Comments on: best visionary architecture/urbanism books

Question: best visionary architecture/urbanism books

vincentm — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 05:45:29 -0800

Could you suggest good visionary (realized or unrealized) architecture and urbanism books ? I'd be interested in well illustrated books. I can afford a 50 to 150 dollars book on that topic. I'd like to find things like that.

By: The Jesse Helms

The Jesse Helms — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:15:53 -0800

Etienne Louis Boulee drawings from the 18th century are amazing.

Carlos Scarpa sketched a lot of unrealized stuff. A visionary, yet some argue he really wasn't an architect.

Albert Speer was the Nazi architect of the unrealized Third Reich.

By: Framer

Framer — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:15:09 -0800

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, by Christopher Alexander.

Anything by Jane Jacobs or Lewis Mumford (more urbanism than architecture, but certainly visionary).

Stuff about or by Paolo Soleri.

By: jeb

jeb — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:22:43 -0800

Have you ever read Delirious New York by...that guy? The drawings are AWESOME! There's one part about a notional skyscraper athletic club where dudes are eating oysters with boxing gloves on, and then there's like "cover of an Ayn Rand novel" style charcoal drawings that are like, "what if we applied Hausmann's rules to 100 story buildings?" So there are these huge towers over shadowy 100 lane highways with bridges between the buildings.

By: rsanheim

rsanheim — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:30:53 -0800

+1 A Pattern Language or Alexander's newer series, the Nature of Order.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:47:10 -0800

+1 Pattern Language.
Arcosanti is certainly visionary, though it's a bit of a cracked vision. I'm sure they've got some books to sell.

By: printdevil

printdevil — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:40:54 -0800

Given your links, I would not second "A Pattern Language" -- that's more New Urbanism, and it looks like you want old-school urbanism.

I would second "Delirious New York" (Rem Koolhaas); S,M,L,XL is also good. (although the two of them would hit your budget fairly quickly)

Also, "100 Mile City" by Deijan Sudjic (textual, not photographic)

Photographic, there's "Robert Polidori's Metropolis" (by, surprisingly, Robert Polidori.) His other books, "Havanna" and "Chernobyl" are also good, but perhaps not as close of a match. Burtynsky is also a good bet ("China" in particular) Also coming to mind are Tom Pavia's "Nightfall," and anything by Naoya Hatakeyama. For the photography books, check out Photoeye -- they are better at obscure catalogs and foreign press books than Amazon.

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:45:12 -0800

Brodsky & Utkin: The Complete Works; A. G. Rizzoli : Architect of Magnificent Visions; Visionary Architects: Boulée, Ledoux, Lequeu.

Lequeu is a particularly interesting figure, but the one book I've actually read about him is expensive & not very well written.

By: unlicensedarchitect

unlicensedarchitect — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:20:50 -0800

Lebbeus Woods / Radical Reconstruction, and I second the Brodsky & Utkin.

By: wzcx

wzcx — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:21:58 -0800

It's off the path of what you're really looking for, but you may enjoy some of Syd Mead's work as well.

By: wzcx

wzcx — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:22:59 -0800

Oh hell, I was actually thinking of L ebbeus Woods. Thank you, Unlicensedarchitect.

By: unlicensedarchitect

unlicensedarchitect — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:29:24 -0800

Whoops, upon re-reading your question, I somehow overlooked the 'realized' part. I just saw the words 'unrealized' and 'well illustrated' and thought of Woods and Utkin.

I just personally bought this book by MVRDV that deals massive-scale architecture and urbanism-- some built, but mostly unbuilt. 1400 page book, with DVD.

By: aladfar

aladfar — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:05:48 -0800

Burnham and Root's Plan of Chicago is a classic work of unrealized urban planning. Not quite architecture, but I think you'll find a lot of overlap. A reproduction copy will run you about $50.

I often wonder how Chicago would have developed had the plan been implemented in its entirety. Sadly, pretty much all we have of it is a single, man-made island.

By: jtron

jtron — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:28:31 -0800

The Changing of the Avant-Garde: Visionary Architectural Drawings from the Howard Gilman Collection has plenty of nice stuff in it, despite the goofy title.

By: aquanaut

aquanaut — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:25:48 -0800

definitely "delirious new york". i stumbled on it years ago, and it really stayed with me. the russian swim team part was inexplicably moving.

By: aquanaut

aquanaut — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:26:25 -0800

... and it's on amazon.com starting at $17.50.

By: vincentm

vincentm — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 03:09:24 -0800

Thank you for all these answers !

By: macdara

macdara — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 08:34:55 -0800

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party; I had to dig out my notes on the Future City exhibition I visited last month.

The only books I seem to have noted related to the start of the exhibition. One that isn't on the list but close enough in subject is The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant's New Babylon to Beyond, based on the utopianist visions and ideas of Constant Nieuwenhuys -- related are Simon Sadler's The Situationist City and Mark Wigley's Constant's New Babylon.

My impression of these is that they're more concerned with the 'idea' of the city rather than the physical manifestation of buildings and place; in my notes I've scribbled down "psychogeography --> world wide web -- mental connections are hyperlinks (but new babylon is characterised by disorientation)", which may or may not be helpful to you.

I'm sure other MeFites have attended so they might be able to fill in the blanks in my knowledge, and note some of the other books that are referred to/displayed at the show.

By: dragonsi55

dragonsi55 — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 08:44:38 -0800

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudi