Architecture is fundamentally existential in its very essence, and it arises from existential experience and wisdom rather than intellectualized and formalized theories. We can only prepare ourselves for our work in architecture by developing a distinct sensitivity and awareness for architectural phenomena.” With these declarative words, Finnish architect, educator and critic Juhani Pallasmaa resounds the call of his 2005 volume, Encounters: Architectural Essays, in this second volume of essays, Encounters 2. 

Lafayette Park, an affordable middle-class residential area in downtown Detroit, is home to the largest collection of buildings designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the world. Today, it is one of Detroit’s most racially integrated and economically stable neighborhoods, although it is surrounded by evidence of a city in financial distress. Through interviews with and essays by residents; reproductions of archival material; and new photographs by Karin Jobst, Vasco Roma, and Corine Vermeulen, and previously unpublished photographs by documentary filmmaker Janine Debanné, Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies examines the way that Lafayette Park residents confront and interact with this unique modernist environment.

A Guide to 21st Century Singapore Architecture documents every significant project built since 2000, and presents a comprehensive survey of public and commercial buildings, transport and infrastructure projects, apartments and condominiums, and private houses.

The pragmatic turn in Danish architecture in the 2000s is one of the most striking new trends in international architecture in the past decade, and it has attracted considerable interest around the world.The architectural firms represented in the book include BIG, jds, Cobe, Transform, Nord, Effekt, Adept, among others. Although these firms do easily fit into one single category or can be said to make up a unified movement, their projects do have certain significant features in common. These commonalities have led international media to view these projects as part of a common trend and a new phenomenon in Danish architecture.

Sketchbook No. 76 is the reproduction of a sketchbook of the renowned Portuguese architect and last year’s Pritzker Prize laureate, Eduardo Souto de Moura. The sketchbook was in use between September 2011 and January 2012 and records first ideas, fleeting sketches, studies, and spontaneous jottings that offer a starting point for every project but also function as a working resource. One can quite litterally experience the architectural design process and how developing existing ideas are further developed in different variants. Sketchbook No. 76 is a homage to the medium of drawing and manifests that this working method remains an essential element of the creative process.

Rakennustieto is publishing now for the seventh time a monograph on the work of the architect awarded the international Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award. The 2012 winner is Indian architect Bijoy Jain, who together with his office Studio Mumbai Architects combine excellently traditional craftwork and architecture using meagre resources.