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Produced at a rate of five billion cubic yards per year, concrete is the second most widely consumed substance on earth, after water. It is ubiquitous and easily taken for granted as the stuff of sidewalks and roads, power plants and parking garages. Concrete is also, however, a favored material of cutting- edge architects and engineers, who value not only its versatility(...)
Materials and Lighting
March 2006, New York
Liquid stone : new architecture in concrete
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Produced at a rate of five billion cubic yards per year, concrete is the second most widely consumed substance on earth, after water. It is ubiquitous and easily taken for granted as the stuff of sidewalks and roads, power plants and parking garages. Concrete is also, however, a favored material of cutting- edge architects and engineers, who value not only its versatility and strength but its unlimited potential for imaginative expression. A hybrid substance made from cement, water, sand, and mineral aggregates, concrete–or liquid stone–has no intrinsic form. In the hands of talented designers, its ultimate appearance is dictated by the framework into which it is poured and the color, texture, or pattern applied to its surface. In a series of essays by top architects, engineers, and scholars, " Liquid stone " explores the nature of concrete, its past and future, from technical, artistic, and historical perspectives. Over thirty buildings by leading international architects including Jean Nouvel, Herzog – de Meuron, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl, Norman Foster, and Santiago Calatrava are presented through detailed descriptions, photographs, and technical drawings.
Materials and Lighting
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Ever since the discovery of the cave, humans have made use of nature’s geological formations. Only recently, however, have developments in structural engineering made it possible to engage the earth’s surface as a building element in its own right. With an increasing awareness of our planet’s limited natural resources, the most acclaimed architectural practices from(...)
Landscrapers : building with the land
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Ever since the discovery of the cave, humans have made use of nature’s geological formations. Only recently, however, have developments in structural engineering made it possible to engage the earth’s surface as a building element in its own right. With an increasing awareness of our planet’s limited natural resources, the most acclaimed architectural practices from around the world are building into the earth and merging man-made forms with the contours of the land. The results are at once preternatural and breathtaking. From Zaha Hadid’s Tram Terminal in France to Snøhetta’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, from Future System’s hill-burrowing house in Wales to Antoine Predock’s Spencer Theater in the United States, over fifty projects displayed here expose the breadth and depth of this new direction in architecture. Aaron Betsky first considers our historical preoccupation with communing with the land through building, then four central chapters – ‘Engineered Utopias’, ‘Caves and Caverns’, ‘Unfolding the Land’ and ‘A New Nature’ – explore the ways in which ‘geotecture’ responds to, becomes a part of and yet remains distinctive within our natural landscape.
Architecture since 1900, Europe
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Ever since the discovery of the cave, humans have made use of nature’s geological formations. Only recently, however, have developments in structural engineering made it possible to engage the earth’s surface as a building element in its own right. With an increasing awareness of our planet’s limited natural resources, the most acclaimed architectural practices from(...)
Landscrapers : building with the land
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$49.00
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Ever since the discovery of the cave, humans have made use of nature’s geological formations. Only recently, however, have developments in structural engineering made it possible to engage the earth’s surface as a building element in its own right. With an increasing awareness of our planet’s limited natural resources, the most acclaimed architectural practices from around the world are building into the earth and merging man-made forms with the contours of the land. The results are at once preternatural and breathtaking. From Zaha Hadid’s Tram Terminal in France to Snøhetta’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, from Future System’s hill-burrowing house in Wales to Antoine Predock’s Spencer Theater in the United States, over fifty projects displayed here expose the breadth and depth of this new direction in architecture. Aaron Betsky first considers our historical preoccupation with communing with the land through building, then four central chapters – ‘Engineered Utopias’, ‘Caves and Caverns’, ‘Unfolding the Land’ and ‘A New Nature’ – explore the ways in which ‘geotecture’ responds to, becomes a part of and yet remains distinctive within our natural landscape.
Green Architecture
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A photographic survey of Soviet-era playgrounds found in former members of the USSR, such as Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Through five chapters containing more than 150 photographs, the book documents the mass-produced, yet diverse play equipment installed in the communal spaces of socialist-era housing(...)
Soviet playgrounds: Playful landscapes of the former USSR
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A photographic survey of Soviet-era playgrounds found in former members of the USSR, such as Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Through five chapters containing more than 150 photographs, the book documents the mass-produced, yet diverse play equipment installed in the communal spaces of socialist-era housing estates, such as rocket slides and earth-shaped climbers, spaceships and animal-themed ladders, cosmic roundabouts and bizarre objects that would probably raise safety concerns nowadays. From Riga to Dushanbe and all the way from Kyiv to Vladivostok, children dreamt of becoming cosmonauts, and enjoyed the many space-themed playscapes which had proliferated since the onset of the Cold War era. While some are still in use, others are slowly disappearing to make way for modern equipment, or, more recently, being destroyed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, becoming only a faint memory of a Soviet childhood. Includes a foreword by the Ukrainian urban planner Mykola Gorokhov and informative maps of the playgrounds featured in every chapter. Pictures were taken by Zupagrafika, with contributions by local photographers.
Modernism
The Dome of the Rock
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The Dome of the Rock, the beautiful Muslim shrine in the walled Old City of Jerusalem, was fully restored to its original state in the last half-century. Thus, this structure, sited on the third holiest spot on earth for Muslims, is at once a product of the seventh century and almost entirely the work of our own times - a paradox in keeping with the complexities and(...)
History until 1900, Middle East
October 2006, Cambridge (MA), London
The Dome of the Rock
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The Dome of the Rock, the beautiful Muslim shrine in the walled Old City of Jerusalem, was fully restored to its original state in the last half-century. Thus, this structure, sited on the third holiest spot on earth for Muslims, is at once a product of the seventh century and almost entirely the work of our own times - a paradox in keeping with the complexities and contradictions of history and religion, architecture and ideology that define this site. This book tells the story of the Dome of the Rock, from the first decades of its creation - on the esplanade built in the fourth decade B.C.E. for the Second Jewish Temple - to its engulfment in the clashes of the Crusades and the short-lived Christianization of all of Jerusalem, to its modern acquisition of different and potent meanings for Muslim, Christian, and Jewish cultures. Oleg Grabar's presentation combines what we know of the building with the views of past observers and with the broader historical, cultural, and aesthetic implications of the monument.
History until 1900, Middle East
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In the middle of the salt-frosted Afghan desert, in a village so remote that Google can’t find it, a woman squats on top of a loom, making flowers bloom in the thousand threads she knots by hand. Here, where heroin is cheaper than rice, every day is a fast day. B-52s pass overhead—a sign of America’s omnipotence or its vulnerability, the villagers are unsure. They know,(...)
The World is a Carpet: Four seasons in an afghan village
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In the middle of the salt-frosted Afghan desert, in a village so remote that Google can’t find it, a woman squats on top of a loom, making flowers bloom in the thousand threads she knots by hand. Here, where heroin is cheaper than rice, every day is a fast day. B-52s pass overhead—a sign of America’s omnipotence or its vulnerability, the villagers are unsure. They know, though, that the earth is flat—like a carpet. Anna Badkhen first traveled to this country in 2001, as a war correspondent. She has returned many times since, drawn by a land that geography has made a perpetual battleground, and by a people who sustain an exquisite tradition there. Through the four seasons in which a new carpet is woven by the women and children of Oqa, she immortalizes their way of life much as the carpet does—from the petal half-finished where a hungry infant needs care to the interruptions when the women trade sex jokes or go fill in for wedding musicians scared away by the Taliban.
Literature and poetry
Mountain: nature and culture
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Majestic and inspiring, there is nothing like the sight of a mountain on the horizon. Throughout all of human history mountains have been linked to the eternal, attracting us to their dizzying heights, stunning us with their natural beauty, and often threatening us with their dangers. Through a compelling journey to both real and imaginary peaks, this book explores how(...)
Mountain: nature and culture
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Majestic and inspiring, there is nothing like the sight of a mountain on the horizon. Throughout all of human history mountains have been linked to the eternal, attracting us to their dizzying heights, stunning us with their natural beauty, and often threatening us with their dangers. Through a compelling journey to both real and imaginary peaks, this book explores how the mountain has figured in our history, culture, and maginations. Veronica della Dora explores the ways mountains have functioned spiritually as a boundary between life and death, a bridge between the earth and the heavens. Interlacing science, culture, and religion, she sketches the mountain as a geological phenomenon that has profoundly influenced and been influenced by the human imagination, shaping our environmental consciousness and helping us understand our—quite small indeed—place in the world. She also explores their significance as objects of human feats, as prizes of adventure and sport, and as places of serene beauty for vacationers. Magnificently illustrated and showcasing famous peaks from all around the world, Mountain offers a fascinating dual portrait of these giants in nature and culture.
Landscape Theory
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The modern world is dominated by flat surfaces. We write, print and project on flat paper or flat screens, which we stare at all day. We inhabit spaces constructed from flat materials. We play sport on level fields. Engineered planar surfaces have become so pervasive and fundamental to behaviour and thought that we barely notice their existence. But flat landscapes are(...)
Flatness
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The modern world is dominated by flat surfaces. We write, print and project on flat paper or flat screens, which we stare at all day. We inhabit spaces constructed from flat materials. We play sport on level fields. Engineered planar surfaces have become so pervasive and fundamental to behaviour and thought that we barely notice their existence. But flat landscapes are also often disparaged, viewed as featureless, empty and monotonous. Metaphorically, to ‘feel flat’ is to be bored, dull, lacking energy or inspiration. So what is it about flatness that makes it so desirable and practical in everyday life, yet so unattractive in landscape and as an idea? How has the construction of flat surfaces contributed to a degradation of visual diversity? "Flatness" attacks these questions by looking first at the ways humans have perceived the natural world around them, from Flat Earth theories to abstract geometric concepts and the Flatness Problem in modern cosmology. It also traces the long historical trajectory of flatness as an engineering ideal, and the representation of the concept in art, music and literature.
Critical Theory
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How did Los Angeles start the 20th century as a dusty frontier town and end up a century later as one of the globe's supercities - with unparalleled cultural, economic, and technological reach? Peter Lunenfeld constructs an urban portrait, layer by layer, from serendipitous affinities, historical anomalies, and uncanny correspondences. One of the book's innovations is(...)
CIty at the edge of forever: Los Angeles reimagined
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How did Los Angeles start the 20th century as a dusty frontier town and end up a century later as one of the globe's supercities - with unparalleled cultural, economic, and technological reach? Peter Lunenfeld constructs an urban portrait, layer by layer, from serendipitous affinities, historical anomalies, and uncanny correspondences. One of the book's innovations is to brand Los Angeles as the alchemical city. Earth became real estate when the Yankees took control in the nineteenth century. Fire fueled the city's early explosive growth as the Southland's oil fields supplied the inexhaustible demands of drivers and their cars. Air defined the area from WWII to the end of the Cold War, with aeronautics and aerospace dominating the region's industries. Water is now the key element, and Southern California's ports are the largest in the western hemisphere. What alchemists identify as the ethereal fifth element, or quintessence, this book positions as the glamour of Hollywood, a spell that sustains the city but also needs to be broken in order to understand Los Angeles now.
Urban Theory
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Surveying humanity's impact on the planet, with contributions from Donna Haraway, Bill McKibben, Greta Thunberg, Bruno Latour, Alice Waters and others. This book, in the form of an encyclopedia, considers the totality of issues surrounding the Anthropocene, that geologic era characterized by humanity's vast impact on the Earth. ''Connectedness'' acknowledges the(...)
Connectedness: An incomplete encyclopedia of the Anthropocene
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Surveying humanity's impact on the planet, with contributions from Donna Haraway, Bill McKibben, Greta Thunberg, Bruno Latour, Alice Waters and others. This book, in the form of an encyclopedia, considers the totality of issues surrounding the Anthropocene, that geologic era characterized by humanity's vast impact on the Earth. ''Connectedness'' acknowledges the incomplete nature of its project seeing as how this riotous era is not yet finished. With contributions by Greta Thunberg, Bill McKibben, Alice Waters, Tomás Saraceno, Björk and many others, this publication consists of approximately 100 entries, arranged alphabetically, each reflecting on questions, phenomena, terms, possibilities and theories associated with the Anthropocene. Examples of entries include Air, Borders and Coexistence, as well as more complex subjects such as Donna Haraway on the Chthulucene or Anders Blok on Climate Risk Communities. The content ranges from scientific to cultural-theoretical and artistic contributions featuring a wide span of scholars, philosophers, anthropologists, scientists, authors, artists and others. The book accompanies the exhibition at the Danish Pavilion at the 2020 Venice Architectural Biennale.
Environment and environmental theory