Labyrinths & mazes
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These aerial shots of ancient and modern labyrinths and mazes offer a perspective on an age-old phenomenon, and an opportunity to better understand its meaning. Allegories for life's uncertainty, labyrinths and mazes are ancient symbols that echo our own spiritual quests, transformations, and yearnings to find the right path. Jurgen Hohmuth used a custom-made camera(...)
Labyrinths & mazes
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These aerial shots of ancient and modern labyrinths and mazes offer a perspective on an age-old phenomenon, and an opportunity to better understand its meaning. Allegories for life's uncertainty, labyrinths and mazes are ancient symbols that echo our own spiritual quests, transformations, and yearnings to find the right path. Jurgen Hohmuth used a custom-made camera attached to a miniature dirigible to photograph the labyrinths and mazes in this stunning book. The resulting low-altitude aerial photographs capture in astonishing detail the designs, textures, and settings that make each structure unique. Presented in large full-colour images, these gems of architectural landscaping take all forms and sizes, comprising an endless variety of materials: mosaics, cornstalks, sunflowers, stones, even beer crates. Laden with history, some labyrinths and mazes date back to the Bronze Age; grace the floors of medieval cathedrals; and spring up from the lawns of country estates. Modern incarnations are found in amusement parks, farmers' fields, and traffic circles. Lending depth to Hohmuth's photographs are brief essays from experts in the field, including Adrian Fisher, the world's foremost designer of labyrinths and mazes, as well as an innovative layout design that echoes the spirit of the labyrinth.
Gardens
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Offices, as a category of building, have probably faced more challenges and undergone more dramatic changes in the last few years than most other kinds of buildings. Increasing economic globalization, new information and communication technologies, and ecological considerations are all making demands on a branch of architecture which for nearly a century had been marked(...)
Commercial interiors, Building types
September 2002, Basel
Office buildings : a design manual
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Offices, as a category of building, have probably faced more challenges and undergone more dramatic changes in the last few years than most other kinds of buildings. Increasing economic globalization, new information and communication technologies, and ecological considerations are all making demands on a branch of architecture which for nearly a century had been marked by the construction norms and standards, and the requirements of office organisation. These old solutions are, however, no longer viable for many modern companies, where flexibility and mobility determine the working day of a new generation of office nomads, and architecture is having to adapt. With some 70 significant international examples taken from the last five years (including examples from Norman Foster, Frank O. Gehry, Thomas Herzog, Morphosis MVRDV, Renzo Piano, SOM), the authors and editors show how the new issues facing architects can be resolved. In addition to introductory texts there are also thematic contributions by experts in various disciplines on related topics including the new models of work organisation, façade technology, climatic regulation, lighting etc. Similar to our enormously successful Floor Plan Atlas, this volume will be a crucial standard work in the design of offices.
books
September 2002, Basel
Commercial interiors, Building types
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The practice of comparison is implicit in every act of imagining, representing, and studying urban experience. "Urban enigmas" contributes to recent interdisciplinary interest in cities by introducing comparison as a key methodology for urban cultural analysis. Contributors, part of the collaborative research project "The Culture of Cities : Montreal, Toronto, Dublin,(...)
Architecture in Canada
March 2007, Montréal, Kingston, London, Ithaca
Urban enigmas : Montréal, Toronto, and the problem of comparing cities
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The practice of comparison is implicit in every act of imagining, representing, and studying urban experience. "Urban enigmas" contributes to recent interdisciplinary interest in cities by introducing comparison as a key methodology for urban cultural analysis. Contributors, part of the collaborative research project "The Culture of Cities : Montreal, Toronto, Dublin, and Berlin", address theoretical and methodological aspects of comparison, while case-studies examine the mutually constituted identities of Montreal and Toronto through examples of travel writing, public art, film festivals, theatrical performances, diasporic communities, ethnic festivals, and urban media. Comparison is shown to be not only something performed by experts but a deeply embedded, everyday social practice that contributes to the mutable identities of cities. "Urban enigmas" demonstrates that the accumulation of urban actions, encounters, experiences, and relationships create distinctive patterns that make it possible to recognize the particularity of cities. Contributors include Alan Blum (York), Kieran Bonner (St. Jerome's), Jenny Burman (McGill), Jean-François Côté (Université du Québec à Montréal), Michael Darroch (York), Nicholas DeMaria Harney (Western Australia), Kevin Dowler (York & Toronto), Dipti Gupta (Dawson College), Janine Marchessault (York), Jean-François Morissette (Université du Québec à Montréal), and Greg Nielsen (Concordia).
Architecture in Canada
books
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Borrowing its title from Gregg Araki’s 2005 film, in which the camera’s contemplation of the male body encourages us to feel that body, and covering a broad span of subjects and films, Mysterious Skin offers a wider, more representative picture of the depiction of the male body in contemporary world cinemas than has hitherto been attempted. An international array of(...)
Mysterious skin: male bodies in contemporary cinema
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Borrowing its title from Gregg Araki’s 2005 film, in which the camera’s contemplation of the male body encourages us to feel that body, and covering a broad span of subjects and films, Mysterious Skin offers a wider, more representative picture of the depiction of the male body in contemporary world cinemas than has hitherto been attempted. An international array of major experts explore the treatment of masculinity and the male body in the cinemas of Africa, Australia, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, North America, Spain, Taiwan and Vietnam, as well as Hollywood. Their common concern is to reveal how the representation of the male body is used in films to convey a country’s anxieties about its national identity and history, as well as how it engages with questions of racial, sexual or gender politics. They discuss key actors, directors and films of these countries, from Ewan MacGregor in Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book, through the films of Wong Kar Wai, to Paul Hogan as Mick Dundee in Crocodile Dundee. In so doing, Mysterious Skin also provides a strong overview of important cinema produced around the world in the last twenty years.
books
January 1900
Contemporary Art Monographs
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Russian Textiles showcases the gorgeous printed-cotton textiles created and manufactured in Russia and exported to Central Asia from approximately 1860 to 1960. More than 175 spectacular patterns spanning a variety of periods and styles, from Art Nouveau florals to Soviet-era agitprop, are featured. The people in these Central Asian countries—including Uzbeks, Tadjiks,(...)
Russian Textiles: printed cloth for the bazaars of Central Asia
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Russian Textiles showcases the gorgeous printed-cotton textiles created and manufactured in Russia and exported to Central Asia from approximately 1860 to 1960. More than 175 spectacular patterns spanning a variety of periods and styles, from Art Nouveau florals to Soviet-era agitprop, are featured. The people in these Central Asian countries—including Uzbeks, Tadjiks, and Turkmen—incorporated the brightly patterned material into their clothing, particularly their robes, and in their household items. Brief essays by the author and fellow textile experts describe the “social life” of the fabrics and the fascinating history of this merging of Russian, Western, and Central Asian aesthetic styles; Robert Kushner contributes a lively text on how an artist “sees” and is inspired by these designs. Complementing the pattern images are vintage photographs from the turn of the 20th century as well as beautifully detailed reproductions of the robes and other articles that were lined and embellished with these cloths. This is a must-have book for the inspiration library of every artist; professional fashion, interior, and product designer; crafter; and anyone with a love of extraordinary visual design.
Interior Design
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This book develops an alternative and inclusive approach –based on the hypothesis that the impact of digitalization on architectural culture is similar to the effects of the linguistic turn in philosophy– and steers clear of exclusive dichotomous approaches, without the foundational reconsideration of the discipline or its ontological conservation. The project is open and(...)
Total designer: authorship in the architecture of the postdigital age
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This book develops an alternative and inclusive approach –based on the hypothesis that the impact of digitalization on architectural culture is similar to the effects of the linguistic turn in philosophy– and steers clear of exclusive dichotomous approaches, without the foundational reconsideration of the discipline or its ontological conservation. The project is open and broad, which was a necessary condition for demonstrating the power of the turn brought about by digitalization. Most studies on the digital phenomenon carried out in the context of the discipline are focused on the more technical aspects, with expert discourses based on the standpoint of the optimization of existing processes. This text was inspired by a concern and a certain discomfort with respect to those positions, which are often underwritten by a positivist vision of reality. This concern gave way to the idea for a study rooted in a cultural approach to the phenomenon. Given the general tendency toward creating experts –a phenomenon that, on the other hand, is not exclusive to the field of architecture– and encapsulating knowledge, this text is meant to be based on a transversal vision, which can help non-specialist readers to understand certain complex phenomena.
Digital Architecture
The Playground Project
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Until sometime in the 1980s, playgrounds were places for social experiments, risky projects and spectacular sculptures. Architects, urban planners, artists, parents and children were invited to leave their comfort zones and to venture something new in the design and use of playgrounds. The Playground Project explores these exemplary initiatives, pioneering acts and(...)
The Playground Project
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Until sometime in the 1980s, playgrounds were places for social experiments, risky projects and spectacular sculptures. Architects, urban planners, artists, parents and children were invited to leave their comfort zones and to venture something new in the design and use of playgrounds. The Playground Project explores these exemplary initiatives, pioneering acts and adventures in designing modern childhood. Examples from Europe, the US, Japan and India are discussed in depth and illustrated with numerous images. Truly a comprehensive overview, this volume includes works by artists, architects and landscape architects such as Marjory Allen, Joseph Brown, Riccardo Dalisi, Richard Dattner, Aldo van Eyck, M. Paul Friedberg, Group Ludic (Xavier de la Salle, Simon Koszel, David Roditi), Alfred Ledermann and Alfred Trachsel, Palle Nielsen, Egon Møller-Nielsen, Isamu Noguchi, Joseph Schagerl, Mitsuru Senda and Carl Theodor Sørensen. Swiss political scientist and urban planner Gabriela Burkhalter contributes an introduction, and essays by Xavier de la Salle, Sreejata Roy and Vincent Romagny investigate the stakes of the architectural and artistic experiments surveyed. The first comprehensive overview of this kind, The Playground Project addresses laymen as well as experts who want to do more on the playground than just seesaw and swing.
Commercial interiors, Building types
Aalto and America
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The internationally renowned Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) created several landmarks of modern design in the United States. The first, the Finland Pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1939, introduced his pioneering style to the country and established his reputation among his American peers. Subsequent designs produced in the United States(...)
Aalto and America
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The internationally renowned Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) created several landmarks of modern design in the United States. The first, the Finland Pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1939, introduced his pioneering style to the country and established his reputation among his American peers. Subsequent designs produced in the United States marked major turning points in his evolving position as an architect. His commissioned project for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Baker House dormitory (completed 1949) features an undulating facade of red brick, a material that references the building's Boston surroundings. Aalto's fan-shaped plan for the Mount Angel Abbey Library (completed 1970) in St. Benedict, Oregon, his consummate exploration of the library type, capitalizes on the local terrain and the use of natural light. Aalto's designs had a lasting impact on American modernism, but his experiences in America also profoundly influenced his own stylistic development. Aalto and America is a detailed survey of this beneficial relationship, with contributions by fifteen experts who explore these key designs in relation to larger themes in international politics, architectural culture, housing research, and modern criticism and design.
Architecture Monographs
Ville durable et écoquartier
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Ce guide pratique parle de la ville. Durable forcément, car on ne bâtit pas du temporaire quand on construit une ville, mais durable au sens « qui tient compte des enjeux du développement durable », une ville du XXIe siècle, des quartiers innovants, des quartiers écologiques, des éco-quartiers. Il s’adresse aux personnes concernées par la conception des villes, les élus(...)
Ville durable et écoquartier
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Ce guide pratique parle de la ville. Durable forcément, car on ne bâtit pas du temporaire quand on construit une ville, mais durable au sens « qui tient compte des enjeux du développement durable », une ville du XXIe siècle, des quartiers innovants, des quartiers écologiques, des éco-quartiers. Il s’adresse aux personnes concernées par la conception des villes, les élus au premier plan. L’objectif de cet ouvrage est double : comprendre et agir. Comprendre autant les thématiques elles-mêmes que leurs interactions, s’approprier un vocabulaire, des notions pour agir, c'est-à-dire être capable d’impulser des projets… en connaissance de cause. Pour aborder la « ville durable », nous avons souhaité non pas rédiger un mode d’emploi de l’éco-quartier emblématique mais plutôt aborder l’ensemble des notions-clés de ce qui fait la ville, de ce qui peut la rendre « éco », les points de vigilance et les ressources disponibles. Ce guide constitue un travail collectif et fait appel à des spécialistes reconnus et à des élus impliqués. Il renvoie à des lectures plus approfondies sur plusieurs sujets et permet de comprendre le vocabulaire et dialoguer avec les experts.
Green Architecture
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Ants are legion: at present there are 11,006 species of ant known; they live everywhere in the world except the polar icecaps; and the combined weight of the ant population has been estimated to make up half the mass of all insects alive today. When we encounter them outdoors, ants fascinate us; discovered in our kitchen cupboards, they elicit horror and disgust.(...)
Ant
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Ants are legion: at present there are 11,006 species of ant known; they live everywhere in the world except the polar icecaps; and the combined weight of the ant population has been estimated to make up half the mass of all insects alive today. When we encounter them outdoors, ants fascinate us; discovered in our kitchen cupboards, they elicit horror and disgust. Charlotte Sleigh’s 'Ant' elucidates the cultural reasons behind our varied reactions to these extraordinary insects, and considers the variety of responses that humans have expressed at different times and in different places to their intricate, miniature societies. Ants have figured as fantasy miniature armies, as models of good behaviour, as infiltrating communists and as creatures on the borderline between the realms of the organic and the machine: in 1977 British Telecom hired ant experts to help solve problems with their massive information network. This is the first book to examine ants in these and many other such guises, and in so doing opens up broader issues about the history of science and humans’ relations with the natural world. It will be of interest to anyone who likes natural history or cultural studies, or who has ever rushed out and bought a can of Raid™.
Fauna and flora