Product Description

More than ever before, architecture at the beginning of the 21st century is changing and evolving at lightning speed. Appropriated, chewed up, mulled over, digested, contemplated, and contorted - gathering up along the way fashion, ecology, politics, and art - architectural concepts become veritable things unto themselves in the present tense. As astoundingly diverse as contemporary architecture is, most importantly it is a reflection of what's happening right now all over the world, in people's minds and in the global collective consciousness.

The many faces of world architecture today make for a mind-expanding book. Here you'll find the most recent work of over 60 architects and firms, including familiar names such as O. Gehry, Meier, Ando, Foster, and Starck, as well as a host of newcomers sure to be the architecture-celebrities of future generations. Highlights include Jakob & MacFarlane's morphological Restaurant at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Diller & Scofidio's "Blur Building" proposal for the International Expo 2001 in Switzerland (an ovular structure suspended over a lake, encapsulated by a fine mist of water, creating the look of a cloud hovering over the lake), and Herzog & de Meuron's remarkable Tate Modern. Proving that contemporary architecture is not limited to physical building design, New York firm Asymptote's Guggenheim Virtual Museum is also included, a place where visitors can take a cyber-stroll through rooms that are designed to be "compelling spatial environments." Presented alphabetically by architect or firm, Architecture Now! can be used like a reference guide, with extensive photographs and illustrations, biographical and contact information for designers, and a careful selection of today's most influential architects.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #472388 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-15
• Original language: English, French, German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Review
It's a first-class tour of the future high and mighty. -- ONE Magazine, April/May 2001

Language Notes
Text: English, German, French

From the Publisher
Here are just a few of the projects that are featured in the new book:

• A shelter for the needy made out of sandbags • "Nomadic Museum" made by Shigeru Ban out of shipping containers • A tree house in Germany • Extraordinary museums that will never be built in Lausanne and Guadalajara • New Museums that have been built by Gehry, Mansilla and Tuñón, or Richard Meier • BMW Central Building in Leipzig by Zaha Hadid • Allianz Arena by Herzog & de Meuron • Wedding Chapel in Japan • Design hotels in Berlin and Saõ Paulo or Cerro Paranal, Chile • Library in Seattle by Rem Koolhaas/OMA • Houses in Mexico City, Saõ Paulo, Corsica, Hiroshima, or Great Mackerel Beach, Australia • Spoon des Neiges by Patrick Jouin • A tower that will grow like a tree in New York • With-it architects like David Adjaye, Caramel, Graftlab, Jakob +MacFarlane, Asymptote or Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis • Artists who take on architectural space like Frank Stella or Bill Viola, or architects who are interested in art like Peter Eisenman • The E-House, architecture that is greener than green • From the Minimal (David Chipperfield and John Pawson) to the decidedly exotic (Longitude 131, Uluru-Kata National Park, Northern Territory, Australia)

Customer Reviews

Art, architecture, and more.
This is a nice little coffee table styled book on architecture and artwork, showcasing about 92 architects and a few of their works. Its small size makes it easy to take along with you wherever you go.

Each architect gets two pages devoted to them, comprising a brief biography highlighting some of their notable works, as well as photos and/or sketches showcasing one or two of their works.

Some of the architects and works featured include Alberto Campo Baeza (Center for innovative technologies in Majorca), Will Bruder (Byrne residence in Arizona), Frank Gehry (Experience Music Project in Seattle), Arata Isokazi (Shizuoka convention and arts center in Shizuoka), Polshek Partnership (the very space age Rose center for earth & science in New York), and Richard Rogers (Law courts in Bordeaux, and Millennium Dome in London).

A good book.

I have the entire series
These books aren't technical in nature, but are a great collection of interesting projects from around the world. Each book comes in 3 languages, so for those of you that only speak one of them, you'll only enjoy 1/3 of the text, but the graphics are fantastic.

Architectural Review
The author of this book has done a fine job of showcasing recent modern architectural projects of interest to the general population, as well as to architects and structural engineers working in the profession. I am a structural engineer, and I purchased the book because two of my friends, and one of their projects, are featured in the book. I also happened to work on that paticular project, and was interested in having a published record of the project along with my own project files. The book is well written, has wonderful photographs, and is a fine addition to the genre of "coffee table architecture books". Mr. Jodidio is to be commended for writing this book.