Living with Architecture as Art


Book Description

This stunning two-volume publication introduces readers to one of the largest private collections of architectural drawings in the world. Showcasing drawings and related models and artefacts dating from 1691 to the mid 20th century, this lavish tome includes both a catalogue and new texts by leading authorities and provides a fascinating look at these often very beautiful by-products of architectural training and practice. One of the largest private collections of architectural drawings in the world has been assembled over 30 years by investor and philanthropist Peter May. Comprising more than 600 sheets that have all been carefully preserved and handsomely framed, the drawings and related models and artefacts date from 1691 to the mid 20th century. This handsome two-volume publication will introduce amateurs and specialists alike to the largely unknown collection. The book includes a catalogue and innovative texts by leading authorities that present the raison-d'être for the production and preservation of these sometimes neglected by-products of architectural training and practice that have been collected off-and-on through history by individuals and institutions. The architectural sheets acquired for the collection are principally 19th- or early 20th-century competition or certification drawings by design students. Others are presentation drawings for public commissions, reconstruction studies or interior designs. The catalogue is arranged by category, to demonstrate May's inclination towards specific building types such as commercial or cultural institutions, train stations and spas, landmarks and monuments, private and royal residences, and cast-iron architecture. Also included is a category for landscape designs and garden architecture, reflecting May's experience as a gentleman farmer with a predilection for building.Peter May informs the reader about his history as a collector and builder. Maureen Cassidy-Geiger discusses the formation of the collection and with Basile Baudez introduces the French system of architectural education, from which some of the finest drawings come. Charles Hind offers a history of design training in Britain and writes about patterns of collecting and the market for architectural drawings. Matthew Wells's subject is the history of architectural models.




Living Architecture


Book Description

Elegantly written and filled with lush, full-color photos, this is the first in-depth portrait of H.H. Richardson, the greatest American architect of the 19th century and a man whose magnetic, colorful personality was equal to his genius. 150 photos, 100 in full color.




Haute Couture Architecture


Book Description

Haute Couture Architecture: The Art of Living Without Walls by Anneke van Waesberghe is so much more than a book about tented green building architecture. The book is part design manifesto, part personal diary, and part manual for future sustainable living. One in which rampant consumerism has been replaced by a more thoughtful design from the excesses of modern times to a new state of being for living sustainably and in harmony with the rhythms of the planet. It is the tale of one woman's odyssey living alone in the jungle finding true meaning in life and manifesting its beauty into a way of sustainable living that may set a blueprint for our future existence on Earth. The author leads readers to encounter a new paradigm by showing the luxury of simplicity and the beauty of small things. With our consumer way of living and doing things and how the world is evolving, the pace we follow as consumers rather than humans has become outdated and is not the way to go forward. We cannot solve new problems that follow our destructive actions; we have to shift our thinking from Me to We. Haute Couture architecture respects artisans, hand-made goods, self-sufficiency, and caring for nature. Being close to nature is a lifestyle of forward-thinking outside the box and is a natural means to discovering ourselves. Ultimately Haute Couture Architecture: The Art of Living Without Walls bridges the gap between nature and architecture.




Design to Live


Book Description

The power of design to create a life worth living even in a refugee camp: designs, inventions, and artworks from the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan. This book shows how, even in the most difficult conditions--forced displacement, trauma, and struggle--design can help create a life worth living. Design to Live documents designs, inventions, and artworks created by Syrian refugees living in the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan. Through these ingenious and creative innovations--including the vertical garden, an arrangement necessitated by regulations that forbid planting in the ground; a front hall, fashioned to protect privacy; a baby swing made from recycled desks; and a chess set carved from a broomstick--refugees defy the material scarcity, unforgiving desert climate, and cultural isolation of the camp. Written in close collaboration with the residents of the camp, with text in both English and Arabic, Design to Live, reflects two perspectives on the camp: people living and working in Azraq and designers reflecting on humanitarian architecture within the broader field of socially engaged art and design. Architectural drawings, illustrations, photographs, narratives, and stories offer vivid testimony to the imaginative and artful ways that residents alter and reconstruct the standardized humanitarian design of the camp--and provide models that can be replicated elsewhere. The book is the product of a three-year project undertaken by MIT Future Heritage Lab, researchers and students with Syrian refugees at the Azraq Refugee Camp, CARE, Jordan, and the German-Jordanian University. Copublication with Future Heritage Lab, MIT







Together by Design


Book Description

A growing area in the sharing economy, intentional communities (co-living, communal living, and cohousing projects) are explored in this timely survey via architecture, public policy, sociology, and sustainability. In recent years, the Atlantic, Forbes, Time, and Curbed have reported on the growth of intentional communities--collective housing alternatives that initially gained popularity in the United States in the early 1990s and originated in Denmark in the 1960s. Featuring fifteen to twenty contemporary projects that address the challenges and benefits of shared resources and spaces, Intentional Communities addresses a growing population: according to the Pew Research Center, nearly one in three adults in the United States lives in a shared household. From Copenhagen to Washington, DC, this survey covers architecture, public policy, design, lifestyle, culture, and environmental sustainability.




Living Architecture


Book Description

When architects venture from commercial commissions to home design, there is a freedom to take more risks, often resulting in their stylistic and philosophic visions to be most fully realized. Here, former House & Garden editor-in-chief Dominique Browning presents a stunning selection of America's most innovative and iconic houses of the 20th century, as crafted by these risk-takers and envelope-pushers. When forward-thinking art collectors John and Dominique de Menil needed a new home in the 1940s, they took a chance on a then-unknown architect named Philip Johnson. While initially a controversial structure for its minimalist, International Style, the home Johnson built for them near Houston has since become one of the country's most cherished cultural icons. In more than 130 illustrations, Browning highlights architecture's best in a range of styles and eras--from James Deering's Vizcaya, his 1916 Italian Renaissance-inspired villa in Miami, to postwar marvels by Bauhaus practitioners Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Farnsworth House) and Marcel Breuer (Hooper House II), to more recent constructions, such as Marwan Al-Sayed's mirage-like House of Earth and Light in the Southwest desert. Featuring works that blur the lines between dwellings and art, Living Architecture is an excellent visual guide of cutting-edge architecture for both industry professionals and design lovers of all kinds. ILLUSTRATIONS 166 images




Places of the Soul


Book Description

Revised to incorporate the changes in opinions and attitudes since its first publication, the second edition of 'Places of the Soul' has brought Christopher Day's classic text into the 21st century. This new edition of the seminal text reminds us that true sustainable design does not simply mean energy efficient building. Sustainable buildings must provide for the 'soul'. For Christopher Day architecture is not just about a building's appearance, but how the building is experienced. 'Places of the Soul' presents buildings as environment, intrinsic to their surroundings, and offers design principles that will open the eyes of the architecture student and professional alike, presenting ideas quite different to the orthodoxy of modern architectural education. Christopher Day's experience as an architect, self-builder, professor and sculptor have all added to the development of his ideas that encompass issues of economic and social sustainability, commercial pressures and consensus design. This book presents these ideas and outlines universal principles that will be of interest and value to architects, builders, planners and developers alike.







Mickey Muenning


Book Description

This is the first monograph featuring the work of architect Mickey Muennig. Muennig is an important proponent of organic architecture, creating highly individualized structures and spaces that express the dreams and needs of his clients, while complementing the natural environment. He has designed buildings, most notably in the Big Sur area of California’s Central Coast, that blend with their surroundings, incorporate passive energy features, and utilize natural materials in original ways. Maintaining a daring balance between past and future, Muennig’s unique work captures the iconoclastic spirit of Big Sur. Mickey Muennig studied architecture under Bruce Goff at the University of Oklahoma. Upon graduating, he worked on various architectural projects around the country until a fortuitous vacation to Big Sur on California’s Central Coast in 1971 changed his life forever. He subsequently moved there, and has lived and worked in Big Sur ever since. Muennig was recognized by Architectural Digest as one of the top 100 architects in the United States in 2000 and 2002.