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Begin Again. Fail Better: Preliminary Drawings in Architecture engages with one of the principal activities of the architect in the process of design: drawing by hand. It explores the act of designing through a focus on beginnings. Architects try, fail, try again, fail better until they start to move in the direction that ultimately becomes a building-or not. This book brings together 199 preliminary architecture drawings. More than 50 contemporary Swiss architecture firms each contributed two pieces that reveal something of their individual approach and understanding of architecture. This selection is enhanced by historical works by Swiss and European architects that come from four significant British and Swiss archival collections, dating from the 20th and back to the 16th century. The illustrations are complemented by essays providing a critical and historical framework, as well as a conversation engaging with the conditions and importance of failure within the design process. Brief interludes by international architects, archivists and teachers, introducing a range of perspectives, round out this beautiful volume.

Today, Dom Hans van der Laan (1904-91) is something of a cult figure of European post-World War II architecture. The Dutch Benedictine monk and architect dedicated his life to the search for fundamental principles of architecture, and his thoughts on numerical relationships and dimensional systems were highly influential in mid-twentieth-century architectural theory. A House to Live With is the first book to comprehensively explore van der Laan's residential buildings. 16 of them, built between 1966 and 1985, are featured in full detail through photographs and plans newly produced for this book, and analyzed with regard to their compositional and design principles. Essays examine the mathematical relationships of numbers and volumes that are fundamental to van der Laan's designs, alongside discussion of how he was influenced by ancient Roman architecture. Light is shed also on the interplay of house and garden and house and patio, and the positioning of the one large table in the house, which to van der Laan was of key significance. Thoroughly researched and highly readable, this volume introduces Hans van der Laan's architectural ideas and housing designs in full, thus forming a rich and useful source for contemporary architects.

Benoît Jallon and Umberto Napolitano founded their Paris-based design firm LAN (Local Architecture Network) in 2002 with the aim of researching architecture at the interface of several disciplines. This broad approach enables them to find new and unconventional solutions in response to social, urban, ecological, and functional challenges. Their designs include a vast range of typologies and functions at various scales. They have realized buildings in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia, and are also pursuing projects in the Middle East and Japan. In addition to their award-winning structures, Jallon and Napolitano have earned wide acclaim as well for their research work and the two previous books originating from it: Paris Haussmann (2017/2020) and Napoli Super Modern (2020). LAN-28 Projects is the firm's first monograph, featuring 28 key designs to date through photographs, model photos, drawings, and plans, supplemented by concise texts.

The Passerelle des Arts is a pedestrian and cycling bridge in the Quartier Européen Sud in Luxembourg's Kirchberg neighborhood. It links the Avenue J. F. Kennedy, Kirchberg's mobility backbone, with the Contemporary Art Museum of Luxemburg (MUDAM) and the Musée Dräi Eechelen. Designed by the local firm Fabeck Architectes and Paris-based Marc Mimram Architecture Ingénierie, the Passerelle des Arts is characterized by its sculptural design as well as the goal of preserving its natural environment, considered a green treasure in the heart of the city. Winding through the trees of the urban forest, with benches installed in the curves, the architecture encourages people to slow down and take a contemplative stroll. The close relationship between nature and culture strongly influenced the choice of materials: the bridge's main structure is made of polished stainless steel that is combined with light-colored concrete elements for the deck and glass railings. This results in an ever-changing materialization of the whole throughout the seasons-and depending on the weather. This book documents the entire concept, design, and construction process of the Passerelle des Arts through photographs, plans and drawings, and texts.

Esch Sintzel Architekten, founded in Zurich in 2008, is one of the most influential voices in contemporary Swiss architecture. The range of the firm's award-winning designs includes varied typologies such as infrastructure buildings, schools, and market halls. Yet, at the core of their work, are housing projects in which challenging circumstances often lead to the emergence of very specific solutions and qualities to the benefit of both the individual house or apartment and the city as a whole. Esch Sintzel Architekten's work is characterized by the prudent use of available resources as well as great respect for the existing fabric and its careful further development. The virtuoso mastery of structural means enables them to translate technical requirements into expressive, beautiful designs. This monograph offers a comprehensive survey of Esch Sintzel Architekten's entire body of work, exploring its full range and drilling down to constructive details, and placing it in a wider context. It features all the realized designs and a selection of projects through plans, images and texts.

Founded by Fredric Benesch and Katarina Lundeberg in 2009, Stockholm-based firm In Praise of Shadows Architecture engages in a wide range of projects of varied scales and typologies. This first monograph on their work features some forty buildings and projects from the years 2009 to 2024. The selection includes small boathouses and garden pavilions, private homes, and housing developments, as well as retail spaces, schools, and library buildings. The ideas and designs of In Praise of Shadows Architecture are remarkable, revealed in buildings which share an elegant signature that manifests itself in the choice of materials, the shaping of these, and a focus on spatial experience. Many of them are timber constructions, as sustainability is a core part of their philosophy. Unusually for a group of architects working from Stockholm, Benesch and Lundeberg and their collaborators take a special interest in the famous architectural culture of the Swiss canton of Grisons.

Mork-Ulnes Architects is an internationally operating architecture firm with offices in San Francisco and Oslo. Since its founding by Casper Mork-Ulnes in 2005, the firm has built on three continents and worked on projects at a variety of scales, from master plans and mixed-use buildings to ground-up residences and 100-square-foot cabins. They approach projects with both Scandinavian practicality and a Californian can-do spirit of innovation, resulting in buildings that are characterized by both playfulness and restraint. The Craft of Place is Mork-Ulnes Architects' first monograph. In a reflective manner structured around themes of materials, traditions, sustainability, scale, and light, this work explores the firm's approach to integrating architecture within diverse environments. The book delves into their method of balancing object and landscape, an approach rooted in the distinct cultural topographies of California and Norway, discussing as well the influence of local vernacular and materials. The beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated volume showcases Mork-Ulnes Architects' dedication to detail, context, and the evolution of their architecture through the interplay of tradition and innovation.

Founded in Zurich in 2008 by architect Christian Penzel and structural engineer Martin Valier, Penzel Valier have established themselves as one of Switzerland's leading design firms. In fifteen years, they have realized projects that uniquely demonstrate the interplay between the two disciplines. Their portfolio includes a wide range of different typologies, including transportation and infrastructure buildings, office and sports structures, as well as housing, interior design, and objects. This first monograph on Penzel Valier combines the fundamentals of their design principles with a presentation of their key buildings and projects. Essays by distinguished authors examine the firm's work from different perspectives. A detailed illustrated complete catalog of their built, unrealized, and ongoing projects since 2007-2024 rounds off the beautiful volume.

Arata Isozaki (1931-2022) undoubtedly ranks among Japan's, and in fact the world's, most distinguished architects. He ran his own firm in Tokyo from 1963 and realized buildings in many countries, as well as holding teaching appointments at Columbia, Harvard, and Yale universities. He created a body of work that has constantly evolved and transformed over decades. His best-known designs include the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art in Fukuoka, the Shenzhen Cultural Center Concert Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, the Berliner Volksbank office building on Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, the Palasport Olimpico in Turin, and the Allianz Tower (Il Dritto) in Milan. Isozaki was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Prize in 2019. This book is the first new monograph on Arata Isozaki in 15 years. Conceived in close collaboration with Arata Isozaki & Associates, the book features photographs, plans, model images, drawings, and watercolors from all periods of Isozaki's career. Arranged thematically, it follows key concepts of the architect's creative development from the 1970s throughout his lifetime. Introductory essays round off this comprehensive survey of an outstanding architectural oeuvre.

The Barrack, 1572-1914 tells the little-known history of a building type that many people used to register as an alien interloper in conventionally built-up areas. The barrack is a mostly lightweight construction, a hybrid between shack, tent, and traditional building. It is a highly efficient structure that sometimes also proves to be extremely durable. Easy to erect and to take down, it is-after the introduction of railways and later motor vehicles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries-also easy to transplant from one location to another. Originating as a standardized accommodation in the late 16th century, the barrack became a mass-produced utility of military and civilian mobilization in the 19th century, providing immediate shelter for soldiers as well as for displaced persons, disaster victims, or prisoners. The barrack played a decisive role in shaping the political space of modernity. Robert Jan van Pelt traces nearly 350 years of barrack history up to 1914. That year, in which the Great War broke out, proved to be a turning point in the perception of the barrack, away from pragmatic emergency shelter and towards sinister forced housing. Richly illustrated with some 250 images, van Pelt's book records the traditions of barrack design and the technological inventiveness that went into it in the late 19th century.

Densification of our cities is an imperative that inevitably brings the topic of new high-rise buildings and the addition of stories to existing buildings to the foreground of discourse. Architecture and urban design must increasingly address the issues of verticality at all stages of planning, design, and composition. Social and cultural aspects must be considered in this process as well. The French-languag book De la verticalité combines two elements: a case study on high-rise buildings in Zurich and an explorative essay on the subject of verticality in philosophy, culture, and society. Together the threads form a dual commentary that highlights the challenges posed by the transformation of our cities. Illustrated with numerous spectacular montages and visualizations designed to broaden thinking, this volume, which comes from the laboratory of acclaimed Swiss architecture firm Made in, also offers concrete proposals aimed at architects and urban planners, politicians and flâneurs alike.

The creation of park systems is a historically proven method for communities to stabilize and cultivate healthy ecological habitats in country dwellings as well as in dense urban areas. Park systems ensure clean soil, water, and air for all. Moreover, they offer intergenerational and inclusive recreational opportunities along ecological corridors. Between 1900 and 1950, civic design-a practice in urban and landscape planning explicitly oriented towards the common good-experienced a heyday. Park systems were successfully used as "green armatures" hosting public facilities such as playgrounds, schools, administrative buildings, hospitals, and gardens. Living Cities offers a chronological survey of civic design based on more than 30 park systems on five continents. The examples range from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Park an der Ilm in Weimar (1778) and John Nash's Regent Street in London (1806) to Chicago's park system (1850), Albert Bodmer and Maurice Braillard's plans for Geneva (1936), and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Valley (1947), as well as to contemporary and future projects in Addis Ababa, Madrid, Medellín, New York, and Seoul. Matthew Skjonsberg's book demonstrates the ecological and social impact of park systems and highlights the diverse challenges that communities face when implementing such projects. At the same time, it encourages a reevaluation of civic design as an intergenerational practice for creating human settlements.

In 2023, the new Maison de la Chine was opened as part of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris (CIUP), the French capital's famous campus of student residencies founded in 1925. Designed by Beijing-based Atelier Feichang Jianzhu (Atelier FCJZ) and realized in collaboration with the French architecture firm Coldefy, the building continues the tradition of national pavilions within the CIUP. The Maison de la Chine's design bears the DNA of traditional Chinese architecture, yet Atelier FCJZ also clearly acknowledges its inspiration from Le Corbusier. This book documents the building and its design process in rich detail through sketches, drawings, plans, and photographs. Architectural historian and curator Martino Stierli places the Maison de la Chine in the context of the evolution of contemporary Chinese architecture. Yung Ho Chang and Yishi Cheng, respectively the founding partner of and project architect at Atelier FCJZ, discuss conceptual and technical aspects of the design. The volume is completed by American critic Ariel Genadt, whose essay relates the building to the site's extraordinary history and the culture within which it was created.

BUREAU, with offices in Geneva and Lisbon, is directed by architects Daniel Zamarbide and Carine Pimenta, and visual artist, designer, and art educator Galliane Zamarbide. The practice operates at the intersection of architecture, scenography, design, landscape design, and education. Founded in 2012, the firm focuses on building new and converting existing structures, interior design and furniture, exhibition design, inhabitable sculptures, and temporary pavilions. Their buildings and interventions feature spatial experiments, unusual shapes and perspectives, and play with the time factor as well. BUREAU thus navigates across the traditional boundaries of architecture, design, visual art, architectural teaching, and cultural education. Short Stories is the first survey of the firm's work to date. Brief texts-some narrative, some descriptive and categorizing-are contributed by architects and researchers Fabrizio Gallanti, André Tavares, and Marina Otero Verzier; curators and critics Julia Albani and Tirdad Zolghadr; designer and curator Alexandra Midal; and by Daniel Zamarbide. Some 360 images, as well as concise information on the depicted buildings and projects by BUREAU, round off this beautiful book.

Transversal Territory is a laboratory of urban, environmental, and artistic experimentation at the renowned Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland. It undertakes transdisciplinary and participatory research on the relationship between us, our bodies, and our built and natural environments. Its unique approach is to explore experiences of-and reflections on-urban space through performative bodywork and on-site artistic installations. This process aims at transcending the conventional paradigms of perception and the understanding of urban space, and at creating a new imagination of it-an augmented reality. Transversal Territory's innovative research is conducted in annual workshops, in which students and local residents collaborate, and subsequent public presentations of the results. This volume features 20 performances and installations realized in 2022 in Mendrisio's Rime-Brech neighborhood, a typical suburban area with its mix of industrial structures, social housing, shopping malls, fast food outlets, parking lots, wastelands, and highways. It is conceived as a map of Mendrisio that spreads across the pages to recontextualize the genius loci in book format.

The lavish five-volume set of Food for Architects is dedicated to the buildings and cooking of the renowned Zurich-based firm Steib Gmür Geschwentner Kyburz Partners. As enthusiastic housing designers, they have been searching for both the perfect floor plan and the perfect spaghetti for three decades. Volume 1 of this first comprehensive monograph on the firm's work brings together brief personal texts on the various types of rooms in a house or apartment as well as other aspects of living. Volume 2 offers insights into the evolution and design methods of Steib Gmür Geschwentner Kyburz Partners, documenting as well 65 key buildings and projects from their portfolio. Volume 3 features floor plans of a total of 168 furnished apartments with concise comments, interspersed with recipes for 12 spaghetti dishes. In a photo essay, volume 4 introduces the inhabitants of 11 apartments from various realized buildings, who also speak about their homes in brief interviews. The dessert of this five-course menu is the concluding volume 5, featuring a conversation with the firm's four partners-Jakob Steib, Patrick Gmür, Michael Geschwentner, and Matthias Kyburz-as they discuss topics that are key to their architectural work.

Scarcity of resources in all forms is commonly portrayed in a negative light. Yet these conditions-which have long been a reality in many extreme climate conditions across the global South and are increasingly becoming a global reality-often stimulate an abundance of innovation, inspiration, and ingenuity. Permanence has created a climate crisis, with spaces constructed with non-degradable materials, resource extraction without active replenishment, and buildings designed for a single-eternal use. Our present reality is marked by a global pandemic, violent conflicts, and the looming threat of climate change-induced environmental disasters. Yet there remains an optimism about the creative possibilities that arise within these constraints. Field Notes on Scarcity, published in conjunction with the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial, examines what scarcity truly looks like on the ground, and the challenges and opportunities it presents across architecture and design. Sixty scholars and practitioners from across the Global South-including Lesley Lokko, Yinka Shonibare, Formafantasma, Rahul Mehrotra, Olalekan Jeyifous, Abeer Seikaly, Ilze and Heinrich Wolff, Chitra Vishwanath, and Deema Assaf-contribute reflections, poems, visual essays, and dialogues exploring what scarcity represents, what it inspires, and what it reveals.

Blackheath and Greenwich, in the southeast of London, proved to be an unusually fertile ground for modern architecture in the decades following WWII. Housing in particular became the prime field of work for many architecture firms, who designed a large number of residential buildings of various typologies, using new concepts and trying new solutions, inspired by the spirit and political developments of the time. Modern Buildings in Blackheath and Greenwich is based on an extensive research project by architect Ana Francisco Sutherland. It analyzes and celebrates outstanding buildings by well-known architects such as Eric Lyons, Patrick Gwynne, Peter Moro, Walter Greaves, and Chamberlin, Powell & Bon, alongside works by lesser-known firms. A total of 65 individual buildings and housing developments by 38 architects are featured with images, plans, and concise texts. Sutherland also takes a broader look at the evolution of modern English architecture in the context of social and housing policies of the time. Brief biographical portraits reveal personal connections between protagonists that made Blackheath and Greenwich such an extraordinary field of design experimentation over five decades. An enclosed map with suggested routes makes the volume also a guide of extraordinary detail for architects and architecture lovers alike.

Hans Hollein (1934-2014), Austria's only Pritzker Prize laureate (1985) and a self-proclaimed avant-gardist of the 1960s, was a meticulous curator of his own work throughout his life. At the same time, the reception of this work was often overshadowed by Hollein's immense personality. Hollein Calling: Architectural Dialogues explores the Hollein phenomenon from today's perspective. In dialogue with the positions of a younger generation, this book revaluates and brings back into the current discourse Hollein's thinking and designs. The first part offers interviews with 15 European firms in which they talk about their relationship to Hollein and his oeuvre, ranging from profound knowledge or selective admiration of specific aspects to skepticism and criticism. Topics such as cultural identity, visual worlds, design tools, and architecture as an independent cultural production run as a thread through these conversations. The second part features a selection of Hollein's buildings through sketches, models, photographs, prototypes, and documents from the Archive Hans Hollein, Az W and MAK, Vienna-many of which are published here for the first time-as well as new contextualizing texts. The two sections are connected by a grid of key terms formed of pertinent texts and images.

Hermann Czech, born in 1936, is one of Austria's most eminent and influential architects and theorists. This influence is based not only on his work as a designing architect, which extends to furniture, interiors, and exhibitions. Czech is also widely admired just as much for his writings on architectural theory and as the editor and translatior of classics of architectural history, including texts by Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Josef Frank, and Christopher Alexander, among others. This book is the long-awaited updated and expanded English edition of the only full monograph on Hermann Czech to date. First published in German in 2018, it goes far beyond a mere presentation of an architecture practice's buildings and projects. The first part traces what links Czech's work to the approaches of Viennese modernism. The second part explores Czech's biography and the trajectory of his career, analyzing as well the contemporary influences that shape his thinking and designs. The third part features selected buildings and unrealized projects, setting forth also Czech's numerous references and underlying reflections. A complete index of his buildings, projects, and writings, an essay by Vienna-based philosopher Elisabeth Nemeth on the relationship between architecture and philosophy in Czech's work, and an introduction by architectural historian Liane Lefaivre round off this volume.

In this book, Jeanne Gang, one of America's most distinguished contemporary architects, proposes applying the plant cultivation technique of grafting to architecture and urban design as a way of rethinking adaptive reuse and combatting climate change. Grafting is the process of connecting two separate living plants-one old and one new-so they can grow and thrive as one. This ancient practice continues to be performed today in search of more fruitful, palatable, and resilient varieties of plants. Grafting is also a useful paradigm for how architecture can address climate change on a broadly impactful scale by reusing and expanding older structures. Addressing both the environmental and cultural value of reuse, Gang shows how the concept of grafting can inform architecture across many scales, provoking the imagination and shaping tectonic, programmatic, formal, and regenerative adaptations.

Paris-based Le Penhuel & Associés architectes have acquired great expertise in the construction of school buildings over nearly 30 years, having made their name in this field with pioneering designs. Based on this wealth of experience, the firm's founding pricipal Gaëtan Le Penhuel now presents ABC: Schools of the Future. Best Design Practices, a compact and charming guide to developing school buildings for the future that meet the needs of students. Each of the ten chapters focuses on one key part of these structures, such as the classroom, the school yard, the hallway, the auditorium, and so on. In conversation with architectural publicist Alice Dubet, Le Penhuel outlines pathways to better school architecture, and points out obstacles to overcome and mistakes to avoid. Quentin Vijoux's illustrations provide easy visual access to the concepts of Le Penhuel & Associés architectes-not only for architects and teachers, but also for students and their parents.

The term "performance," as used in 1955 by the British philosopher of language John L. Austin, refers to processual, "performative" aspects that take center-stage instead of rigid states and fixed norms. It has found its way into the most diverse areas of science and technology and has recently also appeared in the architectural context. Performance has long been a recurring topic also in the design and research work of Zurich-based architecture firm Edelaar Mosayebi Inderbitzin (EMI). This is particularly visible in the award-winning design for a tourist infrastructure on the eastern ridge of the Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps (2012), in the temporary installation Anthropomorphic Form for the Swiss Art Awards (2019), and in the residential building on Stampfenbachstrasse in Zurich (2022). Their own work is a catalyst for EMI's deeper engagement with performance, now set forth in this book. Texts by the firm's founding partner Elli Mosayebi and by Joseph Schwartz, Laurent Stalder, and Nina Zschocke, all of whom also teach at ETH Zürich's Department of Architecture, as well as artistic and documentary photographs, plans, and drawings, illuminate the phenomenon from the different perspectives of architectural practice, theory of architecture, and structural engineering.

Conquering the extremes: LIQUIFER Systems Group, a design and research firm based in Vienna and Bremen, has been addressing the issue of human life on planet Earth and elsewhere in the universe for two decades. Their work demonstrates how considerate technology-based design solutions and careful use of available resources can enable us to live in space. Their concepts, feasibility studies, and technological developments all deal with the key issue of scarcity that defines life everywhere: on Mars, on the Moon, in orbit as well as on Earth. LIQUIFER Systems Group's projects range from a simulated Mars mission in Spain's Rio Tinto region and the interior design for the habitation module of the planned Gateway space station, to the EDEN ISS mobile greenhouse in Antarctica and biogenerative studies in which microbes are integrated into buildings to generate energy and recycle materials. LIQUIFER. Living Beyond Earth is the first book to present the practice's groundbreaking work. It features spectacular images and visualizations, detailed plans, and drawings that are supplemented with an introdutcion by and a conversation between the LIQUIFER team, as well asa prologue and an epilogue by renowned American space architects Brent Sherwood and Christina Ciardullo. It enables the reader to delve into the visionary world of Europe's leading space design firms.

Lux Guyer (1894-1955) was the first female architect to establish her own studio in Switzerland in 1924. One of her key designs is the Obere Schiedhalde, a single-family home above Küsnacht near Zurich. Completed in 1929 and temporarily occupied by Guyer and her family themselves, it is a variation on her legendary SAFFA-Haus of 1928. Between 2012 and 2018, the building itself as well as the surrounding garden were extensively and carefully restored by Basel-based architecture firm Christ & Gantenbein together with Sven Richter, co-founder of Richter Tobler Architects in Zurich. Working in close collaboration with the Canton of Zurich's office for the preservation of historic monuments, they also called in experts for a historically conscious overhaul of the building's interior design, color scheme, furniture, and garden design. Together with the current owners, the architects made it their mission to not only preserve this significant architectural monument of Swiss Modernism, but also make it accessible to the public through this book. Conceived by graphic designers Ludovic Balland and Annina Schepping, it offers an in-depth documentation of the renovated Obere Schiedhalde. Some 200 photographs of the house, garden, interior details, and furniture, as well as historic and newly drawn plans are supplemented with texts in German and English that tell the story of the building and the entire undertaking of its restoration.

Protest movements shape public space not only through their messages, but in many cases also through their-mostly temporary-buildings. Frankfurt's Deutsches Architekturmuseum DAM and Vienna's MAK-Museum of Applied Arts are exploring this thesis in a joint exhibition project. The exhibition and the book coinciding with it explore the topic based on examples spanning from 1830 to 2022. Protest Architecture is the first-ever international survey of the architecture of protest and presents it in all its manifold forms and, in some cases, ambivalence. It is conceived as an encyclopedia with 176 entries, supplemented by 13 more expansive case studies. A preceding chronology portrays 68 protest movements and their architectural manifestations through concise texts and one image each, including examples from all over the world, such as the 1830 July Revolution in Paris, the 1848 March Revolution in Berlin, the 1911 Sugar Workers Strike in Queensland (Australia), the 1936-37 General Motors Sit-down Strike in Flint, MI (USA), the 1969-98 Troubles in Northern Ireland, Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen since 1971, the 1986 People Power Revolution in Manila, the 1999 WTO Protests in Seattle, WA (USA), the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions on Cairo's Tahrir Square and Manama's Pearl Roundabout, the 2013-14 Euromaidan uprisings in Kyiv, the 2015-16 #FeesMustFall student protests in Pretoria, the 2019 Acampamento Terra Livre in Brasilia, the 2020-21 Indian Farmers Protests, and the 2022 Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the open-air playground was a social laboratory. Innovative, wacky, educational, and exciting playground designs emerged in European and American cities, as well as elsewhere around the world: artists, landscape designers, architects, and activists sought to provide children with the best possible place to play, while also reimagining cities and communities. First published in 2018, The Playground Project instantly became a classic. This much-expanded new edition brings back the wealth of ideas of that period to inspire us today. It offers many previously unpublished images, numerous new portraits, especially of female protagonists of the time, as well as findings from the latest research on playground design. An incisive introductory essay places the playground at the intersections of education, architecture, urban politics, design history, and leisure policy. A detailed focus is placed on the forgotten history of playgrounds in the former German Democratic Republic. Moreover, young researchers explore the culture of memory surrounding the Shek Lei Playground in Hong Kong, and the role that playgrounds played in the process of state-building in Mexico. The book is a tribute to play in public spaces and a rich source for architects, designers, students, children, and political actors.

Gewers Pudewill is one of the most influential and successful contemporary German architecture firms. From their base in Berlin, founding partners Georg Gewers and Henry Pudewill are committed to a wide variety of projects: office buildings, conversions of manufacturing and commercial structures, housing, research buildings, and nursing residences for the elderly. Their designs combine functional and conceptual aspects with a highly expressive formal language. This book presents a selection of Gewers Pudewill's most exciting buildings realized since 2019, located in Berlin, Hamburg, Regensburg, Rostock, Stuttgart, and Wolfsburg. The lavishly illustrated volume features newly taken large-format photographs by the renowned German architectural photographer HG Esch, supplemented by five essays contributed by architectural publicist Ulf Meyer, who highlights the common threads in the firm's evolution and explains its philosophy.