Bøger udgivet af Birkhauser Verlag AG

Accounting for approximately 10 % of the land mass of Planet Earth, the Antarctic is a Global Commons we collectively neglect. Far from being a pristine natural landscape, the continent is a contested territory which conceals resources that might prove irresistible in a world with ever increasing population growth. The 26 quadrillion tons of ice accumulated on its bedrock, equivalent to around 70 % of the fresh water on our planet, represent at once the most significant repository of scientific data available, providing crucial information for future environmental policies, and the greatest menace to global coastal settlements threatened by the rise in sea levels induced by anthropogenic global warming. ΓÇ£Antarctic ResolutionΓÇ¥ advocates the rejection of the pixelated view of Antarctica offered to us by Big Data companies and urges the construction of a high-resolution image focusing on the continentΓÇÖs unique geography, unparalleled scientific potential, contemporary geopolitical significance, experimental governance system, and extreme inhabitation model. Only the concerted determination of a transnational network of multidisciplinary polar experts ΓÇô represented here in the form of authored texts, photographic essays, and data-based visual portfolios ΓÇô could construct such an image and reveal the intricate web of growing economic and strategic interests, tensions, and international rivalries, which are enveloped in darkness, as is the continent for six months of the year.

Cities have always been places where commerce and production, working and living are physically and functionally integrated. Only with the rise of industry have zoning regulations been introduced to separate these functions in space. But what is the role of such regulations when industry is digitized, increasingly emission-free, and based on innovation more than mass production? How should working and living be combined, when mobility and energy consumption become more sustainable? And what are the opportunities in a volatile world, characterized by digital disruption, migration, and demographic shifts, to create urban areas based on social equity and resilience?Based on interrogative research at Harvard UniversityΓÇÖs Graduate School of Design (GSD) in the interdisciplinary urban design studio The Industrious City, the Zurich-based architecture studio Hosoya Schaefer presents this publication of the same name. Investigating ways in which production can be reintroduced to the city, this book explores how new synergies between production, services, leisure and living can be found in the context of the polycentric urban landscape of Switzerland ΓÇô all against the backdrop of fundamental shifts in how urban industry is shaping our social, political, spatial and economic futures.

Michel Desvigne is the most renowned French landscape architect in the world. Based in Paris, he has held guest professorships at such distinguished institutions as the Architectural Association in London and Harvard University. DesvigneΓÇÖs projects have a strong strategic and conceptual component. Urban infrastructure projects play a major role, and emphasize the urban planning and design expertise evident in his landscape architecture. The book documents ten of DevigneΓÇÖs major projects from France, the US, Spain and Qatar, in which he is responsible not only for the landscape architecture, but for coordination of the entire project. How can such highly complex projects be realized? What does the intellectual thought process look like? What specific problems arise in their realization?

Gio Ponti (Mailand 1891-1979) war eine Schlüsselfigur des italienischen Modernismus; es ist unmöglich, sein Vermächtnis auf ein einzelnes kreatives Feld zu beschränken. Von 1923 bis 1930 war Ponti künstlerischer Leiter des heute legendären italienischen Geschirrherstellers Richard Ginori. 1928 gründete er die international renommierte Zeitschrift «Domus», die er - abgesehen von einer Unterbrechung in den 1940er Jahren - für den Rest seines Lebens leitete. In der Nachkriegszeit prägte Ponti gemeinsam mit seinen Mitarbeitern Antonio Fornaroli und Albert Rosselli das architektonische Bild von Mailand, sie waren aber auch weltweit tätig, von Caracas über Teheran und Denver bis nach Islamabad und Eindhoven. Dieses Buch befasst sich mit den vielen Komponenten von Pontis Wirken im 20. Jahrhundert und verfolgt seinen anhaltenden Einfluss in Italien und auf der ganzen Welt.

This textbook provides an elementary introduction to hypergeometric functions, which generalize the usual elementary functions. It includes plenty of solved exercises and it is appropriate for a wide audience, starting from undergraduate students in mathematics, physics and engineering. Since the presented functions are limited to hypergeometric functions of a real variable, the only prerequisites are the basics of real analysis.

This book introduces several powerful techniques and fundamental ideas involving block matrices of operators, as well as matrices with elements in a C*-algebra. These techniques allow for the solution of problems that may be difficult to treat. Specifically, 2×2 operator matrices yield significant mathematical inequalities in various fields of operator theory and matrix analysis. The authors employ block matrices to simplify complicated problems. Operator matrices have garnered attention for their applications in quantum information and computing theories.Each chapter concludes with a diverse set of exercises and problems for readers, along with references to relevant literature. Some problems pose open questions, while others challenge readers and provide suggestions for future research. This book is suitable for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course and can be used in the classroom. It also serves as a valuable resource for researchers and students in mathematics and physics who have a basic understanding of linear algebra, functional analysis, and operator theory.

The Doldertal, a small valley in the north of the city of Zurich, is best known in the history of architecture as the residence of Swiss architectural theorist Sigfried Giedion, whose book "Space, Time and Architecture" (1941) is considered a landmark in the historiography of modernity. In 1936, Giedion commissions two houses designed by Alfred Roth and Marcel Breuer - known as the Doldertal Apartment Houses - which to this day remain among the most important works of Neues Bauen in Switzerland. In 1959, the architect couple Flora Steiger-Crawford and Ruedi Steiger build their own homestead in the Doldertal - in immediate proximity to the Doldertal Apartment Houses. Crawford and Steiger are important representatives of the Swiss avant-garde; moreover, Flora Crawford is the first woman to receive a diploma in architecture from ETH Zurich. That same year, Alfred Roth designs another building, the Fellowhouse, right next to House Steiger. "House Steiger 1959: Flora Steiger-Crawford and Rudolf Steiger" for the first time offers an in-depth look at the genesis of this masterpiece of modern Swiss architecture. Detailed analyses illustrate the central layout and outline the chronology, typology and construction of the building. Further contributions illuminate the relationship to local typography, the cultural context of the building, as well as important historical and contemporary architectural references, including House Steiger's famous neighbors.

In the history of graphic design, the film poster has repeatedly exemplified graphic innovation. The first constructivist posters by the Stenberg brothers challenged viewing habits in the late 1920s, as did the radical, succinct film advertisements by Jan Tschichold. The Polish school of poster art, with exponents such as Henryk Tomaszewski and Roman Cieslewicz, produced iconic film posters in the postwar era, and Cuban designers, including Antonio Reboiro and Ñiko, followed suit after 1959. Simultaneously, in the former Czechoslovakia, the likes of Milan Grygar, Karel Vaca and Josef Vylet'al helped the film poster gain international recognition. In all three countries, the lack of economic pressure allowed such creative power to flourish. In Germany, film distributors such as Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner or Atlas-Film prompted a new aesthetic by commissioning Hans Hillmann or Dorothea Fischer-Nosbisch.The works presented in this publication illustrate an alternative to the Hollywood film poster with its canonical motifs and pompous spectacle. The unorthodox visual language of these "other" film posters largely dispenses with star portraits and film stills. Subtly poetic, and often ambiguous, films are interpreted individually, the visual material is creatively defamiliarized and the content consolidated into symbols. Up to this day, individual designers continue to celebrate the film poster as an autonomous artistic medium.

As humanity grapples with the escalating challenges of climate change, the discipline of architecture finds itself at a critical juncture. The urgency of the situation demands that schools of architecture not only contribute to envisioning more serene futures but also equip the next generation of architects with the audacity to question, project, criticize, explore and imagine alternative solutions.Architectural research is in re/action to this climate crisis. "Transcalar Prospects in Climate Crisis" offers a vital compilation of research projects and essays reflecting the investigative efforts at EPFL Architecture. Addressing critical issues like material uses, land and soil degradation, environmental justice and circular urban flows, the book brings together diverse, entangled perspectives and transcalar vantage points. It navigates complex factors such as comfort, standards, profit and individual needs, across a wide ecological spectrum. The book is a must-read for architects, urban planners, designers, scholars, and anyone seeking knowledge and inspiration for climate action, urging a conscious and critical, transcalar response to one of the most pressing issues of our time.

«Across Ground» umfasst zwei neue Bücher des in der Schweiz geborenen und in San Francisco ansässigen Fotografen Lukas Felzmann. Seit beinahe dreissig Jahren kreiert er poetische Bilder, die den Schnittpunkt von Natur und Kultur in den Landschaften Kaliforniens erkunden. Die beiden Bände, die zwischen 2017 und 2024 entstanden sind, nehmen uns mit auf eine anspielungsreiche Reise durch die 58 Countys des «Golden State» und enthüllen dabei scheinbare Grenzbereiche zwischen Städten, Nationalparks und Wahrzeichen. Mit einer grossformatigen Fachkamera folgt Felzmann den Grenzen des Kontinents bis an den Rand von Kleinstädten und schafft so einen konzeptuellen Atlas des kalifornischen Hinterlandes.In «Across» durchstreift Felzmann frei das Gebiet und sammelt dabei Spuren von menschlicher Aktivität in der Natur, von Gebirgsausläufern bis zu gefällten Zypressen, in Fenstern und in Spiegelungen, quer durch Auen und Bildebenen. «Across» ist nicht nur eine Reise durch das Land, sondern auch durch die Zeit und den fotografischen Prozess. Felzmann behandelt die Fotografie wie eine bildhauerische Tätigkeit, eingebettet in ihre physische Platzierung und in die ultimative Verdichtung des Raums. In «Ground» erscheint diese Verdichtung von Raum wie eine Reihe von Reliefskulpturen: einfarbige Aufzeichnungen von topografischen Details, die vor Schönheit strotzen. Begleitet werden die horizontlosen Porträtbilder von poetischen, geologischen Betrachtungen des pulitzerpreisgekrönten Dichters Forrest Gander. Sie laden die Leser:innen dazu ein, sich im Hier und Jetzt zu vertiefen, ohne jegliches Versprechen auf ein endgültiges Reiseziel.

The Delos Symposia, which ran from 1963 to 1975, were a groundbreaking series of events dedicated to rethinking and reshaping the built environment to solve the planet's environmental and demographic problems. Choreographed around the charismatic Greek architect-planner Constantinos Doxiadis, and generating an entirely new "science of human settlements" called "Ekistics," this ambitious endeavour was run according to ancient Greek practices of the "sympósion", with banquets, dancing and fancy dress parties taking place aboard cruise ships in the Aegean Sea. Each symposium concluded at the island-city of Delos, where influential figures as diverse as Margaret Mead, Arnold Toynbee, Siegfried Giedion, Buckminster Fuller, Barbara Ward, Jean Gottmann, Kenzo Tange, Jaqueline Tyrwhitt and Marshall McLuhan would formally proceed to the ancient amphitheater and participate in ceremonial declarations on world issues."The Delos Symposia and Doxiadis" offers the first comprehensive appraisal of the history and legacy of the Delos Symposia not only as a global humanitarian network, but also as an intellectual theater and publicity machine. It explores their ideals, commitments and fights, the way they fed into the colossal urban planning projects that Doxiadis was implementing across the world, and the lessons they might offer for contemporary thinking on sustainable development.

Kenya Hara inspires the world with his impeccable design - from the subtle atmospheres and environments he creates as the art director of Muji, to his ethereal exhibition designs, to his simple everyday objects, packaging and books. His design aesthetic can be traced back to a private practice: the diligent drafting of ideas and forms in delicate sketches and drawings which ultimately develop into convincing solutions.For the first time in his career, Kenya Hara gives insight into the captivating early stages of his design process. Ranging from tentatively sketched beginnings to confident designs of complex concepts, "Draw" immerses readers in the renowned designer's forty-year-long process of sketching and drawing by hand, leaving no doubt about the origins of his authentic designs. Set to inspire the next generation of creatives, the book can be read as a gentle, persuasive call for the return to analogue processes in the design cycle.

Seit über einem Jahrzehnt entwirft das in Brooklyn ansässige Architekturbüro SO-IL Häuser, Wohnungen und andere Projekte, die sich zwischen und neben privaten Wohnräumen bewegen. SO-IL nähert sich diesen Orten mit grosser Experimentierfreude und überdenkt somit den heutigen Zustand des Wohnraumdesigns, der oftmals durch wirtschaftliche Bedingungen unter Druck gesetzt wird. In diesem Buch rücken die Versuche des Architekturbüros, diese Codes, Kerne, Höfe und Korridore zu «hacken» in den Mittelpunkt. «In Depth» untersucht anhand So-Ils jüngster Projekte, wie Wohnungen das Wohlbefinden ihrer Bewohner:innen fördern können, präsentiert neue Typologien für unsere immer stärker urbanisierte Welt und richtet sich damit zugleich an Studierende und Fachleute.

Diese Publikation dokumentiert eine Reihe von ambitionierten, gross angelegten Projekten, die Christian Moeller zwischen 2004 und 2023 im öffentlichen Raum erzeugt hat. Während dieser Zeit durchlief die Praxis des Künstlers eine beträchtliche Neuausrichtung. Indem er auf seine frühere Selbstbezeichnung als «Medienarchitekt» verzichtete, begann Moeller den Stellenwert der Informationstechnologie in seinem Werk zu senken und fing stattdessen an, die malerischen und bildhauerischen Aspekte davon zu betonen. Die Werke in diesem Band beruhen auf der scharfen Beobachtung von gesellschaftlichen Prozessen, oft mit ihrer spielerischen Zerstörung als Ziel. Sie fügen sich in ihre Umgebung ein und heben sich zugleich davon ab und bieten der Öffentlichkeit somit eine willkommene Abwechslung vom Arbeitsalltag. «Open Encounters» gibt einen umfassenden, grosszügig illustrierten Überblick über eine hochproduktive Phase von Moellers Tätigkeit. Das Buch beinhaltet einen karriereumspannenden Essay und laufende Kommentare zu einzelnen Werken von Jan Tumlir sowie Texte von Harriet F. Senie, Cath Brunner, Tim Griffin und Christian Moeller selbst.