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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Understanding Understanding: New from Richard Saul Wurman
Understanding Understanding
by Richard Saul Wurman
Publisher: Richard Saul Wurman and Jack Dangermond
Published July 30, 2017
From the author of Information Architecture, who says about his newest book: “This is a book for people to dip into, as they would walk in and out of the room of a dinner party and embrace their interests. . . Before the rules on how to organize information, before you learn grammar, before you work hard at expanding your vocabulary and go through the exercises of parallel meanings of things as using a Thesaurus and as one writes papers in class, before any learning one must understand.”
The Hard Life by Jasper Morrison
The Hard Life
by Jasper Morrison
Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
Published in US: May 22, 2017
Photographs taken by designer Jasper Morrison of objects in the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon, Portugal. “The objects photographed and described may be appreciated both for their beauty and for the example they set of design at its purest. The Hard Life is a continuation of Morrison’s celebration of the ordinary and offers a new perspective on his design philosophy.”
Paula Scher: Works - Order from Unit Editions
Paula Scher: Works
Editors: Tony Brook & Adrian Shaughnessy
Design: Spin
Publisher: Unit Editions
Published April 2017
New book covering the career of of master designer Paula Scher, called “the most influential woman graphic designer on the planet.” (Ellen Lupton), This definitive, chronological visual record spans Paula’s early days in the music industry as an art director with CBS and Atlantic records; the launch of her first studio, Koppel & Scher; and her 25-year engagement with Pentagram.
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Type Tells Tales: New from Steven Heller and Gail Anderson
Type Tells Tales
by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published May 30, 2017
Reveals how type can become both content and illustration, as letters take the form of people, animals, cars, or planes. With numerous illustrations by F. T. Marinetti, Bruno Munari, and Francis Picabia, among others, as well as by contemporary designers such as Richard Eckersley, John Hendrix, Maira Kalman, and Corita Kent.
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