No comments about Commodification and Spectacle in Architecture: A Harvard Design Magazine Reader (Harvard Design Magazine).

5 comments about The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping / Harvard Design School Project on the City 2.

1. no problems, I live in chile and i receipt my books in less than two months, maybe they could improve the bundle (the plastic).
   Serious.
   thats all



2. For a volume that purports to be scholarly research from Harvard University, it incorporates preciously little hard facts or empirical data from the commercial retail industry, aside from the colorful graphics, it represents, at best, an amateurish take on a global economy in the form of bumper stickers rather than any form of serious analysis.

   Mr. Koolhaas' customary "Firehose" approach to editing - massive amount of unedited images and unaccredited charts and information featuring slogans sufficiently amorphous as to allow readers to draw whatever conclusion they want. Harvard GSD (Graduate School of Design) students would tell you that the whole book is a somewhat cynical exercise for Mr. Koolhaas to use his academic assistants to produce "research" that attempted to justify intellectually what he was designing for the Prada stores in NY, LA, etc. (a "cash cow" for Koolhaas' architectural firm according to his chief assistant) But since Koolhaas is an established and bankable star, none of the participants are complaining. In the end, most of the essays managed to emphasize an approach to architecture that happened to coincide with projects by Mr. Koolhaas.

   For example, while the essay "Depato" give a reasonably detail account of the development of Japanese department stores in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, but then it focused on design features such as the "Bunkamura" or cultural village, art galleries and roof gardens that some stores had added in order to attract customers to shore up declining business. (Koolhaas advocated adding lecture hall in Prada stores but was vetoed for taking up too much valuable retail space). The essay never examined, let alone proposed solutions to, the real cause behind the decline of department store sales - the rise of discount shopping during the decade-long economic recession).

   "Captive-Airmall" amiably speculates on the pros and cons of spaces designed for efficiency and what it meant to operate in an highly impersonal environment. However, it failed to mention the real reason that gave rise to such environment - airline de-regulation that began in the United States which eventually turned airports into corporations responsible for generating their own revenues and thus jump-started the airport retail business.

   Much like a fashion product by Prada, this book is very useful if you want to brag about how intellectually curious and, at the same time, up-to-the-minute-Wallpaper-hip you are at home or the office - it's the latest design accessory for the 1990s bubble economy. It is disappointing to see that even a respectable institution such as Harvard has succumbed to the forces of the marketplace.




3. I'll start with the bad first: this book is too long, the essays are of uneven quality, and the layout is poor (if you are trying to read it, that is, and not just look at it). That being said, I think the overall product is excellent. This authors do not seek to answer questions but, instead, to raise them. Why is retail facing a crisis? How will advances in IT affect retail? What is changing about how we buy, what we buy, and why we buy?

   The authors' premise is that shopping is a living entity, one with survival on its mind. Retail, they claim, has evolved as other beings have evolved: Some advances are foreseen while others come through chance, but all advances are in response to external forces. In the case of retail, the dominant relationship is between the shop and the shopper. As the shopper changes, so must the shop evolve, write the authors.

   That this work is not a completed whole, but rather a piece where some assembly is required by the reader, is important in making this book work. The authors do not and cannot answer all their questions. The idea of "ulterior motives" - which teases at the implications of increased use of IT in retail and urban planning - is, to me, the central issue. The authors note the shift from "how does spacial design affect people" to "how does information design affect people". They note the importance of this shift for the future of shopping and present a history of retail as the vocabulary for which readers can begin to discuss these questions.

   Because the authors have taken on the task of teaching the language of retail, readers may feel as if they are back in grade school English class - slogging through page after page of seemingly useless information that is not neccessarily connected to the next bit of information. However, if you spend some time playing with this information - looking at each bit of knowledge as building blocks that can be moved about and repositioned next to other bits of knowledge to uncover new and different patterns - this book comes alive.




4. Having leafed through this book and "Great Leap Forward," I find myself bemused as to what all the fuss is about. Koolhaas is apparently oh so cool! according to a recent Newsweek. There is little that is new here unless one considers placing an escalator inside Le Corbusier's Dom-ino skeleton novel. It seems that Koolhaas and his chums have once again had great fun cutting and pasting from the past and present, to create a virtual tour through their cluttered minds of consumerist fantasies.



5. It arrived just when i was needing it. Malls, shopping, consumerism, no-spaces, junk-spaces, the artificial-scape...finnaly Venturi&Brown met Koolhaas..(as i already suggested) but, despite all these, i still find it hard to pay such a thrilling money just because they didn't take the work of selecting the material. It seems to me lately that information grows endlessly and nobody is paying care to the "old customed" thing of selecting, choosing what's really important. IF THE BOOK WERE HALF ITS SIZE IT WOULD BE WORTH. As it is not, i must blame the authors for their happy "cut and paste and get the money" editorial strategy. I'm sad to say that i had to read it all and swallow even the most unmature essays to get to this conclusion. I suggest a combined reading of it with "No Logo" to get to an ecstasyc state of annoyment and claustrophobia.

No comments about Italian Baroque and Rococo Architecture.

3 comments about Everyday Urbanism (Michigan Debates on Urbanism).

1. Everyday Urbanism draws attention to the otherwise neglected ways of promoting street-life and the informal economy, especially in the US where there is an increasing need with the fragmentation of the urban/suburban fabric and economically declining, though often socially strong and active as in the case of LA neighborhoods.
   The collection of essays range from cases in LA where it successfully occurs,innovative design ideas towards stimulating street-life, vendoring and its accessories, to sustainable informal trash recycling systems in LA neighborhoods, to careful observation methods which may inform local level urban design and planning.
   It is a unique text in terms of introducing this idea of being aware of and celebrating everyday life (especially in the western world) within the design disciplines of architecture, urban design/planning and landscape architecture.



2. An excellent introduction to the thought of urban conception as a way of life, or even better of living. Michel de Certeau and the others would love to read it.



3. Everyday Urbanism is a wonderful collection of thoughts, projects and stories about the contemporary urban life in America (more specifically Southern California). Rather than speak about grand utopian visions, Everyday Urbanism investigates specific urban conditions. Each author brings their own perspective and dimmension to this interesting and entertaining compilation.

No comments about The New Architectural Pragmatism: A Harvard Design Magazine Reader (Harvard Design Magazine).

4 comments about Modern House 2 (Modern House).

1. This book appropriately divides into 5 categories: environmental awareness, changing patterns of living, urban interaction, the rural retreat, concept houses of the future. With that, we are bombarded with ideas, many of them innovative ideas that are willing to be embraced by the architects' clients & in some instances, by the architects themselves. Some houses here blend in with their surroundings, & some stand out from the crowd, some that look & work more like a machine, some that facilitate the lifestyle of the occupants, some are meant to be poetic, & so forth, but overall, they all convey the thinkings & the personalities of the people who are willing to embrace the ideas behind the buildings. As St. Patrick of Assisi said before that stones don't build a city, but people do, & ultimately, the erection of spectacular buildings conveyed in this book is all done to serve the people, which in turn are fabricated into a bigger urban picture of where they are living in. Highly enjoyable to read & browse thru, & a well presented coffee book it is. We don't expect a lesser quality book from Phaidon, to put it simply. The book is finished by relevant chapters such as credits, further reading, index, & acknowledgments. One downside of this book, however is the usage of works of architects already covered in the first offering such as Thom Craig of Christchurch, Mathias Klotz of Chile, & others that I wouldn't remember. Then, there is the usage of small grey fonts over the white background, & in many instances, the statements are simply too vague to read.



2. This book presents a collection of houses as a range of ideas--producing a wide range of styles and designs sited around the world.



3. I think the photography of this book is its greatest strength it shows the architecture in it best form! You can get a real feel of the buildings and the surroundings. GREAT BOOK WITH GREAT ARCHITECTURE! If you liked 10 x 10 or 40 under 40 you will like this!



4. I think the photography of this book is its greatest strength it shows the architecture in it best form! You can get a real feel of the buildings and the surroundings. GREAT BOOK WITH GREAT ARCHITECTURE!

2 comments about Architecture as Signs and Systems: For a Mannerist Time (The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization).

1. It is difficult to imagine an architect more genuinely American than Robert Venturi. His Americaness consists in a horizontal vision of history, in a method that embraces case data as its system, and in an obstinate realism with regards to the punctilious registration of the material furnished by daily life . This is well summarised in one of the two slogans on the back cover: "Evolutionary Pragmatism rather than Revolutionary Ideology." Architecture as Signs and Systems can be considered as a kind of "scientific autobiography" by Venturi and Scott Brown.
   The couple from Philadelphia develops the theories contained in their preceding books in the light of their own projects, which are presented here as being demonstrative. It is not easy to distinguish the personal contributions coming from an association that has lasted longer than that of Burnham & Root. Thanks to the book's autobiographical confessions, the decisive influence that Denise Scott Brown had on her husband now emerges completely.
   A South African architect and urban planner, Scott Brown was trained in Europe. The interests they have in common for functionalism, industrial architecture from Modernism's beginnings, and the social and urban context of design are the fruits of her apprenticeship at Architectural Association in London. London was the new pulsating centre for post-war architectural culture. It was also the capital of the Modernist Architectural Movement's internal criticism, spawning the Brutalism of which Alison and Peter Smithson (and Team X in general) were primary exponents. Above all, it was Scott Brown's fascination with South African folk art incorporating Western imagery (frowned upon by purists) that prepared Scott Brown for the impurity of Las Vegas, allowing us to understand the other slogan featured on the back cover: "Serious beauty may lie in what you see and can't, at first, accept."
   Scott Brown's influence on Venturi was legible as early as 1966, with the publication of Venturi's brilliant manifesto Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, ending with a picture of a billboard-lined street. It is a known fact that Learning from Las Vegas (1972) is based more on her urban studies than his theoretic and historical research. However, Venturi's realism comes from his interest in all that is ordinary and, above all, vernacular. Without doubt, Pop Art was one of the fundamental basis for his vision of architecture as a means of communication for the multiculturalism of the present and future world. This brings him to see Times Square and certain areas of Tokyo (dominated by enormous electronic screens relentlessly bombarding pedestrians and motorists with information and advertising) as a Saint Mark's Square of our times. It is impossible to not see Ed Ruscha's Twenty-six Gasoline Stations (1962) behind today's annoying electronic panels with their giant connotative Venturian writing. Moreover, being a Realist in the USA cannot be the same as in Europe, as Ruscha so clearly stated: "I don't have any Seine River like Monet. I just have U.S. 66 between Oklahoma and Los Angeles." One of the book's theoretic centrepieces is indicated by its subtitle "for a Mannerist time".
   After all the isms (Modernism, Post-Modernism, Deconstructivism, etc.) it is time for a new Mannerism in architecture that recognises conventional order instead of original expression, and that recognises and looks for ambiguity for a new era of complexity and contradiction. If it is true that there is no clear and exhaustive definition of Mannerism, as Venturi reminds us by quoting Arnold Hauser, it is also true that Venturi's definition remains quite weak. In reality, the book does not make a fresh proposal. Venturi has written definitions of it on more than one occasion, but here the analysis suffers, possibly due to its autobiographical character and the short pamphlet-like format of its essay.
   It remains anchored at the level of slogans, counting on historical examples and several of their own projects to provide all additional specifications. This is a shame, because ever since Mannerism returned as a central theme in international artistic culture around the mid-Sixties, very little repositioning has taken place (concerning architecture) with respect to definitions like the one given by Manfredo Tafuri in Mannerist Architecture of 16th-Century Europe, which was published, incidentally, exactly in 1966: "A cultural practice able to extend its tools and means of communication, attain experimental values through the emancipation of experience, install consultation with history, and lastly, to be based on open and semantically polyvalent linguistic structures."
   More recently, Giorgio Agamben noted how Mannerism possesses an almost elective affinity with nihilism, and it is certainly no coincidence that Rem Koolhaas, "who enjoys flying a trapeze across the Olympus", described Venturi and Scott Brown's office as being part of his genealogy, despite the irreducible differences between them. Koolhaas personally interviewed the couple in his latest book Content (2004).
   In any case, Architecture as Signs and Systems has the great merit of offering a strong theoretic basis that took shape during a historical period that saw casual pragmatism prevail in architecture and the absence of structured theoretic constructions in just about all disciplines. Moreover, it has the merit of going counter current by explicitly focusing on the taboo subject of form, a theme greatly opposed by new carefree post-critical generations. Aldo Rossi, an architect that Venturi never mentions, defined the designer's task with clarity in 1966 (the same fateful year of his treatise The Architecture of the City): "I think that the first principle of a theory is the insistence on a few themes. I think that it is particularly typical of artists and architects that they focus on a theme to explore, to work on a choice issue from architecture and to keep wanting to resolve that issue."
   
   Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, in the course of their long and mostly solitary career, have carried out this task with courage and responsibility. It is especially their example that they convey in this book, as a legacy of our times.
   
   (Published on "Domus" no. 883, July/August 2005, pp. 106-107)



2. This book is a pleasure to read. The words taste almost of chocolate. It is the best book by Venturi, Scott Brown since Learning from Las Vegas. Whether you are an architect, interested in architecture, or just their ideas, you won't be disappointed.

4 comments about The Look of Architecture.

1. This book consists of three lectures given by Professor Rybczynski at the New York Public Library (lectures he admits to revising for publication based on the need to respond to challenging questions from his audience). While not as innovative in topic and scope of inquiry as his books "Home" and "Waiting for the Weekend," there is much here that Rybczynski's loyal readers will recognize and appreciate--the author's love of his subject, his deep and broad knowledge of the history of architecture, his high regard for the minutia others tend to dismiss, and his confidence in his own opinion. The three essays--"Dressing Up," "In and Out of Fashion," and "Style"--are an investigation, among other things, of archtects' reluctance to speak of their work in terms of style. "Architects don't like to talk about style," Rybczynski says in his introduction. "Ask an architect what style he works in and you are likely to be met with a pained expression, or with silence." (p. xi). The lectures explore the differences between arcitecture and other art forms (including interior design, cooking, and the rag trade). Of the distinction between style and fashion, he says, "If style is the language of architecture, fashion represents the wide--and swirling--cultural currents that shape and direct that language." (p. 51) In the end, Rybczynski observes, "A suspicion of style is a heritage of the Modern Movement, which preached against the arbitrary dictates of style and fashion, while maintaining an unspoken but rigid stylistic consistency." (p. 109) He also attributes the reluctance to speak in terms of style to archtects' fears (but I'll let you ferret out the provocative supporting quotations for yourself). The lectures are well-seasoned with aphorisms, and I found myself often lowering the book to my lap and pondering individual statements for minutes at a time as if in conversation with the author. I will leave you with just one more of these statements, "The role of details is not to complement architecture; details ARE archticture." (p. 94) All in all, I found "The Look of Architecture" to be a very enjoyable read.



2. While I finished the reading, the only thought in my mind is to read more references related to the writer's vivid-narrated lectures, as well as more books signed a name as "Witold Rybczynski".



3. Any book by Rybczynski is a delight to read and contains a wealth of information and fresh ideas. "The Look of Architecture" is no exception, and while it is not as groundbreaking as "Home," it is a carefully written analysis of Architecture that is chock-full of examples to illustrate what he's getting at (a few more pictures would be nice, though).



4. I was amazed by how involved I got in this book. For a book about buildings, I was grossly interested. Rybczynski knows his stuff when it comes to books.

1 comments about Inside Paris: Discovering the Classic Interiors of Paris (Inside...Series).

1. After falling in love with Paris, I took my mother there for her 60th birthday. So, when her 61st birthday rolled around, I bought her this book as a reminder of those wonderful days. Trouble is, I didn't want to part with it so I had to buy my own copy. It's filled with gorgeous photos of the interiors of some of Paris's most-loved buildings and several lesser-known but just as beautiful. A great gift for the Paris lover or any lover of architecture, history, and beautiful spaces.

No comments about Italian Cities and Landscapes.