10 Books on Design (+ Independent Bookstores to Buy Them From)

Here is a new take on last year’s Top 10 Gift Guide - Designer Edition, focusing our attention exclusively on books related to the built environment, architecture, graphic and urban design. Some of these titles have been the subject of our previous musings, which are linked in the descriptions below, and some are new titles for us to share. All have provided inspiration, education, new perspectives and sometimes a welcomed escape. Of course, these are best purchased from your local independent book store; if they are not already on the shelves, they can order for you! Some of our local favorites include Turning Page Bookshop in Goose Creek, Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston, The Village Bookseller in Mount Pleasant and the Itinerant Literate Bookstop in North Charleston. Add your favorite independent bookseller in the comments.

Vignelli Transit Maps

Peter B. Lloyd with Mark Ovenden

This book chronicles the Italian designer Massimo Vignelli, respectfully called the Maestro, as he pushed the world of graphic design by reimagining the transit maps of New York City and Washington DC and forcing the question ‘Can a diagram be a map?’ (Spoiler alert: yes, it can). His designs were not always embraced by all as evidenced in the Great Subway Map Debate in New York City, but always provided a thoughtful, rigorous, innovative and modern approach. This book is for those who enjoy the behind the scenes sketches and iterations of the design process and how Vignelli navigated the very public process of iconic way finding.

Lake|Flato: Nature place craft restraint

Lake Flato Architects

We have long been fans of the regional and poignant architecture of the Lake Flato team based in Austin and San Antonio, Texas; somehow the architects create epic yet humble spaces again and again at every scale and in a range of building types. This book hones in on four priorities or aspects of their design language (nature, place, craft and restraint) by presenting several of their buildings/spaces in each category. When we were in San Antonio earlier this year we stumbled upon The Pearl and knew immediately this was a gathering place that was created with a high level of creativity, commitment to history and urban place-making. Lake Flato’s work “calls attention not to itself, but to other, more pertinent aspects of the human experience.” (Kengo Kuma)

The Home Edit

Clea Shearer + Joanna Teplin

We are big fans of creating order out of chaos. Ashton Kutcher recently shared in Architectural Digest, “To feel tranquility in a space, everything needs to be in order. If the world around you isn’t in order, it’s hard to get your brain in order.” The Home Edit is a room-by-room, how-to guide to edit, organize, display/store and enjoy your possessions. It can be a little overwhelming (and extra), but if you feed off of your built environment like we do, there are definitely some strategies here that you can make your own.

30A Living

Eleanor Lynn Nesmith

If you follow our travels you have seen images from Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach and Seaside, Florida - all coastal towns along Highway 30A. From town planning principles from the creative minds of Andres Duany + Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk to the architectural fabric and details created, we find inspiration again and again. This book is a curated view and escape into nine different communities with Jean Allsopp’s photos of exterior architecture, interior design and gulf views.

CHARLESTON FANCY

Witold Rybczynski

We are a little late to the party of Witold Rybczynski’s “Charleston Fancy - Little Houses + Big Dreams in the Holy City” published in 2019 by Yale University Press, but we are here now. Rybczyncki, the celebrated architect, professor and author captures a compelling movement in Charleston metro’s built environment, urban planning and architecture world. This book shares layers of historic renovations, lessons from medieval town planning and new urbanism through interviews with local master builders, developers and designers on the reverent and humane places they have created.

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

New homes for today

Paul Williams

Continuing our study of the noteworthy African-American architect, Paul R. Williams (1894 - 1980), we have been pouring over his book published in 1946, “New Homes for Today.” The plan book is light on words and heavy on images which is just how us visual learners like it. While Mr. Williams had a wide multi-faceted career based in Los Angeles, including the design of public buildings, working for the Navy and designing over 2,000 homes (even that of Frank Sinatra!), this book focuses on smaller homes, perhaps for the middle class. The structure of the book itself allows just two pages for each house design and includes the description, floor plan and classic-now-vintage perspective renderings. Home names like “The Flamingo” and “The Country Gentleman” start to paint a picture of each home’s character.

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

rural studio: Samuel mockbee + an architecture of decency

Andrea Oppenheimer Dean + Timothy Hursley

This book chronicles the genesis and early years of Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction’s “Rural Studio”, a design-build architecture studio located off-campus in rural Alabama. The studio educates what founder, Samuel Mockbee, calls “citizen architects” through feet-on-the-ground researching, community immersion, collaborative design and hands-on construction in Hale County’s ‘pockets of poverty.’ What started as a new house per year has grown into chapels, community buildings and structures for much needed economic development. Paramount lessons beyond design and construction are those in human decency, class and racial differences and how both client and student are equally helping one another.

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

the new old house

Marc Kristal

Practicing architecture in the history-rich Charleston metro area often has us thinking about how new buildings or additions should interact with historic ones - the coexistence of present and past. Marc Kristal tackles the dialogue in his book, “The New Old House” with eighteen built examples of homes that combine historic and modern architecture. This discussion becomes one of preservation (sometimes with a flexible approach), function, aesthetics, respect and sustainability.

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

fire island modernist: Horace Gifford + the architecture of secuction

Christopher Bascom Rawlins

Architect Christopher Rawlins crafts this comprehensive look at the often overlooked architect Horace Gifford (1932 - 1992), his approach to design, portfolio of seaside pavilions and houses with in the broader context of personal challenges, social and cultural movements. “As the 1960s became The Sixties, architect Horace Gifford executed a remarkable series of beach houses that transformed the terrain and culture of New York's Fire Island. Growing up on the beaches of Florida, Gifford forged a deep connection with coastal landscapes. Pairing this sensitivity with jazzy improvisations on modernist themes, he perfected a sustainable modernism in cedar and glass that was as attuned to natural landscapes as to our animal natures. Gifford's serene 1960s pavilions provided refuge from a hostile world, while his exuberant post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS masterpieces orchestrated bacchanals of liberation.” Rawlins

Click here for our Musings Blog for a more in-depth description.

LIVING WITH PATTERN: COLOR, TEXTURE, AND PRINT AT HOME

Rebecca Atwood

As lovers of solids (usually black or grey if we are being honest) we recognize that working with color and pattern can be our blindspot. Who better to learn from than Rebecca Atwood, artist, textile designer and a recent addition to the Charleston creative space (lucky us), with her book “Living with Pattern: Color, Texture, and Print at Home.” This beautiful reference, including photographs by Emily Johnston, is organized in three main parts in addition to resources and sourcing lists. First is a design and reference ‘primer’ allowing the reader to hone their personal point of view; second is a room-by-room guide with real life examples of inspired spaces; the third section includes projects for the reader to begin their own journey. In her words, “We are all filled with contradictions, and that’s what makes life interesting. Pattern can reflect your particular oppositions, interests, aspirations, and views of the world.”

Another Way to Frame a View

We aren’t pack rats at all so to have saved a piece of paper from architecture school from a couple of decades ago, not to mention several moves and home renovations, is noteworthy. (The source is unknown so if anyone has more information, please leave a note in the comments.) The topic of this particular lecture was about framing views; through the telling of two separate stories the concept of restraint was illuminated. In the first story, we learn the concept of not over-saturating a view thus keeping it ‘alive’. In the second story, the view is actually made part of a tea ceremony ritual. Admittedly it is nearly impossible not to leverage beautiful views with large expanses of glass, yet these lessons challenge us to think alternatively about creating moments that somehow bring reverence to experiencing a view. Since the original hand-out is hard to read, the two stories are excerpted below.

“A Buddhist monk lived high in the mountains, in a small stone house. Far, far in the distance was the ocean, visible and beautiful from the mountains. But it was not visible from the monk’s house itself, nor from the approach road to the house. However, in front of the house there stood a courtyard surrounded by a thick stone wall. As one came to the house, one passed through a gate into this court, and then diagonally across the court to the front door of the house. On the far side of the courtyard there was a slit in the wall, narrow and diagonal, cut through the thickness of the wall. As a person walked across the court, at one spot, where their position lined up with the slit in the wall, for an instant, they could see the ocean. And then they were past it once again, and went into the house.

What is it that happens in this courtyard? The view of the distant sea is so restrained that it stays alive forever. Who, that has ever seen that view, can ever forget it? Its power will never fade. Even for the person who lives there, coming past that view day after day for fifty years, it will still be alive.

This is the essence of the problem with any view. It is a beautiful thing. One wants to enjoy it and drink it in every day. But the more open it is, the more obvious, the more it shouts, the sooner it will fade. Gradually it will become part of the building, like the wallpaper; and the intensity of its beauty will no longer be accessible to the people who live there.”

“When the tea room and garden were completed, they invited a few friends to a tea ceremony for the housewarming. Knowing the host’s greatness, the guest naturally expected to find some ingenious design for the garden which would make the best use of the sea, the house being on the slope of a hill. But when they arrived they were amazed to find that a number of large evergreen trees had been planted on the side of the garden, evidently to obstruct the view of the sea. They were at a loss to understand the meaning of this. Later when the time came for the guest to enter the tea room, they proceeded one by one over the stepping stones in the garden to the stone water basin to rinse their mouths and wash their hands, a gesture of symbolic cleansings, physically and mentally, before entering the tea room. Then it was found that when a guest stooped to scoop out a dipperful of water from the water basin, only in that humble posture were they suddenly able to get a glimpse of the shimmering sea in the distance by way of an opening through the trees, thus making them realize the relationship between the dipperful of water in hand and the great ocean beyond, also enabling them to recognize their own position in the universe.”

Bookshelf: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

Published in 2007 by The MIT Press, Matthew Frederick’s book “101 Things I Learned in Architecture School” is part scrapbook, part greatest hits and part conscience. With it’s thick chipboard cover (if you know, you know) he succinctly captures the concepts, skills and practices that were first introduced in architecture school but I would guess, most of us continue to revisit, explore and hone. Although a few personal favorites didn’t seem to make the cut (Virginia Tech is #1 ‘Let’s Go Hokies’, coffee and your studio mates are the glue that hold everything together, and turn the music up to get through a creative block), some favorites are highlighted below:

#48

IF YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN YOUR IDEAS TO YOUR GRANDMOTHER IN TERMS SHE UNDERSTANDS, YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR SUBJECT WELL ENOUGH.

This is a great place to start. The way to communicate the design / idea is almost as important as the design itself. Clients may or may not be able to read drawings to translate what is drawn into what the final product will look like. It is our job to convey the idea, thought process and resulting design.

[Rosa Maragioglio 1896 - 1967]

#39

A STATIC COMPOSITION APPEARS TO BE AT REST.

“Static compositions are usually symmetrical. At their most successful, they suggest power, firmness, conviction, certainty, authority and permanence.”

[Nexton Del Web entry structures by RDA. Photo Tripp Smith]

#7

FIGURE-GROUND THEORY STATES THAT THE SPACE THAT RESULTS FROM PLACING FIGURES SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS CAREFULLY AS THE FIGURES THEMSELVES.

A favorite past-time is studying aerial maps (check out Rome, Savannah, GA, even college campuses) and urban planning where you can really see this in play. Some of our favorite buildings are not the buildings but the spaces they create.

[Image from book, Matthew Frederick]

#40

A DYNAMIC COMPOSITION ENCOURAGES THE EYE TO EXPLORE.

“Dynamic compositions are almost always assymetrical. They can suggest activity, excitement, fun, movement, agression and conflict.”

[Avian Pavilion at Camp Hall by RDA]

#86

MANAGE YOUR EGO.

“Forget about what you want the building to be; instead ask, ‘What does the building want to be?’ A design problem has to be addressed on its own terms: the needs of the client, the nature of the site, the realities of the building program..”

[Dr. Anderson of Holy City Orthodontics brought her strong brand and vision to RDA. Photo: Ridge Media]

Avian Pavilion at Camp Hall Village

Santee Cooper’s Camp Hall is a next generation commerce park where “people, nature and productivity connect.” With state-of-the-art manufacturing in a setting of vast natural beauty, the design concept of “Nature and the Machine” permeates the built environment. Like the vehicles and machines produced in Camp Hall, the architecture is intended to embody precision, sleekness and innovation. With bird protection and awareness as a major focus for Camp Hall, the architecture likewise found its inspiration. The building forms are abstract interpretations of the patterns, colors, and figures found in native species. The “Avian Pavilion” hovers over the lake greeting visitors with outspread wings, encouraging visitors to take refuge from the sun, birdwatch, and learn more about Camp Hall’s mission.

This month we are finalizing the detailing and engineering discipline coordination to bring this vision to life. Special thanks to our talented collaborators:

Structural Engineering: ADC Engineering Consultants

Electrical Engineering: DWG Engineering

Civil / Landscape Architecture: Seamon Whiteside

General Contractor: Choate Construction

Exploded axonometric of the Camp Hall Village’s Avian Pavilion

Studies for RGBW lighting options

Conceptual site layout of the Avian Pavilion access centered on future Training Centers for Camp Hall Village

Details of Rome

We fully recognize that as architects we are not normal tourists; we look up, we look down, we try to figure out floor plans, we look at the tiny details and run our hands over walls. It’s a little extra but this is how we learn. Therefore most of our travel photos are not of the typical framed postcard views, rather small moments that catch our breath and tell a story. Here are some details from our pre-pandemic trip to Rome.

We weren’t the first to look through the Aventine keyhole (see photo above for a close up) near S. Sabina which gives a perfectly framed view of St. Peter’s Basilica on axis, through the gardens. Read more about it here.

We've Moved!

We are excited to announce that Rush Dixon Architects has moved to 4491 Summey Street in North Charleston. It has long been a dream of ours to own our studio space and we recently purchased one of the original buildings (and our favorite!) in North Charleston’s Mixson neighborhood near Park Circle. Rush Dixon Architects will occupy the ground level of the building starting June 14, 2021.

Click HERE to find out our favorite things about North Charleston!

Click HERE to read more about the Mixson neighborhood.

Progress photo during renovation; stay tuned for final photos.

Coastal Fertility Specialists - Nexton's Newest Addition

South Carolina’s premier fertility center, Coastal Fertility Specialists, has opened their newest facility in the Nexton neighborhood to better serve patients in the Summerville area. As experienced experts with high pregnancy rates and national patient satisfaction awards, Coastal Fertility Specialists wanted a forward-thinking, modern design to align with their practice. This was achieved with the use of edited forms, clean lines, and a material palette including Nichiha siding, steel, glass and brick.

Construction: Harbor Contracting

Photos: Chris Smith

Firefly Distillery Wins National Architectural Woodwork Institute Award of Excellence

Thanks to the Architectural Woodwork Institute for recognizing the Firefly Distillery’s interior woodwork design and execution with a 2021 Award of Excellence. The purpose of AWI’s award is to “honor the Architect for design of product, the Owner’s support of the design concept and the Architectural Woodwork Manufacturer for the faithful execution of the design and quality criteria.” Firefly’s new facility certainly had this hat trick of criteria but with a side of craftsmanship, clear communication and trust among all parties; basically, an architect’s dream. The project was featured in the spring issue of AWI’s Design Solutions magazine which can be found here. Thanks to the teams at Lowcountry Case + Millwork and Trident Construction and to our client, Firefly Distillery, for trusting us with your brand and new facility design.

“We wanted to have a rustic feel to stay true to the authentic nature of our brand. Our architect spent a lot of inspirational time at the distillery and brought us many samples of wood from which to choose.”

Jay MacMurphy, General Manager, Firefly Distillery

“We have a great, long-standing relationship with Rush Dixon Architects. Over the years, we have worked on many projects together throughout the Charleston area. We have developed an excellent relationship of collaboration and trust. It was very refreshing to have such openness and flexibility from the architect, general contractor and the Owner on this project.”

David Stasiukaitus, CEO, Low Country Case + Millwork

“Low Country Case + Millwork proved, once again, to be master craftsmen for this project through suggesting detail improvements and impeccable execution.”

Rush Dixon Architects