What should our buildings look like? Or is their usability more important than their appearance? Paul Guyer argues that the fundamental goals of architecture first identified by the Roman architect Marcus Pollio Vitruvius - good construction, functionality, and aesthetic appeal - have remained valid despite constant changes in human activities, building materials and technologies, as well as in artistic styles and cultures. Guyer discusses philosophers and architects throughout history, including Alberti, Kant, Ruskin, Wright, and Loos, and surveys the ways in which their ideas are brought to life in buildings across the world. He also considers the works and words of contemporary architects including Annabelle Selldorf, Herzog and de Meuron, and Steven Holl, and shows that - despite changing times and fashions - good architecture continues to be something worth striving for. This new series offers short and personal perspectives by expert thinkers on topics that we all encounter in our everyday lives.

When Philip Johnson died in 2005 at the age of 98, he was still one of the most recognizable--and influential--figures on the American cultural landscape. The first recipient of the Pritzker Prize and MoMA's founding architectural curator, Johnson made his mark as one of America's leading architects with his famous Glass House in New Caanan, CT, and his controversial AT&T Building in NYC, among many others in nearly every city in the country--but his most natural role was as a consummate power broker and shaper of public opinion. Johnson introduced European modernism--the sleek, glass-and-steel architecture that now dominates our cities--to America, and mentored generations of architects, designers, and artists to follow. He defined the era of "starchitecture" with its flamboyant buildings and celebrity designers who esteemed aesthetics and style above all other concerns. But Johnson was also a man of deep paradoxes: he was a Nazi sympathizer, a designer of synagogues, an enfant terrible into his old age, a populist, and a snob. His clients ranged from the Rockefellers to televangelists to Donald Trump. Award-winning architectural critic and biographer Mark Lamster's THE MAN IN THE GLASS HOUSE lifts the veil on Johnson's controversial and endlessly contradictory life to tell the story of a charming yet deeply flawed man. A rollercoaster tale of the perils of wealth, privilege, and ambition, this book probes the dynamics of American culture that made him so powerful, and tells the story of the built environment in modern America.

Since the release of his first monograph, Vincent Van Duysen has consolidated his reputation for buildings of exceptional spatial mastery and highly refined detailing, and built a growing international following. This beautiful companion volume presents thirty of the Belgian architect's most recent works produced over the past decade, much of which has been exquisitely captured by renowned photographers Helene Binet and Francois Halard. The buildings featured from this latest period include an array of elegant residences in Europe, New York, Paris and The Hamptons, as well as larger-scale commercial and public projects. Product and furniture designs, microcosms of the architect's rigorous attention to detail, are also featured, including yacht interiors and objets decoratifs. With a foreword by close friend and Academy Award-winning actor Julianne Moore, the broader context of Van Duysen's contribution to contemporary architecture is provided by architect Nicola di Battista and architecture critic Marc Dubois. An illustrated chronology provides a complete overview of the architect's recent projects. Van Duysen has established a reputation as one of the world's most refined and artful architects. This major new publication will further cement his uncompromising commitment to creating timeless places and spaces.

The African continent contains some of the world's most vibrant culture and creativity, and yet its buildings - vernacular, colonial or contemporary - have rarely engaged the interest of Western architects. David Adjaye, the first black architect to establish a truly global reputation in his field, has found endless sources of inspiration for his designs in the rich - and chequered - heritage of Africa's teeming metropolises. His life dream was to return to the continent as an architect to document Africa's built environment. Over a long decade, he tirelessly documented these dynamic, colourful cities, photographing thousands of buildings, sites and places, and letting each building speak for itself in telling contrast to a design world obsessed with photorealistic slickness. The result was a stunning seven-volume work that has become an essential resource for all those interested in the burgeoning continent. This compact edition will make the fruits of this once-in-a-generation record available to a much wider audience. The result is one of the most original, ambitious and important architectural publications of our time, now available to everyone wishing to gain an understanding of a unique architectural heritage overlooked for too long.

This new monograph celebrates the creative accomplishments of one of the world's most influential architects, the late Cesar Pelli. The book surveys this extraordinary body of work in terms of the AIA's Gold Medalist's design, architecture, and planning, tracing Pelli's motivation as a leading designer and teacher, and the evolution of his work over the span of half a century. More than 50 projects from around the globe - museums, theaters, offices, laboratories, airports, cultural centers, civic works, master plans - are presented in rich full colour with insights from Pelli that delve into the design and construction of these landmarks from a practice that has thrived for nearly 40 years.

Over the past years, Dhaka-based architect Kashef Chowdhury has become renowned for a body of work that responds with great sensitivity to places, local circumstances, and the demands of a building's users. At the 2016 International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Chowdhury presented four recent projects his firm URBANA has realised in Bangladesh in a fascinating exhibition which he has designed with equal sensitivity and care. The labyrinth is an age-old space of intrigue, discovery and accident, which has fascinated architects throughout history. For his installation in Venice, Chowdhury challenged spatial perceptions by a simple turn: the labyrinth - which hides and blocks - is suddenly made transparent. Notwithstanding the obvious reference to Venetian glass, the labyrinth retains, or even accentuates, a sense of spatial disorientation. The installation was conceived not merely as a hyper-maze but rather as an expression of the anxiety that the artist experiences in his work due to a myriad of uncertainties. From design to construction, funding to maintenance, the part of the world where URBANA chiefly works presents itself with challenges at every turn, and it is in this milieu that an architect must operate with firm resolve. Chowdhury's Glass Labyrinth in Venice seems to explicate the notion that, although an architect has a clear vision of what he wants to do, the path to achieving that in the environment in which he operates, is laden with perplexing barriers. This new book explores and documents Kashef Chowdhury's intriguing installation in Venice with beautiful photographs by Eric Chenal and an illuminating text by Robert McCarter.

The different ways of understanding the landscape and the art of gardens by a well-known landscape architect. In the last two decades a new generation of landscape architects has definitively emerged together with a new and more aware clientele that is beginning to see the design of open spaces as an extraordinary environmental and civic resource. "Designing" the landscape in order to transform and develop the environment surrounding us: this is how the architect and landscape designer Patrizia Pozzi sees her work. Illustrated with hundreds of photographs, drawings and plans, this publication presents her recent projects divided into four sections: Energy landscape (eco-sustainability and bio-compatibility), Inhabiting nature (landscape as a source of inspiration and integration), New trends (new dynamics in approaching public space and daily life) and Nursery (sustainability and integration between architecture and open spaces), and leads the reader through an endless series of beautiful landscapes designed with care and natural understanding. What emerges is the philosophy of a person who wants to "get her hands dirty" with a project, developing it in meticulous detail and lending value to the transformation of contemporary landscape from its most poetic aspect, focussing on sustainability and the use of innovative materials. With all its different scales and variations, the landscape is conceived and constructed as an active resource for the future, an authentic and extremely powerful source of renewal for a reality urgently in need of quality and beauty in every place we inhabit.

Peter Markli has been one of the most striking protagonists of German-Swiss architecture since the founding of the movement in the early 1980s. However, his impressive buildings resist classification; they do not fit any particular scheme or style, as each structure is developed on an intensely intimate level. This results in wholly unique edifices, which provoke questions about humanity's use of architecture as a means of expressing timelessness, rigidity, and permanence. This volume presents 17 buildings erected by Markli over the past 15 years. Each is analysed thoroughly with texts, plans and images. The presented works are complemented by enlightening essays by Florian Beigel, Philip Christou, Franz Wanner and Ellis Woodman. An exciting interview with Peter Markli himself rounds off this impressive monographic collection, conducted by Elena Kossovskaja.

The Supercrit series revisits some of the most influential architectural projects of the recent past and examines their impact on the way we think and design today. Based on live studio debates between protagonists and critics, the books describe, explore and criticise these major projects.

Supercrit #4 Bernard Tschumi: Parc de la Villette examines the groundbreaking public space with art installations. You can hear the architect 's project definition, see the drawings and join in the crit. This innovative and compelling book is an invaluable resource for any architecture student.

Boris Iofan (1891 - 1976) was considered Josef Stalin's 'court architect' due to his closeness to the dictator, whose design ideas he translated into reality. His name is associated with projects such as the House on the Embankment, the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 Paris World's Fair and the Palace of the Soviets, which was never realised. In the period from 1932 to 1947, he was one of the most important, if not the most important architect of the Soviet Union. This biography, a detailed study of Iofan's creative development, is based on previously unpublished documents. It also contains never-before-published visual material, including original drawings and sketches by the architect and his collaborators: most of this comes from Iofan's archive, which is now in the collection of the Museum fur Architekturzeichnung in Berlin.

As founder of the Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius (1883-1969) is one of the icons of 20the century architecture. While his early buildings in Pomerania were still strongly marked by his teacher Peter Behrens, after an expressionistic phase focused on handicraft, he ultimately arrived at geometric abstraction. During the entire period he collaborated with other architects, founding the collective known as "The Architects Collaborative" in the US. The comprehensive monograph documents all 74 of the known buildings by Gropius that were realized, including many early works which he never publicized; but it also critically examines his unbuilt projects. The book is illustrated with new photographs by the author, historical figures, and with as new plans drawn by the author.

Manual for Urban Design Urban design is based on planning and design principles that need to meet functional demands on the one hand, but on the other hand bring the design elements together into a distinctive whole. The basic compositional principles are, for the most part, timeless. Designing Cities examines the most important design and presentation principles of urban design, using historical examples and contemporary international competition entries designed by practices including Foster + Partners, KCAP Architects & Planners, MVRDV, and OMA. At the core of the publication is the question of how the projects were designed and what methods and tools were available to the designer: such as parametric design, in which variable parameters automatically influence the design and provide a range of possible solutions. Tools for urban design Current projects and award-winning competition entries by renowned international practices A textbook for students and a practical design aid for practicing architects and planners

Therme Vals, the spa complex built in the Swiss Alps by celebrated architect Peter Zumthor, became an icon of contemporary architecture soon after its opening in 1996. Inspired by the spa's majestic surroundings, Zumthor built the structure on the sharp grade of an Alpine mountain slope with grass-topped roofs to mimic Swiss meadows, captured here in a series of sumptuous images. "Peter Zumthor Therme Vals," the only book-length study of this singular building, features the architect's own original sketches and plans for its design as well as Helene Binet's striking photographs of the structure. Architectural scholar Sigrid Hauser contributes an essay on such topics as "Artemis/Diana," "Baptism," "Mikvah," and "Spring"--drawing out the connections between the elemental nature of the spa and mythology, bathing, and purity.

Annotations by Peter Zumthor on his design concept and the building process elucidate the structure's symbiotic relationship to its natural surroundings, revealing, for example, why he insisted on using locally quarried stone. Therme Vals's scenic design elements, and Zumthor's contributions to this book, reflect the architect's commitment to the essential and his disdain for needless architectural flourishes. This lavishly illustrated volume about the spa that catapulted a remote Swiss village onto the international architecture scene will entrance all enthusiasts of contemporary design.

The third volume of the 'Quaderni' presents the reflections of the architect-professors who comprise the Faculty Board of the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture-Universita della Svizzera italiana. This is not the customary exposition by the members of the Faculty Board of the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture-Universita della Svizzera italiana, of their vision of the discipline and professional practice of architecture. The contributions embody such themes in varying degrees, but above all they present the cultural frame of reference that each architect believes to be the most significant in explaining his or her personality. The term 'atlas' in the title should therefore be understood as the set of formative lessons, technological and historical curiosities, aesthetic explorations and intellectual orientations that form the expressive canon of each architect. Text in English and Italian.

In 2011, Zurich-based architect Fawad Kazi submitted the winning proposal for the rebuilding and extension of a hospital complex in the Swiss city of St Gallen. Over a period of ten years, a number of existing structures will undergo vast rebuilding and new ones will be added, transforming a park with individual buildings into a single continuous complex. This new, eventually five-part monograph, documents this project in full detail. It highlights the significance of St Gallen's urban design as well as the specific demands on architectural design and construction and on the hospital's operations. Volume I features the project's genesis and the initial new building, a pavilion structure housing a restaurant and, in the basement, an electrical substation. Text in English and German.

Sean Godsell, an award-winning pioneer of 'Australian bush minimalism', has established himself as an influence on the global architecture scene. This survey of his residential architecture features twelve houses and dwellings across Australia, each illustrated with full-colour photography and the architect's hand-drawn plans and exploratory sketches, which illuminate how each house connects to its surrounding landscape. Featuring an essay by Godsell about the influences of Australia's particular landscapes and culture, this survey also includes an introduction by leading critic and commentator Philip Goad about the achievements of Godsell's career, and the global importance of his visionary designs. With a complete illustrated chronology.

After eight years, the new volume on the complete works of Herzog & de Meuron is published covering the years 2005 to 2007. The book presents 60 projects, which show the architects at the height of their powers. Their designs encompass the full range of architectural devices and respond to contemporary developments with a wide range of solutions - the designs refine the interaction with the respective site, with projects ranging from a small private conversion project to a studio ensemble, through to residential towers and urban design projects. For their designs, Herzog & de Meuron again develop new processes and create references to classic modernism just as to their own oeuvre. Architecture becomes a means of providing physical presence and stability in an increasingly virtual world.

The captivating tale of the plans and personalities behind one of New York City's most radical and recognizable buildings Considered the crowning achievement of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan is often called iconic. But it is in fact iconoclastic, standing in stark contrast to the surrounding metropolis and setting a new standard for the postwar art museum. Commissioned to design the building in 1943 by the museum's founding curator, Baroness Hilla von Rebay, Wright established residence in the Plaza Hotel in order to oversee the project. Over the next 17 years, Wright continuously clashed with his clients over the cost and the design, a conflict that extended to the city of New York and its cultural establishment. Against all odds, Wright held fast to his radical design concept of an inverted ziggurat and spiraling ramp, built with a continuous beam-a shape recalling the form of an hourglass. Construction was only completed in 1959, six months after Wright's death. The building's initial critical response ultimately gave way to near-universal admiration, as it came to be seen as an architectural masterpiece. This essential text, offering a behind-the-scenes story of the Guggenheim along with a careful reading of its architecture, is beautifully illustrated with more than 150 images, including plans, drawings, and rare photographs of the building under construction.

With his artistic works, the sculptor Winfried Baumann (* 1956) evokes questions of social responsibility and the perception of contemporary social forms. His subjects are highly topical both as regards content with respect to social and urban-planning visions, and also formally as they cross the borders between fine art and applied design. For over thirty years the sculptor Winfried Baumann has focused his attention in the ecological problems which are increasingly advancing to become a question of survival for civilised society. Refuse, slag from the burning of refuse, waste oil and other waste products from our consumer society are materials which he has been using since the mid-1980s for his three-dimensional works and large-scale installations. In his very extensive group of works "Cathedrals" Winfried Baumann examines, for example, waste-disposal plants for large urban spaces, with the protection and marking of nuclear contaminated sites, waste-disposal facilities for large urban spaces and intermediate urban spaces and with the subject of urban mining.

Provides indepth analysis of Eric Owen Moss' philosophical and engineered solutions to architecture and design, often representing paradigm shifts in focus The work of Eric Owen Moss Architects is about "making it new," and the aspiration to uncover new ways to think, to feel, to see, and to understand architecture and this essential concept is the departure point for Eric Owen Moss Architects. This firm's oeuvre is underscored by its unique approach to design, which is that it's convinced the world renews itself, and that architecture has the capacity to offer alternative venues as human affairs continue to be re-imagined. Showcasing highly illustrated and richly photographed works, this volume illuminates how Eric Owen Architects avoids traditional organisation strategies, standardised design solutions, and any notion of architecture as simply a repetitive style. This book delves into how the firm is fascinated both by individual buildings, and that evolving inter-relationship between building and city, and the interrogation of that urban/building exchange in a search/research of alternative design tactics, methods, and techniques that will obligate and modify both building and city. Spanning four decades, Eric Owen Moss Architects has designed a variety of award-winning buildings that continue to re-shape the discourse of international architecture. The Eric Owen Moss office works across a range of typologies and continues to educate through prolific engagement, including master planning, building designs, exhibits, lectures, publications, and teaching around the world. AUTHOR: Eric Owen Moss was honoured with the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, and has received numerous honours for his work. Moss has held teaching positions at major universities around the world and in 2006 he received the AIA|LA Educator of the Year in 2006, and the Most Admired Educator Award from the Design Futures Council in 2013. SELLING POINTS: * Provides in-depth analysis of Eric Owen Moss' philosophical and engineered solutions to architecture and design, often representing paradigm shifts in focus * Covers projects from around the world, including China, Finland, United States, Russia, Mexico and across Europe 400 col.

Elements of Architecture focuses on the fragments of the rich and complex architectural collage. Window, facade, balcony, corridor, fireplace, stair, escalator, elevator: the book seeks to excavate the micro-narratives of building detail. The result is no single history, but rather the web of origins, contaminations, similarities, and differences in architectural evolution, including the influence of technological advances, climatic adaptation, political calculation, economic contexts, regulatory requirements, and new digital opportunities. It's a guide that is long overdue-in Koolhaas's own words, "Never was a book more relevant-at a moment where architecture as we know it is changing beyond recognition." Derived, updated, and expanded from Koolhaas's exhaustive and much-lauded exhibition at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, this is an essential toolkit to understanding the fundamentals that comprise structure around the globe. Designed by Irma Boom and based on research from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the 2,600-page monograph contains essays from Rem Koolhaas, Stephan Trueby, Manfredo di Robilant, and Jeffrey Inaba; interviews with Werner Sobek and Tony Fadell (of Nest); and an exclusive photo essay by Wolfgang Tillmans. In addition to comprehensively updated texts and new images, this edition is designed and produced to visually (and physically) embody the immense scope of its subject matter: Custom split-spine binding: our printer modified their industrial binding machine to allow for the flexible, eight-centimeter thick spine Contains a new introductory chapter with forewords, table of contents, and an index, located in the middle of the book (where it naturally opens due to its unique spine) Printed on 50g Opakal paper, allowing for the ideal level of opacity needed to realize Boom's palimpsest-like design Translucent overlays and personal annotations by Koolhaas and Boom are woven in each chapter to create an alternative, faster route through the book Printed at the originally intended 100% size for full readability

Dietrich | Untertrifaller are outstanding representatives of the second generation of the New Vorarlberg Building School. Their buildings are always sensitive and, at the same time, confidently developed from the respective context; they display a spatial refinement, are formally disciplined, and feature finely nuanced materials. With a longstanding international reputation, the practice undertakes a wide spectrum of projects from its branches in Bregenz, Vienna, St. Gallen and Paris. Some of their latest works include the Omicron campus in Klaus, the Concert and Congress Center in Strasburg, and the University of Fine Arts in Nancy. This monograph presents the most important works of recent years in detail and provides a complete overview of the entire oeuvre of the architects, who are known for their efficient use of resources.

Through the work of the Italian architect, theorist and historian Paolo Portoghesi (1931-present), this book offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, showing the agency of other spheres of knowledge – history, politics and media – in the making of postmodern architectural discourse. It explores how Portoghesi’s personal “postmodern project” is based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organized in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi’s most significant architectural projects – including Casa Baldi (1959), The Mosque in Rome (1975–95) and his Strada Novissima exhibition (1980) – and publications, the book unfolds around the three main themes of history, politics and media. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, the study features previously-unpublished archival material, interviews by the authors and articles from professional and mainstream press to present Portoghesi in his multifaceted role of mediator, politician, historian and designer.

Frederick Kiesler was a committed networker and communicated regularly with the who’s who of the avant-garde. He was an important intermediary between the visionary ideas of the European Moderne movement and the up-and-coming New York art scene. About 20 contributions portray his colorful life and his multifaceted oeuvre in various contexts, and place Kiesler in a dialog with the most important artists and architects of his time. The publication on the occasion of the 20 year anniversary of the Friedrich Kiesler Foundation deals with his relationship with the Bauhaus, surrealism, and the New York School, as well as with personalities such as Richard Buckminster Fuller, Marcel Duchamp, Arshile Gorky, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, Hans Arp, Sigfried Giedion, and others.