February 2023 MBR The Architecture Shelf

The Architecture Shelf

RESIDENSITY: A Carbon Analysis of Residential Typologies
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
ORO Editions
31 Commerical Blvd., Suite F, Novato, CA 94949
www.oroeditions.com
9781954081390, $35.00, PB, 188pp

https://www.amazon.com/RESIDENSITY-Carbon-Analysis-Residential-Typologies/dp/1954081391

Synopsis: With the publication of "RESIDENSITY: A Carbon Analysis of Residential Typologies", Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture investigates how much embodied and consumed carbon is used in each typology and how it affects density and open space from the viewpoint of sustainability, carbon emissions, and carbon sequestration.

A superbly organized and presented study that determines which building typology is the most sustainable on a comparative basis. Nine prototypical buildings were designed (Megatall, Supertall, High-Rise, Mid-Rise, Low-rise, Courtyard, Three-Flat, Urban Single-Family, and Suburban Single-Family) set within nine prototypical communities. The informative study designates an archetypal residential community of 2,000 units with an average unit size of 150 sm as a reasonable and representative cross section of different housing typologies.

Critique: Simply stated, "RESIDENSITY: A Carbon Analysis of Residential Typologies" is a seminal and ground breaking study that is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, college, and university library Contemporary Residential Architecture Studies and Urban Land Use Planning collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is dedicated to the design of high-performance, energy-efficient, and sustainable architecture on an international scale. The firm approaches each project, regardless of size or scale, with an understanding that architecture has a unique power to influence civic life. The firm was founded in 2006 by partners Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill and Robert Forest. Today there are 100 employees in offices in Chicago and Beijing.

The Innovative Urban Workplace
Nina Rapport, editor
Stella Xu, editor
Yale School of Architecture
c/o Actar Publishers
440 Park Avenue S, 17th FL, New York, NY 10016
http://actar.com
9781638400806, $30.00, PB, 200pp

https://www.amazon.com/Innovative-Urban-Workplace-Distinguished-Architecture/dp/1638400806

Synopsis: The Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Architecture Fellowship studio with Abby Hamlin (founder of Hamlin Ventures, Dana Tang '95, architect and partner at Gluckman Tang Architects), and Andrei Harwell (senior critic in architecture at Yale studio) investigated the role of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City in order to understand and meet the BNY's mission and design distinctive solutions that speak to the type of workplace needed in an urban development today.

Students in the studio identified potential urban business models that address future relationships between places of production and consumption. They looked at comparable waterfront development projects and addressed issues including flood mitigation and environmental remediation in their proposals.

Critique: Exceptionally well organized and enhanced for the reader with illustrations, "The Innovative Urban Workplace" is collaboratively compiled and co-edited by Nina Rappaport and Stella Xu. Impressively informative, "The Innovative Urban Workplace" is a specialist and unreservedly recommended addition to professional and academic library Contemporary Architecture collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note #1: Nina Rappaport (http://ninarappaport.com/main.html?id=1) is an architectural critic, curator, and educator. She is also the publications director at Yale School of Architecture and editor of the biannual publication Constructs (numbering 35), the exhibition catalogs (numbering 48), as well as the school's book series (22 to date).

Barns of the St Croix Valley: An Architect's Sketchbook
Jim Lammers, FAIA
ORO Editions
www.oroeditions.com
9781954081673, $24.95, PB, 136pp

https://www.amazon.com/Barns-Croix-Valley-Architects-Sketchbook/dp/1954081677

Synopsis: With the publication of "Barns of the St Croix Valley: An Architect's Sketchbook", architect Jim Lammers grounds you in the geography, geology and biology of the region and introduces you to its original inhabitants, the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples, European explorers, fur traders and loggers and the settlers that followed them. It is a celebration of regional diversity and architectural expression through a single type of building -- the barn.

Critique: Informatively illustrated with 200 barn sketches, diagrams, and maps, "Barns of the St Croix Valley: An Architect's Sketchbook" is a visual journey showcasing the many and varied barns to be found throughout the Wisconsin/Minnesota St Croix River Valley. A pleasure to browse through one page at a time, "Barns of the St Croix Valley: An Architect's Sketchbook" is recommended for professional and academic library American Architectural History collections -- as well as the personal reading lists of Wisconsin/Minnesota barn enthusiasts.

Editorial Note: Jim Lammers (https://jimsketcher.com) was trained as an architect back when freehand sketching was an integral part of the curriculum. He is a tireless writer and relentless sketcher. Jim has been published in professional journals, and his sketches have been exhibited at fine art venues. His first book, "Capture the Moment: An Architect's Guide to Travel Sketching" has been published by ORO Editions. Jim also teaches sketching at Marine Mills Folk Art School.

Unidentified Flying Object for Contemporary Architecture
Beatrice Lampariello, editor
Andrea Anselmo, editor
Boris Hamzeian, editor
Actar D
c/o Actar Publishers
440 Park Avenue S, 17th FL, New York, NY 10016
http://actar.com
9781638409922, $34.95, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Unidentified-Flying-Object-Contemporary-Architecture/dp/1638409927

Synopsis: 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. With these premises, 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, one of the authors of those still poorly known "monuments", 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, an architecture historian specialized in the 1960s and 1970s, and False Mirror Office, a group of historians and designers engaged in the rediscovery of UFO group, has led to this monograph which focuses on the UFO's work and an evaluation of their legacy relative to contemporary architecture.

Co-edited by the team of Beatrice Lampariello (Architect and Professor of History of Architecture at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, BE), Anna Rosellini (Professor of History of Architecture at the University of Bologna, IT), and Ecole d'architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est, FR, and False Mirror Office (Andrea Anselmo, Gloria Castellini, Filippo Fanciotti, Giovanni Glorialanza, Boris Hamzeian), design and research group, Genoa, Lausanne, Brussels, IT, CH, BE., "Unidentified Flying Object for Contemporary Architecture: UFO's Experiments Between Political Activism and Artistic Avant-garde" composed of three sections:

1) History, a first-ever study of UFO by False Mirror Office via analysis of all archival and bibliographic sources, as well as a series of interviews with UFO members and a collection of its writings (published and unpublished), for the first time translated into English.

2) Context, composed of essays by historians and architectural theorists (Beatrice Lampariello, Simon Sadler, Anna Rosellini, Giovanni Galli, Jacopo Galimberti) intended to place UFO's work in the context of the avant-garde that influenced its work, from the experience of Florentine Radical Architecture to Umberto Eco's theories on semiotics and the American experiences between Pop Art, Video Art and Happening.

3) Legacy, articulated through graphic contribution and essays by young designers, as False Mirror Office, Parasite 2.0, Point Supreme, Jimenez Lai, Andrew Kovacs, Adam Nathaniel Furman, Traumnovelle, (ab)Normal and Peter Behrbohm, to investigate UFO's legacy relative to the contemporary revival of the most distinguishing creative processes and obsessions that shaped the so-called Radical Architecture.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a ten page Bibliography, seven pages of Biographical Notes, and a one page listing of Credits, "Unidentified Flying Object for Contemporary Architecture: UFO's Experiments Between Political Activism and Artistic Avant-garde" is the first monographic publication focused on the Florentine UFO group (1968-1978), that conducts a historical analysis of its work, reveals its close relationship with the contemporary artistic, literary and architectural avant-garde and, finally, investigates its legacy for the contemporary project. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $26.95), "Unidentified Flying Object for Contemporary Architecture" is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, corporate, college, and university library Architectural Studies collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note #1: The contributors to "Unidentified Flying Object for Contemporary Architecture" include: Beatrice Lampariello, Boris Hamzeian and Andrea Anselmo (False Mirror Office), Gloria Castellini (False Mirror Office), Simon Sadler, Anna Rosellini, Giovanni Galli, Jacopo Galimberti, Filippo Fanciotti and Giovanni Glorialanza (False Mirror Office), Parasite 2.0, Point Supreme, Jimenez Lai (Bureau Spectacular), Andrew Kovacs, Adam Nathaniel Furman, Traumnovelle, (ab)Normal, Peter Behrbohm

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