Park Books

Offers essays by and interviews with leading international voices in the fields of architecture, art, design, engineering, and theory Features new work by prominent international practices including Assemble (UK), TAKK (Spain), H+N+S Landscape Architecture (Netherlands), Design Earth (Algerie / Lebanon), H Arquitectes (Spain), TEN Studio (Serbia / Switzerland), Forensic Architecture (UK), and Atelier Bow-Wow (Japan) Official publication of the 2026 UIA World Congress of Architects in Barcelona (June 28 to July 2, 2026)Becoming: Architectures for a Planet in Transition is published in conjunction with the 2026 UIA World Congress of Architects in Barcelona. The book explores spatial practices that foster processes of appropriation and transformation of the inhabited environment— both human and nonhuman, individual and collective—, investigating the potential of time as a design tool. Through a series of interviews with critical antagonists, research-by-design projects, workshops, and essays, the volume offers a comprehensive survey of the 2026 UIA Congress's main topic of becoming as a metaphor for change: that architecture must become more than human, circular, embodied, interdependent, hyper-conscious, and attuned. It constitutes a tangible and lasting reminder of the environmental challenges that our planet is facing. The UIA World Congress of Architects brings together globally renowned architects, researchers and other influential voices from multiple fields to explore material, ecological, political and poetic themes through exhibitions, workshops and debates, and to encourage architectural dialogue and the sharing of perspectives between disciplines.

A comprehensive collection of accessible texts covering the entire spectrum of issues relating to the qualitative evaluation of architecture Explores all aspects of the topic and offers for the first time a complete definition of architectural quality The qualitative evaluation of buildings is largely neglected worldwide in favour of quantitative and technical assessments The International Conference on Architectural Criticism has established itself as a centre of competent and independent architectural criticismThe essays collected in this volume cover the spectrum of issues that determine the quality of architecture. For example: What exactly is architectural quality? Is it based on physical facts? Is it a matter of cultural context? Does it lie in the eye of the beholder or is it actually beauty that matters? Do architects' intentions and ideas provide the keys to a building's evaluation? Does it rest primarily in its form? Or in the ethical attitude it expresses? Or is it just a group of critics deciding these issues among themselves? While quantitative-technical evaluations of buildings abound internationally, the qualitative assessment of architectural works has so far been largely neglected. This unique anthology on definitions of architectural quality ranges from general observations and theories to case studies, and lays a rigorous foundation for assessing works of architecture.

School buildings are among the most complex building tasks, both for society and for architects School building design is one of the core fields of activity of Berlin- and Lausanne-based firm AFF Architekten The book offers deep insights into typologies and spatial design for school buildings from AFF Architekten's practice Illustrated with more than 300 previously unpublished plans and photographs Essays by distinguished authors offer background informationSchool buildings are among the most complex design, planning, and construction tasks for architects. They reflect educational concepts as well as cultural and spatial ideas of their time. New Schools on the Block offers a survey of a decade of school building design by Berlin- and Lausanne-based AFF Architekten, a collective of architects, researchers, and crafts people. AFF's understanding of schools is that they are spaces of identification as much as they are places of learning. They aim to create buildings which open up spaces for experiences that foster identity through the interplay of shape and use. New Schools on the Block is a typological inventory. It features 40 of AFF's school designs, built and unrealised, for towns and cities in Germany and Switzerland through floor plans and photographs of their surroundings, entrance halls, stairwells, classrooms, recreational and storage spaces. While floor plans invite the imagination of spaces, images of realised buildings demonstrate that even details such as a handrail or a sanitary room can be instructive. A comic strip about everyday school life adds an extra touch of realism. Essays on historic and contemporary school building design and a conversation with AFF Architekten provide background information.

First comprehensive survey on the pressing challenge of homelessness and what urban design and architecture contribute to fight it Brings together groundbreaking research, field reports, and award-winning projects and initiatives from Canada, Germany, Iran, Switzerland, and the US Offers insights into current topics such as trauma-informed design, design justice, hostile architecture, architecture of asylum, and tactical urbanism Includes a comprehensive glossary of key terms related to homelessnessHomelessness is one of the most pressing social challenges of our time, and is closely linked to issues of urban design and architecture. Homeless people are part of urban society and depend on accessible public spaces and urban infrastructure. Yet, in cities around the world, local governments use policies and urban planning to ward off street people, aiming at making them invisible in the cityscape and deliberately impeding certain forms of stay. Urban design always reflects power structures—it can exclude or open up avenues for participation. The Roofless Truth brings together contributions by international researchers and practitioners from the fields of architecture, urban development and design, sociology, ethnology, social work, and education. It offers academic analyses and essays, field reports, and student proposals for interventions in public space, and features award-winning projects and initiatives in Canada, Germany, Iran, Switzerland, and the US. The book highlights how public spaces should be designed to offer protection, dignity, and opportunities for homeless people, and to facilitate encounters and interaction. The featured examples impressively demonstrate that even the smallest spatial decision can determine inclusion or exclusion. The Roofless Truth paints a multifaceted picture of planning and design as a social practice beyond representation and prestige.

Illustrates how Oscar Niemeyer's building for the French Communist Party in Paris focalised the massive philosophical and political debates of the 1960s First book about Structuralist Marxism that explores its possible relation to an actual Marxist structure Fundamentally re-conceives the relationship between theory and architecture The Gumshoe series investigates singular buildings, emulating the style and book format of a detective novel Distinguished authors from various countries write on notable buildings from across architectural historyGumshoe is a new series of architectural books that introduces an original approach to the writing of architectural history. Emulating the detective novel, the focus is on actual buildings rather than on speculative designs and theories. The style and form is fresh and scholarly but also easy and enjoyable to read. In Mysteries of a Communist Cave, the second book in the Gumshoe series, Lytle Shaw conducts an investigation of Oscar Niemeyer's building for the French Communist Party's (PCF) central committee in Paris. Designed in 1965, just as party theorists began to rethink many bedrock assumptions about representation, Oscar Niemeyer's PCF building is a microcosm of the shifting political and architectural landscape of the 1960s. It is also a literal Marxist structure that can thus help us concretely picture just exactly what Structuralist Marxism might have been. Shaw draws out the PCF's language and context one element at a time and puts the elegant curtain-wall building with its cave-like assembly hall into revelatory dialogue with interlocutors in film, philosophy, anthropology, and politics. Perhaps the ultimate mystery of the communist cave is that its owners have not more often and more powerfully presented their landmark building as the vivid source of imagery it could be for the kind of world the PCF might like to construct.

The official publication accompanying the 6th Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB 2025) Unfolds the many faces of the CAB 2025 exhibition SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change across a dynamic constellation of editorial and speculative formats Expands beyond CAB 2025 to discuss the current state of education in architecture schools, the challenges of material culture, the future of housing, and exhibitions as devices for change Chicago Architecture Biennial is North America's largest international survey of contemporary architecture and designSHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change is published in conjunction with the 6th Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB 2025) under the artistic direction of Florencia Rodriguez. In a world defined by crisis and uncertainty, architects are researching, relearning and reimagining, the volume marks not only a change in direction but also presents provocative inquiries about a redefinition in the substance and fundamentals of the field. It is an invitation to think with others, to project with intention, and to set new grounds for the interpretation and design of our built environments. In the same spirit, the book unfolds the many faces of SHIFT across a dynamic constellation of editorial and speculative formats through collective, multilayered, and multidimensional conversations, visual essays, and manifestos. CAB 2025 participants' voices are brought to print through a transcript of a five-hour conversation marathon that tackled topics such as new realism, the magic in the ordinary, pleasures in the urban, and the need to critically shift architecture's language, as well as a repository of manifestos exploring other possible worlds. Beyond the exhibition, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change also calls upon practitioners from different fields to discuss the current state of education in architecture schools, the challenges of material culture, the future of housing, and exhibitions as devices for change.

Examines the evolving landscape of architectural and design education in the US, driven by student-led movements advocating for a liberating learning approach amid larger political rifts concerning race and class issues An insightful and timely probe into both existing and prospective pathways for realising sustainable diversity in design education in the US and abroad Offers 25 case studies focused on pathway programs as strategies for recruitment, institutional evolution, and bold experimentation An indispensable resource for educators, practitioners, and policymakersJunior Architects examines the evolving landscape of architectural and design education, driven by student-led movements advocating for a liberating learning approach amid larger political rifts concerning race and class issues. In this crucial juncture, while educational institutions reassess their curriculum and teaching approaches, this insightful and timely edited volume probes into both existing and prospective pathways for realising sustainable diversity in design education. It provides a critical review of early-learning programs instituted by architecture schools in the United States, examining their potential as markers leading to not only a diversified pool of upcoming designers but also a major shift in our anticipations of methodology, knowledge production, context, professionalisation, and evaluation of excellence. It anticipates a significant transformation looming for the establishments, the discipline, and the profession. Organised in three sections ? Building Society, Pluralism & Pedagogy, and Civic Professionalism ? Junior Architectsestablishes a framework for a comprehensive analysis of 25 case studies focused on pathway programs as strategies for recruitment, institutional evolution, and bold experimentation. It offers an indispensable resource for educators, practitioners, and policymakers striving to create a nurturing environment that embraces pluralism and equity in design education.

In their new book, Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample, principals of acclaimed New York-based architecture firm MOS, offer a deep dive into the ever-changing nature of public spaces, revealing their complexity, instability, and contested nature. Through a focused examination of New York City-one of the most densely populated and symbolically charged urban environments-the volume explores how public spaces are shaped by legal frameworks, private interests, and community needs. Drawing on historical context, legal principles, and detailed mapping of Manhattan's public spaces, Meredith and Sample illustrate how spaces like parks, sidewalks, plazas, and even cemeteries serve as arenas for expression, conflict, and negotiation. From anti-homeless measures to inaccessible infrastructure: they highlight the ways in which public spaces can both include and exclude, reflecting the larger social and political structures that govern them. A sequel to their precious Vacant Spaces, NY (2021), Public Spaces, NY invites an imagination of a more inclusive, equitable vision for the shared urban spaces we all navigate.

Concéntrico: Urban Innovation Laboratory reflects on the first decade of the international Concéntrico festival of design and architecture in the city of Logrono, Spain, and some 150 projects and designs commissioned for it. The festival's aim is to serve as a laboratory searching for creative new ways in using architecture and design to strengthen communities, and to support the dialogue between designers and citizens. The book offers a unique meditation on the transformation of cities and the relevance of architecture and design in the 21st century. It introduces meaningful ways to address and engage with pressing urban issues-from identity and heritage to temporariness, collectivity, ecology, play, and domesticity-through the lens of selected Concéntrico commissions since 2014. Through lavishly illustrated essays, it features projects by 30 artists, architects, and designers from 14 countries. They are prefaced and held together by a conversation between the editors Javier Pena Ibánez and Nick Axel, who speak about the festival's context, evolution, and the knowledge it has produced since its first edition in 2014. Text in English and Spanish.

Buildings for People and Plants by WORKac is a thoughtfully curated architectural exploration by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, the New York-based design firm's co-founders. The compelling volume, featuring ten of WORKac's most recent projects, such as Kew Gardens Hills Library and Museum Garage, navigates through the interconnected realms of architecture, environment, and social sustainability. The book is structured to present a singular narrative thread by Andraos and Wood that showcases how these projects engage with their specific cultural and environmental contexts to support both people and plants. It includes a critical essay by distinguished architecture critic and writer Nicolai Ouroussoff that contextualises WORKac's practice within the architectural landscape. With a focus on visual presentation, which is a hallmark of Andraos and Wood's approach, it is a critical and visual treat that extends the narrative of their previous monograph, WORKac: We'll Get There When We Cross That Bridge (2017) and showcases their latest explorations in architecture and community-centric design.

Can buildings themselves express criticism? Wasn't modernist housing a collective criticism of unsustainable living conditions? Can a state's embassy convey differentiated, critical messages to the home and host country? Can architects express explicit criticism with their buildings? And if so, how can they do so? The essays collected in this volume present a wide range of effective built criticisms. Their authors' concise analyses broaden our view of an insufficiently explored field of knowledge. The 2023 International Conference on Architectural Criticism at Shanghai's Tongji University introduced the critical positions of leading international architects and architecture firms. The debate between tradition and modernity gave rise to varied approaches, such as opposition against unstoppable progress or against autocratic family ideals.

Trees, Time, Architecture introduces living plant construction as an important tool to improve the climate in our cities. In the form of a magazine, the volume brings together a variety of views on the relationship between trees and architecture, urban spaces, modernism, politics, feminism, and cultural values. This collage of historical, research-based and creative perspectives looks at how living trees can be preserved, used, and appreciated in the Anthropocene by taking into account their temporal dimension. It highlights ancient examples of living plant architecture, such as the root bridges of the Khasi people in India, Nordic mythology with its representation of a tree as a cosmological symbol, and the architectural use of living trees in the Roman Empire. The essays, photographs, memoirs, film reviews, and conversations in this book are supplemented with exemplary architectures, new research approaches, and current design methods. They illustrate dynamic processes in which trees play a key role as constantly changing organisms. They invite a transdisciplinary examination of relationships between people, trees, and architecture, as well as their rethinking and further development in our time of constant change and limited resources.

The New Design Museum maps a new landscape of institutional practices across different geographical locations. It reveals how spaces of culture dedicated to design have been transforming-their missions, programs and outreach platforms-to respond to an ever-expanding outlook on design as a field that is moving beyond its traditional presentation as an object-based practice. The case studies encompass visions and practical examples from leading international institutions as well as independent initiatives and platforms, such as The World Around (Brooklyn, NY), Serpentine Gallery (London), Future Observatory at the Design Museum (London), Cultures of Assembly (Luxembourg), Loudreaders, and Non-Extractive Architecture. They are united in their search to revisit methods and canons of conventional museological traditions. They explore a composite thematic spectrum covering from global design practices invested in decolonising and queering agency, computational, ecological and indigenous knowledge, and present alternative educational and collaborative frameworks of institutional development. The book integrates 15 interviews with directors and programmers, such as Carson Chan (MoMA, New York), Ikko Yokoyama (M+ Museum, Hong Kong), Aric Chen (Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam), Giovanna Borasi (Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal), and Lucia Pietroiusti (Serpentine Gallery, London), with a selection of 31 projects and initiatives by independent practitioners and entities beyond the traditional museum, including festivals, websites, podcasts, public programs, and off-spaces. Many of them emerged over the past decade and more intently since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020. They are evidence of the changing paradigms of public and professional engagement with the discipline of design.

Explores the role of architecture in forming identity in society through interviews with renowned scholars and a set of projects by international firms especially designed for this book. In their new book, the international CARTHA network engages with the question of forming identity in society and the role that architecture plays in this process. Inspired by Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytical approach, CARTHA’s members break down identity formation into four processes, which they explore in interviews. Maarten Delbeke, professor of history and theory of architecture at ETH Zurich, talks about assimilation, while Frederike Lausch, a researcher at TU Darmstadt’s Department of Architecture, discusses appropriation. Rob Krier, a Berlin- and Liguria-based architect and sculptor examines denial, and Jonathan Sergison, a London-based architect, reflects on reconciliation. Together, these conversations set the overall conceptual frame for a new, speculative design methodology, which is put to test by international architecture firms: Made In (Switzerland), Sam Jacob Studio (Britain), Monadnock (Netherlands), Bruther (France / Switzerland), Bureau Spectacular (USA), Conen Sigl (Switzerland), and Studio Muoto (France) have been invited to submit a design for a new dwelling, drawing from projects inserted in their own conceptual, social, and physical contexts. CARTHA—Building Identities is a handbook for architectural design, beautifully illustrated through plans, sections, montages, and texts.

The creation of park systems is a historically proven method for communities to stabilise and cultivate healthy ecological habitats in country dwellings as well as in dense urban areas. Park systems ensure clean soil, water, and air for all. Moreover, they offer inter-generational and inclusive recreational opportunities along ecological corridors. Between 1900 and 1950, civic design - a practice in urban and landscape planning explicitly oriented towards the common good - experienced a heyday. Park systems were successfully used as "green armatures" hosting public facilities such as playgrounds, schools, administrative buildings, hospitals, and gardens. Living Cities offers a chronological survey of civic design based on more than 30 park systems on five continents. The examples range from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Park an der Ilm in Weimar (1778) and John Nash's Regent Street in London (1806) to Chicago's park system (1850), Albert Bodmer and Maurice Braillard's plans for Geneva (1936), and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Valley (1947), as well as to contemporary and future projects in Addis Ababa, Madrid, Medellin, New York, and Seoul. Matthew Skjonsberg's book demonstrates the ecological and social impact of park systems and highlights the diverse challenges that communities face when implementing such projects. At the same time, it encourages a re-evaluation of civic design as an inter-generational practice of urban design.

Hermann Czech is one of Austria’s most eminent and influential contemporary architects This is the definitive monograph on Hermann Czech Traces Czech’s career, explores his links to Viennese modernism, and analyses contemporary influences that shape his thinking and designs Offers a complete index of Czech’s buildings, projects, and writings to date Hermann Czech, born in 1936, is one of Austria’s most eminent and influential architects and theorists. This influence is based not only on his work as a designing architect, which extends to furniture, interiors, and exhibitions. Czech is also widely admired just as much for his writings on architectural theory and as the editor and translator of classics of architectural history, including texts by Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Josef Frank, and Christopher Alexander, among others. This book is the long-awaited updated and expanded English edition of the only full monograph on Hermann Czech to date. First published in German in 2018, it goes far beyond a mere presentation of an architecture practice’s buildings and projects. The first part traces what links Czech’s work to the approaches of Viennese modernism. The second part explores Czech’s biography and the trajectory of his career, analysing as well the contemporary influences that shape his thinking and designs. The third part features selected buildings and unrealised projects, setting forth also Czech’s numerous references and underlying reflections. A complete index of his buildings, projects, and writings, an essay by Vienna-based philosopher Elisabeth Nemeth on the relationship between architecture and philosophy in Czech’s work, and an introduction by architectural historian Liane Lefaivre round off this volume.