blog wunderlust : 31 January 2011

Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Social Design: Straight Out of School and the The richest first-year architect | It Ain't Necessarily So | Lunch with Koolhaas | Building a Brighter Future & an audience for architecture | Filip Dujardin – Fictions | Beyond Graffiti | Gehry Design Plays Fanfare for the Common Man | 'Flat-pack' schools will make architects redundant

Il Girasole

Directors Marcel Meili and Christoph Schaub tell the story of 'Il Girasole', the rotating modernist house built into the hillside in northern Italy. Affectionately termed 'The Sunflower', the house was built in the 1930s by architects Angelo Invernizzi and Ettore Fagiuoli, with the help of their artist, sculptor, designer and architect friends.

The Model Architect: Bart Prince

Architect Bart Prince explores the design process for his enthusiastically unconventional structures through the art of model-making.

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on the boards: Hamam Miami

Hamam Miami is a public bath project above an existing pumping system that integrates two water programs proposed by architects NC-office for a 2008 design competition for downtown Miami, Florida. The baths are composed of several rooms defined through low walls and planes - elevated amongst the tree canopy, allowing for views of Biscayne Bay.

on the boards: Treetop Villas

Proposed for a ocean lot in Phuket, Thailand, the Treetop Villas by Paul Raff Studio integrates a dense community of housing into a steeply sloped tropical jungle. Filled with mature indigenous vegetation the 17 villas are perched 20m high amongst the tree canopy preserving the topography and giving dramatic views.

house of the week 99: Casa Tropical

Located in Mundaú, a fishermen’s village in Northeast Brazil, architects Camarim designed a three bedroom holiday house amongst the foliage. The wooden skin, suspended roof and walls of Casa Tropical envelops the interior the gallery sheltering it from the Sun while keeping it permeable and cool.

100 books - the architect's version

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC came up with some silly list that most people have read a small number of 100 books listed.

I think that is total bollocks since I've spent much of my adult life reading architecture books.

So I made a new list and I'm seeking the help of my friends to carry it to 100. Instructions: I've added a few seminal texts... suggest some others and let's give the BBC a real show.

1. City of Bits - William Mitchell
2. Event Cities (1, 2 & 3) - Bernard Tschumi
3. The Curves of Time - Oscar Niemeyer
4. SMLXL - Rem Koolhaas/Bruce Mau
5. Towards a New Architecture - Le Corbusier
6. Architecture After Modernism - Diane Ghiardo
7. The Architecture of Happiness - Alain de Botton
8. Design Like you Give a Damn - Architecture for Humanity
10. Architecture and Utopia - Manfredo Tafuri
11. The Space of Encounter - Daniel Libeskind
12. Thinking Architecture - Peter Zumthor
13. Experiencing Architecture - Steen Eiler Rasmussen
14. 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School - Matthew Frederick
15. For an Architecture of Reality - Michael Benedikt
16. The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard
17. Discrimination by Design - Leslie Weisman
18. The Temple in the House - Anthony Lawlor
19. Athens Charter - CIAM (Le Corbusier)
20. Delirious New York - Rem Koolhaas
21. Manhattan Transcripts - Bernard Tschumi
22. Radiant City - Le Corbusier
23. An Essay on Architecture - Marc-Antoine Laugier
24. The Ten Books on Architecture - Vitruvius
25. On the Art of Building in Ten Books - Leon Battista Alberti
26. Essential Texts - Louis Kahn
27. City Planning According to Artistic Principles - Camillo Sitte
28. Team 10 Primer - Alison Smithson (ed.)
29. The Architecture of the City - Aldo Rossi
30. Learning from Las Vegas - Robert Venturi, et. al.
31. Collage City - Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter
32. Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings - Louis Sullivan
33. Space, Time and Architecture - Sigfried Giedion
34. The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs
35. The Four Books of Architecture - Andrea Palladio
36. Design with Nature - Ian McHarg
37. The Seven Lamps of Architecture - John Ruskin
38. Scope of Total Architecture - Walter Gropius
39. Building with Nature - Richard Neutra
40. Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays - Adolf Loos
41. The Living City - Frank Lloyd Wright
42. A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander
43. Eyes Of The Skin - Juhani Pallasmaa
44. Mask of Medusa - John Hejduk
45. Architecture Of Disjunction - Bernard Tschumi
46. Topology Of A Phantom City - Alain Robbe-Grillet
47. Education Of An Architect - Elizabeth Diller, John Hejduk, etc
48. Architecture Theory Since 1968 - K. Michael Hays
49. Teach Your Chicken To Fly - Trevor Weekes
50. Palace of the Peacock - Wilson Harris
51. Why Buildings Stand Up - Mario Salvadori
52. The Place of Houses - Charles Moore et al
53. How Designers think - Bryan Lawson
54. Chambers for a Memory Palace - Charles Moore et al
55. The Design Studio - Donald Schon
56. city of slums mike davis
57. the Sphere and the Labyrinth - Manfredo Tafuri
58. Programs and Manifestoes of 20th century architecture - Ulrich Conrads
59. Inside Architecture - Vittorio Gregotti
60. Critical History of Modern Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
61. Architecture of Four Ecologies - Reyner Banham, Anthony Vidler
62. The Image of the City - Kevin Lynch
63. House for Mr. Biswas - VS Naipaul
64. Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture - Steven Holl, etc
65. The World of Perception - Maurice Merleau Ponty
66. Phenomenology of Perception - Maurice Merleau Ponty
67. Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge - Perez-Gomez & Pelletier
68. The Troubadour of Knowledge - Michael Serres
69. 13 Ways - Richard Harbison
70. Kaz Antiye Jan Moun Ka Rete: Caribbean Popular Dwelling - Jack Berthelot
71. Cities: X Lines: Approaches to City and Open Territory Design - Joan Busquets
72. The Landscape Urbanism Reader - Charles Waldheim
73. Recovering Landscape - Essays in Contemporary Landscape Theory - ed James Corner
74. File under Architecture - Herbert Muschamp
75. Labour Work and Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
76. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in 19 & 20th c Architecture - Kenneth Frampton
77. Emergency, Deadline, Duration - Marc Jalet
78. The Honeywood File: An Adventure in Building - H.B. Creswell
79. The Social Logic of Space - Hillier and Hanson
80. Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone - Fry and Drew
81. Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures - Andrea Deplazes
82. Constructing Landscape: Materials, Techniques, Structural Components - Astrid Zimmeman
83. Plusminus 20/40 Latitude: Sustainable Building Design in Tropical and Subtropical Regions - Dirk Hindrichs
84. Typographie - Otl Aicher
85. The World as Design - Otl Aicher
86. Analogous Digital - Otl Aicher
87. Intermediate Natures - the Landscapes of Michael Desvigne
88. The Architect in Practice - Chappell & Willis
89. Intermediate Natures: The Landscapes of Michel Desvigne - Elizabeth Zugler
90. Die Küche zum Kochen: Das Ende Einer Architekturdoktrin - Otl Aicher
91. Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies - Rafael Moneo
92. The Public Chance: New Urban Landscapes - Aurora Fernandez Per & Javier Arpa
93. Roberto Burle Marx: Landscapes Reflected - Rossana Vaccarino (ed)
94. Latin America Architecture 1929 to 1960 - Brillenbourg & Riley
95. ANY series (Anything, Anyone, Anywhere, Anyway, Anyplace, Anywise, Anybody, Anyhow, Anytime, and Anymore) - Cynthia Davidson (ed.)
96. Sites of Memory: Perspectives on Architecture and Race - Craig Evan Barton
97. Agenda: Can we sustain our ability to crisis - JDS architects
98. Architecture NOW! (series) - Philip Jodidio
99. Space & Place - Yi-Fu Tuan
100.Analysing Architecture - Simon Unwin


Special thanks to Architects Mark Raymond, Jacquiann Lawton, Donna Sink, Ken Koense, Phillip Crosby, Rohan Bailey, Barry Lehrman, Ana María León, Daren Moncrieffe and students Vanessa Hartley, Dwayne Webb, Stein Carrington & Sheena Marston for their contributions 

blog wunderlust : 24 January 2011

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

Steve Martin

No McMansions for Millennials | Moshe Safdie on Marina Bay Sands | An Austin architect turns builder to get a house done | Green 'Ark' could house 10,000; and looks like a Slinky! | architectural inspiration | Giraffe: A Portable Space Divider | A Guide to Architectural Photographers | cathedral made of trash | Adler & Sullivan

Studio Banana Tv ::: Hrvoje Njric

Studio Banana TV interviews Spanish architect Vicente Guallart, pioneer of interaction between nature, technology and architecture proposes new paradigms based in urban, social and cultural conditions emerging from information society.

Spirit of Space ::: St. Louis can Soar

The collaboration of SOM/BIG/HARGREAVES produced a short film to explain the ideas for the St. Louis gateway redevelopment competition. The first prize of the competition was awarded to Michael Van Valkenburgh led that included architect Steven Holl.

on the boards: Kay e Sante nan Ayiti

The Breathe House designed by team of architects, engineers and a doctor were awarded first place for the "Kay e Sante nan Ayiti" (Creole for Housing and Health in Haiti) open-innovation design competition organized by the ARCHIVE Institute. The key design elements are the use of natural light and passive ventilation and independent renewable energy together with the use of local materials and the simple construction.

Follow the link for more or go directly to see images of all the submitted entries

on the boards: Tree House for a Child

Originally conceived for a site in Monte d'Oro, Rome the Tree House for a Child designed by Italian architect Francesco Gatti captures the imagination of all with its form and unique approach towards structure.

house of the week 98: Deep Eddy Residence

The Deep Eddy Residence in Austin, Texas was designed and built by Burton Baldridge architects. The residence was for a couple seeking privacy and a direct connection with the landscape achieved with strategically placed and at times smaller strip windows. The sustainable building was designed with a generous interior porch, copious cross ventilation, rainwater collection, an exterior covered in Corten steel and an economical building shape.

Installation ::: Non-Sign II

Designed by architecture collaborative Lead Pencil Studio (Annie Han | Daniel Mihalyo), the site specific art installation built along the US-Canadian border takes the concept from the many billboards located in the area. The edges that give emphasis to an open rectangle advertising nothing, but cleaner air.

blog wunderlust : 17 January 2011

My work is not about "form follows function," but "form follows beauty" or, even better, "form follows feminine."

Oscar Niemeyer

In L.A., a Restaurant by Rolling Stone | Farming in a Ruin | Rhino for iPad | New Yorkers take shelter from winter in a downtown pop-up park | the return of common sense | stunning architecture photographs | meet Britain's brightest young architects | The Melnikov house and the battle for the Soviet era's artistic soul |

Want to hone your architecture and design searches to just the right architecture blogs? This search box uses Google Co-op to point the Google machine at a list of popular architecture and design blogs.

The blog wunderlust is a weekly round up summarizing the architectural highlights, news and web links, that don't otherwise fit the format of this blog. If you have any to share feel free to drop me an email

Trailer – The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History

Trailer – The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History from the Pruitt-Igoe Myth on Vimeo.

Interiors : Lisa Perry NY Loft

The New York loft of designer Lisa Perry. The Pop Art inspired finishes are illuminated by natural light reflected off the white walls and plaster ceilings and the timber stripped flooring.

via

blog wunderlust : 10 January 2011

Architecture only survives [...] where it negates itself by transgressing the limits that history has set for it.

Bernard Tschumi

The joy of illegal rainbows | Ezra Stoller: Canonizer | the gas station project | the most valuable urbanism | Architecture and Comics | house in a can | the World’s Most Eye-Catching Modern Museums | commentary: Border Blood Bank | architecture at a crossroads | dress woven from rubber bands | how do we materialise peace? | dreams

The blog wunderlust is a weekly round up summarizing the architectural highlights, news and web links, that don't otherwise fit the format of this blog. If you have any to share feel free to drop me an email

A Procura De Pancho

A Procura De Pancho from Nicolaas van Reenen on Vimeo.

Interiors : Copán Apartment Renovation

This project entailed the conversion of a 140m² three bedroom apartment originally designed by Oscar Niemeyer into an open space contemporary loft by architects, Felipe Hess and Renata Pedrosa. The spaces of the loft are loosely defined, achieved rather by the play of materials and textures - the existing raw concrete, exposed and distressed, exposed piping, stark white walls and the symmetry of the ceiling structure.

more via Yatzer, photos by Fran Parente

blog wunderlust: 03 January 2011

To live a creative life; you must lose your fear of being wrong

Joseph Chilton Pierce

Gingerbread Fallingwater | Uma & her cameras | picnic under a plastic pillow | 20 Essential Works on Utopian Fiction | archinect: 10 in '10 | A glimpse into the creative spaces of four Baltimore artists | UK's largest postwar prefab estate to be demolished | A city in Ruins: Detroit | future strategies for spatial practice | urbArAmA blogs

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: The City of Dreams 2011 PAVILION

some dead links have been cleaned up for the 2011 - thanks Joe