The best architecture books of 2018

Winner of the Urban Study category This book documents the redesign of Tirana’s Skanderbeg Square by 51N4E, and its public reception. It is the first in a series of publications looking at the work of the Belgian architecture studio, with photography by Filip Dujardin as well as Blerta Kambo.

“The book presents the exciting result in a lively and clear manner,” said the jury.  

Winner of the (Contemporary) History/Exhibition Catalog category The exhibition catalogue for a MoMA show by the same name delves into the archives and pulls out the work of architecture architecture studios in the region of the former Yugoslavia.  

“A necessary large-scale project that shines a light on an architecture scene that produced highly diverse individual positions between two political systems, namely capitalism and applied socialism,” said the jury. “Although the word ‘concrete’ features in the title and there is a veritable reveling in béton brut in the first 20 pages, this is not another book on Brutalism. The architecture of the former Yugoslavia was far more varied.”  

Winner of the Architectural Theory/Construction Monograph category The Roosenberg Abbey in Waasmunster, Belgium, is used to introduce the ratio theories of the Benedictine monk and architect Dom Hans van der Laan (1904-1991).  

“The effortless switch to coated paper for the atmospheric photo essay by photographer Friederike von Rauch attests to skilled bookbinding and depicts the spatial qualities of Roosenberg Abbey in Waasmunster – a masterpiece of van der Laans – in a manner that makes it almost physically palpable,” said the jury.

Winner of the Architect Monograph/Documentary category Drawings and model photographs are presented in this large-format book documenting the Gravevine Structure prefabrication technique, which was developed by German-American architect Konrad Wachsmann (1901-1980) with students from the Chicago Institute of Design in 1953.

“The connection to current research into computer- and robot-aided manufacturing processes at ETH Zurich is demonstrated by means of the Local Orientation Manipulator that Wachsmann developed, but there are also analogies between the Grapevine Structure and the structure of the human brain according to current neuroscientific research,” said the jury.

Winner of the Urban Study/Landscape Architecture category   The landscape around eight European airports – Amsterdam, Zurich, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Munich, Madrid, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly – is analysed and compared in this text, with plans and charts created by Dutch graphic designers Studio Jost Grootens.

“The authors and designers succeed in presenting a topic that is both important and slightly mundane in such a manner that both academics and those new to the topic will appreciate the publication,” said the jury.  

Winner of the Illustrated Book/Special Topic category                                        This photographic survey of the replica by Austrian photographer Gregor Sailer hones in on the absurdity of replica spaces, ranging from fake towns for vehicle testing to military drill fields    

“The photos are shot with great clarity and austerity and, thanks to an emphasis on blue and brown shades, they appear to share the same style,” said the jury.  

Winner of the Illustrated Book category This collection of essays set alongside 125 images by London photographer Simon Phipps offers a full oeuvre of British Brutalism, taking in a multitude of typologies built between the 1950s and 1980s.    

“Phipps guides the reader through an epoch characterised by a strong awareness of material and calls on him to perceive this architecture once again, intensively. The choice of a subtle black-and-white aesthetic is only logical,” said the jury.

Winner of the Urban Study/(Contemporary) History category                                                            Life on Leipzig’s largest prefabricated housing estate is documented in this book of essays illustrated by local photographer Harald Kirschner.

“The editors Juliane Richter, Tanja Scheffler and Hannah Sieben succeed in showing a unique place, making it legible for occupants and outsiders, for experts and the people who even in the 21st century are unwilling to let go of the utopia of equality,” said the jury. 

Winner of the Urban Study category This detailed study of the Yamuna River by the University of Virginia School of Architecture charts the settlement around the waterway’s banks in Delhi, it’s sources of pollution and proposals for improvement.
 

“This book, with its in-depth analysis and excellent graphics, drawings and charts, is both a highly site- specific examination and a very useful and readable guide on how to approach similar challenges in other megacities,” said the jury.  

Winner of the Illustrated Book/Documentary category
Austrian architect Franz Riepl discusses his approach to six projects – a square courtyard, an apartment, a residential building, a butcher's shop and two guesthouses – in this monograph.

“Unspectacular, restrained, valent – this publication, whose design, features and finish are so congruent with its content, stands out for its fitting solidity, and these are qualities that architect Franz Riepl demonstrated on many occasions in his teaching and buildings,” said the jury.