DAM Architectural Book Award 2014 – Prize Winners
Deutsches Architekturmuseum and the Frankfurt Book Fair bestowed the
international DAM Architectural Book Award for the fifth time. 74 art and
architectural book publishers all over the world heeded the joint call of DAM
and the Book Fair.
A jury comprising external experts and DAM reprasentatives selected the
prize winners on September 17 out of 205 submissions according to categories
such as design, content, quality of material and finishing, topicality and innovation.
Theaward ceremony takes place at the library of Deutsches Architekturmuseum
October 8, 2014, 19:00.
All prize-winners are being presented the Frankfurt Book Fair, October 9 – October 12, 2014, Hall 4.1, Centre of Photography and Illustration, K 106
External jurors:Philipp Meuser (DOM Publishers Berlin), Julia Voss (editor Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Thomas Dahm, (graphic designer, Delft \ NL, prize winner 2013), Jörg Winde (photographer, Bochum, prize winner 2013), Jo Eisele, (Society of Friends Deutsches Architekturmuseum)
Internal Jurors: Peter Cachola Schmal (director DAM), Annette Becker (curator DAM), Oliver Elser (curator DAM), Christina Budde (educational curator DAM \ co-ordination DAM Architectural Book Award 2014), Brita Köhler (public relations DAM)
The jury faced a great challenge given the broad range of themes and the high standard of the entries. So again the jury decided to select 10 more submissions for the Shortlist of the DAM Architectural Book Award.
Das Deutsche Architekturmuseum would like to thank the Society of Friends of the DAM for their generous support.
The jury’s verdicts
1.
Title: Talca
Publishers: Editorial Arquine (Mexico)
Edited by: Uribe Ortiz, José Luis, Andrea Griborio
Authors: Uribe Ortiz, José Luis
Design: Cristina Paoli
Photographs: Hector Labarca Rocco (Chile), Blanca Zuniga Alegria (Chile)
“Talca”
The moment you grasp the book you notice how pleasant it is to handle. It measures about 24 cm high, 17 cm wide and 3 cm thick.
The front and back covers boast sturdy card and a landscape motif wraps across them.
The title “TALCA Cuestión de educación” whets one’s appetite to find out more.
The 205 pages describe an architectural training course that is quite unusual. Each architecture student has to realize one practical project while still studying. This occasionally takes place at other unis: However, the projects are kept intact at the university in Talca and thus the location is increasingly defined by its own achievements.
The book documents 10 years of practical instruction in architecture. This fact alone is worthy of praise. The result is, together with the entire appearance of the book, the layout, fonts, graphics and excellent photos, a veritable gesamtkunstwerk and shows that form, design and content can blend superbly.
Jo Eisele
2.
Title: LOLALost Landscapes
Publishers: nai010, Rotterdam
Edited by: Cees van der Veeken, Eric-Jan Pleijster, Peter Veenstra
Authors:Cees van der Veeken, Eric-Jan Pleijster, Peter Veenstra, Erik de Jong, René van der Velde, Paul Roncken, Eric Frijters, Olv Klein, Allard Jolles, Alex van de Beld, Rogier van den Berg
Design: Koehorst in’t Veld, Rotterdam
Illustrations (visuals and graphics): LOLA
“LOLA Lost Landscapes”
This little monograph on the young and dynamic landscape architects at LOLA (Lost Landscapes Architects) in Rotterdam is a magical world of images, a collection of ideas, project sketches and associative elements. Lost Landscapes’ approach hinges on reinterpreting forgotten and changing landscapes – and breathing new life into them. In a quite unique and pleasantly confusing language, the landscape planners and their guest authors take us on a walk out of town into their green transformation belts (Life Lines) via recreation zones (the Long Tail of Leisure) out into opulent, free nature (The fat of the land). You enter and exit the book through a multi-page photo spread with sample projects.
The compact book in a convenient pocketsize is ornamented by edges printed with textures and flowers. It uses persuasively simple materials and harmoniously calibrated design elements – the pastel shades of the illustrations and texts change from green to brown, the fonts and images are monochromatic. There are lots of small parts, full of bits of ideas, and yet the monograph is pleasantly modest, as befits the portfolio of a young company.
Brita Köhler
3.
Title: North Korean Atlas
Publishers: Damdi Publishing, Seoul
Edited by: Kyoungwon Suh
Authors:Dongwoo Yim & Rafael Luna
Design: YeonKyeong Choo
Typography: Yoon Gothic (Korean) + Universal (English)
“North Korean Atlas”
With their North Korean Atlas the authors’ group led by Dongwoo Yim has succeeded in comparing urban centers with the unknown and inaccessible countryside. This above all takes the shape of urban planning analyses, info-graphics and diagrams. All the maps were redrawn uniformly for the publication, and boast clearly legible colors. Alongside the attempt to cover the Communist society’s key building typologies in the form of isometric sections and layouts, Dongwoo Yim goes for architectural interventions in the heart of the capital, Pyongyang. These may be considered provocative in North Korea, as may the compilation and analysis of statistical data. Meaning the book’s quality derives not only from the text, graphic and architectural inquiry into the Stone Age dictatorship. In this regard, the South Korean publisher’s courage should be emphasized in an age still characterized by political tension: bringing out a book that presents North Korea as a freely accessible economic hub with the potential for investments.
Philipp Meuser
4.
Title: Monolith. Controversies
Publishers: Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern
Edited by: Hugo Palmarola, Pedro Alonso
Authors: Pedro Alonso, Alberto Arenas, Manuel Corrada, David Edgerton, Adrian Forty, Boris Groys, Catherine Ingraham, Palmola Magazine, Eden Medina, Servando Mora, Hugo Palmarola, Nolberto Salinas, Gianfranco Foschino, Nolberto Salinas Gonzalez, Patricio Nunez
Design: Martin Bravo
“Monolith. Controversies”
Never before has the monolith been described so comprehensively and in such detail, I would guess: Cutting across all cultures and political systems, the “Monolith Controversies” (the expanded catalog for the Chilean pavilion in Venice) traces the amazingly global history of modular building. The focus is on the development of monoliths in Chile, something that started with the legendary KPD Factory, gifted by the Soviet Union to the people of Chile to celebrate Salvador Allende’s victory in the elections. Here, the first wall sections were made for mass apartment buildings.
Scholarly essays alternate with texts that give the former workers at the KPD factory and inhabitants of the prefab settlements a voice –Mrs. Gutiérrez’s pink apartment sweetly takes pride of place here.
Carefully researched and presented in great detail, 28 different typologies of monoliths are served up, along with comparisons with such buildings in Europe. The surprising variety offers a completely new take on a piece of concrete that Modernism traditionally somewhat looked down on. The authors certainly dash to the assumption that monoliths are equivalent to standardized rigidity and urban design monotony.
The book’s design appropriately realizes the topic; clearly structured content, each model illustrated with images and careful descriptions; the typologies are rounded out by isometric sections of all the designs. The book’s final section reads like a shopping list for all the possible wall elements ever used. The cover is coarse card, laminated with a stencil of a wall element, the format is almost square– a monolith.
Christina Budde
5.
Title: The Stones of Fernand Pouillon
Publishers: gta-Publishers, Zürich
Edited by: Adam Caruso, Helen Thomas
Authors: Adam Caruso, Jacques Lucan, Fernand Pouillon, Helen Thomas
Design: Moiré, Marc Kappeler, Dominik Huber, Ruth Amstutz
Photographs: Héléne Binet
“The Stones of Fernand Pouillon – An Alternative Modernism in French Architecture”
An unusual starting point: A renowned architect, Adam Carusom, dedicates an opulent monograph to a revered colleague, Fernand Pouillon, who died in 1986. But this goes far beyond the usual “historical” retrospective you might expect: The homage to Pouillon amounts to reinterpreting his stone architecture as a paragon for future generations of architects, by means of precise work plans created on the basis of photographs of the edifices. The photos of Pouillon’s buildings today, taken by Hélène Binet, provide a no-frills context for a gradual approach to them, starting with urban design and ending with the details of the façades. Pouillon is a real discovery: Up until now there had not been a book on his oeuvre in English.
With its reliance on traditional forms the book design constitutes a truly classicist continuation of his architecture: A calm rhythm of texts, images, and drawings, with lots of white space inside, and a pleasant-to-feel linen cover that transposes travertine, his preferred choice for façades, into the medium of a book.
Oliver Elser
6.
Title: Der Bauplan
Publishers: Park Books, Zurich
Edited by: Anette Spiro, David Ganzoni
Authors: Mario Carpo, Hermann Czech, Tom Emerson, Philipp Esch, David Ganzoni, Uta Hassler & Daniel Stockhammer, Ákos Moravánszky, Urs Primas, Kornel Ringli, Stephan Rutishauser, Jonathan Sergison and Philip Ursprung
Design: Esther Rieser, Zurich
“Der Bauplan. Werkzeug des Architekten”
One hundred construction plans from the 13th century to the present – in a single volume: a fascinating overview of this elementary construction tool.
Since 2006 the ETH Zurich Dept. of Architecture and Construction chaired by Annette Spiro has been collecting construction plans. The result: a collection that documents how the architect’s idea takes visual shape for developers and craftsmen alike, in a “matter of fact, binding and exact” manner. The double spreads and fold-out pages allow the reader to relive this experience and discover many plans otherwise confined to archives.
The highlights from the collection range from a depiction of the main frontage of Cologne Cathedral dating from 1280 through to contemporary plans by Peter Zumthor and Herzog & de Meuron.
At the end of the book, the chronology of all the plans makes orientation all the simpler.
The choice of 12 chapters is subjective, and is structured around building section, material, and construction phase. The topic is also elucidated by 12 essays.
Annette Becker
7.
Title: Hungarian Cubes
Publishers: Park Books, Zurich
Edited by: Katharina Roters
Authors: Hannes Böhringer, Endre Prakfalvi, Zsolt Szijártó and József Szolnoki
Photographs: Katharina Roters
Design: Imre Lepsényi
“Hungarian Cubes”
There are houses planned and designed by architects because they thought this is how people want to live. And there are houses planned and designed by inhabitants, who believed this is how they want to live. “Hungarian Cubes” focuses on both: from the bland standard homes that rural inhabitants in Hungary have to put up with, the so-called “Kádár=Cube”, and what they have done to embellish them. With her photographs, artist Katharina Rothers documents an astonishing counter-culture driven by the tradition of folklore. The subversive ornamentation is also a grass roots movement in architecture which one would hope gets emulated in many a place.
Julia Voss
8.
Title: Peter Zumthor, 1985-2013
Publishers: Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich
Edited by: Thomas Durisch
Authors: Peter Zumthor
Design: Beat Keusch, Basel
Photographs: Héléne Binet, Hans Danuse, Ralph Feiner, Thomas Flechtner, Walter Mair, Joël Tettamanti et. al
“Peter Zumthor, 1985-2013 (in 5 volumes)”
The comprehensive and ultimate Zumthor collected works. As “precise and uncompromising” as can be expected given his approach to architecture. Initially in five volumes, each covering about five years, meaning we can look forward to future volumes, in the same classic, linen-covered layout Beat Keusch has designed.
The brief poetic captions are also new. A classic for all libraries, and publishers Scheidegger & Spiess can rightly be very proud of it.
Peter Cachola Schmal
9.
Title: Confrontier
Publishers: Steidl, Göttingen
Edited by: Kai Wiedenhöfer
Author: Kai Wiedenhöfer
Design:Dirk Fütterer and Daniel Schilke
Photographs: Kai Wiedenhöfer
“Confrontier”
The wall as a metaphor for the impossibility of people meeting one another: Photographer Kai Wiedenhöfer has devoted himself to the topic for over 23 years now – at flash points in cross-border world-wide emigration.
Political commitment and statement combine here with the unique design of the panorama images in an elaborately produced book. The terror of separation is inevitable and has never before so incisively been portrayed as here on the double-spreads, where two long landscape-format photos from different countries are juxtaposed – intensifying the overall impression. Between them are double-spreads with fold-outs that can be opened like gateways, potentially to offer a glimpse of a less violated landscape. But behind them all you get is an even larger picture of built deterrence.
Jörg Winde
10.
Title: Rice’s Church Primer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, London
Editor: Richard Atkinson
Author: Matthew Rice
Artwork: (Typography) Peter Dawson,
(Illustration) Matthew Rice
„Rice’s Church Primer“
This illustrated guide to the architectural grammar of British Churches is a book that you take with you while are touring through Britain.
The primer starts with the basic 'Grammar' of churches like plans, fronts and towers. Next comes the 'Vocabulary' of styles in chronological order, from 410 to 1851. Each period has its own detail section showing doors, windows, etc. Finally there are regional maps where you can find your favourite church, monument or interior.
The book as an object is not the classic guide rules. No super smooth paper and glossy images, but a cover with a rough touch and mat paper for the inside; it has a good size, not to heavy. The feeling is right!
The illustration style of Rice conveys a lot of humor, colour and architectural precision.
The drawings are made with simple markers and lined b one solid black line. Every chapter starts with a full page illustration followed by an introductory text – set as a block with a serif typeface - then the drawings, they are well placed on the pages and ordered as an index. The caption text refers to a comic book style, absolutely in line with the humor in the Primer.
Every part of the book shows that Rice absolutely enjoyed making it. There is really a lot to discover.
Thomas Dahm
Shortlist DAM Architectural Book Award 2014
Title: Carlo Scarpa
Publishers: Phaidon, München
Edited by: Emilia Terragni (Comissioning Editor), Tom Wright (Project Editor)
Author: Rober McCarter
Artwork: Stetzer Kommunikationsdesign / Béla Stezer
Title: Vom guten Wohnen
Publishers: Niggli Verlag, Sulgen
Edited by: Marie Antoinette Glaser, ETH Wohnforum – ETH Case
Authors: Annelies Adam-Bläsi, Eveline Althaus, Marie Antoinette Glaser, Patrick Gmür, Sabine Herzog und Anna Joss
Artwork: unfolded, Zürich
Photographs: Peter Hauser
Title: Landscape and Energy
Publishers: nai010, Rotterdam
Edited by: Dirk Sijmons, Jasper Hugtenburg, Anton van Hoorn, Fred Feddes
Authors: Conny Bakker, Delft Universiy of Technology, Michiel Hekkenberg, Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), Adrian Hill
Artwork: Catalogtree, Arnhem
Photographs: Catalogtree, Arnhem
Title:Filip DujardinFictions
Publisher: Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern
Autor: Text von Pedro Gadanho
Artwork: Sven Beirnaert
Title: Junya Ishigami How small? How vast? How architecture grows
Publishers:Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern
Editor: Chinatsu Kuma
Author: Junya Ishigami
Artwork: Takuma Hayashi
Title: Peter Bialobrezski Nail Houses
Publishers: Hatje Cantz, Osfildern
Author: Text von Stefanie Gommel
Artwork: Andrea Rauschenbusch
Title: Das Olympische Dorf München
Publishers: Reimer Verlag, Berlin
Author: Natalie Heger
Artwork: Torsten Köchlin, Berlin
Title: Herzog & de Meuron Transforming Park Avenue Armory New York
Publishers: Birkhäuser, Basel
Edited by: Herzog & de Meuron, Park Avenue Armory
Author: Gerhard Mack
Artwork: Mischa Leiner, Claire Morin, Matthias Indermauer
Title: Places of Memory
Publishers: IKSV, Istanbul
Edited by: Pelin Derviş
Artwork: Aslı Altay, Future Anoectodes Istanbul
Photographs: Ali Taptık, Alper Derinboğaz, Candaş Şişman, Metehan Özcan and Serkan Taycan’s artworks
Title: Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten
Publishers: Park Books, Zürich
Authors: Otto Kapfinger, Florian Medicus, Wolfgang Herrman, Florian Aicher, Manfred Alois Mayr, Urs Beat Roh, Florian Pumhösl, Rainer Körberl und Wolfgang Mörth
Artwork: Jonas Voegeli, Zürich
Photographs: Adolf Bereuter
DAM Architectural Book Award – extract from the call for entries
Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) and the Frankfurt Book Fair are this year asking again for entries to be submitted for the DAM Architectural Book Award 2014. All art and architectural book publishers worldwide are invited to do so. A varying jury comprising DAM internal jurors as well as external experts will judge the submissions according to design, concept, quality in terms of material and finishing, level of innovation and timeliness.
Even in this era of growing competition through new media and communication methods books on architecture still remain the basic architectural medium. Identifying the best architectural books published in the current year by way of this competition and presenting them to architecture enthusiasts is thus a fundamental task of the 2014 DAM Architectural Book Award. As an honorary award it does not involve any award money. The prize winners are being presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The DAM Architectural Book Award was initiated in 2009 and ever since it has been met with increasing response. So this year’s DAM Architectural Book Award will consciously open up again to an international range of participants.
Terms of participation
All books that have appeared between the summer of 2013 and the deadline of submission may take part. In the case of book series and multi-volume works a single volume or the entire work may be submitted.