Buildings and Ideas 1933-1983: From the Studio of Leslie Martin and his Associates
Leslie Martin is almost forgotten today, but was very significant in his day, promoting the work of fine Architects for the London County Council, and leading the Royal Festival Hall. More significantly, perhaps, was his role as head of the school of Architecture at Cambridge University. This book, long out of print, categorises and explains broad ideas behind the development of his work. It is an informative book. For me Martin’s large scale work is best understood in his microcosmic Kettle’s Yard. An extension to a complex of three cottages that became an art gallery in Cambridge.
Modern Architecture in Europe. DeWitt
An early premise of our teaching studio was, and is, that by the end of the degree you should have seen, first hand, the work of The Great Architects. It is this, that provides a yardstick to measure your own work and other projects against. When this book was published, there was no streetview and no google maps, no EXIF’s with location data and no MIMOA. (Nor is there now), the De Witt,'s travelled Europe visiting a whole collection of masterworks, and buildings that were current at the time of their travels. They is not always the most pleasant of companions, some countries, for example, Ireland, are dismissed in a few projects, but Google has kindly scanned the whole book and it is a good place to start an itinerary from.
Donald Judd: Architecture, Hatje Cantz
The 1991 edition of the book is, I think, the first book about the architecture around Donald Judd. It is certainly the first Judd book that I bought. It is in German, it has drawings that are quite banal, and buildings where apparently little has happened. In this it would seem to be close to the emperor’s new clothes. However, the projects are remarkable and sensitive, and now much more widely known. Judd bears quiet contemplation.
Edwin Zwakman: Fake But Accurate
Another premise of our studio is that a photograph of an interior model can offer a convincing demonstration of a project. Especially an interior. Zwakman goes even further than this. In ‘fake but accurate’ we see the creation of imagined towns. Places that do not exist, but are accurate observations of those that we see. The work is absorbing, somewhere between the comic of Martin Parr and the authoritarian world of Thomas Demand.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Recent Works
Brunel is long dead. The title refers to an exhibition at the Design Museum, for which this was the catalogue. Radio 4’s The Long View recently compared Brunel to Elon Musk. I can see the connection, but Brunel actually calculated his own structures. He seems to have been quite prepared to push the materials of his day to an unprecedented degree. The work is famously Gung-Ho, but, at times it is wonderfully expressive and efficient. Not wasteful, but rather incredible.
Max Gordon: Architect for Art
Max Gordon’s early death has limited his renown. He was a society architect. My reason for including him is the Saatchi Gallery that he designed on Boundary Lane in Camden, London. Saatchi was, at that time, a collector of Minimalists, who was about to change and discover The Young British. So the gallery, nothing more than plasterboard in an old bus depot, had to exhibit works of considerably less stature than was imagined. In doing so it elevated modest works to High Art. I remember a show which probably represented an early stage of the transition from Minimal to maximal, including Richard Wilson’s 20w50, and Brad Lochore’s paintings, and in that show, seeing sanded perspex boxes that were the outlines of white goods; under counter fridges and so on, disappearing into the fog of distance in a side gallery. Astonishing.
Mies Van Der Rohe At Work
I mentioned earlier about the need to see the works of the greats, Mies, Corb., Kahn etc. The joy of this book is that you get to experience the proximity of Mies as a teacher and as a working Architect. Peter Carter passes on direct observations from his time with Mies as a student and as an employee. I think of Mies as rather deterministic, though it is fascinating to see how he communicated with those that he taught and inspired.
The Architecture Of Gerrit Rietveld: As opposed to the remarkably supportive furniture, for which he is better known. This is a book published by a Japanese toilet manufacturer. In addition to their publishing arm they also have an architecture bookshop, and gallery in Tokyo. My reason for including it is the realisation that, like Jacobsen, there is a remarkable architecture there that is somehow not considered seriously enough. A personal favourite of mine is the sculpture pavilion at the Kroller Muller Museum. A tour de force of solid and opaque surfaces. You can see why a Japanese publisher would grasp the spatial ideas.
The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939-1945
Georgian London was built on the basis of an elegant architecture, of buildings that maximised daylight for themselves and for their neighbours. The Victorians, more interested in technical modernity and sombre interiors had a contrary approach. The Edwardians reacted against the Victorians, but their world was shattered by the Great War. Post that war there was the massive building boom of the Metroland commuter era. The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps illustrates these progressions much as any map of the 1930’s would. What is remarkable is that the Authority had the presence of mind to record the impact of the bombing of the city. Using colours to assess if buildings would need to be demolished, or could be repaired. Total destruction was also recorded. Looking at the site of the Barbican, for example, you can see the effect of saturation bombing. Also V bomb sites are marked, a technology that was intended to cause fear, and eventually lead to mankind setting foot on the moon.
"The Structure of Light. Richard Kelly and the Illumination of Modern Architecture"
Our understanding of buildings that we may never see is brought primarily from photographs. There is an idea in the illustrated monographs that we see the work of an Architect. This is, of course, not entirely true. Richard Kelly was a lighting designer. That is to say that he was responsible for the efficacy of electric lighting in buildings. Looking through the pages of this monograph, you realise that his work was a dominant voice. Here we see the lighting grid as the architectural expression. In Philip Johnson’s glass house the lighting obviates the difficulty of making a house from glass. At night Johnson could only see his own reflection, while his neighbours could see everything. Kelly made the interior simply subdued lighting and lit, from the building, the surrounding planting. In the Seagram building it is the understanding of the mass of the cores, travertine as though some element of the ancient world, that Kelly gives us.
ISBNs
978-0521231077
978-0525244158
978-3775711326
978-3829603881
978-1872005256
978-0615395791
978-0714838960
978-4887062986
978-0500518250
978-0300163704