Publications: The Latest Architecture and News

With its recent transformation, King’s Cross station has re-emerged as one of london’s most iconic buildings. Built in 1852, its elegance and simplicity stood in stark opposition to the neo-gothic extravagance of neighbouring St Pancras, and held its place as a prototype of modern architecture. The story of this station is a fascinating one. It’s a tale of changing fortunes and tides that follows the ascent and decline of Britain’s railways.

Social Media in Action: Comprehensive Guide for Architecture, Engineering, Planning, and Environmental Consulting Firms is, first and foremost, a how-to guide. Using facts, figures and a wide range of research to back up its claims, the book lays out exactly how Architecture firms can get the most bang out of their social media buck.

But the book also takes the time to establish the why of social media – particularly post-Recession – and offers a fascinating glimpse into its future relevance. As the authors explain in the very first chapter: “This new form of media is not a trend. It is the way businesses communicate.” As an Architectural Blog, we see the power and reach of social media strengthen everyday, and couldn’t agree more.

If you have wet feet about jumping on the social media bandwagon, whether out of intimidation or a lack of time, be aware that that many have already dived right in, and, as Walter and Berkley put it, are “riding that wave with some exciting results.” So, let us stress: if you haven’t jumped yet, you need too. Social Media in Action is a good way to start.

For more tips about improving your social media presence from Social Media in Action, read on after the break…

Founded 30 years’ ago by one of Taiwan’s most respected architects, J. J. Pan & Partners has been steadfastly pursuing its vision of creating lasting, beautiful architecture that is appropriate to its role, harmonious with its time and place, and that best expresses the cultural, social and technological environment. A must have companion to the original J.J. Pan and Partners title, this publication is fully illustrated with photographs and plans of J.J. Pan’s most interesting projects.

Once in a Lifetime presents tantalizing new possibilities for exploring and relaxing that redefine the idea of luxury travel.

The book showcases quality destinations beyond superficial pomp that represent a conscious choice for slowing down our hectic lives. The inspiring range of examples includes enchanting tree house hotels, incredible eco-friendly resorts, farms on which guests help with the work, simple hotels and glamping sites in spectacular scenery, as well as glamorous houses, trains, and boats. These are not only depicted in stunning photographs, but also insightfully described by renowned international travel, design, and architecture journalist Marie Le Fort.

Best of Housing by DETAIL Magazine: Housing is something individual: we each have our own ideas and aspirations for it, and we express a lifestyle by the way in which we house ourselves — the way in which we dwell. To dwell means to be “at home”, where one ideally has a sense of well-being.

When it comes to housing, there have been numerous studies of standards, developments and trends, which have analysed and compared people’s needs. But as needs change over time, so do trends. And also the global and demographic changes affecting society alter the way we dwell and flexibility becomes a decisive criterion.

The subject of housing also includes the integration of individual buildings in an urban context. Especially in cities, people often live in compact spaces in which there are fewer personal spaces and more communal areas. Yet each of us longs for a space of our own. Therefore it becomes important that designers develop ideas that meet our shared need for a balance between personal and communal space.

As innovation and new developments in technology now follow each other faster and faster, making yesterday’s architectural fantasies today’s construction realities, there’s already a movement to return to the essential things in life: be it a quest for sustainability, which implies basic principles such as incorporating a region’s typologies and materials, or for reasons of expense, which often prompt a search for efficient designs or manufacturing technology, or even aesthetic requirements that allow people to step out of our increasingly noisy and heterogeneous environment.

Wiel Arets: Autobiographical References offers a unique and unparalleled view of this internationally renowned architect. Wiel Arets’ optimistic outlook towards the future, which he calls ‘A Wonderful World: A New Map of the World’, underlies his global philosophy. This book presents Arets’ lectures on that topic, debates between him and other thinkers and makers, 60 exemplary designs from his studio, and an extensive series of interviews with Arets. Within these texts his background, education, projects, and teachings are interwoven in a discussion that highlights the evolution of his career.

Guilt has been effectively used to control and manipulate the masses. But it can also be the start of a change for the better: awareness, concern, action. Engagement and guilt are never far apart. Engagement is sublimated guilt. We can build on guilt, but can we build with guilt? Is guilt a material to design with?

Guilty Landscapes is the theme for the latest issue of Volume Magazine, a joint effort between AMO, C-LAB and Archis.

Full index and more info after the break

The firm’s founder David Stark Wilson cites his experiences in nature as the most profound influence on his architecture. In this volume he has chosen to pair images of his architecture beside the images from nature that inspired his designs. The origins of the firm’s work are also deeply rooted in the vernacular buildings of California and this influence is clearly illustrated in this impressive monograph.

Just arriving to ArchDaily’s headquarter, Mark Magazine #38. This issue’s main theme is “Amsterdam, Back on the Map “. In this edition you can find previously projects featured by AD such us: EYE-New Dutch Film Institute by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Playhouse by Anna & Eugeni Bach, Lamego Multi Purpose Pavillion by Barbosa & Guimarães, House G-S by Graux & Baeyens. Also in Mark Victor Enrich, an Architect and Visualizer who alter the reality in his work.

More information and full index after the break.

There are few organizations that would utter the words: “we need to constantly look for ways to make ourselves redundant” (46).

But Architecture for Humanity isn’t your typical organization. Since its inception in 1999, the company has put design professionals in the service of local communities, empowering these locals to the point where, frankly, they don’t need the architects any more.

And Design Like You Give A Damn : Building Change from the Ground Up, written by Architecture for Humanity co-founders Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, isn’t your typical architecture book. More like an inspiration design manual, Design Like You Give A Damn offers practical advise and over 100 case studies of projects that share Architecture for Humanity’s mission of building a sustainable future.

Beyond chronicling inspired designs and against-the-odds accomplishments, the book importantly offers a provocative philosophy : architecture belongs, not to the architect, but to the people and the world for whom it is designed.

More about life lessons and tips from Design Like You Give A Damn after the break…

One of the most impressive pavilions at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 was the UK Pavilion, designed by Thomas Heatherwick. In this book, we can see not only the impressive pavilion, but also a comprehensive overview covering the studio’s entire history. Over 150 projects are represented, each fully illustrated with images selected from Heatherwick’s personal and studio archives.

More information after the break.

This informative  11″ by 11″ hardcover book presents a curated collection of award-winning residential and master planning work from leading American designers. Meticulously detailed and site-specific, the featured projects focus on sustainability, technology, and the human spirit. They reflect ideologies and philosophies that are rooted in the modernist doctrine or distilled from vernacular precedents.

The collection of Inspiration And Process In Architecture is a new series of illustrated monographs dedicated to key figures in contemporary architecture. This new collection features Zaha Hadid, Giancarlo De Carlo, Bolles+Wilson and Alberto Kalach whose stories are told through notes and drawings never before seen.

Detail recently sent us Net Zero Energy Building from their Green Books series. Like everything Detail does, this books takes a thorough look at the technology surrounding this specific subject. It also, as always, gives great examples from the Virginia Tech Solar House to the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College.

Description: Net-zero energy buildings, equilibrium buildings, or carbon-neutral cities depending on location and underlying agenda, the statistics vary. The variety of terms in use indicates that a scientific method is still lacking which poses a problem not just in regard to international communication, but also with respect to planning processes as a response to energy challenges. The clarification and meaning of the most important terms in use is extremely important for their implementation. Since October 2008 a panel of experts from an international energy agency has concerned itself with these topics as part of a project entitled Toward Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings. The objective is to analyze exemplary buildings that are near a zero-energy balance in order to develop methods and tools for the planning, design, and operation of such buildings. The results are documented in this publication. More than just a showcase presentation of select projects, the focus of this publication is on relaying knowledge and experience gained by planners and builders.

We recently received a book we wished we had earlier, Writing About Architecture. Lange’s book pulls from “lessons learned from her courses at New York University and the School of Visual Arts.”  ”The book offers works by some of the best architecture critics of the twentieth century including Ada Louise Huxtable, Lewis Mumford, Herbert Muschamp, Michael Sorkin, Charles Moore, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Jane Jacobs to explains some of the most successful methods with which to approach architectural criticism.” The book “could serve as the primary text for a course on criticism for undergraduates or architecture and design majors.” We here at ArchDaily are now using it as a resource. We have a feeling the pages will be worn through pretty quickly.

It is hard not to want to pick up this book and start reading with the project displayed on the front cover. Fantastic! This book grapples with the issue of how to marry old buildings with new design. The book offers a wide range of projects that should challenge architects and planners working at any scale. The text is tremendously accessible while being sophistically insightful.

Check out some of the projects featured in this book that we have also featured: Dovecote Studio, Walden Studios, Hutong Bubble 32, Guru Bar, Ozuluama Penthouse, II Forte di Fortezza, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Moderna Museet Malmo, Hearst Tower, California College of the Arts, and Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere.