10 books to give away. METALOCUS # Books

02. Sculptural species. Strandbeest. The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen.

¿Son las piezas de Jansen, una nueva forma de vida de pleno derecho? Con esta pregunta se presenta el nuevo libro de Taschen sobre la obra de este artista holandés. Una obra que ha dado la vuelta al mundo, y que ahora es motivo de una exposición itinerante. Un libro realizado con fotografías de Lena Herzog. Are the works by Jansen, a new life-form in its own right? With this question, the new Taschen book on the work of the Dutch artist is presented. A work that has gone around the world and now is part a traveling exhibition. A book made with photographs by Lena Herzog.

03. 400 MAGNUM images to discover PARIS

La Fábrica published "Paris, Magnum", a walk through Paris from 1932-2014 through snapshots taken by photographers of Magnum. A full volume with about 400 images that reflect the life of the city in all its forms: intellectual, artistic, architectural, leisured, without forgetting the everyday, house brand Magnum Photographers.

04. Lina Bo Bardi 100. Brazil’s Alternative Path to Modernism.

With her iconic architectural structures, furniture, exhibitions, and theories on architecture and design, Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi created an outstanding body of work which has garnered increasing attention in recent years. Raised and educated in Italy, she played an important role in the development of modern architecture in Brazil. She evolved an approach to design that was unique to her and which placed the social significance of construction and its cultural roots at the heart of the architectural endeavour.  By striving to create an ‘architettura povera’, Lina Bo Bardi can be seen as a forerunner to today’s emergent socially driven ‘architecture engagée’. One of her most important achievements was her ability to create buildings that were widely popular among the local public and which defied conventional classification.

05. 'Acerca de la ciudad', four texts by Rem Koolhaas together in one volume.

"the purpose of this book is to collect those intermediate texts that do not focus on any particular city and which appeared after and between studies about specific cities. Writings that summarize Koolhaas' analysis and ideas which, addressed from outside the discipline, explain the death of urbanism as it used to be understood."

06. Architecture and Cuisine. Together Apart.

In 2004, the American magazine 'Time' included Ferran Adria i Acosta on the list of the 100 most innovative people in the world. He has published several books and gives lectures around the world. On 17 December 2007 the University of Barcelona awarded him an honorary doctorate. He will continue his work in an even more experimental way at the creative centre El Bulli Foundation that opens its doors in 2014. For nearly twenty years now Hedwig Van Impe has shown consistent ways to support and collaborate with artists, curators and architects. At the end of the nineties he commissioned a building to his friend, the remarkable Italian designer and architect Ettore Sottsass. As a self-proclaimed anarchitect he is the author of La Dividida, his latest accomplishment.

07. Prefab Houses. The amazing story of the prefabricated house.

The amazing history of prefabricated houses started in England in the 1830’s with a building kit for emigrants moving to Australia. Even today, prefabricated houses provide a high percentage of living spaces in many countries of the world. This book covers prefabs from the USA via Europe to Asia and Africa, giving insight into the various industrially prefabricated components, the difficulties of delivery to the building site, and the intricacies of assembly and completion. As well as tracing the link between modernism and industrialization that evolved to produce the latest prefabricated solutions. The book includes technical details and drawings and contact details for relevant suppliers and manufacturers.

08. Ten years of temporary pavilions at the Serpentine.

I would like to highlight some of the pavilions for their exceptional character, all are bright, but without a doubt, the design by Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond mark a before and an after, combining wit and imagination above formalities. The proposal, by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen, is an outstanding contribution between architecture and art. And SANAA shows us the immateriality of nowhere, the reflexes, the "modern primitive" idea from Japanese culture is moved to West, and it is followed by others later.

09. "Mies" revisited.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is one of the twentieth century's most influential architects, —like so many architects a self-invented social climber, shape-shifter, and name changer— was an autodidact. Although he did a few years of Latin and arithmetic at church schools around Aachen, Germany, where he was born in 1886, his formal education was minimal. His rise from a family of stonemasons to a gentleman with the manner of a global aristocrat was largely a matter of apprenticeships.

10. PAULA BONET. What to do when THE END appears on the screen.

A book about the end, arriving without warning, it splits us into two halves, trailing for years and never finished because they confuse pride with memory. Paula Bonet gives the reader a picture accompanying each of her stories, more of her particular universe as known member and is appreciated by audiences and critics. The exhibition includes 15 pieces that you can admire its elegant style, a result of using watercolors and ink that give their figures a clear halo.