Architectural Visions

This book presents outstanding hand drawings of German architects from various areas of architecture and design conveying an emphasis on the human dimension of architecture.The book presents outstanding hand drawings of German architects from various areas of architecture and design. The focus of the presentation is on the individual manuscripts of the architects and designers. For some time now, many architects and designers have been returning to manually drawn depictions of their designs - despite the fact that the latest computer-aided visualization techniques allow the creation of almost perfect illusions of planned buildings. However, they often lack in conveying life and atmosphere to the building resulting in a feeling of coldness and distance from the observer. Beyond the pure conveying of information through a mechanical drawing, the various techniques of manual drawing can convey individual sentiments and impressions. The result is a larger degree of authenticity coupled with an emphasis of the human dimension of architecture.

From the Chicago Tribune Competition and the Chrysler Building to the United Nation headquarters and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the drawings of Hugh Ferriss record a period of time in the history of architecture which has seen remarkable change in our conception of cities and buildings. Trained as an architect in the Beaux Arts tradition, Ferriss chose instead to devote the greater part of his career to giving shape and life to the dreams and visions in his own mind and in the minds of other, now famous, architects for whom he worked. In one broad sweep, we see, through one man's eyes, an astonishing record of 20th-century ideas and designs in architecture. -- from book jacket.

"Architecture is a social art. If the practice of architecture is the art of what you can make happen, then I believe that you are only as good as your bullpenthe builders, the engineers, the artisans, the colleagues, the staffwho collaborate with you; those who become possessed by the same urge to build, by the same belief that we are working on something exceptional together." Brian MacKay-Lyons For two weeks each summer, architect Brian MacKay-Lyons uses his family farm on the east coast of Nova Scotia for aspecial event. Among the stone ruins of a village almost four hundred years old, he assembles a community of architects,professors, and students for a design-build internship and educational initiative called Ghost Research Lab. The twoweek projectone week of design and one week of constructionrests on the idea that architecture is not only about building but also about the landscape, its history, and the community. Based on the apprenticeship environment of ancient guilds, where architectural knowledge was transferred through direct experience, Ghost redefines the architectas a builder who cultivates and contributes to the quality of the native landscape. Published to celebrate the event's tenth anniversary, Ghost offers a thorough documentation of the past decade's design-build events including drawings, models, and final photographs of completed structures. Organized chronologically and interwoven with MacKay-Lyons's simple and accessible personal narratives, Ghost also features essays by some of the most eminent figures in architectural criticism, including Christine Macy, Brian Carter, Karl Habermann, Robert Ivy, Kenneth Frampton, Thomas Fisher, Juhani Pallasmaa, Peter Buchanan, and Robert McCarter. In an architectural climatefull of trends and egos, Ghost is the rare manifesto that does not preach but rather inspires quietly with simple ideas that unexpectedly unsettle and arouse.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS BOOK IS ONLY THE 1ST HALF OF ONE SINGLE BOOK. IN ORDER TO HAVE A COMPLETE TEXT, READERS ARE SUGGESTED TO CONSIDER ALSO VOLUME II, AVAILABLE HERE http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0114664017/default.aspx AFTER YEARS OF FIELD RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, THIS IS A SECOND BOOK OF WHAT SEEMS TO BECOME A SERIES OF PUBLICATIONS. THE INTENT IS TO RECONSTRUCT THE ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPES DESCRIBED IN THE HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLIPHILI WITH THE AID OF DIGITAL MEDIUMS. THIS ENIGMATIC INCUNABULUM WITH ITS 172 WOODCUTS, FIRST PUBLISHED IN VENICE IN 1499 BY THE VENETIAN PRESS OF ALDUS MANUTIUS, HAS FASCINATED HISTORIANS, PATRONS, AND ESPECIALLY ARCHITECTS EVER SINCE ITS ANONYMOUS PUBLICATION. A RENEWED INTEREST FOR THIS LEGENDARY RENAISSANCE TEXT HAS EMERGED WITH MODERN TRANSLATIONS READILY NOW AVAILABLE IN ITALIAN, ENGLISH, AND SPANISH, NOT TO MENTION ITS USE AS THE CENTRAL THEME FOR CALDWELL AND THOMASON’S BESTSELLER, THE RULE OF FOUR, NOW TO BECOME A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE. THE STORY BEGINS WITH POLIPHILUS, WHO FALLS ASLEEP AND DREAMS THAT HE IS SEARCHING FOR HIS LOST LOVE, POLIA. WHILE UNDER HER BELOVED SPELL, HE ENGAGES ON AN EROTIC PILGRAMAGE THROUGH ANTIQUITY, DISCOVERING INCREDIBLE ARCHITECTURE, GARDENS AND LANDSCAPES ALL ENVISIONED AND DESCRIBED IN MINUTE, TECHNICAL, AND ARTISTIC DESCRIPTION. PART TREATISE, PART NARRATIVE, THIS BOOK INTRODUCES A VAST ARRAY OF ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLES AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNS WHICH WERE TOO VISIONARY FOR ITS TIME. WITH MORE THAN 160 ORIGINAL ARTWORK ILLUSTRATIONS, THIS WORK IS PRESENTED HERE AS AN ATTEMPT TO SHARE A NEW DECIPHERING OF THIS LABYRINTHINE TEXT AFTER YEARS OF OBSCURITY, BRINGING TO LIFE AND GIVING SIGNIFICANCE TO ITS FANTASTIC ARCHITECTURE AND ALLEGORICAL VISIONS. FOR MORE INFORMATION: LOG ON TO WWW.HP1499.COM

Coinciding with the centennial of the Pan American Union (now the Organization of American States), González explores how nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. architects and their clients built a visionary Pan-America to promote commerce and cultural exchange between United States and Latin America. Late in the nineteenth century, U.S. commercial and political interests began eyeing the countries of Latin America as plantations, farms, and mines to be accessed by new shipping lines and railroads. As their desire to dominate commerce and trade in the Western Hemisphere grew, these U.S. interests promoted the concept of "Pan-Americanism" to link the United States and Latin America and called on U.S. architects to help set the stage for Pan-Americanism's development. Through international expositions, monuments, and institution building, U.S. architects translated the concept of a united Pan-American sensibility into architectural or built form. In the process, they also constructed an artificial ideological identity—a fictional Pan-America peopled with imaginary Pan-American citizens, the hemispheric loyalists who would support these projects and who were the presumed benefactors of this presumed architecture of unification. Designing Pan-America presents the first examination of the architectural expressions of Pan-Americanism. Concentrating on U.S. architects and their clients, Robert Alexander González demonstrates how they proposed designs reflecting U.S. presumptions and projections about the relationship between the United States and Latin America. This forgotten chapter of American architecture unfolds over the course of a number of international expositions, ranging from the North, Central, and South American Exposition of 1885–1886 in New Orleans to Miami's unrealized Interama fair and San Antonio's HemisFair '68 and encompassing the Pan American Union headquarters building in Washington, D.C. and the creation of the Columbus Memorial Lighthouse in the Dominican Republic.

The product of an innovative research project realized in cooperation between three Swiss universities--École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne's School of Architecture, the College of Architecture and Technology in Fribourg, and the University of Fribourg--the smart living lab is a research and development center for the built environment of the future. This high-tech structure also serves as an emblem of the cooperative's aim to translate academic research into actual buildings. A new series of books entitled Towards 2050 will showcase the ambitious undertaking at various stages. The inaugural volume in the series, Thinking highlights preliminary research from the smart living lab and considers visions for sustainable buildings. Featuring interviews with leading experts, the book lays out the myriad challenges and opportunities the project is likely to face, as well as its considerable potential to drive change.

Text by Kelvin Browne.

Visual Delight in Architecture examines the many ways that our lives are enriched by the presence of natural daylight and window views within our buildings. It makes a compelling case that daily exposure to the rhythms of daylight is essential to our health and well-being, tied to the very genetic foundations of our physiology and cognitive function. It describes all the subtlety, beauty, and pleasures of well-daylit spaces and attractive window views, and explains how these are woven into the fabric of both our everyday sensory experience and enduring cultural perspectives. All types of environmental designers, along with anyone interested in human health and well- being, will fi nd new insights offered by Visual Delight in Architecture. The book is both accessible and provocative, full of personal stories and persuasive research, helping designers to gain a deeper understanding of the scientific basis of their designs, scientists to better grasp the real-world implications of their work, and everyone to more fully appreciate the role of windows in their lives.