei, Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China, 2020. Image © schranimage")
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