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Permanent Change: Plastics in Architecture and Engineering edited by Michael Bell and Craig Buckley Princeton Architectural Press, 2014 Hardcover, 272 pages The Materials Project , led by Michael Bell, is considered one of Columbia GSAPP's "Flagship Projects." Starting in 2007 the school hosted four two-day conferences focused on a material category: glass (2007), concrete (2008), metal (2009) and plastic (2011). A fifth conference, on light, was planned, but it's looking like that one will never happen, perhaps because light is the most immaterial of architectural materials. Each conference resulted in a companion publication that collected the scholarly papers that covered the spectrum that Bell and his fellow organizers set up: architectural theory on one side and engineering on the other. [U.S. Pavilion at Expo67 in Montreal by R. Buckminster Fuller | image source ] The latest book's focus on plastics comes across even before looking inside: in lieu of a coat...

We Build the City: New York City's Design + Construction Excellence Program edited by Jayne Merkel ORO Editions, 2013 Paperback, 488 pages The role of New York City DDC's (Department of Design and Construction) Design + Construction Excellence Program (D+CE) in elevating the quality of architecture in all five boroughs in undeniable. When I pointed out the important factors in shaping NYC architecture in the 21st century in the introduction to my Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture , D+CE was one of those. By prioritizing excellence in design via a shortlist of architects for projects under $50 million, the city has taken quality architecture – often the purview of parts of Manhattan where the most money is made – and distributed it throughout the city with libraries, firehouses, parks, museums, community centers, and even infrastructure projects. [Stapleton Library in Staten Island, Andrew Berman Architect | All photos from DDC's Flickr page ] This sizable bo...

The Economy of Sustainable Construction edited by Ilka and Andreas Ruby, Nathalie Janson Ruby Press, 2014 Hardcover, 415 pages [Images courtesy of Ruby Press] Any architect striving to design as green a building as possible has certainly run into resistance from a client who asserts that sustainable construction is too expensive and sustainable design is not profitable. These two positions – one in regards to up-front costs and one about post-construction profits – have decreased in validity over time as green building products have become more mainstream, but according to the editors of this book inspired by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction’s 2013 Forum, "sustainability's greatest obstacle is financial." While situated primarily within a European context, the contributions to The Economy of Sustainable Construction make strong arguments for rethinking these assumptions all over the world. One of the best recent examples, included in the volume, that a...

GSD Platform 6 edited by Rosetta Elkin Actar, 2014 Paperback, 368 pages While every student from every architecture school probably thinks that each year they is deserving of a book that sums up the projects, lectures, exhibitions, events, seminars, publications, and other happenings, not that many schools are able to make it happen. In particular a few Ivy League schools come to mind: Columbia GSAPP's Abstract , Yale SOA's Retrospecta , and Harvard GSD's Platform (the successor to Studio Works ). The latter is especially significant given its size (nearly 400 pages), its international distribution through publisher Actar, and the amount of material inside. A prospective student would no doubt be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff happening at the Graduate School of Design as evidenced by the projects, transcripts, and personalities throughout. Harvard GSD is not unique in needing to find an adequate book structure and graphic design to make sense of the multitudes ...

The Vitra Campus: Architecture – Design – Industry edited by Mateo Kries Vitra Design Museum, 2014 Paperback, 200 pages [Cover of German edition. All images are courtesy of Vitra Design Museum.] When I traveled for a couple weeks after the completion of a semester in Italy in 1995, the first stop was in Weil am Rhein, Germany, to visit the Vitra Campus . Nowhere else in Europe could the density of contemporary architecture be found, particularly with buildings by Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, and Zaha Hadid. Remember, this was in the days before Hadid won the Pritzker and had buildings opening at the rate of something like one per month. Yes, my friends and I missed the tour of the Fire Station literally by two minutes, but the experience of Gehry's Design Museum and Ando's Conference Center was enough to make the visit worthwhile. Just shy of 20 years later I was able to return to Weil am Rhein, and in the intervening years the campus of factory and public buildings has been joine...