No comments about Measuring Landscapes: A Planner's Handbook.

No comments about Urban Design.

No comments about Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings.

No comments about The Global Architect.

No comments about Heat Islands: Understanding and Mitigating Heat in Urban Areas.

5 comments about Breathing Cities: the Architecture of Movement.

1. Although it's not consistently successful, this book contains many thought-provoking essays and photographic studies, all of which acknowledge the growing interest in the way cities work. It's a confusing book because it mixes ideas from artists, architects, philosophers and geographers, so the changes of pace are often hard to take. Many of the artists make work which is rather allusive and oblique, although I found nearly all of the art projects fascinating. Overall it's one of the better, and more accessible introductions to ideas which have been developed by philosophers such as Paul Virilio and Gilles Deleuze. If you want to know what they are about, read this book first.



2. Anyone choosing this book on the basis of the title will be disappointed, since it has nothing to do with architecture and nothing to do with transportation. Instead, this book consists of 22 collections of photographs, all of which take unorthodox approaches to photography in urban settings. We have such things as photos of the pattern of pipes on the ceilings of Paris subway stations, an artificial mountain in the Netherlands made of garbage, snapshots someone found laying in the street, fictitious typed letters between a photographer and some imaginary character, street markings that have been spray-painted by municipal workers, and so on. Despite the editor's introductory essay, I'm mystified as to why this book exists.



3. Anyone choosing this book on the basis of the title will be disappointed, since it has nothing to do with architecture and nothing to do with transportation. Instead, this book consists of 22 collections of photographs, all of which take unorthodox approaches to photography in urban settings. We have such things as photos of the pattern of pipes on the ceilings of Paris subway stations, an artificial mountain in the Netherlands made of garbage, snapshots someone found laying in the street, fictitious typed letters between a photographer and some imaginary character, street markings that have been spray-painted by municipal workers, and so on. Despite the editor's introductory essay, I'm mystified as to why this book exists.



4. In Breathing Cities, projects from various disciplines are presented which closely examine the nature of urban flux. The British architect, Richard Rogers, remarks on the topic that "the buildings of the future will be less immobile than the temple of the past and more like moving, thinking, organic robots." Archigram as well also remarked once that "When it rains in Oxford Street, the architecture is no more significant than the rain." The work of various architects and artists is compiled under the headings "People","Goods", "Geography", "Information" and "Ideologies". The photographers Martyn Rose und Takashi Homma and the artists Langlands & Bell und Nathan Coley use the examples of London, Berlin and Tokyo to present their approach to "breathing cities". The architectural group "Foreign Office", the architect Zaha Hadid, the architectural historian Mark Cousins and the philosopher Simon Glendinning as well as other contributors reflect on the phenomenon of architecture in movement, each from their own particular point of view. In this highly valuable book, it is not the lifeless 'nice' side of the city which is focused on but the city as a living organ with all its "processes of digestion and excretion."

   Read more in a-matter.




5. In Breathing Cities, projects from various disciplines are presented which closely examine the nature of urban flux. The British architect, Richard Rogers, remarks on the topic that "the buildings of the future will be less immobile than the temple of the past and more like moving, thinking, organic robots." Archigram as well also remarked once that "When it rains in Oxford Street, the architecture is no more significant than the rain." The work of various architects and artists is compiled under the headings "People","Goods", "Geography", "Information" and "Ideologies". The photographers Martyn Rose und Takashi Homma and the artists Langlands & Bell und Nathan Coley use the examples of London, Berlin and Tokyo to present their approach to "breathing cities". The architectural group "Foreign Office", the architect Zaha Hadid, the architectural historian Mark Cousins and the philosopher Simon Glendinning as well as other contributors reflect on the phenomenon of architecture in movement, each from their own particular point of view. In this highly valuable book, it is not the lifeless 'nice' side of the city which is focused on but the city as a living organ with all its "processes of digestion and excretion."

   Read more in a-matter.

No comments about Fun! Leisure and the Landscape.

1 comments about Design and Landscape for People: New Approaches to Renewal.

1. This book was a disappointment for me. As one who has appreciated Small Is Beautiful, 25th Anniversary Edition: Economics As If People Mattered: 25 Years Later . . . With Commentaries and Human Scale I was not expecting so much fine print and examples, even through grouped into the following five categories, struck me as kludgy:
   
   Utility
   Citizenship
   Rural
   Identity
   Urban
   
   My notes:
   
   + Imagination alone can work miracles in the absence of resources.
   
   + Worlds of planning, commerce, culture, technology, and politics are disconnected BUT the authors see a massive shift emergent toward participatory culture. I am reminded of Paul Hawkin's Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World and Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace.
   
   + There are a lot of buzzwords among the fine print, such as creative engagement, adaptive transformation, etcetera. This is where I begin to think this has crossed the line toward kludge.
   
   + I am *very* impressed with the small section that focuses on children play power, connecting a merry-go-round to pump water to a gravity storage container.
   
   + Page 17: What many of these strategies shared was the principle of putting information clearly in the public domain and drawing togetyher a debate between a public, political and professional audience to unlock different perspectives and produce different solutions. I am reminded of Jim Rough's brilliant work Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
   
   + Art in public spaces inspires new forms of social networks. Rivers can have "Save My River Chapters" all along its path, I am reminded of the Salmon Nation the future-oriented denizens of Eco-topia have put into place.
   
   The book does downhill from there, in part because the small print is annoying, in part because while the photos are truly beautiful, this book does not convey what the Germans call "the feeling in the fingertips."
   
   I am however very impressed toward the end when the book talks about OASIS (Open Accessible Space Information System) and the discussion the authors offer of how training children and citizens to map their neighborhoods at the sapling level in unleashing enormous stores of energy. I am especially impressed by a map on page 158 that shows "Desireable Places to Plant a Tree." THIS IS PERFECT. Now imagine a Global Range of Gifts table at the sapling and ceramic refrigerator level for the whole planet, so the 80% of the individuals that do not do planned giving can give a sapling or a cell phone or a month's worth of medicine. I this coming and pray it will arrive sooner.
   
   The book re-engaged me at the end where there is a superb discussion of how we should plan neighborhoods with running water so that the poor can upgrade as they improve their condition, rather than vacating. Grow wealth locally.
   
   This book is offered at a very fair price and on that basis am taking it up to four stars instead of three. If you love this topic, this is book by two people who care, offered by a publisher who has the integrity to price it affordably.
   
   I read this book with A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World and The Porto Alegre Alternative: Direct Democracy in Action (IIRE (International Institute for Resear) and in a fascinating way all three hung together--Civilization of Love ends by pointing out that the future Church is going to comprised of young urban poor; and the Porto Alegre book, an edited work, ends compellingly by saying that we should not have to choose between statism and the market, it is possible to put everyone's eyes on the whole of the budget, and dramatically redirect how our tax dollars are spent. I agree, but not in 2008. That just became another lost epoch. See my review of Obama - The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate and of course Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It.
   
   With my last remaining link, I recommend All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents).

No comments about An Organic Architecture: The Architecture of Democracy.

2 comments about New Architecture Berlin 1990-2000.

1. Informative and comprehensive overview of a remarkable urbanistic/architectural restructuring of the most cosmopolitan Germanic city. One naturally tries to find a common denominator for this tremendeous creative undertaking but I find it striking that so many of these buildings actually represent the continuation of the European architectural modernism. The Modernism (or neo-modernism) taking a center stage once again to cap off the Century?



2. Berlin is a city that is in transformation. A city returning from division to greatness. While in Berlin, I was amazed at the rapid rate at which this city is transforming itself.

   So much of former East Berlin has been resurrected from the communist architecture that plagued it for several decades. Freidrichstrasse is rebuild, there are gleaming office buildings around the former Checkpoint Charlie, The post 1989 noman's land that consumed the Brandenburg Gate and Pariser Platz is now full of live and buildings again, and the huge wasteland of Potsdammer Platz is now packet with stunning, altermodern buildings- including the magnficant Sony Center- a true architecture masterpiece.

   This book chronicals the changes Berlin has undergone, and as chronicals many of the changes that are still in the works. With the exception of Alexander Platz (which renovation plans for just were approved recently).

   Through wonderful pictures, models, and illustrations this book shows you the new Berlin.... and it also has wonderful descriptions for every building as well as location and what U or S line to take.

   A great book showing the new Berlin. Beautifully done.