Oculus - Fall 2015 - (Page 44)
in print
Raves + Reviews
Architecture Beyond Criticism:
Expert Judgment and Performance Evaluation
Ed. by Wolfgang F.E. Preisser, Aaron T. Davis,
Asraf M. Salama, and Andrea Hardy
The rise of building data and increasing sophistication of commissioning and system performance
analysis have become part of the project delivery
process. Architectural criticism has not kept pace
with these technological improvements, which
have been changing the practice of architecture.
The book is structured to illuminate the history
and evolution of both architectural criticism and
building performance evaluation (BPE), and to
create a dialogue between the two. It examines
potential mechanisms to link criticism to performance evaluation in education, research, and
practice across aesthetic, regulatory, sociocultural,
contextual, and environmental quality issues.
Contributions from 30 experts from multiple
disciplines - including architecture, planning,
criticism, environmental management and regulation, and the social sciences - make this a rich and
insightful discussion. This vital and necessary type
of integration is evolving in how we conceptualize,
create, and evaluate the built environment.
Modern Man: The Life of Le Corbusier,
Architect of Tomorrow
By Anthony Flint
Flint portrays Le Corbusier as the precursor of
all that is new and modern, and frequently likens
him to Steve Jobs in impact. His analogy is often
overstretched, but Corbu, with his oversized talent
and overstated rhetoric, did become a model for
the 21st-century "starchitect." There is too much incident to cover in this review, but the author raises
four critical points about the man and the architect:
* As a planner and urban visionary, he was highly
influential and widely copied - and generally
with disastrous effect. While this was not necessarily his fault, the patterns he promoted for
large-scale urban planning became the model
that, post-war, was widely adopted and subsequently discredited and abandoned.
* As an architect, he made a deep and lasting
impression on the architectural community
with many of his buildings, but particularly
his post-war projects (e.g., Unité d'habitation,
Ronchamp).
44
Oculus Fall 2015
REVIEWS BY S TA N LEY S TA RK , FA IA
* While he was always an opportunist, his deep
involvement with the Vichy government during
the wartime occupation of France left a large
stain on his career.
* He became the model for the form-obsessed,
attention-hungry, overcommitted global architect.
London: Routledge, 2015.
320 pp. $59.95
Le Corbusier's life and career were complicated and
wildly uneven. But his work is part of our professional DNA and serves as both an inspiration and
a caution.
Noted but Not Reviewed
30 Years of Emerging Voices:
Ideas, Form, Resonance
Edited by Anne Rieselbach, with essays
by Rieselbach, Billie Tsien, Reed Kroloff,
Rosalie Genevro, and others
Boston: Amazon Publishing/
New Harvest, 2014. 288
pp. $25
There are many familiar names, together with a rich
and diverse body of work, in this portfolio of the
winners of the Architectural League of New York's
Emerging Architect's Award from 1982 to 2013.
The Architecture of Use: Aesthetics and
Function in Architecture
By Stephen Grabow and Kent Spreckelmeyer
A case for the centrality of use is made by 10
examples of modern 20th-century buildings where
the primary use strongly influenced the spatial
organization and architectural design.
New York: The Architectural
League of New York/
Princeton Architectural Press,
2015. 304 pp. $55
Local Architecture: Building Place, Craft, and
Community
By Brian MacKay-Lyons, ed. by Robert McCarter
An examination of the global shift to the local via
an extensive and beautiful collection of regionalist architecture, with essays by Kenneth Frampton,
Juhani Pallasmaa, and Glen Murcutt, among others.
London: Routledge, 2015.
194 pp. $59.95
Stanley Stark, FAIA, served as chair of the Oculus
Committee from 2005 to 2007.
New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 2015.
224 pp. $50
Home Game: Winning with Housing
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Oculus - Fall 2015
First Words Letter From the President
Letter From the Editor
Center for Architecture
One Block Over
Opener: Affordability: Many Paths to a Solution
Housing for the 99%
Tower Power
An Active Market for Passive
Ahead of the Class
It Takes a Village
Support System, Modular Style
From Learning to Living
The DIY Approach to Housing
In Print
118-Year Watch
Last Words
Index to Advertisers
Oculus - Fall 2015
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