Cover of Architektur im Buch. Photograph: courtesy of Thelem Verlag

Architektur im Buch
Burcu Dogramaci and Simone Förster, editors
Dresden: Thelem, 2010, 268 pp., ill., € 28.40
ISBN 978-3-942411-02-8

This publication results from a conference with the same title held in connection with the ‘Architektursommer’ at the Warburg-Haus in Hamburg in June 2009. The two conveners of the symposium, Burcu Dogramaci and Simone Förster, were motivated by the insight that research on architectural publications so far was either undertaken in a positivistic approach towards the product of the book itself, or mainly discussed topics of editorship and bibliophile arguments. Hence, they invited fourteen speakers, scholars for the most part, to address this deficiency and contribute to the historical and theoretical discussion about the formation processes of architectural publications, the circumstances of their production, as well as their influence and reception. Parts of the outcome of this colloquium are to be found, besides several additional papers including one by each editor, in a publication of interest for every historian of architecture.

The book features seventeen essays in total. It is opened by a—too—short introduction of a mere three pages including an exiguous historical abstract about the publishing of architecture in books from the Holy Bible to recent publications. The essays follow a chronological thread and focus mainly on the twentieth century. Eva Maria Froschauer gives a general survey of German architectural magazines from the end of the eighteenth century until the First World War; Robert Hodonyi continues in laying out the presence of Adolf Loos’ practical and theoretical work in the Berlin-based magazine Der Sturm; Helen Barr investigates the monographic work Neues Wohnen – Neues Bauen (1927/30) by Adolf Behne; and one of the editors, Burcu Dogramaci, contributes observations on the monographic publication Neues Altona (1929). Joaquín Medina Warmburg reflects on a more theoretical level on architectural poetics in modern architecture by expanding his view to the second half of the twentieth century. Matthias Noell studies a certain type of books on architecture, namely publications on single houses (1784–2008). Simone Förster looks at the special case of books on Erich Mendelsohn written by himself (1919–32), while Roland Jaeger focuses on ‘unbuilt books’ (1913–2008), which are, in his understanding, publications that were conceived but never carried out. Jörg Schilling addresses a monographic publication from 1931 on the headquarters building of the DHV organization in Hamburg (Haus des Deutschnationalen Handlungsgehilfen-Verband, built in 1903–04), and the inquiry undertaken by Anke Blümm covers the same period by looking at polemical reports of the magazine Deutsche Bauhütte (1927–33) against the Neues Bauen movement. Maike Steinkamp examines the illustrated book on architecture of the Third Reich by Gerdy Troost, the widow of Hitler’s favorite architect Paul Troost (1938). Michael Ponstingl analyzes the photo book Perle Wien (1947) that documents the status quo of Vienna in post-Second World War times, and Barbara Lauterbach and Bernd Rodrian discuss the photo book on Wolfsburg by Heinrich Heidersberger (1963). Hans Dickel, in contrast, gives a survey of artists’ books featuring solely architectural imagery. Henry Keazor recalls the invented story by Jean Nouvel about his INIST building near Nancy, Caroline Vogel writes about architectural publications from a book designer’s point of view, and Hans Oldewarris closes the volume with his reflections on the issue from a publisher’s perspective.

This publication can be seen as a corridor opening up to seventeen different chambers, some smaller, some larger. Each chamber is worthwhile entering to learn (more) about each single case and to study the different circumstances of the evolution, the conception, and the realization of books on architecture. Understandably, in a volume with so many essays of such heterogeneous content, inevitably some are more comprehensive, others more in-depth. With such a range of papers it is essential to frame the project theoretically as well as to mention important historical episodes without leaving out or generalizing significant historical facts. As it is, one would wish for a more substantial introduction, which could help the reader to accept the fragmentary and kaleidoscopic nature of the volume as a whole. Looking at the articles, one finds that the editors have renounced their original purpose, as the publication represents nothing less than one of the criticized approaches, namely the positivistic research of books on architecture. Moreover, the volume’s title is too general for these rather specialized essays. The book focuses mainly on German issues, leaving space for only a few international tendencies and case studies, and the articles concentrate on issues within the twentieth century, in particular the topic of photography in books on architecture (an issue already revealed in the introduction of the book).

The illustrated cover of the paperback addresses the prospective reader through iconic representations of opened books, magazines, and book covers. The choice of the illustrations in the book, all of them in black and white, is traceable and their quality is high (except for one, which was reproduced incorrectly). If the editors had put as much effort into a more homogeneous content as they have respected gender aspects in selecting their authors, the volume would have been even more interesting.

Harald R. Stühlinger
ETH Zürich
Switzerland