Architecture Book Club

First and Foremost: Palladio

I do not really think you can have a blog about architecture without mentioning Palladio. In fact, I would go around insisting that this be the case but I (unfortunately) have too many other items on my plate right now. Nonetheless. It’s important.

Sure, if you ask the average Joe on the street about architecture the names Michelangelo and possibly even Bernini will cross their lips before that of Palladio. It’s a shame because Palladio was probably one of the greatest influences on the architectural style of America.

Cabin Porn Features the Best of the Smallest Structures

While most of us wouldn't practically be able to fit into a home with a footprint about the size of your average living room, the fully-outfitted shed sure is nice to look at. It carries with it a primal fantasy, one that we all perhaps nurture somewhere, of giving up all our worldly excesses and venturing into the woods to subsist on the bare minimum. It's the secret hippie in us, the part that's tired of all the junk we have to lug around every time we move, the part that loves nature but isn't quite dedicated enough to truly live within it. While we may not be able to act on that desire, we can at least stimulate it with the gorgeous selection of architectural photos curated by the editors of Cabin Porn.

Ghostly Ruins visits America's abandoned places

I’m obsessed with abandoned structures. The churches with the tilted steeples and crumbling walls when you drive out in the country. The forgotten pilings hulking in the water's edge, ships long unmoored. Cars parked in deserts to rust and mildew for decades. Where did all the people go?

Drennan's book sheds more light on multiple murders at Wright's Taliesin

I went to college in Wisconsin and one of the big tourist attractions in the state is Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal home, Taliesin, in Spring Green. It’s quintessential Wright, boxes on top of boxes in his iconic “prairie house” style, and anyone who sees it recognizes it as Wright's design. What most people don’t know, and what most Wright scholars inexplicably skip over in his biography, shaped the rest of Wright’s life and career—seven Wright-affiliated people were killed at at Taliesin in 1914. William R. Drennan details the events that led to the deaths in his 2008 book, “Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders”. Read more about Drennan's book sheds more light on multiple murders at Wright's Taliesin

The Hand-Sculpted House

Merge art and life by building a cob cottage

Compartmentalization has become an essential part of modern living. The biggest separation is between work and play. We keep what we do for pleasure separate from what we do for survival. Our pleasure activities are often undertaken at a financial expense, while our productive activities typically aren't pleasurable. Creative activities, like painting or writing poems, typically count for a loss, financially speaking. But even in the modern day, we don't necessarily have to divide our creativity and our survival. The Hand-Sculpted House by Ianto Evans is one guide to combining the two.
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Lighthouses (Miniature Editions) [Hardcover] - $4.95

Heather Henson (Author)

Amazon is offering Lighthouses (Miniature Editions) [Hardcover] for only $4.95 with FREE shipping if you spend over $25 or have Amazon Prime.

This beautiful Miniature Edition is an international celebration of lighthouses told through evocative photographs, historical factoids, relevant quotes from literature and other sources, and fascinating trivia about lighthouses throughout America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Scandinavia. Includes a colorful wooden lighthouse hangtag.

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"75 Years of Contemporary Iranian Architecture" is released

The big news in the architecture world today revolves around a new book being published. "75 Years of Contemporary Iranian Architecture" which was written by deceased Iranian architect Seyyed Hadi Mirmiran was unveiled at a ceremony earlier today in Tehran.

The book was completed by the authors brother, Seyyed Hamid and another architect, Iraj Etesam after Seyyed Hadi Mirmiran's untimely death at the age of 61 on April 19, 2006 in a hospital in Berlin.

The release of the book is all the rage in Iran but it remains to be seen if the book will make it to the shores of the US to be appreciated in the same light. Read more about "75 Years of Contemporary Iranian Architecture" is released

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

Don’t you just love books that are titled “101…Whatever”? You know the material is going to be delivered in a fast, punchy way that will keep your interest, help you retain the material, and more than likely be entertaining. While this is fun for almost any genre (I can’t imagine how 101 Symptoms of the West Nile Virus would be much fun), it’s particularly helpful when you want to learn about something in an introductory way.

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School is one such book. Matthew Frederick delivers clean and clear-cut definitions, diagrams, figures and explanations that explain the nuts and bolts of architecture in an easy to understand fashion. Read more about 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

"Container Architecture: This Book Contains 6441 Containers"

Working on the tenth floor of the Smith Tower I have a sweeping view from my office of the Port of Seattle. It's one of my favorite views in the city, with the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound in the background. But looking at the port, with hundreds of multi-color containers, they look like orange, blue and gray legos, stacked up on eachother, waiting to be shipped or moved or whatever it is that they do with those things, I do wonder what happens to those containers once they've been used? I mean, when it no longer serves it's purpose of transporting things, does it go to a graveyard of containers? Not necessarily. Read more about "Container Architecture: This Book Contains 6441 Containers"