Architecture books

Books where the theme of yesterdays' post, and books are the theme of todays' post. This time, an online book store. Even though nothing beats spending hours and hours browsing through a bookstore, finding more and more amazing books. It's even more lovely to look through a really specialized bookstore and find really specific, hard to find books.

But not everybody has such a great bookstore close to where they are located, and not everybody has the time to visit those stores during opening hours. So that's why it's great that there are specialized online bookstores. As much as I like amazon.com, nothing beats specialists. In this case: specialists in architecture books. It's easier to find what you want, it's more useful to find more in-depth items and it has more power to surprise. That's what makes architecturebooks.eu such a nice webstore.

The only thing that is lacking from an online architecture bookstore is, ironically enough, good architecture. Like one of the nicest examples I've seen thus far: Academia Bookstore in Helsinki, by Alvar Aalto, on the image above.

Reading list

I thought it might be interesting to finally start to keep track of all the books I've read, since I'm a book omnivore, and devour pretty much everything. Surely, it makes no sense to try to reach back and figure out all the titles of all books that passed through my hands in the past. So I'm going to start with the books I've read this week. I'm neither going to give a summary, nor any conchise criticism - there are better places for that. It's just a way to keep track of things.

I'm going to keep the list alphabetically, mention the language of the book, and note the dates I've read the books. I'm deliberating mentioning categories, but that might turn out to be tricky. So not only the list is a work in progress, but also the style of the the post.
Also, to make this list interesting for someone else, I'm going to add links to the book.

Banham, Reyner - A Concrete Atlantis (architecture, English). read in Oktober 2010.

Barthes, Roland - What is sport? (philosophy, English) read in March 2011.

Blaser, Werner - Mies van der Rohe Lehre und Schule / Principles and School (architecture, German/English). read in February 2011.

Boon, Vasco van der & Marel, Gerben van der - De Vastgoedfraude (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in February 2011.

Bouwman, Ole (ed.) - Op het breukvlak van twee millennia, gedachten over architectuur (architecture, Dutch). read in July 2010.

Browne, David - Goodbye 20th Century: a Biography of Sonic Youth (music, English). read in May 2011.

Bruinsma, Max - Deep Sites (design, English). read in April 2011.

Brusselmans, Herman - Ex-schrijver (novel, Dutch). read in August 2010.

Brusselmans, Herman - Ex-minnaar (novel, Dutch). read in August 2010.

Brusselmans, Herman - Ex-drummer (novel, Dutch). read in August 2010.

Bryson, Bill - Notes from a small island (socio-cultural, English). read in December 2010.

Crimson Architectural Historians - Re-Urb (architecture, Dutch). read in August 2010.

Draaisma, Douwe - Waarom het leven sneller gaat als je ouder wordt (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in April 2011.

Duve, Karen - Anständig Essen (socio-cultural, German). read in March 2011.

Eco, Umberto - De Begraafplaats van Praag (novel, Dutch). read in April 2011.

Eschbach, Andreas - Ausgebrannt (novel, German). read in April 2011.

Eisenstein, Bernice - Ich war das Kind von Holocaustüberlebenden (novel, German). read in July 2010.

Folkers, Antoni - Moderne architectuur in Afrika (architecture, Dutch). read in August 2010.

Fest, Joachim - Speer, the final verdict (history, English). read in September 2010.

Giphart, Ronald - De Voorzitter (novel, Dutch). read in September 2010.

Giphart, Ronald - Ik omhels je met duizend armen (novel, Dutch). read in January 2011.

Golluch, Norbert - Alles über das Ruhrgebiet (socio-cultural, German). read in January 2011.

Grunberg, Arnon - De joodse messias (novel, Dutch). read in December 2010.

Heck, Jean Paul - Fuck you very much (music, Dutch). read in November 2010.

Heijne, Bas - Grote vragen (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in November 2010.

Ibelings, Hans & Hannema, Kirsten (ed.) - New European Architecture 08 09 (architecture, English). read in December 2010.

Ingels, Bjarke (ed.) - Yes is More (architecture, English). read in September 2010.

Istendael, Geert van - Mijn Duitsland (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in Oktober 2010.

Jaud, Tommy - Hummeldumm (novel, German). read in August 2010.

Jaud, Tommy - Millionär (novel, German). read in May 2011.

Kleijer, Evert - Instrumenten van de architectuur (architecture, Dutch). read in July 2010.

Koch, Herman - Het Diner (novel, Dutch). read in September 2010.

Kotkin, Joel - The City: a global history (architecture, English). read in January 2011.

Kureishi, Hanif - The buddha of suburbia (novel, English). read in January 2011.

Lee, Uje - SeARCH C3 Architect Series (Architecture, English). read in April 2011.

Luyendijk, Joris - Een goede man slaat soms zijn vrouw (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in August 2010.

Mak, Geert - De goede stad (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in November 2010.

Marten, Florian - Kaputtgeplant: Das Elend der Raum- und Stadtplanung (architecture, German). read in May 2011.

Naegels, Tom - Los (novel, Dutch). read in July 2010.

Prakash, Gyan (ed.) - Noir Urbanisms: dystopic images of the modern city (architecture, English). read in January 2011.

Prossliner, Johann - Nietzsches Zarathustra (philosophy, German). read in July 2010.

Rödiger-Diruf, Erika (ed.) - Gründerzeit - Adolf Loos (Architecture, German). read in April 2011.

Sachau, Matthias - Kaltduscher (novel, German). read in July 2010.

Sack, Manfred - Götter und Schafe (architecture, German). read in December 2010.

Shepheard, Paul - The Cultivated Wilderness, or, what is landscape? (architecture, English). read in September 2010.

Sinker, David (ed) - We owe you nothing: Punk Planet, the collected interviews (music, English). read in February 2011.

Slavid, Ruth - Extreme Architecture: building for challenging environments (architecture, English). read in February 2011.

Sloterdijk, Peter - Zorn und Zeit (philosophy, German). read in November 2010.

Stefanidis, Alexandros - Beim Griechen (novel, German). read in Oktober 2010.

Straten, Henk van - Ik ben de Regen (novel, Dutch). read in July 2010.

Tafuri, Manfredo - Architecture and Utopia (architecture, English). read in July 2010.

Taleb, Nassim N. - The Black Swan (socio-cultural, English). read in November 2010.

Thackara, John - Plan B (architecture, Dutch). read in March 2011.

Torday, Paul - Vissen op zalm in Jemen (novel, Dutch). read in July 2010.

Twickel, Christoph - Gentrifidingsbums oder eine Stadt für alle (architecture, German). read in Oktober 2010.

Ulinich, Anya - Petropolis (novel, English). read in August 2010.

Verdonschot, Leon - Hart tegen hart (music, Dutch). read in November 2010.

Verhulst, Dimitri - De helaasheid der dingen (novel, Dutch). read in February 2011.

Vos, Emmie (ed.) - Europan 10 (architecture, Dutch). read in July 2010.

Vuijsje, Robert - Alleen maar nette mensen (novel, Dutch). read in October 2010.

Wallraff, Günther - Der Aufmacher - der Mann, der bei Bild Hans Esser war (socio-cultural, German). read in September 2010.

Westerman, Max - In alle staten (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in January 2011.

Whiteley, Nigel - Reyner Banham: historian of the immediate future (architecture, English). read in February 2011.

Wieringa, Tommy - Alles over Tristan (novel, Dutch). read in Oktober 2010.

Wieringa, Tommy - Amok (novel, Dutch). read in December 2010.

Wieringa, Tommy - Joe Speedboot (novel, Dutch). read in November 2010.

Wijnberg, Rob - En mijn tafelheer is Plato (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in december 2010.

Woud, Auke van der - Sterrenstof (architecture, Dutch). read in September 2010.

Zwagerman, Joost - Chaos en Rumoer (novel, Dutch). read in February 2011.

Zwagerman, Joost - Landschap met klein vuil (socio-cultural, Dutch). read in December 2010.

Zwecker, Loel - Was bisher geschah (history, German). read in November 2010.

Without the hot air

There's no denying it: sustainability is a hot topic. And, as most sane people would agree, rightfully so. But there is little agreement on what the right measures would be to deal with our current climate crisis (which would be more aply be labelled as a "energy crisis", in my opinion, but that's a whole different subject).

The current trend in sustainability seems to be based on the adagium "every little bit helps", combined with "fake it until you make it". Every little bit is made to sound large, by using numbers that to many a laymen sound vast, blurring the discussion with fake facts and unclear figures.

That's where David MacKay, professor at Cambridge University's department of physics steps in. His main argument is that there should be a clear measure for energy consumption. His basic concept is very clear, as could be seen in this quote "We need to understand how much energy our modern lifestyles use; we need to decide how much energy we would like to use in the future; and we need to choose where we will get that energy from."
Ok, it sounds simple, but how? For him, the starting point is starting to measure everything in a single unit. In the case of energy, of course, Kilowatt-hour: a measure that most people know from daily use.

To give some examples: One kilowatt-hour (1 kWh) is the electrical energy used by leaving a 40 watt bulb on for 24 hours. Or driving an average European car 50km uses 40kWh of fuel. In total, the british lifestyle allegedly uses approximately 125 kWh a day.

Good. Once the basic units and a reference point are established, it's time to see how actual measures add up.
The first example is simple: switching off phone chargers when not in use. It's included in lists of "things to do to go green" all around the world, and sounds like a sensible idea. The truth is that leaving a phone charger switched on uses about 0.01kWh per day – 100th of the power consumed by a lightbulb. Or better yet: switching off a phone charger for an entire day is the equivalent of driving a car for about 1 second!
This being said, it's not that switching off phone chargers is a bad idea. Just note that it's only a tiny bit of improvement. So in this case a tiny bit only helps a tiny bit...

Another example: think about vehicles. Most people consider hydrogen cars one of the sane solutions - they certainly have a "green" feel to them. The odd thing is, that if you really measure it, most prototype hydrogen-powered vehicles use more energy than the fossil-fuel vehicles they replace. The average fossil car in Britain uses 80 kWh per 100 km, the BMW Hydrogen 7 uses 254 kWh per 100 km.
Electric cars, is a different story alltogether: Even if the electricity for electric vehicles comes from traditional fossil-fuel power stations, electric cars are still more efficient than petrol cars; and if in the future we switch over the nation's electricity production from fossil fuels to greener sources, then electric vehicles will win by a mile.

And now the big question: how can we use more (preferably only) renewable energy sources? "As a thought experiment, let's imagine that technology switches and lifestyle changes manage to halve British energy consumption to 60kWh per day per person. How big would the wind, nuclear, and solar facilities need to be to supply this halved consumption? Here is the scale that is required if (for simplicity) we wanted to get one-third from each of these sources: we would have to build wind farms with an area equal to the area of Wales; we would have to build 50 Sizewells of nuclear power; and we would need solar power stations in deserts covering an area twice the size of Greater London."

The interesting thing about the argument David MacKay brings across isn't about solutions, it's about measuring. About carefully looking at actual effects, and cutting away all the hot air surrounding sustainable arguments.
This is uncomfortable for anybody who's making money spreading half-truths about green issues (or green-washing unecological ideas).

He put forth his ideas in a book, aptly called "without the hot air". The cool thing is that the entire book is available as a PDF from (t)his website. It's worth your time, because he delivers a refreshing take on sustainability and energy consumption, and gives an insight that is mostly left out of the equation. There's no politics in this book, only arthmatics. And that's definitely wise for such a widely used and misused theme.

Reading light

French designers Jun Yasumoto, Alban Le Henry, Olivier Pigasse and Vincent Vandenbrouck collectively worked on a simple, yet brilliant reading lamp. It's sensitive to touch, meaning that the lamp shuts off when you put a book on it, and it illuminates if you remove the book. Lovely, isn't it?

I've discovered this via core77.com

The (other) man in black

Have you ever wondered why so many architects wear black? Well, Cordula Rau definitely did, so she went ahead and asked a bunch of architects that questions. And she made a book out of the (sometimes hilarious) responses she got, which is adequately dubbed "Why do architects wear black?".

My answer is that black clothes form a nice contrast with the modernist white building. Who is responsible for the white modernist building? I'd have to call on Le Corbusier as trendsetting. And he probably was also on the forefront of trend to start wearing black. I'm glad that he was less successful in starting the trend of "painting the houses of fellow architects, while being nude" - but that's a whole different story alltogether.


I found the book by Cordula Rau through http://architecture.myninjaplease.com The first image is found through them, too - and they have it from architecture students from hell.

Reading material: Dance of Days

The problem with reading a lot of books is that you can never fully remember everything you've ever read. Some books leave small reminders, some others make some impact, and some others stay with you forever. But also a lot of books that are actually pretty good, are getting lost amid the myriad of other letters, syllables and words. So I decided to ocasionally post a little bit on this blog, about something I've been reading lately. As a small momentum for myself, or maybe as an inspiration for someone else?

Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital - Mark Andersen, Mark Jenkins

In many ways, punk made an impact on my life. And I still consider myself a punk. Not by anyone's definition, but by my own definition. For me, it started with the music, but somewhere along the line, the ideas behind it grew to be more imporant. Whether it's self-empowerment, the meaning of DIY-ethics, the idea that actions speak louder than words, the inspirational power of stepping outside of your own comfort-zone, the moral obligation to not follow the flock, taking your beliefs from thought to action - all that is something that came from a punk-influence. And I think that these concepts made a lasting impact on me. And even though my punk-affluence started with music, it's definitely more than just "loud and abrasive" for me.

That being said, it's exactly the idea behind this book. On the surface, it's a step-by-step description of the history of the Washington D.C. punk-scene. It's about the bands that spawned it, the people that inspired it and all that. It's nice to give some perspective on bands, but if that would've been it, the book would've been a bit limited. More inspiring, it shows how a small group of kids, starting with energy and an idea, creates something special out of nothing.
Sure, "Dance of Days" isn't complete. Surely, the book has a particular focus on a certain part of the Washington scene. And surely, you see the scene through the eyes of the author. But that's always the case with histories as such: it's always a story from someone. So yeah, I was missing some bands that I really love (like Moss Icon, to name one) and others were omnipresent (there's only so much one can tell about Fugazi-songs, for example).

But what I enjoyed about the book is that it shows that music and ethics can go hand in hand. That there's another option than stupid macho rockstar bullshit, and that there's more to life than music: That music can actually help to spread ideas and meaning among a crowd. That punk is not just "rock hard" and "look the look", but that it can inspire initiatives as the "punk percussion protests", tons of benefit shows for charitable causes, songs that have an actual message. And that there's nothing different between audience and public, and that if you have an idea or want to do something, you should just go for it!

But all these ideologies aside: I wouldn't have read the book if it wouldn't have been about bands that I feel deeply about. It's great to read about bands that you've never been able to witness first-hand, but have still lit a spark somewhere inside you. So for me, I'd enjoyed reading about the crazyness of HR of the Bad Brains. I enjoyed reading about the passion of Rites of Spring (who are the band in the picture above, by the way). I also enjoyed reading about the little high-school kid Dave Grohl dropping school to play with Scream.
So to me, the book was a nice amalgamation of who's who in punkrock-gossip and an empowering message. And while we're at it, why not listen to some Rites of Spring? Or Minor Threat? Or Bad Brains?

Jose Vasconcelos library - Alberto Kalach

It most be rather intimidating - or even frightening - to enter the Jose Vasconcelos library in Mexico City. The spectacular building, designed by Alberto Kalach, is not just a regular library. It's a monument to books.
It is one of the major cultural buildings that should function to turn the urban decay of the north-central area of Mexico City around. It's also something of a scandoulous political affair, but I don't want to get into all that.

This building is just spectacle in the interior. Highrising stacks of books fill this building, dizziling high. I don't want to spend a tons of words on this buildings, because I truely believe that the images of this building speak for themselves. I'm in awe. And I am pretty sure that I'm not alone at that...

The photography of Martin Parr

I really like the humorous, tongue-in-cheek approach that Martin Parr has to documentary photography. He shoots ordinary - whether it's about tourism, consumerism, contemporary living or what not - scenes in such a way that makes you want to feel uncomfortable, and fascinated at the same time. Like in the books "bored couples book" (see image above), or "think of england" (below). Or in many of his other books, for that matter.

And the cool thing is that, on his website martinparr.com, you can browse through a great part of his books. It's all so british (in style and content), and yet very universal. Satire without trying. Compelling by keeping a distance. Fascinating by being normal.

Forgotten architects

In the 1920s and early 1930s, German Jewish architects created some of the greatest modern buildings in Germany, mainly in the capital Berlin. A law issued by the newly elected German National Socialist Government in 1933 banned all of them from practicing architecture in Germany. In the years after 1933, many of them managed to emigrate, while many others were deported or killed under Hitler’s regime. Pentagram Papers 37: Forgotten Architects is a survey of 43 of these architects and their groundbreaking work.

That's what written about this on the weblog of Pentagram Papers. And it's a truely fascinating read. Haifa-born architect Myra Warhaftig (who died on March 4th, 2008 at the age of seventy-eight) spent twenty years getting all the stories together about these architects. Of course, it's an interesting read because of the personal stories of the architects involved. But what's more: it also showed that the Nazis effectively dispersed of interesting and possibly important development within the modern movement: almost all the architects in this publication worked along the lines of the international style, and seemed to push the boundaries of the style and ways unseen at that day...

Church conversion

Holiday season is over, postings continue... For instance, one of the most stunning pieces of architecture that I've seen lately:

Conversions of churches are generally a tricky business. On one hand, there's a monumental spaciousness and aura of the interiour, and on the other there are the pragmatic needs of the new programme.
In a former Dominican church in Maastricht (the Netherlands), the Dutch architects Merkx + Girod designed a bookshop: Selexyz Dominicanen. They restored the grandeur of the church, and let the new programme give space to the atmospherics of the place. In order to still obtain the commercially needed amount of square metres, the architects designed a free-standing, two storey steel element. It looks like a giant walk-in bookshelf, positioned to one side of the former church assembly hall. By the design, the chruch is still very readable, but also functions well as a bookstore. Stunning. It's no wonder that the architects won the Lensvelt de Architect interior prize 2007...

cradle to cradle

I am probably the last person in the world to comment on this book, that was already published in 2002. Well, that's not true of course, I just happen to have slept on the hype first time around, and after I've read it, I am more than eager to say something about it. This "something" could be rather quick and easy: "GO READ 'CRADLE TO CRADLE'". But since I know that I don't quite have the authority to convince tons of people to read the book, I need some more words...

The book "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things" was written by William McDonough en Michael Braungart, and they are basically arguing that the way we look at producing and recycling is pretty primitive. Most methods of environmentally friendly design are about recycling, and thus about making less waste. Virtually all products have, after re-use, a lesser value. For instance paper: recycled paper can be used as newspaper. The reason that newspaper is slightly grey is because the original chlorin-bleached white paper was printed with black ink (with heavy metals in them). By using the paper for newspapers, chlorine and metals are brought into the air. And after using the paper once, it has become too dirty and poisonous to be used again. (and it would have, in fact, been more environmentally sound to dumb the paper and cut down another tree).

McDonough and Braungart call this "downcycling", and what they strive for is a method of design in which the rest-product, or the waste, is just as valuable as the starting product, in order to create closed cycles of production. Products that have been valuable in a first life, are just as useful in their second life. That is the basic idea of cradle to cradle.
It goes too far to explain all the details of their argument here, but if you wonder how it works: William McDonough has posted a step-by-step guide to cradle to cradle on his website.

Are there cases to be named in which this philosophy is used? Not that many (yet), but there are some. For instance, the book itself has been printed on bio-degradable plastic instead of paper. This plastic can be easily cleaned of ink, and be re-used as bright white "paper".
And on larger scale, Ford designed a car called Ford U, of which all parts are biodegradable and re-usable. From the exhaust, it leaks clean water. The tires attract particles of dirt from the street, and when eroding feed the plants on the roadside.

Surely, this all is a bit too futuristic and idealistic right now, but it's a starting point to arm ourselves for the future...