LITMIR.BIZ

Whatever happened to the last utopian dreams of the city? In the late 1960s the world was faced with impending disaster: the height of the Cold War, the end of oil and the decline of great cities throughout the world. Out of this crisis came a new generation that hoped to build a better future, influenced by visions of geodesic domes, walking cities and a meaningful connection with nature. In this brilliant work of cultural history, architect Douglas Murphy traces the lost archeology of the present day through the works of thinkers and designers such as Buckminster Fuller, the ecological pioneer Stewart Brand, the Archigram architects who envisioned the Plug-In City in the ’60s, as well as co-operatives in Vienna, communes in the Californian desert and protesters on the streets of Paris. In this mind-bending account of the last avant-garde, we see not just the source of our current problems but also some powerful alternative futures.

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In Humanism and the Urban World, Caspar Pearson offers a profoundly revisionist account of Leon Battista Alberti’s approach to the urban environment as exemplified in the extensive theoretical treatise De re aedificatoria ( On the Art of Building in Ten Books ), brought mostly to completion in the 1450s, as well as in his larger body of written work. Past scholars have generally characterized the Italian Renaissance architect and theorist as an enthusiast of the city who envisioned it as a rational, Renaissance ideal. Pearson argues, however, that Alberti’s approach to urbanism was far more complex—that he was even “essentially hostile” to the city at times. Rather than proposing the “ideal” city, Pearson maintains, Alberti presented a variety of possible cities, each one different from another. This book explores the ways in which Alberti sought to remedy urban problems, tracing key themes that manifest in De re aedificatoria. Chapters address Alberti’s consideration of the city’s possible destruction and the city’s capacity to provide order despite its intrinsic instability; his assessment of a variety of political solutions to that instability; his affinity for the countryside and discussions of the virtues of the active versus the contemplative life; and his theories of aesthetics and beauty, in particular the belief that beauty may affect the soul of an enemy and thus preserve buildings from attack.

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Frank Furness (1839-1912) has remained a curiosity to architectural historians and critics, somewhere between an icon and an enigma, whose importance and impact have yet to be properly evaluated or appreciated. To some, his work pushed pattern and proportion to extremes, undermining or forcing together the historic styles he referenced in such eclectic buildings as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania Library. To others, he was merely a regional mannerist creating an eccentric personal style that had little resonance and modest influence on the future of architecture. By placing Furness in the industrial culture that supported his work, George Thomas finds a cutting-edge revolutionary who launched the beginnings of modern design, played a key part in its evolution, and whose strategies continue to affect the built world. In his sweeping reassessment of Furness as an architect of the machine age, Thomas grounds him in Philadelphia, a city led by engineers, industrialists, and businessmen who commissioned the buildings that extended modern design to Chicago, Glasgow, and Berlin. Thomas examines the multiple facets of Victorian Philadelphia's modernity, looking to its eager embrace of innovations in engineering, transportation, technology, and building, and argues that Furness, working for a particular cohort of clients, played a central role in shaping this context. His analyses of the innovative planning, formal, and structural qualities of Furness's major buildings identifies their designs as initiators of a narrative that leads to such more obviously modern figures as Louis Sullivan, William Price, Frank Lloyd Wright and eventually, the architects of the Bauhaus. Misunderstood and reviled in the traditional architectural centers of New York and Boston, Furness's projects, commissioned by the progressive industrialists of the new machine age, intentionally broke with the historical styles of the past to work in a modern way—from utilizing principles based on logistical planning to incorporating the new materials of the industrial age. Lavishly illustrated, the book includes more than eighty black-and-white and thirty color photographs that highlight the richness of his work and the originality of his design spanning more than forty years.

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Community, heritage, architecture&mdash;oh yes, and stiff pours: these are the hallmarks of San Francisco's Legacy Bars. <i>High Spirits</i> leads readers on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood pub crawl in search of the city's most remarkable nightspots. Atmospheric photographs accompany descriptions of each bar's colorful history, unique architectural features, idiosyncratic owners, and quirky clientele. As we dip into one barroom after another, we see that these establishments function as unofficial cultural centers, offering kinship and continuity amid an ever-changing city; indeed, all of the bars shown are at least forty years old and sites of significant historic or cultural value as deemed by San Francisco Heritage. Whether we are following in the footsteps of Beat writers in North Beach's Vesuvio Caf&eacute;, tossing peanut shells on the floor of The Homestead in the Mission, or selecting jukebox songs (three for a quarter) at the Silver Crest Donut Shop in Bayview, High Spirits welcomes us as regulars at every spot, showing off the conviviality that makes San Francisco one of the great saloon towns.

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This absorbing biography, often conveyed through Peter Selz’s own words, traces the journey of a Jewish-German immigrant from Hitler’s Munich to the United States and on to an important career as a pioneer historian of modern art. Paul J. Karlstrom illuminates key historical and cultural events of the twentieth-century as he describes Selz’s extraordinary career—from Chicago’s Institute of Design (New Bauhaus), to New York’s Museum of Modern Art during the transformative 1960s, and as founding director of the University Art Museum at UC Berkeley. Karlstrom sheds light on the controversial viewpoints that at times isolated Selz from his colleagues but nonetheless affirmed his conviction that significant art was always an expression of deep human experience. The book also links Selz’s long life story—featuring close relationships with such major art figures as Mark Rothko, Dore Ashton, Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, and Christo—with his personal commitment to political engagement.

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Latin American cities have always been characterized by a strong tension between what is vaguely described as their formal and informal dimensions. However, the terms formal and informal refer not only to the physical aspect of cities but also to their entire socio-political fabric. Informal cities and settlements exceed the structures of order, control and homogeneity that one expects to find in a formal city; therefore the contributors to this volume – from such disciplines as architecture, urban planning, anthropology, urban design, cultural and urban studies and sociology – focus on alternative methods of analysis in order to study the phenomenon of urban informality. This book provides a thorough review of the work that is currently being carried out by scholars, practitioners and governmental institutions, in and outside Latin America, on the question of informal cities.

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How do governments design their strategy for heritage property? What do they try to accomplish in their laws and their tax systems to favour the re-use of older buildings, districts, and cities? What institutional framework can assist the restoration of tourist designations and the conservation of neighbourhoods? In this international study, eighteen experts from ten countries describe the legal challenges and solutions relating to such property. Beyond a carefully described theoretical framework, actual case studies demonstrate how communities and countries can make adjustments to their legislation so that older buildings can be better protected This book stems from an international conference at Smolenice Castle in Slovakia, in November 1994.

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In this personal and revealing book, Anthony Poon takes us on a creative journey that begins with his re-envisioning of a seaside public space as a very young architect. Poon has designed hundreds of buildings across the United States and internationally, from eco-friendly homes to public schools, from intimate retail venues and restaurants to sports arenas, from university housing to retreats and places of worship.Sticks & Stones / Steel & Glass takes us inside a purposive yet open mind always hoping to &#147;design it all,&#8221; to weave together light and material, culture and commerce, music and design, a good meal and the joy of gathering to share it.In these pages we engage the creative processes of a thoughtful and intense architect whose works&#151;public and private&#151;all strive to enhance his clients&#8217; stories and identities. Poon&#8217;s goal in each commission is to reward those who will enjoy and inhabit the structures he designs. In every building designed by Anthony Poon art is shelter and architecture is a social good.

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The Adventures of Hana and Lissie, gives children a chance to get to know cities around the US and the world through the madcap adventures of two delightful girls. With Big Trouble in the Big Apple, the first in the series, authors Keri Pearlson and Chad Chaney, with the help of illustrator Helen Luzgin, tell the story of the girls trip to New York City, where they visit key landmarks, learn a little history and discover the importance of friendship, teamwork and a little creativity. Not only is this the perfect book for the family traveling to New York City, but it's fun to read anytime.

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This booklet is the first in a twelve part series that walks the owner/builder through the construction of a Global Model Earthship. This installment covers building the thermal mass walls out of tires, the thermal wrap, vent tubes, cistern installation and front stem walls. Photographs, diagrams and thorough explanations of procedures will guide you through the tire work phase of the building. <br><br>With over 40 years of experience, Michael Reynolds has developed a &#39;living&#39; home that heats and cools itself passively, harvests/treats/ and reuses its water four times, collects its own electricity, and grows its own food. The Global Model, which incorporates the double greenhouse, is the culmination of years of experimenting and building with recycled materials. These booklets have been put together with input from the Earthship crew, who have built hundreds of these homes around the world.

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