Books: Tadao Ando Complete Works

“In architecture, there is a part that is the result of logical reasoning and a part that is created through the senses. There is always a point where they clash. I don’t think architecture can be created without that collision.” -Tadao Ando

Philippe Starck describes him as a “mystic in a country which is no longer mystic.” Philip Drew calls his buildings “land art” that “struggle to emerge from the earth.” He is the only architect to have won the discipline’s four most prestigious prizes: the Pritzker, Carlsberg, Praemium Imperiale, and Kyoto Prize. His name is Tadao Ando, and he is the world’s greatest living architect. Combining influences from Japanese tradition with the best of Modernism, Ando has developed a completely unique building aesthetic that makes use of concrete, wood, water, light, space, and nature in a way that has never been witnessed in architecture.

Ando: Complete Works, Edited by Philip Jodidio, 500 pages.
Buy it here: Amazon

Related post: Model: Tadao Ando

Books: Case Study Houses

The Case Study House program (1945-66) was an exceptional, innovative event in the history of American architecture and remains to this day unique. The program, which concentrated on the Los Angeles area and oversaw the design of 36 prototype homes, sought to make available plans for modern residences that could be easily and cheaply constructed during the postwar building boom.

The program’s chief motivating force was Arts & Architecture editor John Entenza, a champion of modernism who had all the right connections to attract some of architecture’s greatest talents, such as Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eero Saarinen. Highly experimental, the program generated houses that were designed to re-define the modern home, and thus had a pronounced influence on architecture – American and international – both during the program’s existence and even to this day.

“It’s a huge coffee-table (make that a banqueting-table) book, which analyses each of the houses in chronological order, with plans, sketches and glorious photographs.”
The Observer Life Magazine, United Kingdom

Case Study Houses, Hardcover, 440 pages, Edited by Peter Gössel, Elizabeth Smith.

Buy it here: Amazon

Books: The A-Z of Modern Architecture

Unlike most architecture encyclopedias, which tend to concentrate more on buildings and floor plans than their designers, this tome puts the architects in the spotlight, profiling individuals so that readers can get a clear overview of their bodies of work. Each architect’s entry features a portrait, quote, and short biography as well as a description of important works, historical context, and general approach; illustrations include numerous drawings, photographs, and floor plans. The book’s A to Z entries cover not only architects but also groups, movements, and styles from the 18th to the 21st centuries. With 600 entries and 5,200 illustrations, The A–Z of Modern Architecture is a comprehensive resource that no architecture professional, fan, or student should be without.

The A-Z of Modern Architecture, Hardcover, 2 Vol. in Box, 1072 pages, Edited by Peter Gössel

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Monograph: Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava is not only one of the world’s most prominent architects, but also an engineer and an artist. With recent projects such as the stadiums for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens or the new railway station in Liège, Belgium, he has reached a level of undeniable notoriety in Europe and continues to move further ahead. The only architect ever to have his work exhibited at both the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he is currently working on the main transportation hub for Ground Zero in Manhattan as well as the tallest building in the United States: the 160-story Chicago Spire Tower. Winner of the 2005 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal as well as numerous other prestigious awards, Calatrava is one of the greatest and most innovative architects alive.

Buy it here: Calatrava: Complete Works, 1979-2007