Editor’s Note: The art of Bioshock is among the finest in gaming history. That fans voted three other items over an art book for the Collector’s Edition was a travesty. Now rectified thanks to Bioshock Community Manager Elizabeth Tobey. Art reproduction is of a high quality, accompanied by numerous snippets of development insight from various team members. A thick perfect bound volume, it lacks the high end hardcover quality of the genre’s upper echelon art books. However this doesn’t detract, thanks to its styling, it almost come across like a relic from Rapture itself. If the $25 price tag is undesirable, the original and shorter PDF art book is available for download.

Paperback | 174 pages | Take 2 | May 2009

As the title states, there are 400 pieces of artwork, reflecting the ever-expanding interests of Mr. and Mrs. Davies, collected over forty years, ranging from 19th-century Hudson River School landscape, marine, genre, and still life to the work expatriate artists in Europe and the Middle East, to the transitional period of Tonalism into Impressionism, Realism, art of the American West, illustration and contemporary artists of today. For the most part, the work is academic or representational. Reflecting the personal tastes of a private collection obtained without the aid of advisers, some schools or styles are more heavily represented than others. Reflecting financial realities of the private collector, some examples by given artists are major, occasionally ironic, while others are smaller, more personal pieces.

Mr. Davies clearly states he is not attempting to add tomes of new or controversial perspectives to the grand study of art; scholars abound who are doing this on a regular basis. Nevertheless, his concise narratives on 236 artists reveal many nuggets of information about the artists, the eras in which they worked, and the individual paintings as well.

Collecting Stories appeals to art collectors as well as anyone with an interest, fascination, and desire to collect any objects. Have fun with Collecting Stories - it is a life-fulfilling journey.”

Editor’s Note: An unrivaled work on American paintings, the stunning art reproductions on glossy paper stock, are equaled by the unique & fascinating commentary. The words of a collector providing an unexpected insight from traditional writings on art, with a suitable restraint that results in a perfect balance between imagery and text. Autographed copies available directly from the publisher.

Hardcover | 364 pages | Laynfaroh | January 2008

Shapes | Part of a trilogy of books exploring the science of patterns in nature, Shapes looks at how shapes form. From soap bubbles to honeycombs, delicate shell patterns, and even the developing body parts of a complex animal like ourselves, the author uncovers patterns in growth and form in all corners of the natural world, explains how these patterns are self-made, and describes why similar shapes and structures may be found in very different settings, orchestrated by nothing more than simple physical forces. This book will make you look at the world with fresh eyes, seeing order and form in places you’d least expect.

Flow | The second volume in this trilogy of books on patterns in nature, Flow explores the elusive rules that govern the science of chaotic behavior. From the swirl of a wisp of smoke to the huge persistent storm system that is the Great Spot on Jupiter, Ball explains the mechanisms at play whenever things flow, and how these give rise to many of the patterns we recognize in Nature–from ripples on a beach to swirling galaxies. The book describes fascinating phenomena such as turbulence, which still defies complete scientific understanding; the principles of symmetry-breaking; and how chaotic behavior emerges in systems. It also looks at how patterns of flow have captivated philosophers and artists for centuries, from Leonardo da Vinci to the movement of Art Nouveau.

Branches | Many patterns in nature show a branching form - trees, river deltas, blood vessels, lightning, the cracks that form in the glazing of pots. These networks share a peculiar geometry, finding a compromise between disorder and determinism, though some, like the hexagonal snowflake or the stones of the Devil’s Causeway fall into a rigidly ordered structure. Branching networks are found at every level in biology - from the single cell to the ecosystem. Human-made networks too can come to share the same features, and if they don’t, then it might be profitable to make them do so: nature’s patterns tend to arise from economical solutions.

Editor’s Note: Nature has long been an inspiration in the arts from architecture to the use of procedural textures in visual effects. These series of books are an excellent expansion of Philip Ball’s acclaimed previous work, The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature. Shapes is now shipping.

Hardcover | 272 - 320 pages | Oxford University Press | May 2009

In a brand-new chapter in the Terminator chronicles, Judgment Day has come to pass and Skynet has destroyed much of the world?s population. In this post-apocalyptic world, the resistance, including John Connor, continues its brutal fight for survival.

This beautifully designed companion volume features hundreds of color illustrations, storyboards and intricately designed production art, showcasing the amazing talent that went into the making of this remarkable movie.”

Hardcover | 256 pages | Titan Books | April 2009

Last year while exploring and working in Marrakech I came across numerous books on or related to the topic. Following are some noteworthy selections.

If you’re ever in Marrakech, be sure to visit the oldest book store in Marrakech, open since 1948, it can be found within the medina’s souks. Publisher ACR also has a well stocked shop buried in Gueliz, the city’s French section.

Editor’s Note: Arabesques are elaborate repeating geometric forms that commonly adorn Islamic architecture. Replete with numerous photos, illustrations and even a few visualizations by french VFX firm BUF, this slipcased tome clarifies their composition and reveals the structure behind the muqarnas, stalactite elements used in archways and domes. This is the finest book on the topic and one of the few titles available in English from French publisher ACR.

Slipcase Hardcover | 440 pages | ACR Edition | April 1999

The text and illustrations cover twenty-one countries, all of which were touched by the wave of Islamisation in the course of their history.

Originating in the holy city of Medina, the current proceeded in three separate directions: North Africa and Spain, Central Asia and Central Europe. This system of geographical analysis permits a comparative study of the regional specificities of the monuments and edifices common to each zone, based on their respective architectural plans, interior and exterior volumes and decorative elements.
The first two chapters of the study contain an explanation of the religious and architectural considerations necessary for formulating a general overview of the subject, while the third chapter is devoted to specific and representative examples of Islamic architecture throughout the world.”

Editor’s Note: For Westerners, the sacred nature of Mosques allow only Muslim followers to enter, so to many, the fine architecture of Islam is not fully appreciated. This large book, featuring 1500 photos, lifts the veil. Only available in French.

Slipcase Hardcover | 480 pages | ACR Edition | March 1997

Editor’s Note: Perhaps the greatest piece of architecture in Marrakech. The Ben Youssef Medersa, now open to the public, was once the largest muslim school in all of Africa. The detail and alignment of architectural elements is a sight to behold, beautifully captured through atmospheric photographs. A complete overview with plans and detail illustrations. Unfortunately numerous copies of this French language publication are plagued by residual glue, resulting in stuck and ultimately damaged pages. Check copy prior to purchasing.

Slipcase Hardcover | 192 pages | Edisud | 1999

The Orientalists pursues perhaps the richest era of this long tradition of fascination for the Near and Middle East?the mid to late 19th century, when painters from America and from every country in Europe traveled in and painted the vast cities and peoples of North Africa, the Holy Land, Persia and India. Many of these regions had only recently become accessible to the West. The first in, the first to see ? the painters, known as “Orientalists” created a rich body of work of a world that was rapidly changing, during the last precious years before modernization.

The Holy Land, North Africa, Persia, India - these are places whose history is filled with both beauty and pain. The artists painted many sides that captured this duality?the dignity of faces, and the powerful color and beauty of architecture, calligraphy and clothing, but also the brutality of poverty and the tragic outcomes of violence.

The cinematic appeal of the images is undeniable. Hugely popular in their time, the Orientalists had an enormous influence on early film makers like D.W. Griffith and their recreations of Babylon and Biblical times. A perusal of the images in this book shows their deep influence on many aspects of contemporary visual arts, a kind of prototype of many 20th-century favorites, from the “Star Wars” films, “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Gladiator” and the many films set in the desert milieu, to the “Dune Chronicles,” Frank Frazetta and “The Lord of the Rings” illustration tradition.

Featuring over 300 images, culled from 45 different institutions in seven different countries, many of these pictures have rarely been seen publicly since their creation a century and more ago. Having both traveled and lived in the region, author Kristian Davies approaches this often misunderstood genre of art from a fresh perspective. The book is designed to be a primer, a fresh new approach and redefinition of the genre. Richly illustrated with full color pictures, many with second details, it is an art history book that puts the artwork first. Davies uses a selection of the finest pictures in the genre to illuminate the life and customs of this extraordinary part of our world. The text is intended for the general reader, exploring diverse subjects like deserts and pilgrimages, villages and bazaars, faith and spirituality, and the West?s enduring fascination with the harem and hookah.”

Editor’s Note: Atop the pantheon of books on Orientalist Painters. A highly prized volume, the Orientalists went out of print earlier this year and the publisher has confirmed that it will not be reprinted. If you can get your hands on a copy, don’t hesitate.

Hardcover | 304 pages | Laynfaroh | August 2006

Editor’s Note: Everything from Jaipur to the banks of the Godavari. Among the finest aerial photography books ever published.

Hardcover | 192 pages | Anova | November 2007

The fine touches of heaven that lie behind the colorful tiled fa�ades of palace pavilions and mosques still shine in this richly illustrated and scholarly work. Enter gardens with intricate fountains and majestic ponds fed by water that is sourced from underground aqueducts dating to the 6th century. From ancient mirrored shrines of Shiraz and geometric gardens of Kashan to the ornate domes of Ispahan, here is a glorious photographic timeline drawn in water, brick, and ceramic ornamentation along the 3,000 years of the region’s architecture.”

Editor’s Note: Perhaps the finest book on landscape architecture I came across during my work in Marrakech. Currently on sale for $27.95 (57% off) at Strands in New York.

Hardcover | 299 pages | Princeton Architectural Press | April 2002

Editor’s Note: Steps to Water captures the ancient stepwells of India, as seen in films from The Fall to Baraka. “Think of Egypt’s great pyramids, inverted and elegantly lodged in the earth to serve a subcontinent’s thirst for water. That’s the role of India’s stepwells and stepped ponds, which, from the 5th through 19th centuries, served to catch water from the monsoons and save it for drinking, washing and bathing. These stone buildings, some as deep as nine stories with elaborate carved walls, columns and towers” evoke the drawings of M.C. Escher.

Hardcover | 120 pages | Princeton Architectural Press | April 2002

Features such noteworthy projects as the Casa da Música in Portugal by OMA, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in the United States by Frank Gehry, Federation Square in Australia by Bates Smart, and the National Stadium in China by Herzog & de Meuron.

Includes a descriptive text for each project, accompanied by an extensive selection of exterior and interior photographs, plans and architectural drawings.”

Editor’s Note: This inexpensive hardcover volume will hit shelves along with 21st Century Houses. Both appear derived from the hefty Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture.

Hardcover | 160 pages | Phaidon | May 2009

Editor’s Note: This highly recommended book features inventive boutiques from Viktor & Rolf’s Milan store to the Hong Kong based Armani Cafe. Released in 2006, the book is currently on sale, reduced from $39.95 to $12.95 at Strand in New York.

Paperback | 144 pages | Prestel | June 2006

Delisle’s deft and recognizable renderings take note of almsgiving rituals, daylong power outages, and rampant heroin use in outlying regions, in this place where catastrophic mismanagement and iron-handed rule come up against profound resilience of spirit, expatriate life ambles along, and nongovernmental organizations struggle with the risk of co-option by the military junta. Burma Chronicles is drawn with a minimal line, and interspersed with wordless vignettes and moments of Delisle’s distinctive slapstick humor.”

Editor’s Note: Another terrific graphic novel from Guy Delisle and his longest travelogue yet, most likely due to a year long furlough in the region. Some interesting observations of architecture and utilization of space in Burma.

A sneak peek is available online via New York Magazine.

Hardcover | 208 pages | Drawn & Quarterly | October 2008

Editor’s Note: Visit www.gramaziokohler.com for an overview of the fascinating projects covered in the book. Storefront for Art & Architecture in New York may still have signed copies in stock.

Hardcover Cloth | 112 pages | Lars Müller Publishers | October 2008

This book vividly brings to life a place, time and culture that few people outside Iran are able to witness. The book includes spectacular images of ancient citadels, desert ruins and rice fields spreading like a vast patchwork in a river delta, along with many unexpected sights, such as the bird’s eye view of a crowded ski resort in the Alborz mountains, within easy reach of Tehran. Persia’s densely packed cities are elegantly captured by Gerster and look so very different from Western European or North American cities of the same period ? their complex, interlocking flat-roofed buildings are both timeless and timely, with architecture that has stood unchanged for thousands of years.”

Editor’s Note: An important release in the field of aerial photography, Paradise Lost joins the upper echelon of comparable publications that include Over India and Earthsong.

Hardcover | 184 pages | Phaidon | February 2009

This is Wolf?s first body of work to address an American city. Whereas prior series have juxtaposed humanizing details within the surrounding geometry of the urban landscape, in The Transparent City, his details are fragments of life?digitally distorted and hyper-enlarged?snatched surreptitiously via telephoto lenses: Edward Hopper meets Blade Runner. The material resonates with all the formalism of the constructed, architectonic work for which Wolf is well-known, but also emphasizes the conceptual underpinnings of his ongoing engagement with the idea of how modern life unfolds within the framework of the ever-growing contemporary city.”

Editor’s Note: Following Hong Kong: Front Door/Back Door, Michael Wolf maintains his sight on dense architecture, shifting his focus from material remnants to individuals with pausing effect. The jacket copywriter’s declaration, “Edward Hopper meets Blade Runner”, isn’t mere hyperbole and Michael Wolf provides a rare photographic treatment of an American city usually reserved for Asian megacities.

Hardcover | 112 pages | Aperture | November 2008

This series will supplement ArTect.net’s focus on editorials and unique stories, infusing new content with greater regularity.

Authors and publishers are welcome to submit publications for consideration in Book Watch via ArTect.net’s contact form.

Selected projects include “a variety of buildings from private houses and apartments to schools, offices and stadia that redefine architecture, exploring never-before-used materials and proving that ‘green’ is the new standard in innovative design.” 1500 color illustrations and 300 line drawings.

Editor’s Note: Based on the sheer wealth of work and quality of presentation in its predecessors, this is one to watch.

Hardcover | 448 pages | Phaidon | May/June 2009

Hardcover | 320 pages | Gestalten | September 2008

Founded in 2002 by a group of passionate developers, Massive Black has grown to become a powerhouse of the entertainment industry-particularly in the areas of concept art, illustration, 3D, animation and intellectual property development. During its six-year history, the company has worked on 210 projects, generating a staggering 30,000 pieces of concept art for games, film, television, graphic novels, toys, and advertising.”

Editor’s Note: A handsome volume with concept art of the highest quality, though designs are at times run of the mill. Content primarily game related and slanted toward character work. Should particularly appeal to those audiences and Spectrum fans.

Slip Case | 192 pages | Ballistic | September 2008

Editor’s Note: One of the finest interior design books in recent memory. Somewhat reminiscent of the excellent Architecture in Detail books, Spaces and Colors.

Hardcover | 208 pages | The Monacelli Press | October 2008

Editor’s Note: Another visionary film with an art department led by Production Designer Alex McDowell (Minority Report, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fight Club). Doctor Manhattan’s structure on Mars is particularly fascinating.

Hardcover | 256 pages | Titan | February 2009

We are somewhat conditioned to think of architecture via construction. Yet this isn’t always the case.

In Mahabalipurum, India reside five Rathas temples, Chariots of the Gods, carved from a single to five large slabs of granite (sources vary). Known as the Pancha Pandava Rathas, they represent an evolution in Dravidian style architecture. A progression from rock cut caves whose pinnacle was reached elsewhere at Petra. Yet these ornate freestanding structures situated in a sandy compound amidst Casuarina trees, were built purely by subtraction, carved from the top down.

Architecture by subtraction was also the process used to create spaces in computer gaming’s The Dark Engine. The engine was developed in the mid nineties by Looking Glass Technologies and put to use in their fabled titles, Thief I & II and System Shock 2. Documentation for the level editor, DromED, describes the process.

“The most common brush is the “operation brush,” used to create terrain (hollowed-out “rooms” and solid objects). DromEd allows the user to create spaces using six different shapes of operation brush: cube, cylinder, pyramid, corner-apex pyramid, wedge, and dodecahedron. You can think of the default Thief level as being completely solid and stretching infinitely in all directions. In other words, before you add any brushes, the world is just an infinitely huge block of solid. You carve away from that block to create rooms, stairs, structures, and other unique architectural features. So, to create a square room, you would use a cube-shaped operation brush, filled with air, to carve away a square in the center of the existing solid block.”

This approach to level design was probably predicated by Thief’s unique aural requirements. Playing a thief, the propagation of sound in an environment was a vital gameplay mechanic, and one more suitably accomplished by carving into a solid. Coincidentally, the Thief series exhibited some of the finest “levels” in gaming history from Life of the Party to Shalebridge Cradle.

The notion of subtraction in modern architectural design has had a marked presence, despite the inherent loss of useable space. Perhaps most prominently seen in work from the Office of Metropolitan Architecture. One such notable example is the IDEA Vertical Campus. A 2004 competition entry for a campus building in Tokyo that contains three seperate colleges.

“Most buildings are generated through ‘Addition’. All the necessary parts are assembled, adjusted, accumulated in more or less pleasing compositions. Shinjyuku Vertical Campus is generated by ‘Subtraction’; like Michelangelo’s ‘Slaves’…

…Too many high-rise structures hide or privatize their strongest features in the interior. Because the tower is generated like a sculpture from a block of marble, it always shows an outside and an inside at the same time. We did not want the organization of the 3 schools [ISEN (medical), MODE (fashion) and HAL (computer)] to be too banal, too equal, too predictable. We thought, on the contrary, that the distribution model of each individual school across the floors of this tower (ISEN always takes a pure rectangular form, MODE always takes a free form, HAL always takes a whole floor) could establish and reinforce the individual character of each and provide a single, cohesive identity for the tower.”

Images 1-2 | IDEA Vertical Campus - Office of Metropolitan Architecture.
Images 3-4 | Pancha Pandava Rathas at Mahabalipurum, India - Photos by Andy Hay via Flickr.
Image 5 | Thief 2 FM - Saints and Thieves by Jani Saarijarvi

Down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass (DUMBO) in Brooklyn, resides the former Grand Union Tea Company warehouse. Entering the understated foyer one is greeted by welcoming aromas from a small coffee bar, wedged next to a staircase. One that leads to a bar and restaurant with an atmosphere befitting the latest mecca of artists in New York.

A quick walk up another flight of steps leads you to one of the building’s earliest post renovation occupants, the corner office of March. Here against the rustic load bearing walls is a dash of modernism where custom white desks, shelves, partitions and doors featuring meticulously flush edges, offer insight into the partners design sensibilities and attention to detail.

March is at the avant-garde of a new breed of architecture practice dedicated to digital architecture.

The works of its principles Brandon Hicks and Kevin Cimini, both former members of KDLAB and practicing architects with Masters from Columbia University, are recognizeable if not immediately attributable. Their stunning visualizations for Contemporary Architecture Practice’s Shanghai Reebok store to the helioscopes by Evan Douglis have graced the pages of countless books and magazines. Most recently they brought to life Avra Verde, a series of luxury houses in Arizona’s Sonoran desert by famed American architect Rick Joy, with computer graphics rivaling that of top visual effects firms. The project and their attention to detail reveals a desire to leverage digital tools in designing physically built, intimate scale architecture.

While Kevin Cimini’s past work as a digital architect on the Visual Effects Society nominated Mezzo commercials hints at another direction March is pursuing. Bringing formal architectural design to the film, broadcast and interactive industries where architecture is often overlooked or visibly handled by concept designers whose backgrounds traditionally reside in industrial design.

Another example of their digital architecture was developed for the United States Department of Energy’s FutureGen iniative. Working in collaboration with engineers and DOE personnel, March designed conceptual prototypes of zero emission power plants equipped with carbon sequestration. An injection of architectural design takes the eyesore of modern industrial complexes into a radically different future direction.

A direction worth watching. View their full screen portfolio at marchmade.com.

Images 1-2 | Rick Joy Avra Verde.
Image 3 | U.S. Dept. of Energy FutureGen - Clean Zero Emission Power Plant.
Images 4-5 | The Office of March.

Through issue sixteen of the superlative MARK Magazine, Tino Schaedler and Alice Charlotte have offered a commentary on the production design of Hollywood’s latest releases. In an ArTect.net online exclusive, three of the articles originally featured in the Cross Section segment of issues 12, 13 and 16, are now available for download in pdf format.

The Golden Compass
The Darjeeling Limited
The Dark Knight

Infinite white spaces have proliferated as a basis for virtual realities, exemplified by the Matrix film trilogy. In the most iconic example, an armory session begins with gun racks rushing toward the screen. A visual demonstrated in the trailers that helped catapult the Matrix to box office success. One that inspired other works including the once oft-played commercial, AutoTrader Whoosh.

The aforementioned scene ultimately overshadowed a more intriguing infinite white space. In the Matrix Reloaded, six off-white clad individuals arranged in circular formation constitute Zion Control. It’s a utopic sight as they manipulate multi-touch HUD’s atop physically three dimensional wireframe visuals. A scaled blueprint replication of reality, stylized to match the aesthetically pleasant grayscale interface.

Here virtual reality offers superior interface control and data dissemination within a setting inherently soothing vs the real world’s violent clash of industrial equipment, electronics and grunge.