Karen McCartney: Iconic Australian Houses: Three Decades of Domestic Architecture
Lovely book of modernist Australian architecture from 1950 to 1974. A coffee-table book but a wonderful one. Full notes here. (*****)
JG Ballard: Kingdom Come
Ballard running on only one or two engines, but still chock full of wonderful ideas and observations, and with a few lines that will resonate forever. Curiously full of holes (no CCTV on the original crime?) but as a depiction of an England rotten to the core, timely and useful. (****)
Peter Jones: Ove Arup: Masterbuilder of the Twentieth Century
Slightly haphazard biography of one of the great designers and leaders of the 20thC. The parts on building, design, organisation, context and practice are fascinating, and the portrait of Ove Arup himself is detailed and heartfelt. Some personal aspects are a little uneven and the writing is curiously disjointed in structure but it's a thoroughly good read overall, on one of the great thinkers and practitioners in architecture and engineering. (****)
Agustin Pérez Rubio: SANAA Houses: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa
Excellent book on the Japanese architecture firm. Full review here. (*****)
Nevil Shute: On the Beach
Absolutely fantastic read, if as thoroughly downbeat as a story about the end of the human race ought to be. Set in an Melbourne post-armageddon, as the last few people on earth live out their last months, it's a fascinating portrait of its time (1957) and Australia. (*****)
Elizabeth Farrelly: Blubberland: The Dangers of Happiness
Architecture, urbanism, desire, happiness, beauty, obesity, greed, depression etc. A potent mix. A bit uneven, and journalistic in essence (which jars in this form) but good on Australia's architecture in particular, and with a beguiling speculative last chapter. (****)
Robert Hughes: Things I Didn't Know: A Memoir
Hughes is amongst the finest cultural critics and historians, and here focused on the first part of his own history and culture. So we get rich portraits of Australia, WW I and Vietnam, Italy, London, the 60s, art, food, sex, model aeroplanes &c as well as Mr. Hughes. Supreme writing applied to fascinating subject matter. (*****)
W.G. Sebald: The Rings of Saturn
Jonathan Raban said "The finest book of long-distance mental travel that I've ever read" and I'm inclined to agree. A quietly majestic book, with peerless clear, evocative prose, drawn from immensely erudite research, and interspersed with simple ghostly photography. (*****)
Bruce Sterling: Shaping Things (Mediaworks Pamphlets)
A re-read, due to recent projects. Sterling, like the geeks he so admires, underestimates the richness of sensory information in the physical, when over-emphasising the new importance of the model, the map. The map has outgrown the territory only if you simply look at it. And yet there is no better guide to the map - of modeling, fabrication, the geoweb and arphids, and what this all means. Unlike most books in this field, it's as engagingly written as you'd expect and ultimately so thought-provoking and inspiring that you can forgive the oversight - which tends to come with, er, the territory. (*****)
Lebbeus Woods: War and Architecture (Pamphlet Architecture)
Incredible radical response to the ruined Sarajevo. Must be read to comprehend the brilliance and bravery of his suggestions and visions, but essentially Woods suggests building in and around the 'scabs' and 'scars' of the shattered city, not simply in order to preserve or record history, but to also mitigate against further violence by creating a new heterarchical form of urban organisation. "Architecture must learn to transform the violence, even as violence knows how to transform the architecture." (*****)
David Peace: Tokyo Year Zero
Still dealing with this book. Reading this snapshot of a Tokyo in ruins, physically and psychologically, in 1947, after his shattering book on Brian Clough, feels like an odd change of gears initially. Yet the writing style - a kind of metronomic Ellroy-level intensity - pervades both, as does the startling ability to capture a sense of place and time. This is the more ambitious work, and may end up being one of the great modern evocations of Tokyo. (*****)
Peter Robb: Midnight in Sicily
Perhaps the best book I've read in recent years, by Australian author Robb (see also 'A Death In Brazil') painting a portrait of southern Italy, filtered through history, food, literature, painting, architecture and principally the long-running legal cases against the Mafia. Absolutely extraordinary. (*****)
Geoff Dyer: Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence
Genius. Only intermittently about Lawrence, and as much as Dyer's knees, childish Italians, Mexico, terrible Greeks, writing about place, horrible food, annoying English people, depression, travelling, and how dull Oxford is. One of the funniest books I've read, occasionally devastatingly sad, and also, accidentally/cleverly, brilliant on DH Lawrence. (*****)
Kerry William Purcell: Josef Muller-Brockmann
Wonderfully detailed, carefully illustrated, and generally massive tome on the 20th century's greatest graphic designer. Essential. (*****)
Juhani Pallasmaa: The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses
One of those rare books that changes the way you think about everything. Already a huge influence, and one of the greatest books on architecture and urbanism that I've ever read. (*****)
Jun'ichiro Tanizaki: In Praise of Shadows
A wonderful essay, from the early 20th century, on Japanese aesthetics. A perfect companion to Juhani Pallasmaa, but entirely pleasurable and enlightening on its own. (*****)
Christopher Woodward: In Ruins
Unique book on the perception and understanding of ruins in western culture - specifically art history - by architectural historian Woodward. A bit too classically orientated - nothing on ruins in film, for instance - but some great stories and insights. (****)
Peter Carey: Wrong about Japan
Light (for Carey) but hugely enjoyable and interesting. Learnt few specifics - other than some interesting local insight on manga and anime - but gained a strong overall impression of Japan through Carey's eyes. (****)
Richard Williams: The Perfect 10
Absolutely fantastic book on the great players in the most interesting, creative and challenging position in a football team. Puskas, Pele, Rivera, Mazzola, Netzer, Platini, Francescoli, Maradona, Baggio, Bergkamp, Zidane, all lovingly described by Williams. (*****)
Surveillance: Jonathan Raban
I prefer Rabans's non-fiction - not that it's entirely 'non' - to his fiction, but he's such a good writer it's always entertaining and interesting. Ending a bit, well, open-ended - which is also interesting - but great, important themes here. (****)
Trackbacks sent to this post at the time (before I turned trackbacks off due to spam):
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Posted by: Dan | May 06, 2006 at 06:24 PM