Birkhäuser GmbH

Pritzker Prize laureate Peter Zumthor articulates what motivates him to design distinctive buildings with a compelling presence and aura. Now in its third edition and expanded to include 2 new essays.

Trees are ideal sources of shade; where they cannot be used, their function is taken over by tents, pergolas, and pavilions. In the context of global warming, shade-providing construction is becoming an increasingly important building task. In Part O ne of this book, specialists in the field present the typical forms of shade-providing construction as well as the design approach associated with each. Part Two presents easily consultable overviews of 140 plants that have proven to be effective giv ers of shade in temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones. Part Three presents thirty built projects by architects and landscape architects from five continents. These constructions illustrate a wide variety of functions and scales and cover various climatic zones and cultural contexts. All structures are constructionally and systematically analyzed with texts, true-to-scale drawings, and photographs from their foundations to their connections and the shadows they cast.

The rediscovery of the city that has been evident recently has by no means superseded the human desire for nature. On the contrary, the goal has been finding urban solutions that do justice to these growing needs and do so in ways that meet the requi rements for design, ecology, sociology, and economy. This publication addresses the subject of designing inner-city spaces. It documents twenty recently realized examples in Europe, most of which feature greenery, designed by international landscape architects such as Gustafson Porter, Field Operations, Michel Desvigne, Gross.Max, Latz + Partner, and West 8. The projects, built between 2004 and 2010, range from private urban gardens by way of squares, streets, and promenades to large-scale proje cts such as the revitalization of riverside areas or master plans for the green spaces of entire cities. Urban greenery is an important contribution to ecological urban development. The projects documented offer examples of how this can succeed using the most modern materials and technologies.

Mit Unfolded - Papier in Design, Kunst, Architektur und Industrie erobert Papier die dritte Dimension und zeigt, welche ungeahnten Moglichkeiten Papier heute fur Leichtbau, Produktdesign, Mode und Kunst bietet. Von der Taschenkollektion "Papier" eine s Stefan Diez, uber Konstantin Grcics Papiermodelle bis hin zu den duftigen Papierkleidern aus der Feder von Issey Miyake, prasentiert dieses Buch Papier als wertvollen, okologischen und zeitgemaen Werkstoff. Mit der enorm groen Auswahl an Projekten, der aufwendigen drucktechnischen Ausstattung und den zahlreichen Abbildungen liefert es Gestaltern wertvolle Inspirationen fur ihre Arbeit. Als inhaltliches Fundament des Buches dient ein umfassendes Verzeichnis technischer Papiere und innovativer P apiertechnologien, das die Gestalter bei ihrer taglichen Arbeit mit Fachinformationen zum "Hightech"-Werkstoff Papier unterstutzen soll. Von japanischem Washi-Papier uber Papierschaum, bis hin zu Keramik- und Karbonfaserpapier prasentiert es den aktu ellen Stand aus Forschung und Entwicklung sowie die wichtigsten Verfahrenstechniken aus Handwerk und Industrie.

With their centuries-long development, the English landscape garden, the formal French garden, as well as Japanese and Chinese gardens constitute an unparalleled repository of design solutions familiar throughout the world. They are frequently drawn upon as reference works, but often in a piecemeal and haphazard fashion and from botanical or arthistorical vantage points. That is where the books of this new series come in. They present the various garden types from the perspective of contemporary landscape and garden design. Starting from the formidable beauty of the world's most distinguished gardens, they point the way toward the essential compositional principles, the plants most commonly utilized and their most characteristic uses, and t he possibilities for employing them in contemporary projects, thus providing readers with a rich source of inspiration for their own designs and creations. The panorama of The Chinese Garden stretches from the surviving historical gardens all the way to such modern examples as the garden at the Bank of China in Hong Kong (designed by I. M. Pei), Ai Weiwei's Yiwu Riverbank Park, the Garden of Flowering Fragrance in the area of Los Angeles, California, and the Garden of Awakening Orchids in Portla nd, Oregon.

Small structures such as kiosks, bus shelters, ticket booths are essential to the infrastructure of the city, often an exciting synthesis of architecture and product design, and provide bread-and-butter commissions for many architecture practices.

Wenn das professionelle Interesse an neuen Materialien uber eine intuitive Faszination hinausgeht, stellt sich die Frage, wie Innovationen aus der Materialerforschung in die Architekturanwendung importiert werden konnen. Hier setzt dieses grundlegend e Buch an. Ausgehend von Materialeigenschaften wie Textur, Elastizitat oder Transparenz uberwindet es die traditionellen Einteilungen von Werkstoffen zugunsten der Darstellung ubergreifender Verarbeitungs- und Verwendungsarten wie Falten und Biegen, Schneiden und Weben, Spiegeln und Projizieren. Die entwurfsorientierten Strategien und Techniken umfassen sowohl die etablierten als als "neue" Materialien. Sie ubergreifen alle Mastabe vom Detail bis zum Gesamtgebaude. Die Beispiele reichen von Prot otypen bis hin zu groen ausfuhrten Projekten der letzten Jahre. In neun Kapiteln werden aus dieser neuen Sicht Oberflachen und Schichtungen, Fugungen und Verbindungen, Gewebe und Texturen, Transformationen mittels reaktiver Materialien und Nanomateri alien, die Integration ephemerer Faktoren wie Wind und Licht sowie die systematische Erschlieung von Ressourcen durch Materialsammlungen dargestellt. Einleitend wird die Herausbildung der aktuellen Materialkultur beschrieben. Ein abschlieender Teil b ehandelt den Beitrag der Materialinnovation zu aktuellen Anforderungen von Fragen der Nachhaltigkeit, des Lebenszyklus usw.

Condensed ingenuity: Japanese residential architecture. When designing small residences, Japanese architects play with the boundaries of space, employ unusual materials, and develop new concepts for living together. The creativity of Japan's architects is revealed by their buildings and by their ability to organize even the tiniest space. The short life of residential buildings has led to an enormous store of architecture ideas, and "Small Houses" documents the current approaches. Japanese residential buildings are and have always been a seismograph of current trends in the country's architecture. The evolution this housing type has undergone since the early days of Japanese modernism is therefore the subject of Ulf Meyer's introductory essay. The project descriptions that follow it are dedicated to the specifically Japanese approach to certain elements of architecture. The focus of the project description is on the architectural concept, communicated to the reader in numerous illustrations and overview plans. Scattered texts provide more detailed information about the cultural and design background. "Small Houses" is addressed to architects, interior designers, students, and interested members of the general public. Although it includes works by such renowned architects as Sou Fujimoto Architects and Atelier Bow-Wow, the primary focus is on buildings by firms that are not yet famous abroad but have already attracted a lot of attention in Japan for their powerful architectural ideas.

The one-stop handbook on landscape architecture in a revised edition "Constructing Landscape" is a systematic introduction to technical and constructional open space planning, with all the relevant topics, from the most common materials and surfaces to the construction of open space elements and the use of plants. For landscape architects and architects it is an indispensable guide to correct and professional execution planning as well as to preparing solid and well-thought-out requests for proposal. "Constructing Landscape" is divided into two sections, Materials and Surfaces, and Building Construction and Building Elements. The first section provides an overview of the various building materials of landscape architecture and their specific characteristics. It also explains the qualities of surfaces and the different approaches to treating them. The second section begins with an introductory chapter explaining the principles of statics, the connections of load-bearing elements, and the various approaches to anchoring building components and supporting structures. The subsequent chapters use drawings and text to present the constructional principles and techniques associated with the various building elements. Each chapter concludes with a collection of sample projects, illustrated with photographs and technical drawings.

This internationally prizewinning volume now appears in its third, revised and expanded edition. Since the first edition was published in 2005, it has been adopted as a textbook at many universities.

What does a collective process in architecture entail and how does it influence the planning of our built environment? Although the hierarchically organized office with its claim to individual authorship is still the dominant form of architecture firm, more and more horizontally organized collectives with alternative approaches to architectural planning are emerging. In this insightful survey of renowned European collectives, Natalie Donat-Cattin offers an overview of their working methods, organizational forms, goals, and projects. The book includes statements and projects by: A-A Collective, (ab)Normal, Assemble, baukuh, CNCRT, Colectivo Warehouse, Collectif Etc, constructLab, false mirror office, Fosbury Architecture, la-clique, Lacol, n'UNDO, orizzontale, raumlabor, X=(T=E=N), and Zuloark. First comprehensive analysis of collectives in architecture and urban planning Highly topical subject: project development as a collective process Insightful introduction of 16 well-known architectural collectives in Europe

What "really constitutes an architectural atmosphere"? Peter Zumthor says, is "this singular density and mood, this feeling of presence, well-being, harmony, beauty ... under whose spell I experience what I otherwise would not experience in precisely this way." Zumthor's passion is the creation of buildings that produce this kind of effect, but how can one actually set out to achieve it? In nine short, illustrated chapters framed as a process of self-observation, Peter Zumthor describes what he has on his mind as he sets about creating the atmosphere of his houses. Images of spaces and buildings that affect him are every bit as important as particular pieces of music or books that inspire him. From the composition and "presence"? of the materials to the handling of proportions and the effect of light, this poetics of architecture enables the reader to recapitulate what really matters in the process of house design.

Artificial Intelligence's (AI) encounter with Architecture is still in its infancy. However, current experiments and applications already are a testimony to their gradual intersection. This book provides an introduction to the topic through the triple lens of History, Application, and Theory. A chronology of Architecture's technological evolution first puts AI back in the context of the discipline. The author then presents a collection of AI's applications in Architecture. The book finally gives the stage to contributors working at the forefront of this revolution. From Harvard to Foster & Partners, their perspectives provide a panorama of the discourse surrounding AI's presence in the field. Halfway between research and practice, this book offers to unveil the promise and challenges AI holds for Architecture.