Why We Build

In an era of brash, expensive, provocative new buildings, a prominent critic argues that emotions—such as hope, power, sex, and our changing relationship to the idea of home—are the most powerful force behind architecture, yesterday and (especially) today. We are living in the most dramatic period in architectural history in more than half a century: a time when cityscapes are being redrawn on a yearly basis, architects are testing the very idea of what a building is, and whole cities are being invented overnight in exotic locales or here in the United States. Now, in a bold and wide-ranging new work, Rowan Moore—former director of the Architecture Foundation, now the architecture critic for The Observer—explores the reasons behind these changes in our built environment, and how they in turn are changing the way we live in the world. Taking as his starting point dramatic examples such as the High Line in New York City and the outrageous island experiment of Dubai, Moore then reaches far and wide: back in time to explore the Covent Garden brothels of eighteenth-century London and the fetishistic minimalism of Adolf Loos; across the world to assess a software magnate’s grandiose mansion in Atlanta and Daniel Libeskind’s failed design for the World Trade Center site; and finally to the deeply naturalistic work of Lina Bo Bardi, whom he celebrates as the most underrated architect of the modern era.

Hubsch's argument that the technical progress and changed living habits of the nineteenth century rendered neoclassical principles antiquated is presented here along with responses to his essay by architects, historians, and critics over two decades.

A spectacular new title from world-renowned artist Oliver Jeffers, creator of the global phenomenon Here We Are! What shall we build, you and I? I'll build your future and you'll build mine. We'll build a watch to keep our time. A father and daughter set about laying the foundations for their life together. Using their own special tools, they get to work; building memories to cherish, a home to keep them safe and love to keep them warm. From renowned, internationally bestselling picture-book creator and visual artist, Oliver Jeffers, comes this rare and enduring story about a parent's boundless love, life's endless opportunities and all we need to build a together future.

We Build Our Homes is a beautifully illustrated picture book exploring the incredible structures built by animals and the reasons why they build them. Each spread looks at a different animal, told as though from their viewpoint.

We Build The City features a selection of the exemplary infrastructure, public realm and civic building projects developed during New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration under Commissioner David Burney's groundbreaking Department of Design + Construction Excellence (D+CE) program. This publication celebrates the DDC's commitment to the idea that design matters and that great design reinvigorates public spaces and, ultimately, transforms people's lives. The DDC has been lauded for its fresh approach to facilitating innovative and collaborative architecture and urban planning solutions and improving public buildings, spaces and communities with a focus on design that reflects important key values: education and culture, health and safety, and diversity and opportunity. The D+CE program has offered dynamic design and construction strategies that have inspired some of the best architects and engineers in the world--and given the city's small firms--the opportunity to work with the DDC to reimagine and reshape the built environment. From the Queen's Botanical Garden, Mariner's Harbor Library, Brooklyn Children's Museum and the Bronx Museum of the Arts to Madison Avenue, Houston Street, Columbus Circle, the Central Park Precinct and PSAC II, the DDC and its pioneering D+CE initiative has helped to transform all five boroughs of the great City of New York. Highlighting the work of numerous talented design and construction firms, We Build The City showcases a collection of some the most notable public projects developed and built under the acclaimed D+CE program. Each featured project--whether large- or small-scale, visible or underground--has contributed to the improvement of the city, building upon principles of creativity, sustainability, performance, efficiency and longevity. The publication includes detailed drawings and striking imagery that reveal the complex processes that have shaped one of the most active and successful design periods in NYC's history.

This book focuses on the contemporary fired clay brick to explore themes of home and house, homeownership, materiality, and sense of place. It investigates why, despite an increasing number of alternative materials, brick remains at the forefront of what people, in the UK in particular, expect homes to be built of, and how brick is indelibly entwined with what home means – something materially stable and financially secure, affording a located sense of place. Through observation of the building process and interviews with bricklayers, foremen, planners, developers, and homebuyers in England, Felicity Cannell traces the embedded meanings of a mundane, ubiquitous artefact, and reveals the tensions and contradictions in today’s use of brick to signify the traditional home. Although easing the planning process and leading to quick sales, the way brick is used in mass market housing today considerably restricts its capacities, notably decoration, flexibility, and strength: the very qualities which have historically positioned this tremendously versatile material as the superlative building block. Overall, the book adds complexity to the study of home and prompts debate about why we build the way we do.

A collection of sketches and watercolours by Mikkel Frost, co-founder of Danish architecture firm CEBRA, champions drawing as a communication tool. ‘Architects do not actually build buildings,’ says Frost. ‘What we build is an idea. To visualize it, we build drawings.’ The evolutionary process of how aphorisms develop into precise architectural concepts is illustrated through a collection of Frost’s sketches and watercolours. Over 200 drawings are organized into 20 sections, each relating to one of CEBRA’s projects. An index containing colour photographs and renders of their works further illuminates how the drawings are translated into reality. Introducing the book, a written version of Frost’s TEDx talk Let your fingers do the talking elaborates on the book’s impetus: to bring a spotlight to the craft of drawing as a powerful tool for creation and communication. Features • A collection of 200+ sketches and watercolours by Danish architect Mikkel Frost. • A curated selection of drawings is organized into 20 sections, each referring to one of the projects by internationally recognized architecture firm CEBRA. • The book provides insight into the architect’s creative process, illustrating how an idea develops into a well-defined concept. • In a compact and handy format, the book champions drawing as a powerful and important communication tool for everyone.

"The log of the clay worker": v. 100, p. 188-193.

Adapting themselves to all kinds of landscapes and climates, humans have used their architectural ingeniousness to build amazing dwellings: find them here, from houses on stilts and igloos to tree houses and skyscrapers.