Book of the Moment: War of Streets and Houses

Not many graphic novels treat buildings and cities as an integral part of their stories, so I'm intrigued by War of Streets and Houses, a new graphic memoir from cartoonist and author Sophie Yanow.


[All images via Uncivilized Books]

Text from the publisher:

The War of Streets and Houses is named after General Thomas Bugeaud's 19th century essay; the first manual for the preparation and conduct of urban warfare. The text greatly influenced Baron Haussmann’s famous re-development of Paris, and the planning of modern cities. In 2012 the author participated in the massive Montreal student strikes. In the midst of protesting crowds and police kettles, the military origins of urban planning suddenly became an undeniable reality. Sophie Yanow’s most ambitious work to date deftly melds the history of urban planning, theories of control with personal experiences of political activism.

(via Atlantic Cities)

Available at

Book of the Moment: Collage and Architecture

Over spring break I gave my first-year students an assignment to make a collage as part of a precedent study. If I had known about Jennifer A.E. Shields's Collage and Architecture, published in paperback last month by Routledge, I certainly would have used it to give them a little bit more guidance. Half the book, after all, is devoted to "collage methodologies in architectural analysis and design." The second half, in case you're wondering, includes six case studies, from Le Corbusier to Weiss/Manfredi, of "architecture as collage."



Text from the publisher:

Collage and Architecture is the first book to cover collage as a tool for design in architecture, making it a valuable resource for students and practitioners. Author Jennifer Shields uses the artworks and built projects of leading artists and architects, such as Le Corbusier, Daniel Libeskind, and Teddy Cruz to illustrate the diversity of collage techniques. The six case study projects from Mexico, Argentina, Sweden, Norway, the United States, and Spain give you a global perspective of architecture as collage. Collage is an important instrument for analysis and design, and Shields’s presentation of this versatile medium draws on decades of relevance in art and architecture, to be adapted and transformed in your own work.

Or maybe I'm just a sucker for a timeline chart (from the introduction, best viewed large):


Available at

Book of the Moment: The Working Drawing

The Working Drawing: The Architect's Tool, edited by Annette Spiro and David Ganzoni and published by Park Books, is a must-have book for architects who love drawings...which should pretty much be all of them. A selection of drawings from the book can be found in this week's World-Architects eMagazine.



Text from the publisher:

Large-size working drawings are an elementary means in the architectural process and the actual construction of a building. Yet very little has been written and published about the architect’s quintessential tool. This new book aims to close this gap. It draws on a vast collection of working drawings from many centuries held by the Department of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). The collection, put together and categorized under the direction of Annette Spiro, comprises plans for a wide range of architectural tasks and features manifold representational techniques.

The book presents around 100 of the collection’s highlights from five centuries, arranged by category for direct comparison. All plans are depicted entirely in color on large-size spreads and fold-outs. Full catalog details and a detail in true size are provided for each drawing.

Mario Carpo, Hermann Czech, Tom Emerson, Philipp Esch, David Ganzoni, Uta Hassler and Daniel Stockhammer, Ákos Moravánszky, Urs Primas, Kornel Ringli, Stephan Rutishauser, Jonathan Sergison, and Philip Ursprung contribute essays on various aspects of the topic.

The book is being released in the United States on February 15, 2014.

Exhibition and Catalog of the Moment

[Marta Herford (2005) designed by Frank Gehry]

52 Weeks, 52 Cities: Photographies by Iwan Baan is on display at Marta Herford in Germany until February 16. Per Marta Herford, "Iwan Baan takes the viewer on a one-year photographic journey around the world – always on the lookout for ingenious homes in unexpected places and outstanding construction projects." Accompanying the exhibition is a catalog published by Kehrer:



As the cover indicates, the book has some recent buildings by big names (SANAA's Louvre Lens graces the cover), but not necessarily photos with blue skies, perfect framing, and the other perfectionist traits people associate with architectural photography. It also shows places that do not exhibit the hand of the architect, if you will, but are just as fascinating, if not more so:


[Allahabad, India: Kumbh Mela]

In a sense, Baan is like a ping pong ball, veering back and forth between bespoke luxury starchitecture:


[East Lansing, Michigan, USA: Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum by Zaha Hadid]

and vernacular, and often informal, conditions of living:


[Cairo, Egypt: Zabaleen community]

As Marta Herford describes the exhibition (and therefore the catalog, to a degree): "The exhibition features 52 photographs from last year [2012] accompanied by personally spoken commentaries by the photographer. These are sensitive encounters with everyday and extraordinary places all over the globe which Baan has put together to form an engaged commentary on human living and survival strategies. His documentation, for example, of a 45-story, uncompleted skyscraper in Caracas occupied by around 750 families who are living 'extra-legally' in a 'vertical slum' has become one of his best known projects. Here and elsewhere the boundaries between architecture documentation and the interpretation of social living spaces become blurred."

Book of the Moment: The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory

The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory is a 776-page tome that "documents and builds upon some of the most innovative developments in architectural theory over the last two decades." To mark the release of the book, Parsons SCE is hosting a panel discussion (free, no RSVP required) this evening; details are below.

Architectural Theory in an Expanded Field

Monday, October 28, 2013 at 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Wollman Hall (B500), Eugene Lang College
65 West 11th Street, New York, NY

Join Parsons SCE for a panel discussion with the general editors and US-based contributors of the Sage Handbook of Architectural Theory, celebrating the launch of the paperback edition convened by Brian McGrath, Dean of the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons and moderated by Joanna Merwood, associate professor of Architectural History at Parsons.

The panel discussion will explore the handbook’s agenda and consider its significance for architectural research, education and practice. A questions and answer session will follow remarks from the panelists.

General Editors:

• C. Greig Crysler, Associate Professor of Architecture; Arcus Chair, College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley
• Hilde Heynen, Professor of Architecture, University of Leuven
• Stephen Cairns, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Edinburgh; Future Cities Lab Coordinator, ETH Singapore

Speakers:

• Stefan Al, Associate Professor of Urban Design, University of Pennsylvania
• M. Christine Boyer, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Princeton University
• Brian McGrath, Dean, School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design
• Deborah Natsios, Cryptome.org
• Vyjayanthi Rao, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, The New School
• David Solomon, Assistant Professor, Architectural Studies, Ithaca College
• Gwendolyn Wright, Professor of Architecture, Columbia University

The Sage Handbook of Architectural Theory documents and builds upon the most innovative developments in architectural theory over the last two decades.

With over 40 chapters of original material from a roster of contributors from around the world, the handbook connects together issues, institutions, authors and readers in ways that mark a significant departure from other collections of its kind. Eight major sections explore issues in architectural theory today, from new formations of power, difference and embodiment, and questions around science and technology, to the changing conditions in cities and metropolitan territories in the global present.

The Images of Architects

For the 2012 Venice Biennale, Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati curated a selection of "Pictographs—Statement of contemporary architects." The inspirational images from well-known architects were displayed on a large table in the Arsenale, and soon they'll be collected in a book published by Quart.

I asked architects to send me important images that show the basis of their work. Images that are in their head when they think. Images that show the origin of their architecture.

In this book we find 44 individual "musées imaginaires". The most unique architects living today each present up to 10 images to explain the autobiographical roots of their oeuvre. The images are explanations, metaphors, foundations, memories and intentions. They are poetic and philosophical avowals. They reveal a personal perspective on thoughts. They show the roots of architecture and expectations concerning projects. Conscious and unconscious.

This book has the format of a reader. As little as possible is said. The images are small, legible and interpretable as icons. As individual collections, they present a personal view of an individual world, while as a whole they provide a universal view of the perceptible origin of contemporary architecture.

Valerio Olgiati

Peter Zumthor: 1986-2013

The most recent monograph—the only one, actually—on Swiss architect Peter Zumthor was released in 1998. It's so desirable that used copies are being sold on Amazon for around $1,500. A forthcoming monograph from Scheidegger and Spiess may temper the desirability of that book, since it will cover Zumthor's work from 1986-2013 (the earlier one covers 1979-1997) and will be more than twice as big (800 pages versus 318). Sure, it comes with a $250 cover price and won't be released until September, but if anybody can find me a more anticipated architecture book I'd like to know about it.



Book description via Amazon:

Unquestionably one of the most influential and revered contemporary architects, Peter Zumthor has approached his work with a singular clarity of vision and a strong sense of his own philosophy, both of which have earned him the admiration of his peers and the world at large. Choosing to only take on a few projects at a time and keep his studio small, Zumthor has produced a comparatively few number of realized buildings, but they rank among the world’s most stunning: St. Benedict’s Chapel in Sumvitg, Switzerland; Therme Vals in Vals, Switzerland; Kunsthaus Bregenz in Bregenz, Austria; and the Kolumba Art Museum in Cologne, Germany number among his most famous buildings. This collection, however, explores his entire body of award-winning work from 1986 to 2012 in five volumes, including his lesser-known but nonetheless critically acclaimed works such as the Field Chapel for Brother Klaus near Mechernich, Germany, and the Steilneset. Memorial for the Victims of the Witch Trials in Vardø, Norway.

Peter Zumthor presents around forty of his projects, both realized and unrealized, through Zumthor’s own writing, and with photographs, sketches, drawings, and plans. A complete catalog of his works starting in 1979 rounds out the book. Richly illustrated and beautifully designed, this book serves as both an introduction to Zumthor’s work and philosophy for the layperson and a required addition to any architect’s library.

(Many thanks to Jim G. for the heads up!)

Pre-order your pricey Zumthor monograph here:
US: CA: UK:

Book of the Moment: Building Seagram

The importance of Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building (1958) to Manhattan, modern architecture and the 20th century city is undeniable. So the upcoming release of Phyllis Lambert's Building Seagram from Yale University Press (Spring 2013) is a highly anticipated one.


[Photo on right: Philip Johnson, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Phyllis Lambert in front of an image of the model for the Seagram building, New York, 1955. Photographer unknown. Fonds Phyllis Lambert, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. © United Press International. | photo source]

From the CCA:

Lambert was a 27-year-old artist living in Paris when her father Samuel Bronfman, founder of the Seagram distillery, asked her to take over the search for an architect to design his company’s headquarters in New York. Lambert in turn made the cogent decision to commission the pioneering modern master Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), in collaboration with Philip Johnson (1906-2005). The resulting Seagram Building, completed in 1958, is an indisputable icon of twentieth-century architecture, 38 stories of elegant bronze and glass set back from New York City’s Park Avenue. In her role as patron, and Director of Planning for the project, Lambert had singlehandedly changed the face of American urban architecture. "Building Seagram represents what has always been the focus of my practice: architecture as a major socio-economic manifestation in society," explained Lambert.

The culmination of more than a decade of research by Lambert, Building Seagram tells the story not just of this important building, but of the culture of post-WWII design, including the significant part corporate patronage played in the era’s real estate development, and of the project’s substantial role in shaping landmark legislation and zoning laws in New York City. Lambert provides an unprecedented personal history of her experience managing the project, as well as of the working relationship between van der Rohe and Johnson and Johnson’s under- recognized contributions to lighting design, and offers a detailed scholarly assessment of the design and construction process and the building’s cultural legacy.