Title: Minka: My Farmhouse In Japan
Author: John Roderick

Publication Date: November 1, 2007

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

ISBN: 978-1-56898-731-6

John Roderick leaves his metier of journalism (he was an Associated Press correspondent in Asia for almost forty years) and enters the much trickier realm of architectural memoir with Minka: My Farmhouse In Japan. It is his experiences as an American journalist in post-war Japan who purchases a minka, reconstructs it, and makes new home out of it.

Click Continue Reading for the full review.

John Roderick has been around a while--he was born in 1914--and the author clearly is jotting down a life's worth of experiences concerning a particular building. The book wanders at times. He is also not immune to the charms of sentimentalism. Yet perhaps as a result of his time in Japan (he has lived there since the 1959) he has grown accustomed to keeping a lid on the western tendency to create a Proustian flood out of house-home memories and sticks to the story. He makes the building matter. More to the point, he brings the specifics of the building--through purchase, relocation, reconstruction, and occupation--back into the story as a reminder of how important the physical being of these things are to our lives.

And what a story it is. He purchases the bones of a minka in Ise in 1965 for the equivalent at the time of fourteen United States Dollars. The sale was arranged by a Japanese family who had befriended Mr. Roderick, who relates that he agreed to the purchase out of respect for their efforts, thinking that the large, dark, smoky farm house would never be able to be reconstructed elsewhere. Unfortunately for him, his adopted Japanese family creates the circumstances by which he is able to reconstruct the house. Fortunately for him, he finds a home for the first time in his life, created out of an old, wooden, drafty, vernacular structure built twenty-two years before the birth of Mozart. It is an architect's fairy tale.

The 1734 Nomuras would have scratched their heads in puzzlement if they had been told an American journalist would inherit it. In 1734 there was no United States.

They would have been equally confused to learn that the new owner would take it down, move it to Kamakura, the capital of their hate enemy, and do nothing but live in it...What would have astonished them most, perhaps, were the people who, in the next three decades of its existence in Kamakura, would come to praise and admire what they had created as a matter of course.

The book is at its best when it relates these historical pieces without killing them with self-importance; Mr. Roderick has run with too many 20th century world changers to assign his quaint domestic memories with heavy significance. I found this refreshing. The book also shines when it describes the methods used to reconstruct the house. For a full accounting of the ancient art of minka building, the architect will have to look elsewhere. But Mr. Roderick does an admiral job of capturing some details that the general reader will be fascinated by. Here he describes a tool called the sumisubo:

Not easy to describe, it looks like a wooden Dutch shoe with an inkpad in the sole and a spool wound with a thin line high up in the heel. When it is drawn out, the line runs over the inkpad, emerging as black as coal. Pulled out to the desired length on the piece of wood it is to mark, it is then pinned to the spot with a thumbtack. What happens then is more like music than carpentry. The daiku-san plucks the taut string as a cellist would to create a pizzicato and in so doing leaves a perfectly straight black line on the wood.

His solution to the problem of the architectural memoir does not delve too deeply into oriental architectural fetish, nor does it swim aimlessly in memory. John Roderick instead composes his home in the text between these extremes, and invites us all in.

Platform Furniture and Fabrication's Occasional Tables: Shaker-simple design, with all the zen freshness that that reference implies.

Tropolism means design by doing it yourself.

Materialicious gives us a great coffee table makeover, inspired by Tropolism favorite Gio Ponti's Paolo console table. It's not in screen-printed leather like the original, but it's an inspired idea regardless. Stay tuned with them for how-to instructions.

In February the 1960 stained glass window at JFK's terminal 8 was demolished. The window was over 300 feet long and 23 feet tall; it was designed by Robert Sowers for the 1960 American Airlines terminal. Our picture is of the terminal when it opened.

What the articles at the time neglected to mention is that most of the window was salvaged by Olde Good Things in Manhattan. That link has lots of juicy demolition details. We happened to spot one of the pieces in their store window while passing by. Some of the window was destroyed before OGT jumped in and took the remaining window to their warehouse in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They numbered the sections and it is now possible to buy large sections of the window for reassembly elsewhere. So while the window did not find a permanent home, and it will undoubtedly be broken up, at least it's in good hands. And it's possible to put large swaths of it back together, if you have the spot for it.

Pruned continues the thread about flower factories in Europe, starting with this stunning picture of tulip fields in the Netherlands.

For your next Palm Springs vacation, rent Frank Sinatra's house! The house was designed in 1947 (1946?) by E. Stewart Williams, who was also featured in the Julius Schulman show I wrote about a few months ago.

Via Materialicious.

Title: Density Projects
Author: Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Arpa

Publication Date: 2007

Publisher: a+t ediciones

ISBN: 978-84-612-1335-1

Nothing brings us more joy than architectural books in the mold of those in a+t ediciones' Density Series. In Density Projects we have architectural book nirvana. The book's topic is tight: 36 projects (many of them being built) of multi-family housing, all of them recent. The layout is clear, with complete floorplans, site plans, urban situations, and verbal descriptions, all without sacrificing concept drawings and wow renderings. The book is bilingual (Spanish and English). The cross sample is primarily European and North American (although some important projects in Asia are shown, none are by Asian architects), but still incredibly diverse, with good work from architects famous and less-famous. The latest ideas in modern urban planning are presented, all balancing the concerns of environmental responsibility, great cityscapes (both additive and entirely new), and of course, great places to live.

But perhaps the greatest pleasure is that this tight (yet diverse) sample is put to good use. The authors chose to analyze them side-by-side: simple graphic analyzes of residential density, dwellings density, floor area ratios, and uses all set this book apart from most of its kind that travels across this desk. In short, they did some work, and the book was saved from being interesting-but-forgetful, instead being a useful resource for designers and theorists alike.

If you are a regular reader, you know that we have an undying fetish for Star Wars inspired architecture. Sometimes its fascination with the overt references. Sometimes they're more implicit. Residence F. by the Frankfurt firm Meixner Schlute Wendt should be filed in the implicit category. With a metal second story that looks uncannily like a landing stealth bomber, the house seems to float above a landscape. The visage of the house as a vehicle of some sort, landing on a hill in a forest, is remarkably surreal.

Via Blue Ant Studio, our new favorite design blog.

Oobject gives us this gem: "Five or so architects have produced much of the most famous modern furniture." They present 15 architect-designed chairs and ask us to vote on them. Of course, there are some glaring omissions, but to me the most interesting is the wacky lounge chairs by Oscar Niemeyer, found over at Wright20.

Only today do we discover that the Eiffel Tower is not receiving its grand absurd addition, as reported here on March 20, 2008. It was a hoax, or internet fed rumor, that the suggestion they won a competition to add to the tower was widely reported, as the spokesman for David Serero Architects claims. We regret the error. There is nothing we dislike more than renderings of projects that have no chance of being built.

Because this is the first time (we think!) this has happened to us, we followed our trail back. We saw it on io9, who saw it on Dwell, who in turn found it on Archinect, who found it on Bustler, who claims the architect claims they won the competition, but without further attribution. Their website, which we visited prior to posting our original entry, did state clearly "The project will extend the top floor plate of the tower by grafting a high performance carbon Kevlar structure on it." Because the conditional isn't being used, we took it to be a done deal, or at least a winner in an "open competition" mentioned on Bustler but nowhere else.

We speculate that the architects did some studies for the Eiffel Tower's guardians, and got carried away announcing some meeting minutes. The recent mia culpa on their website is too defensive to be purely a creation of the internet.

In yet another study in the sublime scale of stadiums, StrangeHarvest gives us dozens of shots surveying the world of stadium seating. As mosaic. We're always a fan of obsessive catalogs.

The New York Times does a glossy show for the Arakawa and Madelaine Gins house in East Hampton, now apparently ready for viewing. Online. When we first mentioned the Bioscleve House, over two years ago, we were of the opinion that the Site Of Reversible Destiny was the best testing ground of their ideas. After seeing more pictures of said house, we stand by our original opinion. As a house, it is the finest work Ettore Sottsass has ever produced, were it 1979.

In the venerable tradition of naming your funiture designs with your initials and a number, Matthew Hilton gives us the MH005 Coffee Table. The profile reminds us of a lot of Latin American architecture, starting with Gio Ponti's Villa Planchart in Caracas. But this table is from Brazil, not Venezuela, and carries all the gorgeous hardwood craftsmanship any collector of modern furniture would expect from that country.

Life Without Buildings does a rundown on this year's New Orleans AIA winners, four of which are modern architects doing significant projects in the region. After the blowup of the regional plan, and hte plethora of urban plans and space buildings from non-local whiz kids, we were afraid the reactionary pendulum would swing far, far away from modern design. But the local modern architects seem to have saved the day. Pictured is the temporary Rebuild Center at St. Joseph Church by Wayne Troyer Architects.

Two Dozen List, Tropolism Editor's Edition, 2008. Subject to change. Click Continue Reading for Full Annotated Edition.

1. 40 Mercer: Jean Nouvel
2. 40 Bond Herzog & DeMeuron
3. 100 11th Avenue: Jean Nouvel
4. 524 West 19th Street, Metal Shutter Houses: Shigeru Ban
5. 515-517 West 23rd Street, HL23: Neil Denari
6. 366 West 15th Street, The Porter House at : SHoP (aka That Stripey-Light Building)
7. 165 Charles St: Richard Meier (aka Meier3)
8. Perry Street South and North Towers: Richard Meier (aka Meier1 and Meier 2)
9. 109 Norfolk Street, Switch Building: nArchitects
10. 385 West 12th Street: FLAnk
11. 290 Mulberry Street: SHoP
12. 184 Kent Avenue: Arquitectonica (aka The Illinois Institute of Technology)
13. One Kenmare Square: Richard Gluckman (aka Gluckman Wave)
14. 48 Bond: Deborah Burke
15. 15 Central Park West: Robert A.M. Stern
16. One York: Enrique Norton
17. 497 Greenwich Street: Winka Dubbeldam (aka Winka Wave)
18. 33 Vestry Street, V33: Winka Dubbeldam
19. 330 Spring Street, Urban Glass House: Phillip Johnson
20. West 11th Street, Julian Schnabel Palazzo Chupi
21. 166 Perry Street: Asymptote
22. Lower East Side, Blue: Bernard Tschumi (aka TschumiBlu)
23. Astor Place, Sculpture for Living: Charles Gwathmey
24. Highline 519: Lindy Roy

2. 40 Bond Herzog & DeMeuron
This building is not universally loved. It has fierce critics in real estate brokers, potential tenants, and architectural critics. The apartments are not generic enough to appeal to everyone; they are expensive; the graffiti gates are weird; and Herzog & DeMeuron can do better. I agree with each of these criticisms. However the slumped glass facade is a brilliant, experimental solution perfectly suited to SoHo. The apartments are unique, and spacious, like livable art galleries, complete with a touch of inflexibility. Even if you consider this a miss in the H&DeM oeuvre, we would be lucky if all the buildings on this list had this level of attention.

3. 100 11th Avenue: Jean Nouvel
This building cements Jean Nouvel’s place at the top of this list. Continuing the exploration of spectacular curtainwalls as the crux of tower design in NYC, this building exploits the particular opportunity of its site in the way that 40 Mercer nailed the particulars of its site. In this case, the waterfront panorama is given a syncopated, variegated frame of tilting glass panels. The building will be a glittering landmark from inside the apartments, from the southern approach on the West Side Highway, and from New Jersey. Would be higher on the list if it was built.

4. 524 West 19th Street, Metal Shutter Houses: Shigeru Ban
Spot on the list is conditional given that it has not been built yet. Your throw pillows need to be weatherized for this one. The roll-up nature of the facade leaves a lot of room for things like birds, insects, weather, and the like to just come on in. Which is what makes it great. It takes the spectacular (if domestically safe) move of 40 Mercer’s sliding curtain wall and pushes it into very unsafe territory. Urban tower: meet nature. All of it.

5. 515-517 West 23rd Street, HL23: Neil Denari
This project falls at this place because it seems to combine the best features of the projects on this list: curtain wall experimentation, interesting form, great relationship to the street, and a new way of opening up the city. Denari takes full advantage of the uniqueness of the site by cantilevering over the High Line, creating not only a striking profile but an ingenious way of visually linking the street level to the High Line level.

6. 366 West 15th Street, The Porter House at : SHoP (aka That Stripey-Light Building)
The building is an icon for the Meatpacking District, stripey-lights hovering above us while we party in Milk Studios. That iconship would extend deeper into the West Village if the dumb Gansevoort Hotel wasn't in the way. The building is a bit subversive, in that it appears to be an object sitting on top of an existing building. So it helps us define our criteria: it's a freestanding object (conceptually, you understand), it's architect-branded, and it aspired to be really, really transformative. In this case, success!

7. 165 Charles St aka Meier3: Richard Meier
Richard Meier’s third little tower on the West Side Highway, completed in 2006, made rights moves in all the places that the first two towers were wrong. He put his foot down with the (new) developer and the cost, detailing, and materials are all case studies of how to do a great high-end luxury architect branded building in New York. It’s not the loudest building on this list. But the all-glassness (shared with the first two towers) has a level of refinement that aspires to a Miesien level of perfection: the transparencies and reflections threaten to disrupt domestic living.

8. Perry Street South and North Towers: Richard Meier (aka Meier1 and Meier 2)
The North Tower at Perry Street: I like the smaller one better, so it's higher on the list. Its floorplate appears to be even more useless. Useless the way the Farnsworth House is useless. If you can deal, Meier can deal. Deal? The South Tower at Perry Street: more useful floorplate. If you're going to drop $5m for a pad, a little element of architect-induced uselessness (the century's new bling, yo) is very apropos. But not too much.

9. 109 Norfolk Street, Switch Building: nArchitects
This project was one of the first to begin construction, and we’re still not sure if it is completed yet. It sits here because the project appears to be limited to an interesting facade. That's farther than most of us get.

10. 385 West 12th Street: FLAnk
Although we aren’t sure who they are, really, they seem to have a lot of buildings going up, (and apartment sales happening) so we’ll leave it to you to determine how celebutante they are. Their proposal for 385 West 12th Street is bold nonetheless: copper panels that are intended to patina the way copper does. Right in the heart of the West Village.

11. 290 Mulberry Street SHoP
This one is subject to temporary status on this list, because of the uncertainty surrounding just what the undulation is. It looks like it's made out of prefabricated brick panels. If it is, it will probably move up on this list. SHoP continues their exploration of perfectly reasonable developer materials doing really amazing new shapes by rethinking the rules a little bit.

12. 184 Kent Avenue: Arquitectonica (aka The Illinois Institute of Technology)
We’re not sure what gave them the inspiration to shed the garish South Beachitecture they used at the completely lame pomo Westin Hotel in Times Square, but we are happy they have begun to look at other forms of inspiration. In this case, they went straight to the heart of the lion: Mies' IIT, on top of a factory roof in Brooklyn. We think the results are lovely, and reminiscent of SHoP's Porter House, except with roof park.

13. One Kenmare Square: Richard Gluckman (aka Gluckman Wave)
This one could be higher on the list, but the wave is just a hair generic, and not sun/site specific (or did the fact checker miss a rendering?).

14. 48 Bond: Deborah Burke
This one is kinda snoozy at the street, but it has a well-detailed curtain wall, and contributes to 40 Bond’s greatness. It’s more like a background version of 100 11th Avenue. I’m certain I’m going to get an angry call any minute now for calling Deborah Burke a “background architect”.

15. 15 Central Park West: Robert A.M. Stern
I'm going to get flamed for including this one. First, because this building is a tad over-large to be on this list. Still it is Mr. Stern at his finest form, to coin a phrase: New York old money luxe created anew, if by "anew" we mean "built recently" and not "new looking". When the game is to make a good apartment building, he makes it really, really cozy good. Use familar cozy materials, use layouts that were totally amazing in 1926, take a stand for proportions and rooms that make all New York apartment dwellers drool, and make the developer figure out who to market it to pay for the increased cost of the building. Of course, after taking the gorgeous fantasy trip through 15 CPW's apartments, motor court, classic dining rooms, and grand lobby, we are left asking: why can't it be done without using the historical cues? It’s all rather dowdy. Still it deserves a place here because the overall strategy was a huge moneymaker, and the whole building is well-detailed. And olden-looking.

16. One York: Enrique Norton
This one isn’t complete, and may drop precipitously once it’s finished. But it looked okay when I saw it coming out of the Holland Tunnel recently.

17. 497 Greenwich Street: Winka Dubbeldam (aka Winka Wave)
Walked by this one every day during its construction. Panels of curved glass appeared to crack several times and had to be replaced during construction. Mies had the same problems with his curtain wall, too. The curved glass was simply gorgeous. Then they clipped on these annoying aluminum trim elements and covered it all up. Still the architect experimented with the curtain wall, so I put it a little above the average mark.

18. 33 Vestry Street, V33: Winka Dubbeldam
All around a tad boring, the way the everything-is-luxury times we live in makes generic luxury stuff boring. And the elevator next to the master suite on the 5th Floor? Ouch. There is way too much architect self-love going on with the dozen pithy quotes on the marketing website. Mixed effort.

19. 330 Spring Street, Urban Glass House: Phillip Johnson
I've probably mentioned somewhere that I worked on the interiors of this when it was in the hands of Rogers Marvel Architects, and we had something of a detente with Johnson's office. I did better Johnson plans than his office was churning out, and I used his own Glass House as a reference image, to boot. Annabelle Selldorf did the interiors, which made the most of what the shell could give her. But the building is low on the list because I am familiar with the developer's commitment to good architecture, the apartments are humdrum, and the weirdness of having a living architect for the inside and a dead architect for the outside.

20. West 11th Street, Julian Schnabel Palazzo Chupi
While not an architect, and not a modern building, this building deserves mention for being a bracing change of pace from both C-grade development and the tireless onslaught of Modernism, Glass Effects. However, it borders on a set piece, hobbled together in the way all set pieces are. Another example of this is the Cloisters: it’s a crazy expensive replica of something overseas. But Schnabel never blinks, and takes his architectural statement all the way to its logical end: the bank, and the priceless ire of the GVHPS.

21. 166 Perry Street: Asymptote
Exterior: kind of reflectivish and nice, but it’s no 100 11th Avenue. Interior, apartments: whatev. Interior, lobby: This Is Not The Carlos Miele Store. And guys, do not ever, ever, ever write your own copy ever, ever, ever again.

22. Lower East Side, Blue: Bernard Tschumi (aka TschumiBlu)
Alas not every building on this list is great. Some are junk. But at least they are all by celebrities! A generic apartment with so many windows there's no place to hang any art. And an annoying slanted wall. And cheap multi-blue glass curtain wall reminiscent of Arquitectonica’s lame pomo Westin Hotel in Times Square. We do not share the NY Time’s critic’s fascination with the clunky shape.

23. Astor Place, Sculpture for Living: Charles Gwathmey
Or, whatever my former editor liked to call it. I've written so much about this, a simple search should give you a rough picture of what I really, really think.

24. Highline 519: Lindy Roy
Kidnap this building, please. Watch for falling clip-on grilles, which if removed would render it...even less interesting. Now that it’s complete, we’re wondering why it ever, ever happened in the first place. Those grilles will look extra silly with Denari’s structural gymnastics happening next door.