Architecture Books: The Latest Architecture and News

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and Greek photographer Erieta Attali have been working together for over twenty years. Their joint work is characterized by a shared aesthetic understanding of architecture, space, and visual perception. In both Kuma’s buildings and Attali’s photographs, interior and exterior spaces merge and dissolve into one another. Both are united by the idea that spatial experience is fleeting, shaped by the rhythm of the day and the seasons, making built space a medium that expands into the landscape and encourages people to question their notion of spatial boundaries.

In the world of interior design, light serves as an essential medium, but light can also create immersive public spaces. While James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson, and Dan Flavin are celebrated for their transformative mastery of color, reflections, and luminous contrasts, it's crucial to note that the realm of light art isn't exclusively male-dominated. In response to the underrepresentation of female light artists, a refreshing and enlightening perspective emerges from the British lighting designers Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton of Light Collective.

After founding the platform "Women in Lighting" their book "Women Light Artists," takes a bold step in introducing us to 40 creative women whose work radiates with responsive ingenuity and brilliance. The book offers a captivating spectrum of projects from interactive pools to the play of colorful daylight shadows dancing across a bridge in London, from the peaceful projection onto an iconic Berlin landmark to the vivid rainbow arching above Manhattan's skyline, each work embodies a unique dialogue between light and space. The luminous journey offers a valuable tribute to the power of female artists who, for far too long, have remained in the shadows.

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As we explore social practices that challenge the dominant model in architecture, we have come to recognize the significance of addressing issues related to identity, gender, race, and sexual orientation within the realm of spatial design. By considering these dimensions, we aim to highlight how the built environment can foster new ways of envisioning society and shaping our relationship with the world around us. To provide valuable insights, we have curated a bibliography that showcases the perspectives and experiences of individuals who defy the norms dictated by a universalizing approach. This collection of 20 books offers diverse narratives that invite us to perceive, imagine, and experience space through an LGBTQIA+ lens.

This is an edited excerpt by Philip Jodidio from TASCHEN’s upcoming title Norman Foster.

In a 2007 conference, Norman Foster stated: “As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown." That talk was about the green agenda, which he termed the most important issue of the day, affirming that it is “not about fashion but about survival.” Admittedly, the rise in public interest in contemporary architecture that followed the creation of the Pritzker Prize in 1979 (Foster was the 1999 winner) has been focused on forms and personalities more than on substance. Philip Johnson, the first winner of the shiny award, made his view clear: “Architecture is art, nothing else.” Essays, magazines, and books have delighted in the foibles, verbal and sartorial, of celebrated architects, the hats, and eyeglasses of genius. Of course, figures like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier did not wait for a prize to be famous, and it seems fitting that Wright’s literary alter-ego, Howard Roarke, would say: “Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments." The modern architect/artist as demiurge, responsible for fashioning and maintaining the universe: “…how like an Angel in apprehension, how like a God?”

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As the challenges posed by climate change increase in number and intensity, it also heightens the need to find sustainable building practices that connect to ecosystems and livelihoods rather than harm them. While often overlooked in the search for innovation, vernacular architecture can offer answers to contemporary issues. This type of architecture not only relies on readily available locally sourced materials but also on indigenous knowledge of local conditions like sun orientation, wind patterns, ventilation needs, and the behavior of materials in time. Dr. Sandra Piesik, director and architect of 3 ideas, and founder of HABITAT Coalition, explores this potential in her newest book, 'Habitat: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Climate.'

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Perhaps without even looking for it, Cora Kavanagh would leave one of the most emblematic buildings of rationalist architecture in Argentina. Inaugurated in January 1936, with its almost 120 meters of height, the Kavanagh Building stands in front of the ravine of Plaza San Martín, located in the central neighborhood of Retiro in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.

"Cora Kavanagh and her Building" is the title of Marcelo Nougués' new book that gathers the entire story, revealing everything from her building and her travels to her art collection and the different houses she lived in during a period of almost 50 years. In collaboration with Díaz Ortiz Ediciones, this 572-page printed volume compiles texts, photographs, and documents from the author's collection and also showcases selected images and illustrations from extensive research. Discover a part of this story below.

Light is an essential element to perceive architecture and to live and work in buildings. Therefore architects, lighting designers, teachers, and researchers have written inspirational books about light. They have shared their valuable theories and turned their experience into guidelines to improve daylight design and the art of illumination. 

This collection offers a useful source of the best lighting design books for students, professionals, and academics. The book list is grouped into categories: Daylight, illumination, urban lighting, media facades, landscape lighting, light collections, culture, monography, history, stage lighting, and light art. In each section, the volumes appear in alphabetical order with recent books in the beginning followed by classic publications. Discover fascinating publications that will enlighten your perception and understanding of light and space.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Witold Rybczynski’s latest book—he’s written 22 now, at last count—is The Story of Architecture (Yale University Press), and it’s as comprehensive as the title implies. The author of Home and A Clearing in the Distance starts with the ancients, works his way chronologically through the movements, buildings, and architects, and into the present day. It’s done, he concedes, through his own prism. “I have not given equal attention to all parts of the world,” he writes in the book’s Note to the Reader. “This is primarily although not exclusively the story of the Western canon. That is not to slight regions that often have their own unique architectural accomplishments … but I have chosen examples that best convey the principal thrust of the strain of architectural thought that has most influenced me.” Recently I talked with Rybczynski about the genesis for the book, what architecture lost when it abandoned ornamentation, and where we are today.

Around the two-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is little that looks the same as it did in March 2020, whether it’s how we work, how we study, or even how we move about our own homes. Many titles in this selection of spring architecture and design book releases show just how authors and design professionals are grappling with the major changes of our time. Volumes such as Debbie Millman’s Why Design Matters and Paola Antonelli’s Design Emergency share the diverse viewpoints and design solutions of some of the world’s leading creative voices; Otto von Busch’s Making Trouble and Max Holleran’s Yes to the City evaluate forms of DIY and housing activism; and Stephen Vider’s Queerness of Home and Suchi Reddy’s Form Follows Feeling tap into a more empathetic, human-centered approach to space. All of them, in some way, look at the past as a way to see clearly into the future of the built environment.

In this week's reprint, Metropolis editors have selected a variety of new and forthcoming architecture and design books, rounding up a compelling reading list for the season. The following titles range from monographs and theoretical inquires to essential knowledge works, from authors like Michael Sorkin, Robert A.M. Stern or Paul Dobraszczyk.

Now that we are halfway through the year, what better time to prioritize your reading list? Whether you’re interested in the history of interior design, the relationship between architecture and health, or learning more about the 20th century’s forgotten architects, Metropolis editors have selected a variety of current and forthcoming titles that will be sure to get you through 2021.

Funded by Andrew W. Mellon and the National Endowment for the Humanities foundations as part of the Open Book Program, a collection of classic books, published between 1964 and 1998 are now available online as open access e-books through the MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies book collection.

The author or editor of over twenty books, Michael Sorkin was a renowned architect, urbanist, and writer. Principal and founder of Michael Sorkin Studios and president of the non-profit research group Terreform, a nonprofit urban research and advocacy center, Sorkin was especially famous for his writings for the Village Voice and the Nation. The Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at the City College of New York who passed away earlier this year due to complications resulting from COVID-19 wrote the forward for Miró Rivera’s Monograph Miró Rivera Architects: Building a New Arcadia.