Books

Insular Insight - Where Art and Architecture Conspire with Nature
The islands of Naoshima, Teshima, and Inujima in Japan's Seto Inland Sea are places of pilgrimage for friends of contemporary art and architecture. Alongside works in public spaces as well as site-specific installations, the islands are also full of numerous museums and collections of contemporary art.
This publication offers a comprehensive documentation of this unique cultural landscape surrounded by Japan's Inland Sea. The photographs by the Dutch photographer Iwan Baan, ranging from tiny details to giant panoramas, create a comprehensive portrait of the islands with their fluid transitions between nature, art, and architecture. Numerous texts introduce readers to the individual areas and projects that are either permanently on display on the islands or have taken place there temporarily. In addition, other essays deal with the island as a cultural concept and phenomenon. Among others, the book presents buildings by Kazuyo Sejima, Ruye Nishizawa, Tadao Ando, and Hiroshi Sambuichi. With contributions by Peter Sloterdijk, Eve Blau, Nayan Chanda, Jean-Hubert Martin, Soichiro Fukutake, Shunya Yoshimi, and Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto
More info at Lars Muller Publishers: Insular Insight - Where Art and Architecture Conspire with Nature
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No More Play
In No More Play: Conversations on Urban Speculation in Los Angeles and Beyond, American architect Michael Maltzan traces the transformations that have taken place in the city of Los Angeles since the early 1990s. Through a series of conversations with the city's leading artists and intellectuals, Maltzan explores such issues as real-estate speculation and future urban development, infrastructure, resources, site density, urban experience, political structure, commerce and community, attempting to transform our understanding of how each affects present-day Los Angeles. Intended to facilitate further dialogue on how to define the "City of Angels" at a moment when its identity is in significant flux, No More Play includes contributions by Iwan Baan, Catherine Opie, Sarah Whiting, Charles Waldheim, Matthew Coolidge, Geoff Manaugh, Mirko Zardini, Edward Soja, James Flanigan, Charles Jencks and Qingyun Ma.
More info at Hatje Cantz Verlag: No More Play: Conversations on Urban Speculation in Los Angeles and Beyond
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Iwan Baan - Around the World / Autour du Monde
Catalogue for the exhibition in Villa Noailles, France.
More info at Archibooks: Iwan Baan - Around the World / Autour du Monde
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Brasilia - Chandigargh Living with Modernity
Just released, the book with a visual tour through contemporary life in both cities, With commentary in the form of an essay by Cees Nooteboom on the photographs and by Martino Stierli on the architectural and planning history.
In 1960, Brasilia was celebrated as the realisation of an urban planning vision based on designs by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer. At the same time, the sectoral city of Chandigarh was rising according to plans by Le Corbusier. "The test tube city" arose as an export of modernity from a Western planning euphoria that displayed utopian traits. In both cities, foreign architecture entered into a harmonious relationship with indigenous culture, forming new and independent identities. This publication addresses the question of how modernism has been appropriated in both cities, and how the people who live in them deal with it. Commonalities and differences are identified and images of everyday urban life showcased.
More info at Lars Muller Publishers: Brasilia - Chandigargh Living with Modernity
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MAXXI: Zaha Hadid Architects: Museum of XXI Century Arts
A comprehensive volume on the MAXXI Museum located in Rome, with photographs by Iwan Baan Order Here> or at your local bookseller.

Hamsun, Holl, Hamaroy
Steven Holl has set up a documentation centre for the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun (1859 - 1952) on Hamaroy, in northern Norway. This unconventional building reflects the author's no less unusual personality. The centre in the barren landscape of Hamaroy, where Hamsun lived and worked, the silence and solitude, challenge visitors to involve themselves with him and his work. The book records the connection between Hamsun, the architecture and the landscape. Photographer Iwan Baan relates the landscape and the building to each other, and historical documents illustrate Hamsun's contradictory life and influential work, et al. the novel Hunger (1890), with which Hamsun achieved his fame. In 1920 the poet was awarded with the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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The book won the DAM architectural book award for best architecture book in 2010
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Richard Neutra in Europe
Buildings and projects 1960 - 1970
From May 8-August 1, 2010, the exhibition Richard Neutra in Europe runs at the MARTa Herford Museum in Germany. Last year, Iwan Baan documented all of Neutra's projects in Europe, focusing on how the projects are being used by people today. The exhibition of photographs and architecture models shape a greater understanding of Neutra's cumulative vision in both completed and unrealized projects.

The SANAA Studios 2006 - 2008 Learning From Japan - Single Story Urbanism
Lars Muller Publishers - School of Architecture - Princeton university - edited by Florian Idenburg - buy the book at Amazon.
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Porsche Museum - Delugan Meissl Associated Architects - buy the book at Amazon.com Springer Verlag
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