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Why architects still draw
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Why would an architect reach for a pencil when drawing software and AutoCAD are a click away? Use a ruler when 3D-scanners and GPS devices are close at hand? In Why Architects Still Draw, Paolo Belardi offers an elegant and ardent defense of drawing by hand as a way of thinking. Belardi is no Luddite; he doesn't urge architects to give up digital devices for watercolors(...)
Why architects still draw
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$26.95
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Why would an architect reach for a pencil when drawing software and AutoCAD are a click away? Use a ruler when 3D-scanners and GPS devices are close at hand? In Why Architects Still Draw, Paolo Belardi offers an elegant and ardent defense of drawing by hand as a way of thinking. Belardi is no Luddite; he doesn't urge architects to give up digital devices for watercolors and a measuring tape. Rather, he makes a case for drawing as the interface between the idea and the work itself. A drawing, Belardi argues, holds within it the entire final design. It is the paradox of the acorn: a project emerges from a drawing-even from a sketch, rough and inchoate-just as an oak tree emerges from an acorn. Citing examples not just from architecture but also from literature, chemistry, music, archaeology, and art, Belardi shows how drawing is not a passive recording but a moment of invention pregnant with creative possibilities.
books
March 2014
Architectural Theory
Machine art, 1934
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In 1934, New York’s Museum of Modern Art staged a major exhibition of ball bearings, airplane propellers, pots and pans, cocktail tumblers, petri dishes, protractors, and other machine parts and products. The exhibition, titled Machine Art, explored these ordinary objects as works of modern art, teaching museumgoers about the nature of beauty and value in the era of mass(...)
Machine art, 1934
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$49.95
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In 1934, New York’s Museum of Modern Art staged a major exhibition of ball bearings, airplane propellers, pots and pans, cocktail tumblers, petri dishes, protractors, and other machine parts and products. The exhibition, titled Machine Art, explored these ordinary objects as works of modern art, teaching museumgoers about the nature of beauty and value in the era of mass production. Telling the story of this popular but controversial show, Jennifer Jane Marshall examines its history and the relationship between the museum’s director, Alfred H. Barr Jr., and its curator, Philip Johnson, who oversaw it. She situates the show within the tumultuous climate of the interwar period and the Great Depression, considering how these unadorned objects served as a response to timely debates over photography, abstract art, the end of the American gold standard, and John Dewey’s insight that how a person experiences things depends on the context in which they are encountered. An engaging investigation of interwar American modernism, Machine Art, 1934 reveals how even simple things can serve as a defense against uncertainty.
Museums and Universal Exhibitions
Unidentified flying object for contemporary architecture: ufo's experiments between political
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The contemporary context is defined by a unique conjuncture. On one hand, we witness the revival of the radical architecture that from the avant-garde experiments of the origins recovers creative processes and iconographic fragments while nullifying the original ideological and political values. On the other hand, we see social protests in defense of fundamental rights(...)
Architectural Theory
May 2022
Unidentified flying object for contemporary architecture: ufo's experiments between political
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The contemporary context is defined by a unique conjuncture. On one hand, we witness the revival of the radical architecture that from the avant-garde experiments of the origins recovers creative processes and iconographic fragments while nullifying the original ideological and political values. On the other hand, we see social protests in defense of fundamental rights of democracy, as in 1968. Architecture is now reinvestigating those ephemeral experiments that have endured half a century as new "stone monuments" capable of indicating new perspectives for both research and design. Placing UFO group at the core of the contemporary debate means investigating their formal and seductive aspects, but also the ideological, political and social values with which objects, installations and happenings have been innervated, transforming them into devices of an architecture nourished by literature, art and political commitment for the foundation of an eloquent and activist project even more radical than the well-known Superstudio and Archizoom. The collaboration between Beatrice Lampariello and False Mirror Office lead to a monograph focused on the UFO’s work and an evaluation of their legacy relative to contemporary architecture.
Architectural Theory
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'Darkness is not empty,' writes Teju Cole in ''Black Paper,'' a book that meditates on what it means to sustain our humanity—and witness the humanity of others—in a time of darkness. One of the most celebrated essayists of his generation, Cole here plays variations on the essay form, modeling ways to attend to experience—not just to take in but to think critically about(...)
Black paper : writing in a dark time
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'Darkness is not empty,' writes Teju Cole in ''Black Paper,'' a book that meditates on what it means to sustain our humanity—and witness the humanity of others—in a time of darkness. One of the most celebrated essayists of his generation, Cole here plays variations on the essay form, modeling ways to attend to experience—not just to take in but to think critically about what we sense and what we don’t. Wide-ranging but thematically unified, the essays address ethical questions about what it means to be human and what it means to bear witness, recognizing how our individual present is informed by a collective past. Cole’s writings in ''Black Paper'' approach the fractured moment of our history through a constellation of interrelated concerns: confrontation with unsettling art, elegies both public and private, the defense of writing in a time of political upheaval, the role of the color black in the visual arts, the use of shadow in photography, and the links between literature and activism. Throughout, Cole gives us intriguing new ways of thinking about blackness and its numerous connotations. As he describes the carbon-copy process in his epilogue: 'Writing on the top white sheet would transfer the carbon from the black paper onto the bottom white sheet. Black transported the meaning.'
Social
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This anthology by members of the Mohawk Warrior Society uncovers a hidden history and paints a bold portrait of the spectacular experience of Kanien'kehá:ka survival and self-defense. Providing extensive documentation, context, and analysis, the book features foundational writings by prolific visual artist and polemicist Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall (1918–1993)—such as his(...)
The Mohawk Warrior Society: auto-history of the Rotisken'rhakéhte
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This anthology by members of the Mohawk Warrior Society uncovers a hidden history and paints a bold portrait of the spectacular experience of Kanien'kehá:ka survival and self-defense. Providing extensive documentation, context, and analysis, the book features foundational writings by prolific visual artist and polemicist Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall (1918–1993)—such as his landmark 1979 pamphlet, The Warrior’s Handbook, as well as selections of his pioneering artwork. This book contains new oral history by key figures of the Rotisken'rhakéhte's revival in the 1970s, and tells the story of the Warriors’ famous flag, their armed occupation of Ganienkeh in 1974, and the role of their constitution, the Great Peace, in guiding their commitment to freedom and independence. We hear directly the story of how the Kanien'kehá:ka Longhouse became one the most militant resistance groups in North America, gaining international attention with the Oka Crisis of 1990. This auto-history of the Rotisken'rhakéhte is complemented by a Mohawk history timeline from colonization to the present, a glossary of Mohawk political philosophy, and a new map of Iroquoia in Mohawk language. At last, the Mohawk Warriors can tell their own story with their own voices, and to serve as an example and inspiration for future generations struggling against the environmental, cultural, and social devastation cast upon the modern world.
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In Renaissance Rome, ancient ruins were preserved as often as they were mined for their materials. Although the question of what to preserve and how continued to be subject to debate, preservation acquired renewed force and urgency in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as the new papal capital rose upon the ruins of the ancient city. Preservation practices became more(...)
The ruin of the eternal city : Antiquity & preservation in renaissance Rome
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In Renaissance Rome, ancient ruins were preserved as often as they were mined for their materials. Although the question of what to preserve and how continued to be subject to debate, preservation acquired renewed force and urgency in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as the new papal capital rose upon the ruins of the ancient city. Preservation practices became more focused and effective in Renaissance Rome than ever before. "The Ruin of the Eternal City" offers a new interpretation of the ongoing life of ancient buildings within the expanding early modern city. While historians and archaeologists have long affirmed that early modern builders disregarded the protection of antiquity, this study provides the first systematic analysis of preservation problems as perceived by the Renaissance popes, the civic magistrates, and ordinary citizens. Based on new evidence and recent conservation theory, this compelling study explores how civic officials balanced the defense of specific sites against the pressing demands imposed by population growth, circulation, and notions of urban decorum. Above all, the preservation of antiquity remained an indispensable tool to advance competing political agendas in the papal capital. A broad range of preservation policies and practices are examined at the half-ruined Colosseum, the intact Pantheon, and the little-known but essential Renaissance bridge known as the Ponte Santa Maria.
History until 1900, Classicism
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Cities participate in the production of meaning by providing places populated with objects for words to refer to. Inscriptions on these objects (labels, billboards, newspapers, graffiti) provide another layer of meaning. And today, the flow of digital information - from one device to another in the urban scene - creates a digital network that also exists in physical(...)
Architectural Theory
January 1900, Cambridge, Mass.
Placing words : symbols, space and the city
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Cities participate in the production of meaning by providing places populated with objects for words to refer to. Inscriptions on these objects (labels, billboards, newspapers, graffiti) provide another layer of meaning. And today, the flow of digital information - from one device to another in the urban scene - creates a digital network that also exists in physical space. "Placing Words" examines this emerging system of spaces, flows, and practices in a series of short essays - snapshots of the city in the twenty-first century. Mitchell questions the necessity of flashy downtown office towers in an age of corporate web sites. He casts the shocked-and-awed Baghdad as a contemporary Guernica. He describes architectural makeovers throughout history, listing Le Corbusier's Fab Five Points of difference between new and old architecture, and he discusses the architecture of Manolo Blahniks. He pens an open letter to the Secretary of Defense recommending architectural features to include in torture chambers. He compares Baudelaire, the Parisian flaneur, to Spiderman, the Manhattan traceur. He describes the iPod-like galleries of the renovated MoMA and he recognizes the camera phone as the latest step in a process of image mobilization that began when artists stopped painting on walls and began making pictures on small pieces of wood, canvas, or paper. The endless flow of information, he makes clear, is not only more pervasive and efficient than ever, it is also generating new cultural complexities.
Architectural Theory
Privacy a manifesto
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What ever happened to privacy? The simple right to be left alone? Surveillance cameras track our movements. Governments monitor our phone calls, e-mails, and Internet habits. Insurance companies know what drugs we take. Banks and credit agencies keep tabs on our smallest purchases. And new technologies - which gather, store, and share information as never before - have(...)
Privacy a manifesto
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What ever happened to privacy? The simple right to be left alone? Surveillance cameras track our movements. Governments monitor our phone calls, e-mails, and Internet habits. Insurance companies know what drugs we take. Banks and credit agencies keep tabs on our smallest purchases. And new technologies - which gather, store, and share information as never before - have made all of this possible. But, as the acclaimed social thinker Wolfgang Sofsky shows in this brief and powerful defense of privacy, neither technology nor fears of terrorism deserve all the blame. Rather, through indifference and the desire for attention, we have been accomplices in the loss of our privacy. When we aren't resigning ourselves to privacy's disappearance as the inevitable price of living in a new age, we are eagerly embracing opportunities to divulge personal information to people we know - and, increasingly, to people we don't. Dramatically demonstrating how much privacy we have already surrendered, Sofsky describes a day in the life of an average modern citizen - in other words, a person under almost constant scrutiny. He also briefly traces the changing status of privacy from ancient Rome to today, explains how liberty and freedom of thought depend on privacy, and points to some of the places where privacy is under greatest threat, from health to personal space. Privacy is a timely and compelling reminder of just how important privacy is - and just how devastating its loss would be.
Critical Theory
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Under the label Atelier Zanolli, a fantastic world of silk fabrics painted and imprinted with patterns, opulently embroidered cushions, colorful pearl creations, and finely crafted leather and wood articles, was created between 1905 and 1939 in Zurich. The Zanollis had immigrated from Italy in 1905. Their family business was run by Antonietta and her daughters Pia, Lea,(...)
Fashion Design
September 2022
Atelier Zanolli: Fabrics, fashion, craft 1905-1939
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Under the label Atelier Zanolli, a fantastic world of silk fabrics painted and imprinted with patterns, opulently embroidered cushions, colorful pearl creations, and finely crafted leather and wood articles, was created between 1905 and 1939 in Zurich. The Zanollis had immigrated from Italy in 1905. Their family business was run by Antonietta and her daughters Pia, Lea, and Zoe Zanolli. The cultural and stylistic influences manifested in the Zanollis’ visually appealing products range from the avant-garde to an aesthetic forged by a spirit of intellectual national defense against the increasing threat of the totalitarian regimes in Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and the communist Soviet Union, that was prevalent in Switzerland in the 1930s. Driven by a striving for artistic self-realization, the atelier defied the many economic challenges of the period and carried out many commissions for Zurich’s leading textile businesses and department stores. This book traces the history of Atelier Zanolli, places its work in the context of the growth of Zurich and the Swiss textile industry in the first half of the twentieth century, and for the first time positions the “Zanolli style” internationally. More than six hundred images show the wealth of colors and shapes in a veritable cosmos of textiles and crafted objects, as well as templates, sketches, private photographs, business cards, and letters. The essays illuminate the techniques and work processes used, discuss entire motif families and unique designs, and grant rare comprehensive insight into the tastes of the time.
Fashion Design
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Chute de la biodiversité, inondations, feux de forêt : les conséquences de la crise environnementale sont chaque jour plus visibles. Malgré son importance dans l’actualité récente, la défense de l’environnement ne date pas d’hier. En 1982, le Québec est témoin de la naissance du Réseau québécois des groupes écologistes (RQGE). Durant plus de quatre décennies, ce réseau(...)
Le réseau québécois des groupes écologistes : Une perspective dissidente sur le mouvement environnental au Québec (1982-2022)
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Chute de la biodiversité, inondations, feux de forêt : les conséquences de la crise environnementale sont chaque jour plus visibles. Malgré son importance dans l’actualité récente, la défense de l’environnement ne date pas d’hier. En 1982, le Québec est témoin de la naissance du Réseau québécois des groupes écologistes (RQGE). Durant plus de quatre décennies, ce réseau sera de toutes les luttes pour la défense du territoire. La protection des forêts, la gestion des déchets et la préservation de l’eau seront sur la longue liste des luttes à mener. Dans cet ouvrage, on découvre les batailles ayant ponctué quarante ans de dévouement à la cause environnementale.
Environment and environmental theory