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What makes Italian Brutalist buildings different to their counterparts in other countries? Containing over 140 exclusive photographs-- ranging from private homes to churches and cemeteries via football stadiums-- across every region of the country, ''Brutalist Italy'' is the first publication to focus entirely on this subject. Architectural photographers Roberto Conte and(...)
Brutalist Italy: Concrete architecture from the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea
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What makes Italian Brutalist buildings different to their counterparts in other countries? Containing over 140 exclusive photographs-- ranging from private homes to churches and cemeteries via football stadiums-- across every region of the country, ''Brutalist Italy'' is the first publication to focus entirely on this subject. Architectural photographers Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego (authors of Soviet Asia) have spent the past five years traveling over 12,000 miles documenting the monumental concrete structures of their native country. Brutalism-- with its minimalist aesthetic, favoring raw materials and structural elements over decorative design-- has a complex relationship with Italian history. After World War II, Italian architects were keen to distance themselves from fascism, without rejecting the architectural modernism that had flourished during that era. They developed a form of contemporary architecture that engaged with traditional methods and materials, drawing on uncontaminated historical references. This plurality of pasts assimilated into new constructions is a recurring feature of the country’s Brutalist buildings, imparting to them a unique identity. From the imposing social housing of Le Vele di Scampia to the celestial Our Lady of Tears Sanctuary, Syracuse, ''Brutalist Italy'' collects the most compelling examples of this extraordinary architecture for the first time in a single volume.
Brutalism
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In the mid 1960s Aldo Rossi launched what in retrospect appears a heroic endeavour: a redefinition of architecture founded in the knowledge of the rules and forms that constitute "the European city". Understanding this type of city as a collective artefact, Rossi sought to lead architecture out of the impasse created by a technocratic interpretation of functionalism after(...)
OASE 62 : architecture and the project of the city
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In the mid 1960s Aldo Rossi launched what in retrospect appears a heroic endeavour: a redefinition of architecture founded in the knowledge of the rules and forms that constitute "the European city". Understanding this type of city as a collective artefact, Rossi sought to lead architecture out of the impasse created by a technocratic interpretation of functionalism after World War II. Tendenza, with Aldo Rossi and Giorgio Grassi as its main protagonists, proposed the study of existing cities as architectural phenomena, intending to identify enduring formal patterns that could be reworked into elements of a new design. In this issue of "OASE" these ideas and their bearings on architectural practice are traced through the work of Carel Weeber, arguably the most controversial and successful architect to adopt the Italian ideas and transform them in the Dutch context. This issue will examine the relevance of the experience of Tendenza now, against the background of the almost complete erosion of the urban nature of much of suburbanized Europe. Is the reference to "the European city" still tenable? The transformation of these ideas and design solutions in Holland allows us to gauge their effect on the architectural discipline and their contribution to rethinking existing cities.
Magazines, Back Issues
Elvis road
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This long, speechless comic is read as one 20-ft fold-out page; it's half Saul Steinberg on drugs, half insane doodle. Porn shops, playgrounds and sports arenas mix in the crowded urban scene, where everyone seems to be going somewhere, really desperate, or about to do something wicked and fun. Strange vehicles crowd the road, which serves up race cars, tanks, and a huge(...)
Elvis road
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This long, speechless comic is read as one 20-ft fold-out page; it's half Saul Steinberg on drugs, half insane doodle. Porn shops, playgrounds and sports arenas mix in the crowded urban scene, where everyone seems to be going somewhere, really desperate, or about to do something wicked and fun. Strange vehicles crowd the road, which serves up race cars, tanks, and a huge "parfum" tanker truck in one long traffic jam. The simple line drawings use images from World War II, as well as from underground comics of the late '60s through to the present (any references to superheroes and Disney-like characters are purely ironic). The depictions of Klansmen and Nazis seem part of the social critique, perhaps reinforcing the underlying idea that life stuffed to the gills with items that fulfill our every need is itself a form of fascism. There's always something new to see, and much occurs in the cramped spaces, such as when a happy cop ushers small creatures into a theme park called "Cuteland," or when fascist worshipers are hit by a flaming asteroid that leaves a trail of yogurt in which people drown. A strong art-book that's actually a lot of fun.
Graphic Design and Typography
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Japan today protects one-seventh of its land surface in parks, which are visited by well over a billion people each year. Parkscapes analyzes the origins, development, and distinctive features of these public spaces. Green zones were created by the government beginning in the late nineteenth century for state purposes but eventually evolved into sites of negotiation(...)
Parkscapes: green spaces in modern Japan
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Japan today protects one-seventh of its land surface in parks, which are visited by well over a billion people each year. Parkscapes analyzes the origins, development, and distinctive features of these public spaces. Green zones were created by the government beginning in the late nineteenth century for state purposes but eventually evolved into sites of negotiation between bureaucrats and ordinary citizens who use them for demonstrations, riots, and shelters, as well as recreation. Thomas Havens shows how revolutionary officials in the 1870s seized private properties and converted them into public parks for educating and managing citizens in the new emperor-sanctioned state. Rebuilding Tokyo and Yokohama after the earthquake and fires of 1923 spurred the spread of urban parklands both in the capital and other cities. According to Havens, the growth of suburbs, the national mobilization of World War II, and the post-1945 American occupation helped speed the creation of more urban parks, setting the stage for vast increases in public green spaces during Japan’s golden age of affluence from the 1960s through the 1980s. Since the 1990s the Japanese public has embraced a heightened ecological consciousness and become deeply involved in the design and management of both city and natural parks—realms once monopolized by government bureaucrats.
Landscape Theory
books
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Beginning with the inception of the U.S. embassy building program in 1926, and continuing through the 1996 competition for a new embassy in Berlin, "The Architecture of Diplomacy" examines a remarkable(...)
Commercial interiors, Building types
August 1998, New York
The architecture of diplomacy : building America's embassies
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Beginning with the inception of the U.S. embassy building program in 1926, and continuing through the 1996 competition for a new embassy in Berlin, "The Architecture of Diplomacy" examines a remarkable yet little-known chapter in architectural history. It focuses on the 1950s, when modernism became linked with the idea of freedom and the State Department's Office of Foreign Buildings Operations began to showcase modern architecture in its embassies. Architects could build abroad in styles never sanctioned at home, resulting in unusual and sometimes outlandish designs intended to express an "open" America overseas. Indeed, the embassy building program was part of the nation's larger effort to establish and assert its superpower status following World War II. Terrorist threats and espionage scandals also shaped the worldwide building program, and continue to affect it today. "The Architecture of Diplomacy" features the stories behind the Rio de Janiero and Havana embassies by Harrison & Abramovitz, Ralph Rapson's designs for Stockholm and Copenhagen, Gordon Bunshaft's work in Germany, Eero Saarinen's constructions in London and Oslo, and Edward Durell Stone's embassy in New Delhi. Other architects involved in the program included Arquitectonica; Pietro Belluschi; Marcel Breuer; Walter Gropius; Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood; Richard Neutra; and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Author Jane C. Loeffler obtained access to original correspondence, drawings, and photographs that have never been published.
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August 1998, New York
Commercial interiors, Building types
The end of suburbia
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Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness. Suburbia, and all it promises, has become(...)
The end of suburbia
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Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness. Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, "The End of Suburbia" explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary. The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ? Hosted by Barrie Zwicker. Featuring James Howard Kunstler, Peter Calthorpe, Michael Klare, Richard Heinberg, Matthew Simmons, Michael C. Ruppert, Julian Darley, Colin Campbell, Kenneth Deffeyes, Ali Samsam Bakhtiari and Steve Andrews. Directed by Gregory Greene. Produced by Barry Silverthorn. Duration: 78 minutes DVD BONUS: Includes the vintage short films, "In the Suburbs" and "Destination Earth", and producer/director commentary.
DVDs
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''Magic Architecture'' was the architect Frederick Kiesler’s most ambitious book project, an epoch-spanning history of human housing from prehistory to the atomic era, submitted to editors after World War II but left unpublished. In its holistic view of habitation through the lens of anthropology, ecology, and the life sciences, ''Magic Architecture'' is one of the most(...)
Magic architecture: The story of human housing
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''Magic Architecture'' was the architect Frederick Kiesler’s most ambitious book project, an epoch-spanning history of human housing from prehistory to the atomic era, submitted to editors after World War II but left unpublished. In its holistic view of habitation through the lens of anthropology, ecology, and the life sciences, ''Magic Architecture'' is one of the most extraordinary texts on architecture written in the twentieth century, now at last published in the twenty-first. Kiesler’s exploration of the effects of modern technology in combination with the alternative epistemology of “magical” practices associated with cave drawings and the first artifacts of human industry reflects his profoundly interdisciplinary perspective on the development of art, architecture, and design. This critical edition preserves Kiesler’s conception of the book as a neo-Vitruvian treatise divided into ten parts that narrate an alternative history and theory of architecture. Also included are more than seventy composite plate illustrations consisting of images cut and pasted from books and popular science journals, with elaborate captions, as well as Kiesler’s own line drawings made specifically for this project. The editors have reassembled the book’s text and illustrations from archival documents, supplementing them with notes that trace the copious development of the work. Introductory essays provide an interpretation of key themes and bibliographic sources, as well as a chronological context of the architect’s research. Appendixes offer additional textual and visual material gathered by Kiesler for the project.
Architecture Monographs
books
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In 1949, the forest magnate, H.R. MacMillan, opened an exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery entitled “Design for Living,” a show which brought together design and artistic communities to create four imaginary households for postwar Vancouverites. It also heralded an unprecedented level of cooperation between the province’s industry and its artists and craftspeople – a(...)
A Modern life : art and design in British Columbia, 1945-1960
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In 1949, the forest magnate, H.R. MacMillan, opened an exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery entitled “Design for Living,” a show which brought together design and artistic communities to create four imaginary households for postwar Vancouverites. It also heralded an unprecedented level of cooperation between the province’s industry and its artists and craftspeople – a relationship that seemed to hold great promise for the development of art, furniture, and craft in B.C. The celebration of the cooperative spirit between “architects, artists and designers,” between “potters, weavers and gardeners” is central to "A Modern Life", which examines the coming together of what were often very separate disciplines in post-World War II British Columbia, as well as the trend-setting design and use of materials that developed in the province, and the impact these had on the more traditional art community. "A Modern Life", demonstrates that the ideas of the artistic and design community as a whole during this vibrant period – an era of optimism and promise for the future, in a province that had reason to believe passionately in what was to come – have a continued relevance and importance for our understanding of the history of this community and the relationship of the built environment to the extraordinary landscape of British Columbia. With essays by Rachel Chinnery on ceramics, Scott Watson on fine arts, Alan Elder on collaboration, Allan Collier on wood and design, and Sherry McKay on architecture.
books
October 2004, Vancouver
Architecture in Canada
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Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is one of the most influential and beloved figures in the history of photography. His inventive work of the early 1930s helped define the creative potential of modern photography. Following World War II, he helped found the Magnum photo agency, which enabled photojournalists to reach a broad audience through magazines such as Life while(...)
Henri Cartier-Bresson : the modern century
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Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is one of the most influential and beloved figures in the history of photography. His inventive work of the early 1930s helped define the creative potential of modern photography. Following World War II, he helped found the Magnum photo agency, which enabled photojournalists to reach a broad audience through magazines such as Life while retaining control over their work. Cartier-Bresson would go on to produce major bodies of photographic reportage, capturing such events as China during the revolution, the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, the United States in the postwar boom and Europe as its older cultures confronted modern realities. Published to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, this is the first major publication to make full use of the extensive holdings of the Fondation Cartier-Bresson — including thousands of prints and a vast resource of documents relating to the photographer's life and work. The heart of the book surveys Cartier-Bresson's career through 300 photographs divided into 12 chapters. While many of his most famous pictures are included, a great number of images will be unfamiliar even to specialists. A wide-ranging essay by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum, offers an entirely new understanding of Cartier-Bresson's extraordinary career and its overlapping contexts of journalism and art. The extensive supporting material — featuring detailed chronologies of the photographer's professional travels and of spreads of his picture stories as they appeared in magazines — will revolutionize the study of Cartier-Bresson's work.
Photography monographs
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Drivers in the nation's capital face a host of hazards: high-speed traffic circles, presidential motorcades, jaywalking tourists, and bewildering signs that send unsuspecting motorists from the Lincoln Memorial into suburban Virginia in less than two minutes. And parking? Don't bet on it unless you're in the fast lane of the Capital Beltway during rush hour. Little(...)
The Great Society subway : a history of the Washington Metro
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Drivers in the nation's capital face a host of hazards: high-speed traffic circles, presidential motorcades, jaywalking tourists, and bewildering signs that send unsuspecting motorists from the Lincoln Memorial into suburban Virginia in less than two minutes. And parking? Don't bet on it unless you're in the fast lane of the Capital Beltway during rush hour. Little wonder, then, that so many residents and visitors rely on the Washington Metro, the 106-mile rapid transit system that serves the District of Columbia and its inner suburbs. In the first comprehensive history of the Metro, Zachary M. Schrag tells the story of the Great Society subway from its earliest rumblings to the present day, from Arlington to College Park, Eisenhower to Marion Barry. Unlike the pre–World War II rail systems of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, the Metro was built at a time when most American families already owned cars, and when most American cities had dedicated themselves to freeways, not subways. Why did the nation's capital take a different path? What were the consequences of that decision? Using extensive archival research as well as oral history, Schrag argues that the Metro can be understood only in the political context from which it was born: the Great Society liberalism of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. The Metro emerged from a period when Americans believed in public investments suited to the grandeur and dignity of the world's richest nation. The Metro was built not merely to move commuters, but in the words of Lyndon Johnson, to create "a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community." Schrag scrutinizes the project from its earliest days, including general planning, routes, station architecture, funding decisions, land-use impacts, and the behavior of Metro riders. The story of the Great society subway sheds light on the development of metropolitan Washington, postwar urban policy, and the promises and limits of rail transit in American cities.
Engineering Structures