Books

Sorry for the lack of updates, was sick for the entire week, flu, sore throat, fever, running nose, you name it I’ve got it, possibly bird flu, SARS, mad cow disease and all the good things.

Falling sick means I’m a half dead zombie with plenty of time to spare and reading is the best activity while I’m bed ridden, here are some interesting architecture and non architecture books my tiny brain managed to digest in a week:

01. An Organic Architecture | Author: Frank Lloyd Wright

An interesting speech compiled into a book by Frank Lloyd Wright, it all begins in May 1939, when London’s architecture could only wait helplessly before the coming destruction of World War Two and man’s spirit–and spiritual claims–were at a low ebb, Frank Lloyd Wright delivered four talks to some young British architects.

In these talks he affirmed his belief in the future with a positive conviction that was reinforced by the derision with which his acidulous wit reacted against the sterilities of the past. In other words, Frank Lloyd Wright believed that architecture should be organic and universal in language; it should not associate itself with the past or any other culture. Democracy in architecture.

What is architecture anyway? Is it a vast collection of the various buildings which have been built to please the varying tastes of the various lords of mankind? No. I think not. I know that architecture is life; or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore is the truest record of life as it was lives in the world yesterday, as it is being lived today or ever will be lived. So architecture I know to be a great spirit. No, it is not something that consists of the buildings which have been built by man on his Earth. Architecture is that great living creative spirit which from generation to generation, from age to age, proceeds, persists, creates, according to the nature of man, and his circumstances as they both change. That really is architecture.

02. Architecture and Democracy | Author: Claude Bragdon

One of the most respected philosophers of architecture in the early 20th century, Bragdon here makes a plea to his fellow architects and the public at large to choose organic designs for public structures, and to reject the abstract modern architecture coming into vogue in the post World War I period. Examining building design on either side of the great, modernizing divide of the war, he argues for a softer, more human aesthetic, and offers numerous “imaginary compositions,” the products of his own fanciful yet logical creativity, to illustrate his points.

03. China The Gathering Threat | Author: Constantine C. Menges

This book is thicker than a telephone directory, 550 pages and I manage to finish it in 4 days, one of the reason why I decided to purchase this book is the price tag that says USD6.00, six dollars for a book is a bargain and I am pretty bored anyway.

Believe it or not, the author claimed that China is steadily pursuing a stealthy, systematic strategy to attain geopolitical and economic dominance, which could lead to a nuclear face off with America within the next decade. If America does not take concrete steps to counter this threat, in the mid century China could be the only super power in the world with a huge arsenal of biological and nuclear weapons and a unlimited supply of armies.

According to the author, the only way to counter this threat is to speed up the democracy process in China. Easier said than done, another Tiananmen Massacre? Where was the mighty Democratic America when Chiang Kai Sek (anti-communist) and his army called for American reinforcement in 1950? Every Frankenstein state was American’s own wrong doing from Iraq to Afghanistan. Some highlights:

-China has claimed Taiwan, the Paracels, the Spratleys, the Japanese Senkau Islands and South China sea as Chinese
-China is buying the ultimate in modern weaponry en masse from Russia
-China has formalized an official military alliance with Russia against America
-China has built a veritable forest of missile launchers astride Taiwan
-China has fired multiple ballistic missiles over and near Taiwan
-China has threatened US carriers to keep out of the Taiwan Strait (and our carriers have obeyed)
-China has threatened to take out all the US bases in Asia, invade South Korea and initiate strikes against the continental US should America intervene in Taiwan
-China has stolen America’s most advanced nuclear secrets
-China is using its clout to turn the nations of the Third World against America
-China now operates the Panama Canal
-China is building the world’s largest container port in the Bahamas
-China & Russia operate an electronic spy base in Cuba

04. The World is Flat| Author: Thomas L Friedman

The flattening of the world all about globalization, the first few chapters was relatively interesting, somehow the author tried to squeeze in too much information, in short, he is repeating the same senario over and over again, it can be summed up into a few chapters.

05. Architecture and Democracy | Author: Deyan Sudjic and Helen Jones

How do buildings reflect the political ideologies of their time? This fascinating look at the architecture of democratic buildings reveals the ways that some of our most recognizable parliamentary structures celebrate the lasting principles of freedom and humanity: from the earliest classical models of the Ancient World up to the newest monuments being built today.

The book closes by focusing on the Scottish Parliament designed by Spanish architect Enric Miralles.

Technorati Tags: Architecture and Democracy, The World is Flat, Thomas L Friedman, Deyan Sudjic, Helen Jones, Constantine C. Menges, Frank Lloyd Wright, Organic Architecture, amazon, Books

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