Saturday, August 14, 2010

Book #025 - The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

Review
"Excellent text for architectural theory and design--a must for design students."--Brad Grant, California Polytechnic State University
Product Description
This volume provides the opening work in Christopher Alexander's seminal trilogy on architecture (continued in A Pattern Language and The Oregon Experiment). Here he provides a fascinating introduction to the ideas behind the succeeding two books.

Book #024 - Conversations with Mies van der Rohe by Moisés Puente

It has been said that modernist legend Mies van der Rohe's thirty years spent working in America reflected his most consistent and mature efforts toward achieving his goal of a new architecture for the twentieth century. Focusing on this American period, Conversations with Mies van der Rohe, the latest addition to our Conversations series, gives fresh credence to this claim by presenting the architect's most important design concerns in his own words. In this collection of interviews Mies talks freely about his relationship with clients, the common language he aimed for in his architectural projects, the influences on his work, and the synthesis of architecture and technology that he advanced in his designs and built works.

Conversations with Mies van der Rohe makes an important contribution to the corpus of Mies scholarship. It presents a vivid picture of a master of modernism, bringing his artistic biography to a close while completing the scope of his style in terms of techniques, scale, use of materials, and typology. An essay by Iñaki Ábalos provides a context for these interviews and looks at Mies's legacy from a contemporary perspective.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Book #023 - Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect



Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008)


Rem Koolhaas (Actor), Markus Heidingsfelder;Min Tesch (Director) | Rated: NR | Format: DVD








Rarely has an architect caused as much sensation outside of the architecture community as Rem Koolhaas. His outstanding creations—such as the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, the Seattle Library and the Casa da Musica concert hall in Porto—are working examples of the Dutchman’s visionary theories about architecture and urban society. But Koolhaas’ work is as much about ideas as it is about constructing buildings; he is equally celebrated as a writer and social commentator. For Koolhaas, what is essential is not to create individual masterpieces, but to provoke and excite through the wide range of his activities.

REM KOOLHAAS: A KIND OF ARCHITECT is an engaging portrait of a visionary man that takes us to the heart of his ideas. Directors Markus Heidingsfelder and Min Tesch have made a visually inventive, thought-provoking portrait of the architect, prompting Rem Koolhaas to state, “It’s the only film about me that I have liked.”

DVD Features

Interview with Rem Koolhaas; Casa de Musica Aerial View

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Book #022 - Rem Koolhaas: Conversations with Students

Award-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas is the founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and has become one of the most intriguing and exciting architectural thinkers of our time. This small-scale, affordable paperback presents a selection of texts from a seminar series conducted by Koolhaas, as well as an essay by the architect discussing three of OMA's large-scale projects. Addressing questions of urbanism and architecture in Europe, Asia, and the United States, these texts ultimately illuminate in a concise manner OMA's long-term mission and ideals.

Book #021 - Louis Kahn: Conversations with Students

Louis Kahn (1901-74) is one of the most renowned practitioners of international modernism, on a par with Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe in the extent of his influence on subsequent generations of architects. Kahn sought the spiritual in his powerful forms, and encouraged his students to seek the essential nature of architecture. His Philadelphia-based practice was responsible for such masterpieces as the Richards Medical Research building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Yale Art Gallery extension in New Haven, Connecticut; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas; the government complex at Dhaka, Bangladesh; and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.
This title, in the same format as our highly successful Rem Koolhaas: Conversations with Students, contains a little-known essay by Kahn on his sources of inspiration, an interview with the architect on his working methods and his vision for the future of the profession, and writings on Kahn by Michael Bell and Lars Lerup, contributors to our title Stanley Saitowitz.
Louis Kahn: Conversations with Students is the latest title in the series from the Rice University School of Architecture.

Book #020 - Le Corbusier Talks with Students

First published in France in 1943 and translated for English-speaking readers in 1961, Le Corbusier Talks with Students presents advice and commentary from the master of modernism for young architects-to-be. In chapters ranging from 'Disorder' to 'The Construction of Dwellings' to 'A Research Workshop,' Le Corbusier discusses his views on architectural history and offers opinions on the future of the profession, while touching on his own projects for the Villa Savoye, the Cite Universitaire, and the Radiant City. Topics such as architecture's role in our directionless society; the balance between spiritual values and technical factors; and the importance of space, proportion, and color are explored by this renowned architect, and still resonate today, almost 50 years later. Our reprint of this classic text is a facsimile of the 1961 edition, now available as an affordable paperback. Similar titles from Princeton Architectural Press include Louis Kahn: Conversations with Students and Rem Koolhaas: Conversations with Students.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Book #019 - Le Corbusier's Hands by André Wogenscky

An assistant to and friend of Le Corbusier, Wogenscky portrays the modernist architect, designer and writer in 50 short chapters in this slender volume, an emotional and poetic accompaniment to traditional biographies.

Eschewing biographical facts and reproductions of Le Corbusier's work, Wogenscky offers a more intimate look at Le Corbusier: detailed images of the wrinkles in his hands, a memory of his mother playing Händel on the piano and the guiding ideology behind his influential design principle for Unités d'Habitation, the urban housing units he designed.

Using enigmatic and often contradictory quotations and anecdotes from Le Corbusier's letters and work, Wogenscky gives a balanced, airy view of the architect. Quotations from writers and thinkers like Rilke, Montaigne and Lao-tzu (identified only in the notes in the back) add depth, but the lack of attribution may make it difficult for readers to differentiate between contributions from outside sources and Le Corbusier's own words. A singular complement to Le Corbusier's work, this book is also an inspiring depiction of an artist.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Book #018 - Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi

First published in 1966, and since translated into 16 languages, this remarkable book has become an essential document in architectural literature. As Venturi's "gentle manifesto for a nonstraightforward architecture," Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern rebellion against the purism of modernism. Three hundred and fifty architectural photographs serve as historical comparisons and illuminate the author's ideas on creating and experiencing architecture. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture was the winner of the Classic Book Award at the AIA's Seventh Annual International Architecture Book Awards.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Book #017 - Objectified: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit

Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.





Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?

Objectified had its world premiere at the SxSW Film Festival in March 2009, and is currently screening at film festivals, cinemas, and special events worldwide. The film will be available as a DVD and download soon. Join our mailing list or subscribe to our RSS feed to stay informed of new announcements.

Featuring
Paola Antonelli (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
Chris Bangle (BMW Group, Munich)
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec (Paris)
Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis)
Tim Brown (IDEO)
Anthony Dunne (London)
Dan Formosa (Smart Design)
Naoto Fukasawa (Tokyo)
Jonathan Ive (Apple, California)
Hella Jongerius (Rotterdam)
David Kelley (IDEO)
Bill Moggridge (IDEO)
Marc Newson (London/Paris)
Fiona Raby (London)
Dieter Rams (Kronberg, Germany)
Karim Rashid (New York)
Alice Rawsthorn (International Herald Tribune)
Davin Stowell (Smart Design)
Jane Fulton Suri (IDEO)
Rob Walker (New York Times Magazine)
and more participants TBA

Credits

Produced and Directed by
Gary Hustwit

Editor
Joe Beshenkovsky

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

GCBC #016 Ways of Seeing written byJohn Berger


" Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.

" But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding wold; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The realation between what we see and what know is never settled." John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential boos on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic commented: " This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by connecting on how we look at paintings... he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has

Ways Of Seeing