Out of the Real – Tham & Videgard Arkitekter One of the most innovative young Swedish architecture offices is being presented and analyzed by the editor Johan Linton: perceiving ‘Out of the Real’ the architects Tham & Videgard design surprising and unpredictable buildings.
Johan Linton (Ed.): Out of the Real - Tham & Videgard Arkitekter
AN IRREGULAR CERTAINTY 'The dynamics of nature' - a paragraph about the changes and regularities of nature in the book MOVE - describes how nature renews itself constantly and how the seasons offer us a kind of certainty. There seems to be a fascination people have with the diversion of regularity and chaos. We often feel pulled towards the excitement of chaos, but then again we tend to feel safe with the regularity. It even seems to be a neccessity for some of us.
What comes to your mind when a human being would, on the contrary, take the dynamics and irregularities of nature for granted and found peace in their certainty? In their chaos. What if a person depended on the unpredictable to feel alive every morning?
And when one applies the certainty or calm that can be drawn from irregularities to architecture and its mobile elements - what could be experienced as an irregular element? Could a house have an irregular feature that would trigger a persons start into the day?
Could a space be so open to its surroundings irregularties that one would emmediately experience it?
And how do you find peace in irregularities?
MOVE – Architecture in Motion
ISBN 978-3-7643-9986-3 ENG
ISBN 978-3-7643-9985-6 DE
WANG SHU – A SMILING, INFLEXIBLE MAN
Everywhere in this world it is commonplace for architect's work to be anchored in the past. In China such an approach is highly critical. Wang Shu objects to the costly obsolescent and gossipy Postmodernism that seems to have filled the cultural void of the word Modernity in China. For him humanity is more important than architecture, and crafts and arts comes before technology.
With the campus of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou he carried off a project worthy of his design: He thought about the fusion between modern architecture and traditional techniques, so that people would be happy in this environment. With his team of workers who were former peasants that knew how to build and maintain their walls and roofs, he completed the Campus in four years. It consists of 21 buildings: a library, amphitheaters, offices, a gymnasium and classrooms. Their spatial generosity is rare in China. The volumes have envelopes of varying textures: stone, concrete and wood, bricks and tiles salvaged from areas that the city was demolishing at the time. The approach of various forms and material that you can see in the pictures could have easily turned into a fussy affair, but this was considered. The old materials with their emotional weight are executed on such a large scale that prettinessis set aside and restraint is imposed.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
ISBN 978-3-7643-9938-2 ENG
THE ARCHITECTURAL PROMENADE is a central concept in Le Corbusiers works. It describes the scenic or cinematic experience of architecture as one approaches it and walks through it. The book is the first one to focus on this central concept of experience, and it is vital to our today’s lives as it questions the understanding of our modern urbanity. It seeks for the access we can find to our cities and buildings.
The book takes us on walks through seven works: four residential buildings and three buildings of public life. Le Corbusier structured the experience of his architecture is following steps:
Threshold _Introduction
Sensitising Vestibule _Entry
Questioning _Savoir habiter
Reorientation _Prospects
Culmination _A view of the sky
To introduce the essence of this book we will explain these steps briefly:
The Threshold or the introduction into a domain is recognized by Le Corbusier as a linkage of disparate spaces. The door, the mat, the handle, the floor finishes, the articulation of ceiling and threshold – they all play a critical role in the formulation of entry. The door marks the point of transition between two realities.
Sensitising Vestibule
The corollary or consequence of the door is the vestibule space – the entrance of a building. In Le Corbusiers works it often takes the form of a cube, as ‘the closed concentric form of a circle or a square acts profoundly on us.’ They give us a sense of cohesiveness to a particular space.
Questioning
The next stage in Le Corbusiers dramatic arc is the point at which various options are examined and questions are asked. Sometimes in his living spaces he offers the anticipation or surprise of doors which reveal unexpected space. The questioning stage contains numerous sub-routes and sub-destinations, places for rituals such as eating or contemplating the fire, and places for making decisions.
Reorientation
Le Corbusier identifies as tendency for human beings to be attracted towards the spiritual center of gravity of a site. Almost always his means of reorientation takes the form of the stair or ramp, often combined with the distant prospect of light. Le Corbusiers stairs act as markers occupying a discrete role in a building.
Culmination
The promenade culminates on the roof – the completion of the spiritual axis through the building, where the reader is greeted with an ecstatic view. On the roof further choreography and framing comes into play. The framing of the view of the sky has become a characteristic of Le Corbusiers architecture.
Conclusion: The typical constituent elements of each stage in the Architectural Promenade are not used in the same way in every building. Coming up shortly here on BirkhauserDialogue will be the development of the Promenade form its confused beginnings in the Maison La Roche to its most rigid manifestation in the villa savoye, and the meaning the cinematic experience of those two building can have for the perception of modern architecture.
What comes to your mind when a human being would, on the contrary, take the dynamics and irregularities of nature for granted and found peace in their certainty? In their chaos. What if a person depended on the unpredictable to feel alive every morning?
And when one applies the certainty or calm that can be drawn from irregularities to architecture and its mobile elements - what could be experienced as an irregular element? Could a house have an irregular feature that would trigger a persons start into the day?
Could a space be so open to its surroundings irregularties that one would emmediately experience it?
And how do you find peace in irregularities?
MOVE – Architecture in Motion
ISBN 978-3-7643-9986-3 ENG
ISBN 978-3-7643-9985-6 DE
WANG SHU – A SMILING, INFLEXIBLE MAN
Everywhere in this world it is commonplace for architect's work to be anchored in the past. In China such an approach is highly critical. Wang Shu objects to the costly obsolescent and gossipy Postmodernism that seems to have filled the cultural void of the word Modernity in China. For him humanity is more important than architecture, and crafts and arts comes before technology.
With the campus of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou he carried off a project worthy of his design: He thought about the fusion between modern architecture and traditional techniques, so that people would be happy in this environment. With his team of workers who were former peasants that knew how to build and maintain their walls and roofs, he completed the Campus in four years. It consists of 21 buildings: a library, amphitheaters, offices, a gymnasium and classrooms. Their spatial generosity is rare in China. The volumes have envelopes of varying textures: stone, concrete and wood, bricks and tiles salvaged from areas that the city was demolishing at the time. The approach of various forms and material that you can see in the pictures could have easily turned into a fussy affair, but this was considered. The old materials with their emotional weight are executed on such a large scale that prettinessis set aside and restraint is imposed.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
ISBN 978-3-7643-9938-2 ENG
THE ARCHITECTURAL PROMENADE is a central concept in Le Corbusiers works. It describes the scenic or cinematic experience of architecture as one approaches it and walks through it. The book is the first one to focus on this central concept of experience, and it is vital to our today’s lives as it questions the understanding of our modern urbanity. It seeks for the access we can find to our cities and buildings.
The book takes us on walks through seven works: four residential buildings and three buildings of public life. Le Corbusier structured the experience of his architecture is following steps:
Threshold _Introduction
Sensitising Vestibule _Entry
Questioning _Savoir habiter
Reorientation _Prospects
Culmination _A view of the sky
To introduce the essence of this book we will explain these steps briefly:
The Threshold or the introduction into a domain is recognized by Le Corbusier as a linkage of disparate spaces. The door, the mat, the handle, the floor finishes, the articulation of ceiling and threshold – they all play a critical role in the formulation of entry. The door marks the point of transition between two realities.
Sensitising Vestibule
The corollary or consequence of the door is the vestibule space – the entrance of a building. In Le Corbusiers works it often takes the form of a cube, as ‘the closed concentric form of a circle or a square acts profoundly on us.’ They give us a sense of cohesiveness to a particular space.
Questioning
The next stage in Le Corbusiers dramatic arc is the point at which various options are examined and questions are asked. Sometimes in his living spaces he offers the anticipation or surprise of doors which reveal unexpected space. The questioning stage contains numerous sub-routes and sub-destinations, places for rituals such as eating or contemplating the fire, and places for making decisions.
Reorientation
Le Corbusier identifies as tendency for human beings to be attracted towards the spiritual center of gravity of a site. Almost always his means of reorientation takes the form of the stair or ramp, often combined with the distant prospect of light. Le Corbusiers stairs act as markers occupying a discrete role in a building.
Culmination
The promenade culminates on the roof – the completion of the spiritual axis through the building, where the reader is greeted with an ecstatic view. On the roof further choreography and framing comes into play. The framing of the view of the sky has become a characteristic of Le Corbusiers architecture.
Conclusion: The typical constituent elements of each stage in the Architectural Promenade are not used in the same way in every building. Coming up shortly here on BirkhauserDialogue will be the development of the Promenade form its confused beginnings in the Maison La Roche to its most rigid manifestation in the villa savoye, and the meaning the cinematic experience of those two building can have for the perception of modern architecture.
LE CORBUSIER AND THE ARCHITECTURAL PROMENADE
ISBN 978-3-0346-0607-3
Hardcover, 208 pages
150 color, 30 b/w illus.
24.0 x 34.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0688-2 ENG
EUR net 59.90
US$ 74.95
150 color, 30 b/w illus.
24.0 x 34.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0688-2 ENG
EUR net 59.90
US$ 74.95
Renato Salvi The architect of Italian origins likes the idea of solid craftsmanship. Influenced by his parents - a mason and a watchmaker - he was exposed simultaneously to the tough reality of the construction site, and to the precise and patient work required of watchmaking. Two quotes you stumble upon in the book are: "Drawing architectural plans is not enough, you have to touch the material."
"The Montavilla is not an architectural form that cuts through the landscape - it is the landscape that cuts through the form." Salvis sense for sculptures, nature and material becomes obvious in each building. They are raw and inviting to their surrounding - may it be light, earth or the lines of landscape. He likes to use the word 'fragile' within the descriptions of his buildings. One can see why in the pictures, and he never forgets to offer a passage - and way that leads to another space or another source of light.
"The Montavilla is not an architectural form that cuts through the landscape - it is the landscape that cuts through the form." Salvis sense for sculptures, nature and material becomes obvious in each building. They are raw and inviting to their surrounding - may it be light, earth or the lines of landscape. He likes to use the word 'fragile' within the descriptions of his buildings. One can see why in the pictures, and he never forgets to offer a passage - and way that leads to another space or another source of light.
Bruno Marchand (Ed.): Renato Salvi Architect
Softcover, 144 pages
100 color, 50 b/w illus.
21.0 x 27.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0689-9 ENG
EUR net 39.90
US$ 54.95
100 color, 50 b/w illus.
21.0 x 27.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0689-9 ENG
EUR net 39.90
US$ 54.95
The Rauch House is climatically, ecologically and aesthetically an advanced building. Clay is an approved material that, with the usage of modern construction techniques, offers smart solutions for one- to three-storey houses. The specific quality of clay is its reduces aesthetic, calm appearance and climatic superiority to other materials.
Otto Kapfinger, Axel Simon: The Rauch House
Roger Boltshauser / Martin Rauch
Otto Kapfinger, Axel Simon: The Rauch House
Roger Boltshauser / Martin Rauch
Hardcover, 160 pages
200 color, 50 b/w illus.
16.5 x 24.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0109-2 ENG/DE
EUR net 59.90
US$ 74.85
200 color, 50 b/w illus.
16.5 x 24.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0109-2 ENG/DE
EUR net 59.90
US$ 74.85
Dado This publication portrays the life and work of Rudolf and Valerio Olgiati using the example of the house and studio —that is, through the transformations they have undergone at the hands of their residents over a period of nearly eighty years. It shows personal furniture and objects, the individual layout and design of the spaces and hence the penchants and attitudes of the two architects.
Seina Walder: Dado
Gebaut und bewohnt von Rudolf Olgiati und Valerio Olgiati
Seina Walder: Dado
Gebaut und bewohnt von Rudolf Olgiati und Valerio Olgiati
Softcover with Japanese block, 100 pages
40 color, 30 b/w illus.
27.2 x 35.3 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0430-7 ENG
EUR net 49.90
US$ 69.95
40 color, 30 b/w illus.
27.2 x 35.3 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0430-7 ENG
EUR net 49.90
US$ 69.95
Herzog & de Meuron - The Complete Works
The projects and structures the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron have built are distinguished by the sensitive treatment of materials and a topographical conception of architecture that not only locates their designs in a larger context but also frequently structures them as landscapes. In order to represent them, the layout of volume 4 of the complete works has been completely redesigned.
Gerhard Mack: Herzog & de Meuron
The Complete Works
The projects and structures the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron have built are distinguished by the sensitive treatment of materials and a topographical conception of architecture that not only locates their designs in a larger context but also frequently structures them as landscapes. In order to represent them, the layout of volume 4 of the complete works has been completely redesigned.
Gerhard Mack: Herzog & de Meuron
The Complete Works
Hardcover, 352 pages
1500 color, 500 b/w illus.
24.0 x 33.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-7643-8640-5 ENG
EUR net 119.00
US$ 169.00
1500 color, 500 b/w illus.
24.0 x 33.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-7643-8640-5 ENG
EUR net 119.00
US$ 169.00
Les Corbusier – Complete Works This exceptional Complete Works edition documents the enor-mous spectrum in the œuvre of one of the most influential architects of the 20th Century. Published between 1929 and 1970, in close collaboration with Le Corbusier himself, and frequently reprinted ever since, the eight volumes comprise an exhaustive and singular survey of his work.
Willy Boesiger, Oscar Stonorov, Max Bill (Eds.):
Le Corbusier – Complete Works
8 Volumes
Willy Boesiger, Oscar Stonorov, Max Bill (Eds.):
Le Corbusier – Complete Works
8 Volumes
Hardcover, 1708 pages
1720 color, 3500 b/w illus.
29.0 x 23.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-7643-5515-9 FR/ENG/DE
EUR net 580.00
US$ 625.00
1720 color, 3500 b/w illus.
29.0 x 23.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-7643-5515-9 FR/ENG/DE
EUR net 580.00
US$ 625.00
Jean Prouvé – Complete Works Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) was one of the most outstanding design engineers of the 20th century. His work is a remarkable combination of creative imagination, technical skill and visionary enterprise.His work is portrayed in four volumes.
Peter Sulzer : Jean Prouvé – Complete Works
Volume 4 : 1954-19848 Volumes
Peter Sulzer : Jean Prouvé – Complete Works
Volume 4 : 1954-19848 Volumes
Hardcover, 1708 pages
1720 color, 3500 b/w illus.
29.0 x 23.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-7643-5515-9 FR/ENG/DE
EUR net 580.00
US$ 625.00
1720 color, 3500 b/w illus.
29.0 x 23.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-7643-5515-9 FR/ENG/DE
EUR net 580.00
US$ 625.00
Geninasca Delefortrie In larger projects these days, architects are often purely service providers: under the control of those responsible for the project or the general contractors, the architecture is cut and trimmed for reasons of cost—with all the consequences we can increasingly observe in our cities. There is a way out of this dilemma, one that strengthens the position of the architect and at the same time permits higher quality architecture, as is impressively demonstrated by the architects Geninasca Delefortrie in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Alberto Alessi: Geninasca Delefortrie – Singular Plural
Alberto Alessi: Geninasca Delefortrie – Singular Plural
Softcover, 240 pages
300 color, 100 drawings
21.0 x 26.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0777-3 ENG
EUR net 69.90
US$ 84.95
300 color, 100 drawings
21.0 x 26.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0777-3 ENG
EUR net 69.90
US$ 84.95
Lecture This publication, written by Valerio Olgiati, shows how he develops his projects, which parameters influence his design processes and how he places himself in an intellectual context. As an inside view, ‘Lecture’ offers an architectural self-image and a personal statement.
Valerio Olgiati: Lecture
Valerio Olgiati: Lecture
Hardcover, 104 pages
60 color, 20 b/w illus.
14.0 x 14.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0783-4 ENG
ISBN 978-3-0346-0782-7 DE
ISBN 978-3-0346-0784-1 FR
ISBN 978-3-0346-0785-8 IT
ISBN 978-3-0346-0787-2 ESP
ISBN 978-3-0346-0786-5 JAP
EUR net 24.90
US$ 34.95
60 color, 20 b/w illus.
14.0 x 14.0 cm
ISBN 978-3-0346-0783-4 ENG
ISBN 978-3-0346-0782-7 DE
ISBN 978-3-0346-0784-1 FR
ISBN 978-3-0346-0785-8 IT
ISBN 978-3-0346-0787-2 ESP
ISBN 978-3-0346-0786-5 JAP
EUR net 24.90
US$ 34.95
