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Inaki Abalos "The Good Life": is this another 1st Edition Zumthor?
I can only find this book by the Harvard GSD Chair Inaki Abalos for unbelievable prices - used in good shape for over $300, new in perfect condition for $500.
This text is an essay on the relationship between ways of thinking, the rich seams of contemporary thought and the forms of the house, of planning and living in it. The descriptive method is based on seven guided visits to a group of real or imaginary houses that make up a sufficiently extended panorama for understanding what the 20th century has bequeathed to us in the way of a heritage. In order to choose the houses to visit it was necessary to narrow things down, simplify them, by highlighting a series of archetypes defined by their most pronounced features. The reader, then, won't find any of the masterworks built by modern architects -neither the Villa Savoye, nor Fallingwater, nor the Villa Tugendhat-but mostly imaginary houses, houses constructed by manipulating different references. In short, this book invites the reader on a fantasy tour, one whose aim is not just to celebrate the diversity of the 20th-century house but also to stimulate the pleasure of thinking, planning and living intensely, to promote the appearance of a house that does not yet exist.
What's the story on this book? It sounds great, I really want to read it (especially as I start on a design for my own house)....but these prices remind me of a 1st Edition Zumthor "Thinking Architecture". Goodness.
It does sound really interesting. I think the Spanish version is $33.
I am getting an idea.
Unfortunately I only have schoolgirl Espanol. Lack of tilde on <--that is proof.
I have some Hispanic relatives and they are always telling me about the beauty of the language. Not that I have a lot of free time, but I think I will use this as an opportunity to learn something new. It might also have me think more deeply about the content. I just hope it is more insightful than the Architecture of Happiness.
I picked this architecture book up for 20 bucks on some small bookshop website a couple years ago after it was the only volume my university architecture library didn't have and it was going for $300+ on amazon and I wanted to look at one of the projects in it. I should have grabbed some more volumes to have the full set too since the price of them is skyrocketing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1934510130/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
^ What was your opinion? Was it worth the read?
Isn't it possible that this is a couple architecture students throwing their book up at a ridiculous price on the off chance that it might be bought and help them pay down their loan debt?! I mean really, $1,000 for a used book from someone on the internet? i can understand if it's coming from Abe Books or similar.
Good observation. One 5 star rating with a short review does sound like something might be rotten in Denmark.
I thought some of the articles are interesting especially since I'm interested in architecture as an expanded domain... which is what the whole journal is about. Worth anything much over the original $20, nah. It comes from the Harvard New Geographies Lab, and so I assume it's a really limited print run and there are other older volumes priced around $500 to $3000.
Donna, you're probably right regarding price. JSTOR actually has a review of this item; however, you'll have to set up an account to read it, which is free. I only read the first page, having not logged in, but the review sounds favorable. Maybe you could Interlibrary Loan it? Worldcat indicates that it's not especially scarce. I'm surprised to see that my college has a copy of it, maybe I'll check it out.
Speaking of Zumthor books, I encountered a very unusual one about a month ago. It's the equivalent of a 43-page monograph covering the Poetic Landscape. The last 22 pages consist of a double-sided leporello.
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