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.

1 comments about Maekawa Kunio and the Emergence of Japanese Modernist Architecture.

1. The account in this book of Kunio serves as an appropriate symbol of 20th century Japanese architecture. Kunio's career spanned World War 2. He designed numerous buildings before and after the war. (Plus during the war, too.)
   
   The postwar photos show a very modernist approach, that would not have been out of place in Europe or the United States. The coverage of his projects is comprehensive. Including, naturally, his best known work, the Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall in 1957. The book gives this building extensive coverage, in both text and photos. A very clean design.
   
   Reynolds did a lot of his research for this book by going to many of Kunio's buildings. As indicated by the credits to numerous photos, taken by Reynolds.

No comments about The Judicious Eye: Architecture Against the Other Arts.

2 comments about Timeless Cities: An Architect's Reflections on Renaissance Italy (Icon Editions).

1. Mr. Mayernik transports the reader to the glorious past of Rome, Venice, Florence, Siena, and Pienza; a past in which city builders sought to make their cities into reflections of the perfect heavenly City of God; a past in which every stone, every building, every piazza was an episode of the larger urban narrative that played itself for its citizens as a great "theatre of the mind."

   Mr. Mayernik's writing allows us to view the urban mythologies of these places not as History, events frozen in by gone times and no longer capable of speaking to present generations, but as living lessons in city building; he invites his audience to learn the 'language' of these five cities so that we too can build memorable places.




2. Timeless Cities is indeed a wonderful journey, a voyage across time and ideas. The author tells a poetic, scholarly and delightful story of five Italian cities and how they became meaningful and memorable places, remaining so to this day.

   For those who have experienced the magical, transforming impact Rome, Florence, Venice, Siena and Pienza have on their visitors, David Mayernik unlocks the richly poetic ideas which are their very essence. An architect and traveler, his writing is filled with the passion of one who truly loves and understands the tradition of those great cities: the tradition of humanism.

   For all for whom life is, above all, a cherished series of discoveries and experiences, Mayernik extends a masterful invitation to explore those places which stir our souls and which demonstrate the highest fulfillment of our collective potential for cultural and artistic achievement. He then challenges us to again seek to create cities "through which dance the Muses", cities which are "built Ideas suffused with cultural Memory". Accept his gracious invitation. It is a journey you will treasure.

1 comments about On Tour with Renzo Piano.

1. This small album at only 6.5 x 6.5 inches (16.5 x 16.5 cm) contains almost exclusively photos, but good ones. After book's Introduction, each of 22 main Piano's project is headed by a title page with a very simple, hand drawn sketch or two, followed by a page of text, and only full page or double page photos thereafter. At the end of book, there are a few pages with office personnel list, project credits, selected bibliography, prizes, etc., and small B&W photos of coworkers. This is a non-technical book without plans, sections, etc.

No comments about Yale in New Haven: Architecture and Urbanism.

No comments about Transportable Environments: Theory, Context, Design & Technology.

2 comments about Ando, Architect.

1. The book is divided into two parts. The first details the author's 20-year relationship with Ando providing insights into the architect's views on life and creative process. The second half takes a detached look at Ando's 20 works from the Shitamachi Karaza mobile theater to the Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum. All buildings are decently illustrated in black-and-white with approx. 120 photos, plans, and renderings. Ando's initial intentions, meditations at the time of creation, and personal philosophy are closely examined.
   CONTENTS:
   POUNDING THE SANDBAG 7
   I. Twenty-Year Acquaintance Revisited 13
   *AFFINITY FOR CRAFTSMANSHIP: TO TREVISO, ITALY 14
   No Ordinary Client 16
   Villa of Dreams 19
   History and Contemporaneity Enhanced 23
   *AN ENTHUSIASM FOR CREATION: TO HIMEJI 27
   The Architect au Naturel 33
   Man of Principle 36
   *TRANSMIGRATION OF FORMS: TO ROKKO, BY WAY OF JODOJI, AND TO AWAJI 40
   Recollections of Rokko 44
   The Lotus Temple on Awaji 55
   *BLACK PHANTOM THEATER: TO IKEBUKURO, SHINJUKU, AND ASAKUSA 63
   The Alchemy of Artists 67
   Harvest of Discord 73
   *THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE: FROM TEMPOZAN TO KOBE 75
   Destruction of Memory's Landscape 81
   A City Regreened 89
   II. Ando in Current Perspective: Twenty Works 93
   *CONTEXT 94
   Raika Group Headquarters Building 96
   Children's Museum, Hyogo 104
   Garden of Fine Arts 110
   Osaka Prefectural Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum 113
   Rokko Housing 122
   *SPACE 127
   Church of the Light 129
   Times 135
   Izutsu House 142
   Koshino House 145
   Row House Sumiyoshi 153
   *HISTORY 157
   Benetton's Fabnca 159
   Oyamazaki Museum 162
   The Honpukuji WaterTemple 167
   Shitamachi Karaza 174
   Inamori Hall, Kagoshima University 178
   *CITY 182
   SuntoryMuseum 184
   Step 189
   Rose Garden 197
   Rin's Gallery 201
   Collezione 205
   EPILOGUE: RETURN TO ROW HOUSE SUMIYOSHI 213
   SOLO 220
   A NOTE ON THE PHOTOGRAPHS 224



2. It is interesing to have one book about Ando, made by Japanese writer... Knowing that Ando can't speak english, it is difficult for foreigner to really get in contact and understand him. It is a real book to understand Andofrom then to know. Speaking about eartquake in Kobe or project from the Row house in Sumiyoshi to the future famous museum of Fort Worth, Matsuba help us to follow the full evolution of Ando in his architecture.

No comments about Joel Sanders.

No comments about The Air is Blue.