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.

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