John Hill’s Notable Books of 2011
Nonfiction, Architecture
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This encyclopedia of alternatives to traditional architectural practice is a valuable reference at a time when many architects are still out of a job and are disenfranchised by the profession. It also illustrates the great diversity of architectural production that exists outside of the “individual hero” mold. Collaboration and empowerment are key instead of authorship and formal novelty.
Ford, an architect and educator at the University of Virginia (and the author of The Details of Modern Architecture), continues his exploration of details in architecture by defining five different types found in contemporary architecture and buildings from last century. Theoretically he grounds each type of detail into a larger context, ultimately arguing for autonomous details that work on their own terms.
This beautifully produced monograph on Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects redefines the genre with its thorough illustration of process. It reveals the imagination and working methods of Jeanne Gang and her team through an archival presentation of a half-dozen projects. A sequel with more projects is much anticipated.
This book collects over 150 design proposals in response to the Institute for Urban Design’s By the City/For the City competition. While not all of the proposals are necessarily worthy of publication, the book is notable as an exploration of how crowd sourcing can be used to define problems and develop appropriate design solutions toward the betterment of the public realm.
This collection of Pamphlet Architecture’s second decade is notable on a personal level. These issues coincide with my undergraduate architectural education, and were therefore important in shaping how I thought about architecture. Those by Lebbeus Woods and Kaplan and Krueger hold up especially well all these years later. This collection also replaces issues that I have misplaced over the years.
This collection of a dozen urban design projects by Morphosis is elegantly designed and illustrated, a visual feast. But it is also theoretically intriguing, in the way Mayne uses the computer for exploring the evolution of urban form.
Finnish architect, educator, and writer Juhani Pallasmaa wraps up his trilogy of books on the senses in architecture—Eyes of the Skin and The Thinking Hand are the first two—by focusing on images at a time when they saturate our mediated lives. He skillfully argues for reconsidering image based on experience rather than image based on novelty.
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Announcements
New Book Release, June 30, 2014: Supernew Supergraphics
Shows how the current generation of designers and architects are blasting typography and graphic forms across walls—even landscapes. A compendium of graphic excess on a monumental scale, it features new work from around the globe, and interviews with leading practitioners Felice Varini, Sascha Lobe, Sara De Bondt, and Boa Mistura.
Tony Brook, Adrian Shaughnessy, and Sarah Schrauwen, eds.
Published by Unit Editions
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New Book Release, May 27, 2014: Type on Screen
The long awaited follow-up to graphic designer Ellen Lupton’s best-selling Thinking with Type is here. The definitive guide to using classic typographic concepts of form and structure to make dynamic compositions for screen-based applications.
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Ellen Lupton
Published by Princeton Architectural Press
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New Book Release (U.S.), June 30, 2014: BMW Art Cars
Traces the development of the BMW Art Cars, the so-called “rolling sculptures” designed by artists including Alexander Calder, David Hockney, and Andy Warhol over the last 40 years.
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Thomas Girst, editor
Texts by Carl Magnusson, Phil Patton, et al.
Published by Hatje Cantz
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New Book Release, July 1, 2014: The Good Life: Perceptions of the Ordinary
Just what is it that catches the eye, and why? What’s the significance of a broken flowerpot, a pair of identical tables side by side, a garden hose wrapped around an old car wheel? In this collection of photo essays, designer Jasper Morrison examines and imagines the life behind a series of seemingly ordinary situations.
By Jasper Morrison
Published by Lars Müller Publishers
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New Book Release, April 21, 2014: Drawing and Reinventing Landscape, AD Primer
Explores notions of representation in the discipline of landscape architecture at large and across time.
Diana Balmori
Published by John Wiley & Sons
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New Book Release (U.S.), May 1, 2014: Shape of Sound
Architect Victoria Meyers analyzes the shape of sound; architecture and sound; form; materiality; windows; the urban soundscape, its politics, aesthetics and social character; reflection; virtuality; sound art; and silence.
Victoria Meyers
Published by Artifice Books on Architecture
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