What's a good architecture catalog website?

September 15, 2008 10:31 AM

Contemporary architecture: Is there a website that lists notable pieces of recent architecture, organized by city, with pictures and descriptions?

I'm traveling to Paris and London and I need a tool to plan out my time in those cities so I can see cool buildings in an efficient manner. So, any resources devoted solely to architecture in London or Paris would also be appreciated.

posted by askmeacct to media & arts (4 answers total)

I could have sworn A Daily Dose of Architecture had a location archive but I guess not. Here's Paris and here's London though.

Archiguide is useful too - Paris, London area directories.

If you swim, go to Club du Quartier Latin in Paris. Paris has tons of amazing pools from all periods (if the recent Piscine Josephine Baker is open, it looks amazing but I haven't been in it, so...)

Archinect's forum tends to have great travel threads and goes off the beaten path with its recommendations, if you're prepared to dig.

Also, pushpullbar's threads on travel will often have photos and descriptions from others who've visited, which can whet your appetite/save you the trouble (or give you a satisfying "they told me so" when you go anyway - cough cough, Herzog + de Meuron's Forum Building in BCN). Here's France and here's the UK - the threads are tagged by city so it's easy enough to filter visually.
posted by carbide at 11:23 AM on September 15, 2008

Oh, also, to state the obvious: Google Maps is incredibly useful here (and you might even find existing maps of architecture). I planned an architecture itinerary for a huge group of people from just plotting my search results elsewhere, and it makes it easy to save yourself circuitous trips if you pay attention to tube/metro lines or buses while combining visits.
posted by carbide at 11:27 AM on September 15, 2008

The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture is what you want, but it's a ginormous coffee table art book. There's a small pocket version that is good for traveling.

Sadly, the book's web site has only highlights and is thus mostly useless.
posted by bruceo at 1:00 PM on September 15, 2008

Mimoa is quite good. And Archinect, as already mentioned.
posted by WPW at 1:22 PM on September 15, 2008