Architecture Books

[Clothes_Addict]

Hi all,

Firstly, I'm new here so I just wanted to say hi and introduce myself - I'm Vicky and I'm 25.

I work in the admin and business side of a small architecture firm but don't really know much about the actual artisitic process behind it. Being quite a creative (and nosy!) person, I'd really like to read up on it a little.

My boss is great, bless him, but he;s really "old school" and keeps giving me these dusty old tomes from the mid 60's, which are great, but I wanted something a little more simple and contemporary to get my teeth into!

Does anyone know of any good books on architecture that are easy to read?

Thanks in advance

Vicky

 

[gius]

Welcome to tFS, Vicky !!

What do you mean by artistic process?
For myself, the same process permeates in all creative fields... in painting, in graphics design (2D), fashion, architecture, interiors, making of furniture (3D), etc.
This designing process

For example you take into account the colours and the meanings behind them, what kind of impression you're trying to project with your design
You have other 'ingredients' as well... line, shape/form, texture/material, space (negative + positive)...
All of these are important in any design

 

[Clothes_Addict]

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply - I think I phrased my question badly!

I meant more the technical processes and possibly the history and theory behind architecture? For instance, I know about some of the law behind architecture, planning permissions and building regulations and such, but understand very little else! I love the fact that I am in a creative environment all day though, even if when my boss is thinking about buildings I am thinking about dresses! I'm currently exploring the relationship between fashion and architecture, so if you have any thoughts they would be appreciated!

 

[laika]

A few of my faves

Also, The Look of Architecture by Witold Rybczynski...talks about the importance of style for architecture



{mitpress, amazon}

 

[auxt]

I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but check it out.



http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/cat...architecture_1945_54_the_complete_reprint.htm

Arts & Architecture 1945-54: The Complete Reprint

Ten years, ten boxes, 118 issues, 6,076 pages!


The seminal architecture journal resurrected in facsimile

The first part (1945-1954) of our facsimile edition of John Entenza's groundbreaking magazine, which launched the Case Study House Program; in ten boxes, each containing one year's worth of magazines

"A&A was instrumental in putting American Architecture on the map."
Julius Shulman

From the end of World War II until the mid-1960s, exciting things were happening in American architecture: emerging talents were focusing on innovative projects that integrated low-cost materials and modern design. This trend was most notably embodied in the famous Case Study House Program, which was championed by the era’s leading American journal, Arts & Architecture. Focusing not only on architecture but also design, art, music, politics, and social issues, A&A was an ambitious and groundbreaking publication, largely thanks to the inspiration of John Entenza, who ran the magazine for over two decades until David Travers became publisher in 1962. The era’s greatest architects were featured in A&A, including Neutra, Schindler, Saarinen, Ellwood, Lautner, Eames, and Koenig; and two of today’s most wildly successful architects, Frank Gehry and Richard Meier, had their debuts in its pages. A&A was instrumental in putting American architecture—and in particular California Modernism—on the map. Other key contributors to the magazine include photographers Julius Shulman and Ezra Stoller, writers Esther McCoy and Peter Yates, and cover designers Herbert Matter and Alvin Lustig, among many luminaries of modernism.

This collection comes with ten boxes, each containing a complete year’s worth of Arts & Architecture magazines from 1945–1954. That’s 6,076 pages in 118 issues reproduced in their entirety—beginning with Entenza’s January 1945 announcement of the Case Study House Program. Also included is a supplement booklet with an original essay by former A&A publisher David Travers, available in English, German, French, and Spanish; plus a master index and tables of contents for the magazine from 1945-1967. Arts & Architecture 1945–1954 will be followed in autumn 2009 by a second set, 1955–1967, bringing together all the existing issues of the modern era.

This new TASCHEN publication, limited to 5,000 numbered copies, provides a comprehensive record of mid-century American architecture and brings the legendary Arts & Architecture back to life after forty years.

"During a visit to the home of the photographer Julius Shulman a few years ago, Benedikt Taschen, the founder of the art book company TASCHEN, made a tremendous discovery: a nearly intact collection of Arts & Architecture magazines from the 1940s, '50s and '60s, championing the emerging Modernist architecture of Southern California. Today, design from the post World War II-period is legendary, but it was John Entenza, the magazine's editor, who first published the likes of Frank Gehry and Richard Meier, and whose Case Study House Program raised awareness of how designers were using new technologies and materials."
The New York Times, New York, United States

taschen.com