No comments about Chora.

3 comments about Content.

1. First of all, it is very disappointed. This book is basically just hard to read. It may seem interesting at first opening it because of the layout and how pictures are organized. Although some ideas are presented in a very creative way, but really, the ideas are presented without telling the reader where the idea going to expand or how can it go further. Basically got nothing out of it after reading this book. Maybe when he made fun of Martha Steward, it was quite interesting.. but so what... what does she have to do with architecture...err yea..



2. For those used to Koolhaas' fun and games, you will enjoy pouring over his latest catalog of ideas. It has the look and feel of a thick magazine moreso than a book, packed with an astonishing range of project, op-ed pieces and cuttings from the chaotic world we live in. But, for those new to Koolhaas, you may want to check out Delirious New York or S,M,L,XL first.

   This book has a sharper political content to it but the cover is little more than a hook. There are some good articles to pour over such as "Re-Learning from Las Vegas," in which Koolhaas interviews Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown. The cover story seems to be "Violence against Architecture," in which Bill Millard offers "tales from the front lines of the war on the city." Koolhaas can't resist promoting himself, noting his Projects on the City, and re-exploring Lagos and Beijing. He also showcases the Seattle Public Library and some of the newest projects he has on the boards. There are his usual witty allusions such as "Miestakes" and "Big Vermeer," but for the most part this book seems to be a celebration of the urban chaos that has resulted in recent years, thanks in large part to globalization. Unfortunately, there isn't a very sharp focus. Most of the images are just eye candy and the articles don't have much weight to them. Still, you can't beat the price and there is plenty to look at.




3. The latest Koolhaas and the gang book (actually a paperback) is summed up in the Editor's letter on page sixteen, part of which reads "Content is a follow-up to 'SMLXL', an inventory of seven years of OMA's tireless labor. In many ways it is structured according to what its predecessor is not-dense, cheap, disposable".

   The 546 pages are a textual and visual pot-pourri of articles, mostly architecturally related with several general interest items thrown in, like the one about Martha Stewart and her views on eastern lifestyles, or 'Red Radio', the story of the Cold War fight for Africa's airwaves (no, really) and if you get frustrated trying to read some of the tiny type that inevitably gets used in this type of book you can look at a few ads that are scattered throughout the pages.

   I bought the book for its strong visual interest (it is mostly visual) and the seventy-six articles are presented in all sorts of graphic ways, from the nearly unreadable 'Junk Space' which stretches over ten pages of text in one continuous paragraph to the rather fascinating 'Yes/No' using a clever collage technique to explain the rise and fall of the global economy. The pace is unrelenting with colorful whiz-bang graphics and photos from pages one to 546.

   Perhaps the most interesting chapter is the penultimate one devoted to the work of OMA-AMO since the publication of 'SMLXL', unfortunately the huge amount of information is presented in nearly unreadable paragraphs over twenty-seven pages. To quote the Editor's Letter again "Content is, beyond all, a tribute to what are perhaps OMA-AMO's greatest virtues - its courage, its dogged, almost existential pursuit of discomfort, its commitment to engage the world by inviting itself to places where it has no authority, places where it doesn't 'belong'". I'll certainly drink to that!

No comments about Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture (Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Conference Proceedings).

5 comments about Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News.

1. The author speaks wistfully of when most people watched network news. But when the three networks news programs had that power, they abused it. Two decades ago Peter Jennings gave an interview in which he said that his job was not merely to present the news but also to interpret it.
   
   What if you don't like the way a newscaster is interpreting the news, yet many millions watch that newscaster?
   
   Nowadays nightly network news audiences have dropped to the point where it doesn't matter how a network news anchor interprets the news, because the audiences are small.
   
   The author mentions favorably how Walter Cronkite had a big impact when he announced that the US was in a quagmire in Vietnam. But that was an opinion, not news.
   
   The author is correct that the country is worse off for people not following the news. But the country is better off for the demise of those dinosaurs, the half hour network news broadcast and the weekly newsmagazine.



2. With all that is going on in the world right now, it's stunning to think how many people are out of touch with day to day news. The newspaper is now nothing more than the front page, maybe an eye-catching headline and the more importantly the horoscope and ads for groceries or cars, maybe the sports schedule or boxscore. TV news is reduced to glitz, glamour, Hollywood dirt, Washington scandal and the dog caught down a drain. At no time in world history has there been so much readily available media to the masses, sometimes unwillingly pumped into your subconscious by airports, banks and post offices on blaring televisions that have no off switch.. and this book eloquently examines why more watch less. To find out why so many have so often decided to watch or read so little news, Mindich hit the road; his journey is related as a classroom of the mind, challenging assumptions and explaining indifference. No one in the business of journalism - and lest no one be fooled, it is a business, a very profitable business for those who control it - and no one who is raising a child in this 21st century should miss a chance to learn why Americans under 40 are 'tuning out.' I heartily recommend educators who want their students to be informed about the world around them, to find a copy for their classroom.



3. I bet the author didn't even study youth surfing the web.
   If he had, he might have realized that today's youth are *highly* literate (not illiterate). They are also increasingly critical.
   
   That is precisely *why* they are abandoning Network News. They know that it can't be trusted for the really important stuff, unless they're willing to drink the swill that is "spin".
   
   The new generation does not need to be "inspired". What needs to happen is for the older generation to realize that the web surfing habits of the youth are both social and educational, in that they increase global knowledge by facilitating social interation unbound by geography.
   
   20 years ago you learned about Vietnam by reading the paper.
   Now kids just logon to MSN/ICQ/AOL, find someone living in Vietnam, and initiate a chat.
   
   Does reading the paper *truly* provide a better indicator of what daily life is like in Vietnam?



4. David Mindich's new book, "Tuned Out" is a well-researched, if short attempt to tell us something we already know...that younger people, as a rule, pay scant attention to the news. The serious news, that is. Armed with collected data Mindich plows on, like a good college professor, describing in detail how the younger generation has tuned out. Indeed, the narrative often suggests that the reader is in the author's classroom as he dissects the problems associated with the topic. This is not your easy summer (or winter) read.
   
   Anyone who has ever seen the segment on the "Tonight Show" called "Jaywalking" (where Jay Leno asks younger people on the street things about which they should know) will recognize the utter alarm many of us feel at the lack of knowledge these people being interviewed possess. Could these citizens really be THAT far removed from current events and history? They are. Mindich's book is like "Jaywalking" without the fun.
   
   The author does make some excellent points. He devotes part of a chapter to local news and how appallingly bad most of it is. He's certainly right on that score. He also raises a question in his conclusion regarding civics. He writes, "we demand a civics test of everyone who wants to become a U.S. citizen; it seems fitting to have high school students take a news/civics test, too." This is an equally good point. We test citizens-to-be and then let them loose, in a manner of speaking, never to ask anything more of them once they become citizens.
   
   I'm leery, however, of Mindich's assertion that we are in a "crisis". The lack of young people's interest in the news is growing and is disturbing but it is also an evolution which may or may not be as bad as he warns. Still, I recommend the book
   for its acknowledgement of the problems that we, who are tuned in, face with those who are not, as a society.



5. As the title of this provocative new book suggests, journalism professor David Mindich has interviewed "young people"-a group he defines widely to include not only college-age students but also members of Generation X who are in their thirties-to find what they know about the world and how they get that information, as well as how they define "news." The answers are not encouraging. But this is not just another hand-wringing exercise, and the book asks broader questions. It explores the reasons why Americans in general have come to feel less of a sense of obligation to follow current events as they are reported in journalism today. The result, as he notes, is civic disengagement as well as disengagement with news media, a loss that diminishes people's sense of national identity as well as their pool of information about national issues.
   
   Mindich contextualizes news against the backdrop of entertainment media with which it increasingly is confused, but avoids collapsing the two into a monolithic concept called "the media." Instead, he recognizes that newspapers, television news, and Internet news site have distinctive characteristics and varying impacts on and relationships with news audiences, in addition to a range of types and quality of news content. Given his own expertise in journalism history, he also provides truly useful context from the past in a sophisticated cultural discussion that draws on sources ranging from Walt Whitman to American Idol.
   
   The central question Mindich asks is important not just with regard to the state of news today; as he points out, the present "tuned-out generations . . . will lead our children and grandchildren." In a larger sense, then, this book is about the future of news and its political, social, and civic functions in American life in an entertainment age and a multimedia world.

3 comments about The New American House 4: Innovations in Residential Design and Construction (New American).

1. As with everything else from this author, it is just a collection of pretty pictures, with absolutely no detail on materials and construction techniques. There is a reason his books are so cheap.



2. The purpose of my review is to share my comments about this book so that potentail readers could have a balanced view. I also picked up this book at Borders. Fortunately, I did not have to unwrap it...
   
   There are tons of books on modern residential architecture published in recent years. And I (probably you too) have already read quite a few of them. When thinking about getting a new book on the same topic, the key questions we shall all think about are:
   
   What's new in this book? What makes this book different from those I have already read? What does this book add to my collection? What's the unique contribution? What do I learn from this book over and beyond all others?
   
   Unfortunately, this book provides weak answers to these questions. In general, the majority of the houses featured in this book are redundant, uninspiring, and boring. One exception is the SOMA house. There are not many creative ideas in these design. Moderism in architecture is not simply equal to having large glazed windows or using some industrial-flavored materials like concrete. It's a philosophy and life style. It's about innovation and exploration. Many projects selected in this book lack this underlying core. These buildings are just traditional ranch houses with a pseudo-modern apperance.
   
   From a practical standpoint, though some minimalist, bold, and avant-garde houses seem to be "unlivable", clever thinkers can always transform those "unrealistic" elements into feasible design which fits everyday living condition. That's the excitement about architecture and designing: experimentation, creation, and interpretation.
   
   For some good references, check out a book called "Stunning Houses" for high quality and livable modern residential projects. If you want some intellectual stimulation, try "Architecture Now 3" published by Taschen and "XS : Big Ideas in Small-Scale Building". You'll know what I am talking about.
   
   Despite the critiques, this book does have some strengths (also discussed by another reviewer Conan). The text is really detailed. You can also find detailed floor plans and other technical drawings. And I LOVE those beautiful pictures.
   
   In conclusion, this book is mediocre comparing with other books on the same topic. I suggest you borrow a copy from a library or just skim through it in a book store. Considering its price, it is not a wise investment.



3. I picked this book up at a local Borders bookstore. It was pretty expensive and wrapped in cellophane so you couldn't read it before buying. Well, I confess I unwrapped it while hiding behind a bookshelf because I refused to fork over ~$50 without at least browsing through a pricey and unfamiliar book.
   
   Anyway, after perusing just the first half of this substantial book, I was SOLD. I have been hunting through book after book after book for really good and useful ideas on residential contemporary home design (I have a 15 wooded acre lot I'm planning on building on soon). So many of the books I looked at lacked any real, meat and potatoes/useful detail, and/or they emphasized large commercial structures and/or they went on about these trendy, vague, completely unrealistic notions concerning design (like some guy living in a cardboard box with a toilet). Other books on "minimalism" (a stark, modernistic style) were intriguing and interesting, but really in the end...were completely unrealistic. I mean, where am I supposed to keep my "SCHTUFF???" (yeah, I know, I'm one of those shallow, bourgeois, materialistic Westerners).
   
   Other modern architecture books usually provide just a few flashy pictures and some unspecific/unclear, artsy fartsy double talk/new agey bs description of some millionaire's home in southern California. C'mon, not really useful for a Joe Blow like me who needs some real ideas and a much more fleshed out description of how these houses are designed and built.
   
   Well, this book is not like that. Don't get me wrong, it is a thick, sophisticated and richly detailed book. And although most of the homes in it are also the very expensive "millionaire homes", there are also some more modest homes included as well. Plus, and more importantly, they really devote a full dossier of technical information and a beautiful exterior and interior photographic outlay of each home (in full glorious color). And even with the expensive homes, many of the design elements can still be transcribed and adapted to a more modest home (within reason of course). They also include site plans for each home and plenty of details concerning the construction and design strategies. A decently fleshed out documentary that you can really sink your teeth into - something you can actually use to learn more about new, cutting edge designs and to stimulate thought and creative brainstorming for your own house...which is just what I was looking for!
   
   Sometimes books are wrapped in cellophane at the bookstore to prevent a potential buyer from seeing how pretentious, overpriced and overrated a book is before buying it...but this is NOT one of those books. If you want to learn more about modern residential home design, then I couldn't recommend this book more!

1 comments about Eero Saarinen: An Architecture of Multiplicity.

1. A handsome, long-overdue monograph on an architect who, between 1948 and his untimely death in 1961, created some of America's greatest icons-including Dulles Airport in Virginia, the Gateway Arch in St Louis, and the CBS tower in New York-as well as the classic Womb and Tulip chairs. Saarinen defied categorization, employing a different style for every job, and that damned him in the eyes of many critics. Some of his buildings soar-the TWA Terminal at Kennedy, now imperiled, was once a thrilling expression of the jet age-others, like Stiles and Morse College at Yale, and the US Embassy in London fall with a thud. Roman, a Bilbao-based architect, traces the evolution of key buildings with an abundance of plans and images.

No comments about The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Project.

1 comments about The Green Braid (ACSA Architectural Education).

1. THE GREEN BRAID: TOWARDS AN ARCHITECTURE OF ECOLOGY, ECONOMY AND EQUITY is a pick for any college-level arts or architectural library; It draws from over fifteen years of peer-reviewed essays and design awards published by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and provides writings that challenge and revise modern thinking on the topic. Scholarly essays come packed with design innovations, insights, and more.

No comments about Odd Jobs: Essays and Criticism.

1 comments about Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture: A View from the Drafting Room.

1. No longer a relationship with engineering as in the last two centuries but with electronics: this will be the challenge for architecture in the future. Not surprisingly it is the clever mind of Robert Venturi to state and, more importantly, to clarify this problem in his latest very insightful book, Iconography and Electronics upon a Generic Architecture. Venturi is not new to this kind of pioneering reflections: his seminal Learning from Las Vegas very profoundly analyzed another crucial topic, the role of architecture in a motorized society. This time he again manages to focus on a crucial theme going well beyond the mere assertion of the problem. The book is, in fact, a collection of recent essays, and yet it has the strength - but not the monotony - of a special study. The arguments touched are various but they are all contextualized as against a common background: that of the new digital era in architecture. Doing so, Venturi manages to approach the problem from different positions that can open unthinkable perspectives: invention and convention, the relationship between architecture and publicity, the architectural object as a part of the landscape of popular culture are just some of the many topics faced. The theme treated is a very popular one, as we all know: the way architecture, and particularly those procedures involved with its making - which we call "design" - , are affected by the digital revolution. This revolution, as Venturi notes, is causing not only a mere change in terms of tools used to design (files vs. drawings, computers vs. drawing boards etc.) but it is bringing about, more importantly, a cultural change. What has been misunderstood in the far too many writings on this topic is that the digital revolution not only is changing our tools but also our goals. And, as usually happens in these cases, this very attention on the mere instrumental changes overshadows the more important content changes. Fortunately Venturi make architects reflect on this second aspect. The so-called "virtuality" will be more a more a condition to accept, a concept to face. With its ever-increasing presence in our culture it will eventually change the way we think and, particularly, the way we think architecture. One of the most important outcomes of this fact is a difference brought about in the idea of "object", a circumstance of paramount importance for designers. The broken link with materiality has indeed introduced a conception, quite widespread, in which objects are less defined, changeable and ephemeral in a new way. This change - notoriously foreseen by Lyotard - has eventually generated a different idea of the building. The exterior part of the building is the one more involved: in fact in contemporary architecture facades are no longer thought of as fixed elements. All the elements of definition - frame, corners, moulding - have lost their role. Facades, rather than exterior faces of material objects are considered nowadays as surfaces, and particularly mutant surfaces. So writes Venturi: "Here is architecture as iconographic representation emitting electronic imagery from its surfaces day and night." Recent buildings by architects like Herzog & De Meuron, Toyo Ito, Rem Koolhaas are quite symptomatic to this respect. But we cannot forget the pioneering intuitions on "transparency" by Colin Rowe. Not surprisingly Venturi - always sensible to problems of communication performed by buildings and consequently very interested in the theme of the facade - tries to cope with these new conditions. He does so without falling in one of useless categories of pro or anti-virtuality. Instead he is preoccupied of being late in understanding the problem: "Architecture was too late in stylistically acknowledging the industrial revolution ....: let us acknowledge not too late the technology of now - of video electronics over structural engineering: let us recognize the electronic revolution of the Information Age". Venturi's reflections are always the architect's ones. In every phenomenon he is concerned primarily by problems of form and of visual impact. This special approach is particularly clear in his singling out a fundamental topic: the new kind of iconography brought about by electronics. Again Venturi's interest lays on the cultural mutation rather than on the pragmatic one. As we know electronics has introduced a new condition in all graphics - not only in those architectural: digital drawings are constituted by dots rather than by lines as in traditional "analogic" representation. Venturi make us realize that this is not a mere representational problem because this variation eventually introduces conceptual changes to the way architecture is conceived. Representational means are not neutral. Of course this is related to what Venturi theorize on the dissolution of architectural elements and especially of facades. What in the past was a choice - think of Seurat or of Byzantine mosaic - now has become a must. For Venturi the connection between decoration and its physical support - a basic theme in architecture - has to become totally free: "What S.Apollinare Nuovo does inside we can do inside and/or outside". A careful observer of popular culture, Venturi includes in his observation also elements like Light Electronic Displays, which are not a real product of digital production but are one of the most explicit representations of an iconography regulated by dots. This, of course, is not contradictory to his idea of a facade as projection surface. After all an old idea, - think of the inscriptions in S.Maria Novella by Alberti - consistently studied by Venturi and now rethought under the light of dramatically new circumstances.