Architecture book news
Concrete
Edited by William Hall
Ah, concrete. Has there ever been a more divisive material? Regular readers will not be remotely surprised to find us singing the praises of a hefty book devoted exclusively to the sculptural qualities of the grey stuff. Concrete gets down and dirty with the notorious material, unashamedly singing its praises through a series of captioned photographs that run the full range of concrete's structural, sculptural, textural and technological applications. Sure, there's plenty here that a savvy Wallpaper* reader will know like the back of their hand, but Hall and his team have done a good job of digging up the more esoteric examples of concrete design. A weighty book with which to administer beatings to doubters.
Published by Phaidon, £29.95; www.phaidon.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell
The Architectural Model: Tool, Fetish, Small Utopia
Edited by Oliver Elser and Peter Cachola Schmal
Published to accompany a lavish exhibition at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, The Architectural Model is a must for lovers of the care, craft and complexity of the architectural model. Works of art in their own right, the book catalogues the miniaturised origins of some of the most recognisable celebrated pieces of architecture in the world, from shop fittings to entire cityscapes. Some of these projects never progressed further than balsa and wire, while other elaborate structures became works of art in their own right.
Published by Scheidegger & Spiess, £61.50; www.scheidegger-spiess.ch
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Le Corbusier: Furniture and Interiors 1905-1965
By Arthur Rüegg
A mighty book for a massive subject, Furniture and Interiors is a catalogue raisonné of all of Le Corbusier's non-architectural design work, ranging from the well-known to the extremely obscure, from the neo-classical work of his early years through to the machine age influences of the 1920s and 30s and the more personal, artistic works of his later years. Extensively illustrated throughout, with archive photography showing many of the pieces in situ, this is a must for all Corb obsessives.
Published by Scheidegger & Spiess, £140; www.scheidegger-spiess.ch
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Great Lakes Regional Headquarters of the Reynolds Metals Company, by Minoru Yamasaki, 1960
Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography
By John Comazzi
One of the giants of mid-century modernist imagery, Balthazar Korab's black and white imagery of American architecture helped propel the careers of Eero Saarinen into the corporate stratosphere. Included within this new monograph - the first on Korab's work - are detailed portfolios of the construction and completion of the TWA Terminal at JFK and numerous little known classics from around the States.
Published by Princeton Architectural Press, £25; www.papress.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Le Corbusier: Furniture and Interiors 1905-1965
By Arthur Rüegg
A mighty book for a massive subject, Furniture and Interiors is a catalogue raisonné of all of Le Corbusier's non-architectural design work, ranging from the well-known to the extremely obscure, from the neo-classical work of his early years through to the machine age influences of the 1920s and 30s and the more personal, artistic works of his later years. Extensively illustrated throughout, with archive photography showing many of the pieces in situ, this is a must for all Corb obsessives.
Published by Scheidegger & Spiess, £140; www.scheidegger-spiess.ch
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography
By John Comazzi
One of the giants of mid-century modernist imagery, Balthazar Korab's black and white imagery of American architecture helped propel the careers of Eero Saarinen into the corporate stratosphere. Included within this new monograph - the first on Korab's work - are detailed portfolios of the construction and completion of the TWA Terminal at JFK and numerous little known classics from around the States.
Published by Princeton Architectural Press, £25; www.papress.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Architecture: From Commission to Construction
By Jennifer Hudson
One for the true building buff, this is a fascinating look at the long drawn out process of building. If you've ever wanted to go behind the scenes and see how sketches are fleshed out into fully-fledged buildings, Jennifer Hudson's densely packed new book is for you.
Published by Laurence King, £28; www.laurenceking.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell
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Museum without Walls
By Jonathan Meades
Few people can do architecture on the small screen like Jonathan Meades. Inventive, surreal, bilious but always erudite and insightful, Meades has spent three decades creating irreverent and unique television documentaries. Museum without Walls brings together some of the best of these film scripts with a wide selection of Meades' other writings about the perversities of the built environment, our relationship with buildings and the personalities that shape them.
Published by Unbound, £18.99; www.unbound.co.uk
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
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Remembering Richard Serra (1938-2024), American art’s man of steel
American artist Richard Serra, whose vast sculptures transformed landscapes around the world, has died aged 85
By Hannah Silver Published
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Architectural gardens around the world to soothe the soul
From small domestic gardens, to nature reserves, urban interventions and local parks, here are some of the finest green projects that place nature at their heart
By Ellie Stathaki Published
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Corfu hotel Domes Miramare redefines beachfront bliss
Make like Jackie O at Corfu hotel Domes Miramare, a property with contemporary luxury and echoes of 1960s glamour in spades
By Bridget Downing Published
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Flick through ‘Brutal Wales’, a book celebrating concrete architecture
‘Brutal Wales’ book zooms into a selection of concrete Welsh architecture treasures through the lens of photographer Simon Phipps
By Ellie Stathaki Published
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Architecture books to inspire shelf love
Here at Wallpaper*, we’ve got architecture books piling up; among them, these are the photographic tomes, architects’ monographs and limited editions that we couldn’t resist
By Ellie Stathaki Published
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Pioneering modernist Henry Kulka's life and career tracked in limited-edition monograph
Czech-New Zealand architect Henry Kulka, a man who spread modernist ideals half way around the world, is celebrated in Giles Reid and Mary Gaudin’s richly illustrated monograph
By Jonathan Bell Published
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Nordic architecture explored in Share, a book about contemporary building
Discussions about Nordic architecture and contemporary practice meet in a new book by Artifice, Share: Conversations about Contemporary Architecture – The Nordic Countries
By Ellie Stathaki Published
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London Feeds Itself: we are hungry for Open City's book on food and architecture
London Feeds Itself, a new book by Open City, is a scrumptious offering that connects food culture and architecture
By Nick Compton Last updated
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The Sustainable City chronicles London’s eco design innovation
Urban areas provide the best environment for ultra-low-impact living; that's the premise of Harriet Thorpe’s new book, The Sustainable City, which brings together the architecture that's shaping London’s quiet green revolution
By Jonathan Bell Last updated
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Montalba Architects' monograph ponders on space, place and building
Montalba Architects launches extensive monograph, ‘Place and Space’
By Pei-Ru Keh Last updated
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House London is an insider’s guide to the city’s best architectural transformations
House London is a new book offering a peek into some of the best redesigns of the capital’s omnipresent, historical brick home typology
By Jonathan Bell Last updated