Sunday, March 19

HOUSES Some mostly recent books on houses, some posh, some not. The Green House Authors Alanna Stang and Christopher Hawthorne argue that green design is not just ecologically responsible but also high style— "camera ready." They make a good case, using projects like Georg Driendl's Solar Tube, in Vienna, Brian MacKay-Lyons's Howard House, in Nova Scotia, and Lahz Nimmo's Casuarina Beach House, in northern New South Wales. Prefab Modern A well illustrated and gracefully written survey by Jill Herbers showcasing some designers who are making prefab both affordable and stylish. Besides the projects listed elsewhere on this site, these include Adam Kalkin, Jennifer Siegal, Michelle Kaufmann, and Resolution: 4 Architecture The Very Small Home The subtitle says it: "Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Limited Space." Author Azby Brown has compiled a collection of houses most of which are so diminutive they'd fit into the master bath of a McMansion. These include Tadao Ando's austere 4 x 4 House, just 243 s.f., and Architecture Lab's White Box House, a comparatively roomy 559 s.f. David Adjaye Houses A handsome monograph featuring a dozen of the houses that have made Adjaye a rising star of London architecture. These include Elektra House and Dirty House, plus the residences he's designed for Ewan McGregor and Chris Ofili. posted by nancylevinson @ 3:14 pm | Permanent link

Tuesday, June 28

DESIGNERS A few books published in the past decade, on designers famous and not so famous. Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the 20th Century, by Pat Kirkham The indispensable Eames book, a joint biography of Charles and Ray and a smart critique of their prodigious output, from the buildings and objects to the films and exhibits. Kirkham is especially good on the contributions of Ray, which were too often, she notes, “hidden from history.” Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World, by Glenn Adamson By the end of the book — the catalogue for a show at the Milwaukee Art Museum — the nervy subtitle is convincing. Born and raised in the Midwest, Brooks Stevens designed graphics for Miller Brewing, outboard motors for Evinrude, cars for Studebaker, motorcycles for Harley Davidson, and bicycles for Roadmaster, not to mention stylish steam irons, toasters, mixers, and fridges. The author's goal is to spotlight this highly productive and yet underappreciated designer. Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism, by Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Nolf A well-illustrated biography of another successful but often overlooked American innovator; from the 1930s to the ‘50s, McCardell created what retailers came to call the “American Look” — easy but stylish clothes for the sportif modern woman. Eileen Gray, by Caroline Constant This artistic biography focuses not just on Gray's celebrated furnishings — the lacquered screens, patterned rugs, etc. — but on her lesser known buildings — what the author calls the "nonheroic" modernist houses Gray designed in the interwar years. The shy and well-bred Gray understood that she never received the acclaim of her male peers. "I was not a pusher and maybe that's the reason I did not get the place I should have had," she said, "but then everybody was so busy promoting their own work." Plus ça change . . . posted by nancylevinson @ 3:42 pm | Permanent link

Friday, December 10

LANDSCAPE Some of the most subtle and sophisticated contemporary design is being produced by landscape architects. Here's a diverse selection of books on an underappreciated art. The History of Garden Design, edited by Monique Mosser and Georges Teyssot This copiously illustrated scholarly survey covers a lot of ground, from Renaissance villas to postwar playgrounds. The Artificial Landscape, edited by Hans Ibelings The Netherlands might just be the most design-conscious country on earth; these contemporary projects begin to suggest why. Taking Measures Across the American Landscape, text by James Corner and photographs by Alex MacLean The heart of this book is the extended photo essay by MacLean, whose aerial views of the continental U.S. are both beautiful and disturbing. Inside Outside, by Anita Berrizbeitia and Linda Pollak With its thoughtful mix of projects from Europe and North America, this well-illustrated study shows how landscapes and buildings can work together. Mississippi Floods, by Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha In response to periodic and predictable floods, should you try to control the big river or remove settlement from the floodplain? After the floods of '93, two young designers set out to explore this question. The Miller Garden, by Gary R. Hilderbrand Designed in the mid-'50s by Daniel Urban Kiley, the Miller Garden, in Columbus, Indiana, is perhaps the most famous modernist garden in America; this lovely monograph examines its influences, construction, and history. posted by mclennan @ 9:32 pm | Permanent link

Friday, September 17

Theory + Criticism In recent years many volumes have been added to the theory and criticism bookshelf. Here are a few — new-ish and not so new — that offer smart and wide-ranging, and sometimes personal and impassioned, views of architecture. Some Assembly Required, by Michael Sorkin The latest collection of articles by one of the field's liveliest critics, who here looks hard at a lot of buildings — instant icons like the Guggenheim Bilbao and curiosities like the Biosphere — and places — urban theme parks like the gentrified Times Square and sanitized Las Vegas. The result is a sharp-edged portrait of turn-of-the-millennium architecture culture. Labor, Work and Architecture, by Kenneth Frampton A career-spanning anthology from an eminent historian and critic whose writings are both erudite and idealistic. Here Frampton ranges over much of the twentieth century, and he offers as well a sobering assessment of the predicament of contemporary architecture. A Critic Writes, by Reyner Banham The late British historian Reyner Banham was endlessly ecumenical in his interests, which included high architecture, environmental infrastructure, industrial objects, gadget and gizmos . . . artifacts of all kinds and at all scales, from Gothic cathedrals to geodesic domes, from airplane hangars to Airstream trailers. This selection of short pieces shows that the scholar was a terrific journalist. Delirious New York, by Rem Koolhaas Koolhaas's "retrospective manifesto" on the rise of Manhattan and its "culture of congestion" was — amazingly — published more than a quarter century ago. Delirious was the first — and is still easily the best — book by the field's most indefatigable provocateur. Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, by Kate Nesbitt An anthology that follows the dizzying currents of architectural theory from the mid-Sixties through the mid-Nineties; most of the major themes are represented, including semiotics, poststructuralism, postmodernism, phenomenology, feminism, gender, etc. Theory is no longer on the rise, and lately more than a few observers have — with more than a little relief — declared it dead. Collections like Nesbitt's help us to assess whether the obituaries were premature. posted by nancylevinson @ 2:39 pm | Permanent link