Swipe and BUILT are pleased to announce that we will be hosting Margaret and Phil Goodfellow, authors of the newly released Guide to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto, as they meet the public and answer questions about Toronto’s architectural renaissance on the opening day of Doors Open, Saturday May 29th, in the lobby lounge of 401 Richmond Street West from 2 pm to 3:30 pm. Please join us!
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With Doors Open Toronto 2010 just around the corner, we here at Swipe and BUILT are more thankful than ever to be part of the extraordinary arts and culture complex at 401 Richmond Street West. A prime destination during the festival, 401 is expecting several thousand visitors over the weekend of May 29th and 30th. Accordingly, Swipe and Built will be open Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm.
In celebration of this celebration of our city’s cultural, social and architectural heritage, BUILT offers a selection of Torontoniana published since last year’s post, beginning with a tremendously significant new release that documents one of the most exciting moments in Toronto’s long architectural history. That moment is, you may have guessed, right now.
A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto
✍ 2010: Margaret and Phil Goodfellow
The past two decades have seen an explosion of building in our city, and while from an urban-planning perspective much of this development might be viewed with suspicion, from a purely aesthetic perspective, many of these buildings are thoughtful, challenging and truly beautiful. Authored by Toronto Society of Architects stalwarts Margaret and Phil Goodfellow, this up-to-the-minute guide documents sixty projects completed between 1992 and 2010 that form the core of this Toronto architectural renaissance. Organized by neighbourhood, this pocket-sized guide is equally delightful whether readers choose to hit the streets or do their site-seeing from an armchair. (2010: Douglas & McIntyre; ISBN 9781553654445)
$24.95
Please join us as we host Margaret and Phil on the opening day of Doors Open, Saturday May 29th in the lobby lounge at 401 Richmond Street West at 2 pm. In the meantime, listen to an interview with Phil by Peter Stock of CIUT 89.5 FM:
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The Edible City: Toronto’s Food from Farm to Fork
✍ 2009: Alana Wilcox & Christina Palassio, editors
New from the uTOpia team, the 40 essays in Edible City examine all aspects of the way that Torontonians feed themselves, from fancy restaurant to urban slaughterhouse, from disappearing farmland to balcony container garden. (2009: Coach House Books; ISBN 1552452190)
HTO: Toronto’s Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers to Low-flow Toilets
✍ 2008: Christina Palassio & Wayne Reeves, editors
With its harbour and sprawling lakeshore, two major river systems with a network of ravines and creeks, and a massive sewer and water-supply system, Toronto is a city of waterways. This fourth volume in the influential uTOpia series explores the city’s relationship with water, both in the landscape and in our domestic and industrial lives. (2008: Coach House Books; ISBN 9781552451946)
Historical Atlas of Toronto, paperback
✍ 2009: Derek Hayes
In this new addition to the acclaimed series, geographer Derek Hayes charts Toronto’s history, presenting more than 200 period maps that together provide a unique visual record of the city’s development. (2008: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd; ISBN 9781553654971)
The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl
✍ 2009: John Sewell
A meticulous and thoughtful account of how Toronto became ‘Greater’ Toronto, expanding on the author’s classic study The Shape of the City. John Sewell includes anecdotes on the origin and purpose of Toronto’s expressway system, the economic and political history of infrastructure in the 905, and the unlikely connection between the QEW and Adolph Hitler. (2009: University of Toronto Press; ISBN 9780802095879)
Shawn Micallef, Eye columnist, senior editor at Spacing and a co-founder of the [murmur] project, explores Toronto’s buildings and streetscapes as dynamic cultural entities, examining not only their structure and purpose but also the ways they are used and experienced by the people who inhabit them. The thirty-two featured walks, guided by hand-drawn maps from illustrator Marlena Zuber, invite the reader to experience the city at a pace that celebrates the details as well as the grand vision. (2010: Coach House Books; ISBN 1552452263)
The Edible City: Toronto’s Food from Farm to Fork: $24.95
HTO: Toronto’s Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers to Low-flow Toilets: $24.95
Historical Atlas of Toronto: $34.95
The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl: $24.95
Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto: $24.95
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs
✍ 2010: Stephen A. Goldsmith & Lynne Elizabeth
To coincide with the annual Jane’s Walk series of free neighbourhood walking tours, Built and Swipe have, by an exclusive arrangement, received advanced copies of this timely revisitation of the ideas and work of urban-activist Jane Jacobs. Heeding Jacobs’ collaborative approach to city and community building, What We See presents the personal and professional observations of thirty practitioners across the fields of economics, social activism and urban planning as they seek to refresh Jacobs’ theories for the present day. The resulting collection of original essays offers the generalist, the activist and the urban planner practical examples of the benefits of community participation, pedestrianism, diversity, environmental responsibility and self-sufficiency. (2010: New Village Press; ISBN 9780981559315)
$32.95
One Jane’s Walk in particular, King-Spadina: One of ‘The Two Kings’, guided by Paul Bedford and Margie Zeidler (Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 10:00 am), quite conveniently, passed right by Swipe Books at 401 Richmond Street West, where copies of What We See were available for purchase. And, of course, always on offer are works by Jane Jacobs herself, a range of interesting titles directly related to Jacobs’ legacy, and an unrivaled selection of books and journals on urban issues and architecture in general.
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
We have just received a pair of new issues of the beautiful El Croquis from Madrid.
El Croquis 147 – Toyo Ito, 2005 – 2009
El Croquis 148 – Collective Experiments
✍ 1982 (2010): Fernando Márquez Cecilia & Richard Levene
Founded in 1982, El Croquis (‘the Sketch’ in Spanish) is consistently the most beautiful architectural periodical published anywhere in the world. With editorial in both Spanish and English, El Croquis examines the work of the world’s notable architects in an ongoing series of beautifully designed, bimonthly hardcover monographs. Unique to the publication is the comprehensive manner in which each architect’s projects are documented, with plans, sketches, and insights into all aspects of the design process. It is this level of detail, coupled with Hisao Suzuki’s gorgeous photography, that has made El Croquis BUILT’s most requested publication – despite the somewhat painful price.
El Croquis 20/64/98 – Rafael Moneo, 1967 – 2004: $219.95
El Croquis 44/58 – Tadao Ando, 1983 – 2000: $149.95
El Croquis 52/73/103 – Zaha Hadid, 1983 – 2004: $179.95
El Croquis 78/93/108 – Steven Holl, 1986 – 2003: $179.95
El Croquis 86/111 – MVRDV, 1991 – 2002: $149.95
El Croquis 87/120 – David Chipperfield, 1991 – 2006: $179.95
El Croquis 109/110 – Herzog & de Meuron, 1997 – 2002: $129.95
El Croquis 123 – Toyo Ito, 2001- 2005: $99.95
El Croquis 129/130 – Herzog & de Meuron, 2000 – 2006: $129.95
El Croquis 131/132 – OMA/Rem Koolhaas Volume 1: $149.95
El Croquis 134/135 – OMA/Rem Koolhaas Volume II: $149.95
El Croquis 139 – SANAA/Sejima Nishizawa, 2004 – 2007: $129.95
El Croquis 141 – Steven Holl Architects: $99.95
El Croquis 143 – Gigon / Guyer, 2001 – 2008: $99.95
El Croquis 144 – EMBT Enrique Miralles / Benedetta Tagliabue, 2000-2009: $99.95
El Croquis 145 – Christian Kerez, 2000-2009: $99.95
El Croquis 146 – Souto De Moura, 2005-2009: $99.95
El Croquis 147 – Toyo Ito, 2005-2009: $99.95
El Croquis 148 – Collective Experiments: $99.95
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
Launched in 1997, 2G International Architecture Review, from Barcelona-based Editorial Gustavo Gili, has, in the short time since its introduction, become the most respected chronicle of contemporary architecture. Each issue is divided into three sections. The first two offer a critical examination of the work of a single architect, beginning with an introductory essay by renowned critics and colleagues, and followed by an in-depth presentation of 10 to 15 representative projects documented with full-page photographs and detailed plans and elevations. The final section, called Nexus, provides the featured architect an opportunity to write about their own work and to present their ideas as they see fit. Thus, 2G offers a unique opportunity to contrast the architect’s stated intent with critical interpretations of their work.
2G #52: Sauerbruch Hutton
✍ 2010: Barry Bergdoll, Louisa Hutton, Matthias Sauerbruch & Philip Ursprung
Dividing their time between London and Berlin, Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton are known for a practice that eschews the straight line and a muted palette, designing curvaceous buildings with bold, bright colours. (2010: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425223365)
$59.95
2G #51: MGM Morales Giles Mariscal
✍ 2009: Laurent Beaudouin, Sara de Giles, Jose Morales & Carlos Muro
This issue examines the work of another iconoclastic regional practice: in this case the Sevillean studio MGM Arquitectos. In both their high-density residential projects and public buildings, MGM infuses a distinctly contemporary architecture with the traditional interplay of interior and exterior space typical of Andalusian architecture. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425223143)
$59.95
2G #50: Sou Fujimoto
✍ 2009: Toyo Ito & Julian Worrall
Sou Fujimoto is the most representative practitioner of a distinctively Japanese style in contemporary architecture which incorporates traditional Japanese attitudes toward nature and the relationship between interior and exterior space. Fujimoto is one of the youngest architects to be profiled in 2G, and his work has been restricted primarily to smaller residential projects and a variety of conceptual exercises. The issue features a critical assessment by renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito, in many ways Fujimoto’s conceptual antecedent. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425222931)
$59.95
2G #48–49: Mies van der Rohe : Houses
✍ 2009: Beatriz Colomina, Moises Puente & Hans Christian
This double issue focuses an aspect of Mies’ body of work that, up to now, has been poorly documented. All of Mies’ single-family dwellings, in both Germany and the United States, are examined in new commissioned photos from Hans-Christian Schink, along with the original drawings and other archival material. Essays by Beatriz Colomina and Moises Puente provide critical context and a special section catalogues the known unbuilt residential projects. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425221880)
$129.95
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
While it is correct to view Mid-Century Modern more as a category of collectibles than as a coherent design movement, the term is also useful as a shorthand for the pseudo-futuristic style that swallowed Modernism and regurgitated it as American roadside kitsch. It is unfortunate that the wash of nostalgia for Naive Modernism and Mid-Century decor has swept up the work of designers, like George Nelson or Charles and Ray Eames, who were clearly more ambitious. One wonders also at the current popularity of Brazilian Modernist master Oscar Neimeyer, who, along with Lucio Costa, realized the most ambitious urban development scheme in modern history: the de novo creation of the new Brazilian capital, Brasília. Neimeyer’s contribution to the development of Modernism as it is applied to institutional and civic architecture go far beyond his stylistic experimentation with reinforced concrete. One sees the enduring influence of Brazilian Modernism more in the form and structure of the suburban planned communities of the 1960s, such as Toronto’s Don Mills, than in the curvy concrete details of their embedded shopping malls.
Oscar Niemeyer Houses
✍ 2006: Alan Hess & Alan Weintraub
Oscar Niemeyer Houses showcases the houses built by this seminal modern architect with large-format images, design sketches and architectural renderings. Viewed as a collection, these houses demonstrate the wide range of Niemeyer’s skill and show a side of his work that is little known and underappreciated. (2006: Rizzoli; ISBN 9780847827985)
$89.95
Oscar Niemeyer Buildings
✍ 2009: Alan Hess & Alan Weintraub
Niemeyer is known primarily for his large-scale institutional and civic designs throughout Brazil and Europe – daringly conceptual works that challenged Twentieth-Century Modernist orthodoxy with their iconoclastic structure and use of materials. This comprehensive book, a companion to Rizzoli’s Oscar Niemeyer Houses, presents a reevaluation of his greatest buildings, in all-new color photography specially commissioned for this book. (2009: Rizzoli; ISBN 9780847831906)
$89.95
Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence
✍ 2008: Styliane Philippou
Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence explores the development of Niemeyer’s extraordinary body of ideas and forms as well as his role in the construction of Brazil’s modern image and cultural tradition. With insightful essays and extensive floor plans, this book provides a comprehensive survey of the Niemeyer’s important buildings, from his Mid-Century projects as chief architect for the new capital of Brasília to the spectacular Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, completed in 1996. Highly recommended. (2008: Yale University Press; ISBN 9780300120389)
$81.95
CASE: Lucio Costa Brasilia’s Superquadra
✍ 2005: Fares el-Dahdah ed.
No discussion of Brazilian modernism can be complete without reference to Lucio Costa’s ambitious (and infamous) urban plan for Brasília, the Plano Piloto. While Costa’s plan could never be implemented today, it remains useful as a starting point in questioning the role of urban design. In this volume of Case el-Dahdah has collected essays from acclaimed scholars discussing Costa’s unique contribution to urban planning. (2005: Prestel Publishing; ISBN 3791331574)
$39.95
Brazil’s Modern Architecture
✍ 2007: Elisabetta Andreoli ed. & Adrian Forty ed.
An incredibly comprehensive guide to Brazil’s architectural Modernism, as viewed by contemporary Brazilian scholars. Editors Andreoli and Forty opt to divide the book thematically, rather than chronologically, a move which provides fresh perspectives into this unique period in architectural history. Accompanied by gorgeous photographs and schematics from the period. (2007: Phaidon; ISBN 9780714848457)
$49.95
An extensive interview from Vice TV in which Neimeyer, age 101, recollects the Brasília project.
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
Temporary and portable architecture are fashionable subjects. However, such projects are most often considered simply as novelties associated either with recreation or with the outsider lifestyle. On the contrary, in the real world, temporary and portable architecture are most strongly associated with necessity, emergency or traditional cultural nomadism. The following two books take the less superficial view, offering a more practical perspective on the subject.
Camps: A Guide to 21st-Century Space
✍ 2009: Charley Hailey
Oddly compelling, Camps: A Guide to 21st Century Space takes an almost obsessive / compulsive approach to it’s subject. An expansion of Hailey’s doctoral dissertation, the guide provides a typology of camp forms, divided into three categories: Autonomy (protest camp, peace camp, etc.), Control (immigrant camp, concentration camp, etc.) and Necessity (refugee camp, homeless camp, mass shelter camp, etc.)
Although for many of us ‘camping’ involves a temporary living condition for self amusement, Haily looks beyond the Western leisure tradition, suggesting that “Camps register the struggles, emergencies, and possibilities of global existence as no other space does.” Of the more than 100 camp types examined, fewer than 20 involve recreation of any kind. Hailey demonstrates the gravity and potential of camps as indicators of the contemporary social climate and political landscape. (2009: MIT Press; ISBN 9780262512879)
Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises
✍ 2006: Cameron Sinclair, ed. & Kate Stohr, ed.
Architecture for Humanity is a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian design services to communities in need world-wide. Since 1999, they have been challenging architects and designers to build more sustainable and socially responsible projects and have collected hundreds of proposals from design professionals around the world. Design Like You Give a Damn present the first decade of such responses to a range of global humanitarian crises. Among many fascinating examples is paraSITE, a project by Michael Rakowitz that provides ‘urban nomads’ with shelter and warmth by attaching plastic tents to building heating and ventilation exhaust ducts. (2006: Metropolis Books; ISBN 1933045256)
Camps: A Guide to 21st-Century Space: $39.95
Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises: $39.95
paraSITE by Michael Rakowitz
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
With Doors Open Toronto 2009 just around the corner we here at Swipe and BUILT are more thankful than ever to be part of the extraordinary culture complex at 401 Richmond Street West. A prime destination during the festival, 401 is expecting several thousand visitors over the weekend of May 23rd and 24th. Accordingly, Swipe and Built will be open both days from 10 am to 6 pm.
In celebration of this celebration of our city’s cultural, social and architectural heritage, BUILT offers the following selection of recently published Torontoiana, beginning with a look at the history of local urban sprawl from one of the most sagacious figures in Toronto municipal affairs, ‘Mayor Blue Jeans’ himself, John Sewell.
The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl
✍ 2009: John Sewell
A meticulous and thoughtful account of how Toronto became ‘Greater’ Toronto, expanding on the author’s classic study The Shape of the City. When BUILT opened it’s doors for the first time last week a photo was needed for the 401 Richmond Street newsletter and it was (rightly) deemed unnewsletterworthy to simply shoot one of us behind the counter so, on the flimsy pretext of a book signing, former Mayor John Sewell was lured down to the shop where he graciously agreed to have his picture taken. After recounting a series of fascinating anecdotes, taken from the book, on the origin and purpose of Toronto’s expressway system, the economic and political history of infrastructure in the 905, and the unlikely connection between the QEW and Adolph Hitler, Mr Sewell was off on his bicycle and back to work (despite the fact that he has every right just to sit at home all day muttering “I told you so.” over and over). Hard to imagine that, back in the Seventies, riding a bike to Council meetings was an occasion for snide derision in the Toronto SUN and elsewhere. (2009: University of Toronto Press; ISBN 9780802095879)
$24.95
Toronto’s Visual Legacy: Official City Photography from 1856 to the Present
✍ 2009: Steve MacKinnon, Karen Teeple & Michelle Dale
This unexpectedly beautiful book, published in conjunction with the City of Toronto Archives to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the city’s incorporation, brings together a selection of official City of Toronto photographs chosen by City archivists from their collection of hundreds of thousands of images. Among our favourites, this 1913 scene at 21 Elizabeth Street with the perfect juxtaposition of poverty and power which, unfortunately, characterizes the area around City Hall to this day. (2009: Lorimer; ISBN 9781552774083)
$44.95
Art Deco Architecture in Toronto: A Guide to the City’s Buildings from the Roaring Twenties and the Depression
✍ 2009: Tim Morawetz
With a friendly and accessible writing sytle, Art Deco Architecture in Toronto combines the elegance and flair of a coffee-table book with the accurate, practical information and anecdotal background of a guidebook. This important new book will provide the lay-person, architectural historian or Art Deco aficionado with a meaning ful appreciation of this important architectural style as it manifested itself in Toronto.
Concrete Toronto acts as a guide to the city’s extensive inventory of significant concrete buldings and re-examines the unique value of the material and design idiom. Included are the insights of many of the original concrete architects along with a wealth of new and archival photos and drawings. (2007: Coach House Books; ISBN 1552451933)
Endangered Species
✍ 2007: John Martins-Manteiga, ed.
In partnership with The School of Design at George Brown College, Dominion Modern catalogues twenty-six formative examples of Canadian Modernist architecture threatened with demolition and seeks to engender a wider debate about the value of this aspect of Canadian design heritage. (2007: Dominion Modern; ISBN 9780968193327)
GreenTOpia: Towards a Sustainable Toronto
✍ 2007: Alana Wilcox, ed. with Christina Palassio & Jonny Dovercourt
In this third volume in the influential uTOpia series, green-minded Torontonians are invited to imagine a more environmentally responsible and humane city. Included is a directory with profiles of green organizations in the GTA, as well as a how-to guide and a fun-facts section. (2007: Coach House Books; ISBN 9781552451946)
Historical Atlas of Toronto
✍ 2008: Derek Hayes
In this new addition to the acclaimed series, geographer Hayes charts Toronto’s history with more than 200 period maps, providing a unique visual record of the city’s development. (2008: Douglas & Mcintyre Ltd; ISBN 9781553652908)
Recognized with a Heritage Toronto award in 2006, this lovely book combines 260 vintage images with extensive original research to document the rarely recorded places where Torontonians lived and worked at the turn of the last century. (2006: Cormorant Books; ISBN 189695195)
Mean City: From Architecture to Design: How Toronto Went Boom!
✍ 2007: John Martins-Manteiga
Mean City captures the spirit of an unparalleled boom period in Toronto architecture and industrial design when, from 1945 to 1975, young architects and designers attempted to defy convention in a most conventional city. The book also persuasively laments the indifference that has lead to the loss of so many great modernist buildings in Toronto. (2007: Key Porter Books; ISBN 1556239126)
This Guide Map is intended to encourage the public to explore modern architecture in the City of Toronto, cataloguing both well known buildings and those deserving of wider recognition. We are happy to report that he TSA is currently working on a new Guide Map on Open Spaces, which is scheduled to be completed later this year.
Unbuilt Toronto: A History of the City That Might Have Been
✍ 2008: Mark Osbaldeston
A tremendously engaging approach to the social history of architecture and urban planning, Unbuilt Toronto examines the aspirations of the city by looking at significant building projects that were never realized, from St. Alban’s Cathedral and Eaton’s magnificent College Street tower, to the Spadina Expressway and the Queen subway. The book inspired a very successful exhibition at the ROM last winter, which is currently being remounted at Urbanscape in the Junction. (2008: Dundurn Press; ISBN 1550028359)
Art Deco Architecture in Toronto: $39.95
Concrete Toronto: A Guide to Concrete Architecture from the 50s to the 70s: $29.95
Greentopia: Towards a Sustainable Toronto $24.95
Historical Atlas of Toronto: $49.95
Inside Toronto: Urban Interiors 1880s to 1920s: $59.95
Mean City: From Architecture to Design: How Toronto Went Boom!: $26.95
TSA Guide Map: Toronto Architecture 1953-2003: $7.95
Unbuilt Toronto: A History of the City That Might Have Been: $26.95
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
The rumours are true, Swipe has opened a second shop in a beautiful, high-profile suite on the ground floor of 401 Richmond Street West. BUILT, Books on Architecture is hoped, in the fullness of time, to fill the void left by the (really, really depressing) closure last year of the venerable Ballenford Books. For more than 30 years a succession of Susans served the community with a commitment and a level of expertise that we cannot hope to match, at least in the short term. In fact, so as not to make matters worse for our colleagues, Swipe avoided architecture as a subject area altogether for as long Ballenford was in business, with the result that we now feel embarrassingly ill-prepared and uninformed. So … um … help!
E-mail us and let us know what you need, want, or would just like to see at the new shop. Or drop by and see what’s here and what’s missing. We’re open Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm and we’ve even got windows! Please help us to make this your community bookstore.
Of the big three ecological challenges, garbage, land use, and carbon, garbage is perhaps the most tractable. But what with sorting, streaming, and less frequent collection, home waste management has, of late, become something of a chore. It has also become a bit ugly. Here we offer a selection of attractive garbage receptacles that, while they won’t solve the crisis, will help to make the solution more aesthetically pleasing.
Clothespin Trash Can
✍ 2007: Hung-Ming Chen
An exceedingly clever design, the flexible spars of this plywood garbage bin adjust to allow one to reuse almost any size bag, paper or plastic. Simple, effective, and economical: get the original now and be justifiably smug when Ikea™ knocks it off at twice the price!
Umbra has puts an eco-friendly spin on the 1997 Good Design Awards-winning Garbo trash can by Karim Rashid. Not only is the updated version made of 100% recycled plastic, it’s biodegradable and will likely break down in a landfill long before the garbage it once held.
Umbra Matte Blue Garbo (perfect for home office recycling): $12.95
Umbra Matte Green Garbino (makes a great bathroom organics bin): $7.95
Calypso Compost Bin
✍ 2008: Rosti Mepal in-house
From classic Dutch / Danish manufacturer Rosti, a compact and stylish lidded compost bin in stain-resistant, dishwasher-safe white melamine. At about 8″ in diameter, it is nicely proportioned for the typical downtown kitchen.
$19.95
And while we’re on the subject of:
Alphabet City 11: Trash
✍ 2006: John Knechtel
From the MIT Press, Trash is the eleventh edition of Toronto editor and culture martyr Jon Knechtel’s acclaimed multidisciplinary journal Alphabet City. In a visually arresting volume from undisputed Canadian book design champ, Gilbert Li, a series of high-profile writers, artists, and filmmakers investigate the proposition that we are what we throw away.
Alphabet City 11: Trash: $22.95
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
Las Vegas Studio: Images from the Archive of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown
✍ 1968 / 2009: Robert Venture & Denise Scott Brown with Hilar Stadler & Martino Stierli, Editors
While Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, Venturi’s 1966 manifesto challenging the austerity of Modernist orthodoxy, is undoubtedly his theoretical masterwork, it is Learning from Las Vegas: the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form written in 1972 with Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour that is most often read by architecture students today. The book summarizes studies of the Las Vegas Strip undertaken by Venturi and Scott Brown with students at the Yale School of Architecture in 1968. What the book failed to reproduce was the extensive photographic and filmed documentation of the Vegas Strip taken by the group as part of the study process. It is these seminal images, drawn for the Venturi / Scott Brown archives, that Las Vegas Studio makes available for the first time. This is a truly lovely little publication and a remarkable photographic record of Las Vegas in a formative period. (2009: University of Chicago Press; ISBN 9783858817174)
Las Vegas Studio: $62.95
Venturi / Scott Brown Study Group’s Las Vegas Helicopter footage 1968
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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.
Swipe Books is pleased to announce the opening of BUILT, a shop-within-a-shop at 401 Richmond Street West, at Spadina, a truly landmark building in the heart of Toronto's design district. BUILT Books on Architecture will offer the city's largest selection of books and journals on architecture and urban issues, from theoretical and technical reference works to beautiful monographs on today's leading local and international practices. BUILT is hoped, in the fullness of time, to fill the void left by the recent closure of the venerable Ballenford Books.
BUILT is open 11am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday.
Almost two years ago Swipe moved to 401 Richmond Street West, and now boasts a beautiful store with space enough for every graphic design and advertising book worthy of shelf space and a thoughtful selection of well-designed product. Canada's only advertising and design bookstore, Swipe Books is also the official bookstore of the RGD (Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario) and the ADCC (Advertising and Design Club of Canada).
