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According to Pliny, Roman Emperor Tiberius’s doctors instructed their charge to consume a fruit of the Cucurbits family each day. To grow these melon and cucumber fruits year-round on his home island of Capri, Tiberius directed construction of specularia: “[He] had raised beds made in frames upon wheels, by means of which the Cucumis were moved and exposed to the full heat of the sun; while, in winter, they were withdrawn, and placed under the protection of frames glazed with mirror-stone.”
Thus begins
The Conservatory: Gardens Under Glass. Illustrating their text with stunning photography, the authors Alan Stein and Nancy Virts, co-founders of Maryland’s Tanglewood Conservatories, survey the evolution of the conservatory in Europe, North America, and, ultimately, the world. The conservatory, an outgrowth of global trade, imperialism, and innovation, embodies a historical leap in the conjoining of architecture and landscape architecture the extension of the growing s
When considering Kundig’s buildings, twenty-nine examples of which are included here in his fourth book, one is struck by how palpably they express, and how cannily they frame, the relationship between design and the environment. Each project reminds us how complex – beautiful, thorny, open to constant reinvention and reinvestigation – that relationship is. “Tough, light, and solid,” is how he once described a project to me. That triad of no-nonsense adjectives is perhaps the best description there is of Kundig architecture.
Mark Rozzo, from the Foreword
With 2020 drawing to a close, it is a time for renewed hope and optimism for one of our oldest traditions – reading and publishing books. And in a time where it is well nigh impossible to travel to places near and far, books and monographs remain the most reliable source of visual and literary stimulation, providing us a snapshot of exotic locales that we cannot experience first-hand. Architectural monographs, in pa
, illustrated by Pascal Campion.
I knew things were going to get hard when the library closed.
I am, by profession, a writer and a professor of storytelling. I’ve read to my twin children now four since their infancy. But as avid readers as we already were, 2020 upped our reading quotient, and markedly. Without the library to turn to, mid-March found me binge-buying picture books both online and from our local bookstore. And when, mid-summer, our library re-opened for curbside pickup, I instantly queued up more books than I was permitted. In September, when we were, at last, allowed back in the building to browse, my kids squealed with glee. I wept.
By Grace Mitchell Tada, Associate ASLA
According to Pliny, Roman Emperor Tiberius’s doctors instructed their charge to consume a fruit of the Cucurbits family each day. To grow these melon and cucumber fruits year-round on his home island of Capri, Tiberius directed construction of specularia: “[He] had raised beds made in frames upon wheels, by means of which the Cucumis were moved and exposed to the full heat of the sun; while, in winter, they were withdrawn, and placed under the protection of frames glazed with mirror-stone.”
Thus begins
The Conservatory: Gardens Under Glass. Illustrating their text with stunning photography, the authors Alan Stein and Nancy Virts, co-founders of Maryland’s Tanglewood Conservatories, survey the evolution of the conservatory in Europe, North America, and, ultimately, the world. The conservatory, an outgrowth of global trade, imperialism, and innovation, embodies a historical leap in the conjoining of architecture and landscape architect
Bob Eckstein: Creating Laughter in the Toughest of Times
Humorist and cartoonist Bob Eckstein talks about his goal of making people laugh, even in the toughest of times, through two new books.
Author:
Book title:
All’s Fair in Love & War: The Ultimate Cartoon Book by the World’s Greatest Cartoonists (Princeton Architectural Press, October 2020)
The Elements of Stress (Humorist Books, October 2020)
Genre/category: Humor
Elevator pitch for the book:
All’s Fair in Love & War: The best cartoons in the world on the topic of love, marriage, and divorce.
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The Elements of Stress: Invaluable handbook to handling stress in our time things could not get worse but they could get funnier. Written with Michael Shaw.