Beyond the Bubble, The New Japanese Architecture (2008)
Professor Botond Bognar

The book looks at two contrasting but equally extraordinary phases in the recent history of Japanese architecture: first, the explosive 'Bubble' era of the 1980s and early 1990s, and second, the post-'Bubble' era which leads up to the present day. The early period, also referred to as the 'new golden age of Japanese architecture', saw a spectacular overproduction of unusual buildings and urban complexes in Japan's major cities; while the period that followed, around the mid-1990s, shows work that demonstrated a sense of modesty, restraint and 'earthly' innovation.

The Bubble era was pioneered by names such as Arata Isozaki, Tadao Ando, Fumihiko Maki, Kazuo Shinohara, Toyo Ito, Hiroshi Hara and Shin Takamatsu. With the Japanese economy booming, there was huge investment in fantastical and often very experimental urban building projects.

However, by 1993 economic recession had started to gain a firm grip on the country, affecting it on every level. Japan began restructuring its economy and, as a consequence, social, cultural and architectural changes took place on a big scale. Architects throughout Japan started experimenting and building in new ways. Environmental and ecological concerns led to the development of innovative materials and technologies. This backlash against the overdevelopment and spending that took place in earlier years was led by established figures such as Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, Nikken Sekkei Ltd, Toyo Ito, Yoshio Taniguchi, Kengo Kuma, and Ryoji Suzuki, as well as emerging architects including Jun Aoki, Shigeru Ban, Kazuyo Sejima, SANAA, Atelier Bow Wow, Tele-design, and others.

Beyond the Bubble is divided into three sections: "The Bubble Years: The Epitome of Japanese Postmodernism," "After the Bubble: New Realities, New Priorities," and "The Projects." In the first two sections, architectural trends and projects forwarded during the two eras are discussed and illustrated, while in the latter part of the book thirty-three more recent works, mainly from the twenty-first century, are introduced on an individual basis, with plans, drawings, and photos, along with detailed project descriptions. The book exploring the current course of Japan’s extraordinary architecture and urbanism, also covers a broad spectrum of economic, social, technological and cultural developments.

Daylighting, Architecture and Health (2008)
Professor Mohamed Boubekri

Examines the relationship between natural light in buildings and human health, considering both psychological and physiological issues and bringing together a range of research in the field. As we are becoming increasingly conscious of global warming and pushing towards energy efficiency in buildings, the book examines the question of daylighting from the perspective of the health of building occupants. It gathers and reviews all the latest and pertinent medical and architectural research related to natural light, or lack thereof, and its effect on people. * Documents medical research findings which establish a link between light quality and health * Considers design strategies for increasing daylight in buildings * Develops understanding and awareness of the importance of natural light in buildings Daylighting, Architecture and Health: Building Design Strategies is a timely and essential text for professional architects and all others concerned with the effects of daylighting on health, architecture and building design

The Interior Dimension (2005)
Professor Joy Malnar

Evanescent. Restrained. Ethereal. These are some of the words used to describe the architecture of Kengo Kuma, one of the most heralded of a new generation of Japanese architects. Increasingly the focus of international renown, Kuma's work is characterized by a delicate simplicity and minimalism, incorporating a wide range of ephemeral transparencies. This is the first full-length monograph on the work of this enormous talent. Included are all of Kuma's most recent projects, including the Museum of Ando Hiroshige, the Stone Museum, the Horai Onsen Bath House in Atami, Louis Vuitton Tokyo Headquarters, and the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum.

Professor Mir M. Ali

How do we perceive buildings? How can architects design buildings to better complement the full range of this perception? In this book, Malnar and Vodvarka explore the nature of our responses to the built environment. They argue that a better understanding and appreciation of all our senses can contribute to new methods for the design of significant spaces, ones that would sharply contrast with the formal model that dominates architectural practice today. They consult the environmental sciences, anthropology, psychology, and architectural theory to further a sensory-oriented design paradigm.

The revolution in thought and feeling that gave rise to modernity transformed not only the form and space of our buildings, but their mood and atmosphere as well, manifesting a new sensibility for light as well as a fresh understanding of people as metaphysical beings. Envisioned in art as well as science was a new kind of light, whose living energy could resonate inside an active, mobile, reflective subject, and change the human body and mind, providing for the pioneers of 20th century architecture an expanded field of human perception, and a medium to recover the spiritual dimensions of life in a modern age.

A touchstone of Byzantine artistic achievement, the church now known as the Kariye Camii in Istanbul preserves impressive cycles of mosaic and fresco, for which it is justifiably famous. Besides its painting and mosaic decoration, the building itself is well-preserved. Enveloped by narthexes, a burial chapel and other additions, and topped by an array of domes, the Kariye Camii stands at the forefront of Late Byzantine architectural developments. This illustrated guide chronicles the building's history and provides a scene-by-scene guide to its spectacular decoration.

This book offers a visual and historical tour of a unique but often overlooked facet of modern American architecture derived from Louis Sullivan. Masterfully framed by the author's photographs of Sullivanesque buildings in Chicago and throughout the Midwest, this in-depth exploration of the Sullivanesque tells the story of its evolution from Sullivan's intellectual and aesthetic foundations to its place as a form of commercial vernacular. The book also includes an inventory of Sullivanesque buildings.

Fazlur Khan was arguably the greatest architectural engineer of the twentieth century. Most widely known for innovation in the design and construction of tall buildings, he was responsible for structural systems that made possible the 100-story John Hancock Center and the 110-story Sears Tower. Structural systems he invented, including the "braced tube" and "bundled tube" systems, remain fundamental to high-rise construction today. Khan's efforts were not limited to structural engineering; they also played an important role in the form and architecture of the buildings he worked on. This book offers a vivid portrait of this seminal figure, focusing on a period from the 1950s to the early 1980s when Khan worked mostly at the Chicago offices of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. This, the first published book on the life and work of Fazlur Khan, stands as a powerful testament to this revolutionary mind -- and to the technological advances it engendered.

Designing for Diversity brilliantly exposes and analyzes the profession's perennial struggles with diversity. Given the traditional mismatch between diverse consumers and predominantly white male producers of the built environment, plus the shifting population balance toward communities of color, Anthony contends that the architectural profession staves off true diversity at its own peril. With ths book, practicing architects, managers of firms, and educators will learn how to create conditions more welcoming to a diversity of users as well as designers of the built environment.

This book charts the development of the designs of Hiroshi Hara as well as the innovative uses of emerging building technologies. This book will appeal not only to those interested in the work of this particular architect but also to those interested in Japanese architecture as a whole and those looking to push forward the boundaries of building technology. This first monograph on the work of Hara focuses on the innovative use of building technologies within his work and illuminates the question of how to maintain a successful architecture practice.

As the oldest and largest design firm in Japan, Nikken Sekkei employs over 2,000 people and boasts of over 14,000 completed projects in 40 countries. This volume examines their finest displays of architectural refinement, elegance, and bravura, providing an authoritative and thorough history of the firm's achievements since the beginning of the century, focusing on such important recent works as the Islamic Development Bank Headquarters, Jeddah; the IBM Japan Head Office, Tokyo; and the Education and Cultural Center Cairo Opera House.

Japan is one of the few countries today where diversity and innovation in design continue to shape the built environment. Benefiting from the legacies of both Eastern and Western traditions, and responding boldly, but often critically, to the rapid encroachments of the information age, Japanese architects are shaping the architecture of the future with all its promises, doubts and contradictions.

American architect Cass Gilbert built many of the major monuments of his generation. Inspired by design throughout the ages - ancient Greece and Rome, medieval and Renaissance Europe, and contemporary traditions such as the Richandsonian Romanesque - he created buildings for the sites, clients, and programs of his own time. Gilbert's career reached its peak in the 1910s and 1920s with civic and commercial buildings of great significance: the Woolworth Company Building (at its 1913 completion the tallest building in the world) and the New York Life Insurance Company Building, both in New York City, and the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. among them.

In the first major study to examine Byzantine architecture from the perspective of its builders, Ousterhout identifies the problems Byzantine masons commonly encountered in the process of design and construction. From a careful analysis of the written evidence, the archaeological record, and most importantly the surviving buildings, he concludes that Byzantine architecture was far more innovative than has previously been acknowledged. Following preliminary observations on Byzantine church architecture and its defining characteristics, Ousterhout examines the textual sources, yielding a new understanding of the identities and the respective roles of patrons, bureaucrats, and masons in the building process. Narrowing his focus to the masons, or master builders, he clarifies both their theoretical and practical concerns in architectural design, suggesting that the master builders relied on geometry and memory, rather than blueprints, to guide their work. The study focuses on churches built in the area of Constantinople between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, but it also refers back to earlier works such as Hagia Sophia, and it tracks Byzantine masons as far afield as Russia, the Balkans, and Jerusalem.

Built in Chicago in 1914, Frank Lloyd Wright's Midway Gardens was a concert garden that included an indoor restaurant and dance hall, an outdoor summer garden with band shell, a tavern, and a private club - a work of art on the grandest scale uniting all the arts in an architecture of pleasure. In this illustrated volume, the first to focus solely on Midway Gardens, Kruty traces the project's history and argues that its complex design and extensive use of decoration were the first unmistakable examples of a change in style and approach that was to characterize Wright's work for the next 15 years.

A prolific and outspoken proponent of modern architecture, Maki is known for his rational approach and intelligent use of technology. This monograph provides an overview of nearly three decades of work, concentrating on major works of the most recent and productive decade and showing an evolution of ideas and architectural vocabulary. Projects are presented in thematic groupings, rather than in a strict chronology, and cover a range of scales and types - from a small house in Poland to the massive construction of the Makuhari Messe complex on Tokyo Bay.

Continuing the World Cities series, this profusely illustrated volume documents the historical development and future prospects for Tokyo, one of the worlds most distinctive cities. This book looks not only at the city itself, but also at outlying districts. Among the dozens of architects featured are many world-renowned Japanese, along with many foreigners whose designs grace the city's skyline.

The Maison Curutchet in Argentina is one of the most interesting buildings in Le Corbusier's oeuvre: it is the only single-family dwelling the architect designed in the late 1940s, and it is one of his very few built projects in the Americas. Commissioned in 1948 by Dr. Pedro Curutchet, the house was designed by Le Corbusier without any direct contact with the client. For many years it has been surrounded by an air of controversy over its authorship and unique evolution. The Maison Curutchet is a representative of Le Corbusier's transitional period, stylistically and chronologically bridging the purism of his buildings from the late 1920s and the maturity of his later work in India. This book offers an in-depth analysis through original documents, drawings, photographs, and a critical examination of a unique design process.

During his six-and-a-half decade career, architect Togo Murano attained legendary status in his native Japan, where his work is considered among the most outstanding and influential of the twentieth century. Murano began working in Osaka in 1918 and died in 1984 at the age of 93, having completed more than 300 projects. This monograph, the first comprehensive illustrated book in English on Murano, presents 27 of his built projects in Japan, illustrated with original photography, plans, and Murano's sketches. A chronology, list of selected works, and bibliography accompany the incisive project descriptions.

One of the most original architects the United States has produced, Walter Burley Griffin worked in the shadow of his early colleague and employer, Frank Lloyd Wright. This has obscured Griffin's contributing role in Wright's architecture as well as the superb accomplishments of his own work as architect, landscape architect, and town planner. A Chicago area native and a graduate of the University of Illinois, Griffin worked for five years as Wright's chief associate, then established his own practice in 1906. His personal style emphasized harmony between buildings and their surroundings and featured strong, elemental shapes, the experimental use of new materials, and simple, open floor plans. Walter Burley Griffin in America combines the richly detailed photographs of Mati Maldre and extensive research of Paul Kruty to provide the first complete visual record ever published of Griffin's surviving American work.

This book covers the entire process of tall building design, from initial planning and programming through design and construction. Readers will find information on new building materials and systems, such as ultra-strength concrete, composite structural systems, and high-efficiency cooling systems. Also discussed are some of the major architects who have influenced tall building design including Cesar Pelli, Helmut Jahn, I.M. Pei, and others.

The work of Japanese architect Minoru Takeyama, regarded by many as the pioneer of post-modern architecture in Japan, shows a greater diversity and range than could be described by this attribution. His buildings, spanning the period between 1965 and the present day, are multifaceted exponents of the theories and concepts that Takeyama has formulated throughout his career. This monograph provides an extensive overview of his projects of the last three decades including the Niban-kan project which was featured on the frontispiece of Charles Jencks' classic book "The Language of Post-Modem Architecture". It aims to show his communication of an ideographic language in a cultural context, with his own interpretation of Japanese cultural development and its heterogeneous and unpredictable nature.

Speaking of their concept of light and colors, the author describes the essence and beauty of Japanese architecture in the most precise sense.