Concrete
Edited by William Hall
Ah, concrete. Has there ever been a more divisive material? Regular readers will not be remotely surprised to find us singing the praises of a hefty book devoted exclusively to the sculptural qualities of the grey stuff. Concrete gets down and dirty with the notorious material, unashamedly singing its praises through a series of captioned photographs that run the full range of concrete's structural, sculptural, textural and technological applications. Sure, there's plenty here that a savvy Wallpaper* reader will know like the back of their hand, but Hall and his team have done a good job of digging up the more esoteric examples of concrete design. A weighty book with which to administer beatings to doubters.
Published by Phaidon, £29.95; www.phaidon.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Sainte-Bernadette-du-Banlay Church, Nevers, France, by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio, 1966
Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by Oscar Niemeyer, 1996
Mori Crematorium, Kakamigahara City, Japan, by Toyo Ito, 2006
The Architectural Model: Tool, Fetish, Small Utopia
Edited by Oliver Elser and Peter Cachola Schmal
Published to accompany a lavish exhibition at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, The Architectural Model is a must for lovers of the care, craft and complexity of the architectural model. Works of art in their own right, the book catalogues the miniaturised origins of some of the most recognisable celebrated pieces of architecture in the world, from shop fittings to entire cityscapes. Some of these projects never progressed further than balsa and wire, while other elaborate structures became works of art in their own right.
Published by Scheidegger & Spiess, £61.50; www.scheidegger-spiess.ch
Writer: Jonathan Bell
'Dam Pavilion' model, by Barkow Leibinger
'Houses with Curtains' model, by Raimund Abraham
Model, by Haus Rucker
Le Corbusier: Furniture and Interiors 1905-1965
By Arthur Rüegg
A mighty book for a massive subject, Furniture and Interiors is a catalogue raisonné of all of Le Corbusier's non-architectural design work, ranging from the well-known to the extremely obscure, from the neo-classical work of his early years through to the machine age influences of the 1920s and 30s and the more personal, artistic works of his later years. Extensively illustrated throughout, with archive photography showing many of the pieces in situ, this is a must for all Corb obsessives.
Published by Scheidegger & Spiess, £140; www.scheidegger-spiess.ch
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Polychrome kitchen and dining area of a two-floor residential unit. Furnishings by Jean Prouvé, 1945-1952
Great Lakes Regional Headquarters of the Reynolds Metals Company, by Minoru Yamasaki, 1960
Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography
By John Comazzi
One of the giants of mid-century modernist imagery, Balthazar Korab's black and white imagery of American architecture helped propel the careers of Eero Saarinen into the corporate stratosphere. Included within this new monograph - the first on Korab's work - are detailed portfolios of the construction and completion of the TWA Terminal at JFK and numerous little known classics from around the States.
Published by Princeton Architectural Press, £25; www.papress.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Great Lakes Regional Headquarters of the Reynolds Metals Company, by Minoru Yamasaki, 1960
Le Corbusier: Furniture and Interiors 1905-1965
By Arthur Rüegg
A mighty book for a massive subject, Furniture and Interiors is a catalogue raisonné of all of Le Corbusier's non-architectural design work, ranging from the well-known to the extremely obscure, from the neo-classical work of his early years through to the machine age influences of the 1920s and 30s and the more personal, artistic works of his later years. Extensively illustrated throughout, with archive photography showing many of the pieces in situ, this is a must for all Corb obsessives.
Published by Scheidegger & Spiess, £140; www.scheidegger-spiess.ch
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Bench with decorative enameling, Le Corbusier
Study unit, Le Corbusier, 1931-32
Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography
By John Comazzi
One of the giants of mid-century modernist imagery, Balthazar Korab's black and white imagery of American architecture helped propel the careers of Eero Saarinen into the corporate stratosphere. Included within this new monograph - the first on Korab's work - are detailed portfolios of the construction and completion of the TWA Terminal at JFK and numerous little known classics from around the States.
Published by Princeton Architectural Press, £25; www.papress.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Interior view of the TWA Flight Center, New York Idlewild Airport, 1964
Corridor of the Detroit Receiving Hospital, by William Kessler and Associates, 1979
Architecture: From Commission to Construction
By Jennifer Hudson
One for the true building buff, this is a fascinating look at the long drawn out process of building. If you've ever wanted to go behind the scenes and see how sketches are fleshed out into fully-fledged buildings, Jennifer Hudson's densely packed new book is for you.
Published by Laurence King, £28; www.laurenceking.com
Writer: Jonathan Bell
YTL Residence, by Agence JouinManku
YTL Residence, by Agence JouinManku
Villa Welpeloo, by 2012Architecten
Museum without Walls
By Jonathan Meades
Few people can do architecture on the small screen like Jonathan Meades. Inventive, surreal, bilious but always erudite and insightful, Meades has spent three decades creating irreverent and unique television documentaries. Museum without Walls brings together some of the best of these film scripts with a wide selection of Meades' other writings about the perversities of the built environment, our relationship with buildings and the personalities that shape them.
Published by Unbound, £18.99; www.unbound.co.uk
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Jonathan Meades, photographed by Martha Wailer
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Hella Jongerius’ ‘Angry Animals’ take a humorous and poignant bite out of the climate crisisAt Salon 94 in New York, Hella Jongerius presents animal ceramics, ‘Bead Tables’ and experimental ‘Textile Studies’ – three series that challenge traditional ideas about function, craft, and narrative
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A photographic study of a family hi-fi store is a vivid portrait of a small businessFashion photographer Nik Hartley looked behind the scenes at Wilkinson’s Hi-Fi, a longstanding part of its Lancashire community.
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The Contestant: inside the dark and exploitative beginnings of reality TVClair Titley’s The Contestant examines a sensationalist moment in TV history, before Big Brother meant reality became an accepted part of popular culture
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'Tropicality' explored in Indonesian architect Andra Matin’s first monograph'Tropicality' is a key theme in a new book on Indonesian architect Andra Matin, whose work blends landscape, architecture and living
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‘A Time ⋅ A Place’ is a lovingly compiled photographic portrait of cars and architecture‘A Time ⋅ A Place’ is a celebration of the European Car of the Year and changing perceptions of modern design, pairing the best buildings of the age with their automotive contemporaries
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Álvaro Siza’s new monograph through the lens of Duccio Malagamba is impactful and immersiveÁlvaro Siza and photographer Duccio Malagamba collaborate on a new monograph by Phaidon; ‘Before / After: Álvaro Siza Duccio Malagamba’ celebrates the Portuguese architect's work
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Marcio Kogan’s Studio MK27 celebrated in this new monograph from Rizzoli‘The Architecture of Studio MK27. Lights, camera, action’ is a richly illustrated journey through the evolution of this famed Brazilian architecture studio
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‘Interior sculptor’ Christophe Gevers’ oeuvre is celebrated in new book‘Christophe Gevers’ is a sleek monograph dedicated to the Belgian's life work as an interior architect, designer, sculptor and inventor, with unseen photography by Jean-Pierre Gabriel
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Flick through ‘Brutal Wales’, a book celebrating concrete architecture‘Brutal Wales’ book zooms into a selection of concrete Welsh architecture treasures through the lens of photographer Simon Phipps
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Architecture books to inspire shelf loveHere at Wallpaper*, we’ve got architecture books piling up; among them, these are the photographic tomes, architects’ monographs and limited editions that we couldn’t resist
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Pioneering modernist Henry Kulka's life and career tracked in limited-edition monographCzech-New Zealand architect Henry Kulka, a man who spread modernist ideals half way around the world, is celebrated in Giles Reid and Mary Gaudin’s richly illustrated monograph
