swirling around

continued blogging about new book coming out:
i've had the pleasure of seeing some of azby brown's other books while flipping pages over in the dusty arch sections of barnes&noble. he has a great perspective for small space living. intriguing ideas that are innovative not just in the design but with the simple use of light. refreshing throw backs to an older era that is presented to the client in a non-intrusive modern view. these types of architects are a continued breath of fresh air in an industry full of big, bold, expensive & lavish homes.

which kind of struck a nerve when thinking about this blog entry.
for example: recently we (ye & i) have been rather disappointed in the new route that dwell mag has taken. at first we thought it was a great resource to look for ideas & see how others are using the concepts of space. it's a bummer to see something that started out so creative now morph towards a more mainstream audience of upper $white$collar$ style & design. even though this years dwell contest is a "green" contest, or the fact they put a hybrid car on the cover of this past issue. it doesn't take back the promotion of ridiculous 3 thousand dollar coffee tables & pile of crappy landrovers/hummers ads splattered on the centerfolds. which by the way i'm not saying you can't own a hummer or suv. but it is harder to digest a mag like this who is promoting both avenues or resourceful sustainability & expensive excessive consumerism. talk about putting yourself in the middle. even the cost per square footage of its previewed homes has eclipsed the 200-300 bucks a square foot. which in irony the mag when it started was a little more around the range of 100-200 bucks a square foot. a sure sign of using an intial target auidence to gain market foothold & then switching to the bigger cash cow for longer term stability. what's next?....a few prada ads to give the mag a vapid success starved look?

sorry for the rant, in retrospect it looks like i'm just crying. but hey, i've checked around & its not just me that feels this way. "Dwell Magazine: A Slow Commercialised Descent? Has it stoped being a "Nice Modernist?"

back to the point at hand, here is a little bit more on the 2 authors mentioned above:
AZBY BROWN was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He studied architecture and sculpture at Yale College, graduating in 1980. In 1985, he received a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education to do research at the Department of Architecture of the University of Tokyo, where he received a master's degree. He is the author of The Genius of Japanese Carpentry, Small Spaces, and The Japanese Dream House. He became an associate professor of architectural design at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology in 1995, where he has also accepted a position in the Department of Media Informatics. In 2003, he opened the Future Design institute in Tokyo, and currently serves as director. Brown lives in Yokohama with his wife and son.

KENGO KUMA is an award-winning architect based in Tokyo. He is the recipient of a number of honors, including the top prize in the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) DuPont Benedictus Award for his Water/Glass Villa, a Boston AIA award for Unbuilt Architecture Design, and four grand prizes from competitions in his native Japan. European recognition includes Italian and Finnish awards. His buildings have been documented in several monographs, including Kengo Kuma: Selected Works.