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.

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...

bush library

It's a tradition that every departing US president gets to erect his own library for his legacy. Whatever that might be. It's pretty much final that the New York-based architect Robert Stern gets the job, as the Austin American Statesman writes in the article "good enough for Mickey Mouse, good enough for Bush".

I cannot really be bothered to care about this. First of all, I'm pretty sure that the library building will be un-original, un-spectacular and un-interesting (because of both the architect and the president involved), but also because I think that Bush is a disaster dressed up as president, and I suppose his legacy is right up that alley.

Basically, I couldn't be bothered about the entire thing. Until I found that a magazine called "The Chronicle of Higher Education" came with counter-proposals for the libary, in what they called the back-of-the-envelope-design contest: they asked their readers to submit ideas (literally as proposals sketched on the back of an envelope). And some of them were really funny: some play on the irony of the connection "Bush" and "library", some refer to his bad reputation as a cowboy-cum-president, and some just sarcastically insinuate that the guy is a moron. I especially enjoy the "library and fun ranch" proposal. It would definitely fit the Bush-administration better than a classical library.

Stockholm Library (2)

One of the first posts I did on this blog was about the fact that the competition for the extension of the library in Stockholm (by Erik Gunnar Asplund) got about 1170 entries.

And now, the result for the second round is in. In this second round, six design teams got the chance to develop their proposals further. Of these six, the project of Heike Hanada, called "Delphinium" was ultimately selected by the jury. In the results of the first round, her design didn't quite catch my eye, since it wasn't one of the most spectacular of the six. But the second stage really brought out the qualities of the plan - unlike some of the others (for instance, I think that the initial qualities of the "Blanket" plan are completely ruined in the second stage).
The plan is quite respectful towards the Asplund Libary, creating some distance between the old building and the annex, and functioning like a backdrop of some kind. But the new building is more than just a stage for the Asplund building to shine upon: it has a nice secret garden (behind the lower part of the building), which is visible from a spatial route inside the complex. And it has similar qualities as the Asplund building has: simple and clean geometric shapes, a speaking subtle ornamentation and a humane expression. It may not be the most spectacular building that could have been selected, but it's a good, well thought out design. It's pretty Swedish, in a way: it's more safe than experimental, it's more kind than in-your-face, it's very "logom" which is a typical swedish concept and can be translated by "just right" or "just enough".

For more information about the competition, check out the official website.

Competition insanity - Stockholm Library

For the first stage of the open competition for an extension to the Stockholm public libary, 1.170 proposals were submitted and approved. Let's just count for a second: just imagine that the jury invested 5 minutes to discuss each plan. They would've needed 5.850 minutes in total. That's 97.5 hours. Assume that the jury would work an average of eight hours a day - it would take them exactly twelve days and one and a half hour to only review all the proposals.
This sounds pretty impossible, right? I try to imagine how they did that - but I am without a clue. Or is it safe to assume that somewhere within the vast masses of proposals lies one that is better than any of the six proposals for the second stage of the competition?

That being said: the six selected proposals are at the moment being worked on, since the second stage proposals should be submitted by september 14th. Personally, I am interested what comes out of the development of two of the proposals: "book hill" and "blanket". For "book hill" it's mainly the meandering townscape (between building and landscape) that fascinates me. However, I am quite curious if the roof will be activated in some form. For "blanket", the man-made ending in itself is a nice idea - but the terraced interior of the libary (which is sunken into the ground) is the most spectacular selling point. I cannot quite decide which of these two plans to favor: isn't there a way to combine them?

More information on this competition (including the six selected proposals, the jury's report and all the submitted plans) can be found on the site of the Swedish Association of Architects