Julia Galef reports back from a New York exhibition that celebrates late 1990′s architectural fanzines.

‘A Few Zines: Dispatches from the Edge of Architectural Production ,’ Jan 8-Feb 28 at Studio X, NYC

In today’s blog-saturated world, it’s easy to forget that just a decade ago, photocopying and mailing ‘zines’ was a fast, cheap mode of distribution.

But that was the state of things in 1996, when Mimi Zeiger founded architecture zine loud paper as a ‘slambamgetitoutthere’ alternative to the mainstream architectural discourses. Now, an exhibit curated by Ms. Zeiger at Studio X in Manhattan’s East Village – ‘A Few Zines: Dispatches from the Edge of Architectural Production,’ on display from January 8 to February 28 — looks back at the trail blazed by loud paper and its cousins.

The exhibit opened last Thursday to a crowd of 50-60 architects, journalists, students and other zine enthusiasts who gathered for a panel discussion by the editors of several of the zines on display.

‘It was really heartening to see so much interest in the topic,’ said Gavin Browning, the Studio X organizer. He emphasized that the show was meant to be a snapshot of the world of architecture zines, not an exhaustive retrospective: ‘We intentionally didn’t want to try to be comprehensive—that’s why we titled it ‘A Few Zines.’’

But the exhibit’s scope is still broad enough to include a heady mix of different zines, from Infiltration’s Xeroxed travelogues of forbidden tunnels and buildings, to Sumoscraper’s wholesale rejection of design in cities, to Junk Jet’s haunting and cryptic images.

Like loud paper, however, they all share a commitment to bridging gaps: between the academic and the popular, between ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultures, and between various media, with architecture being discussed (often by non-architects) alongside music, art and politics.

The connection to the music world stands out, particularly in loud paper, which features music reviews and ads for indie music labels. ‘Most of the architects I know are big music fans, and you’re plugged in all the time when you’re working on design,’ Ms. Zeiger said, ‘so a goal [with loud paper] was to reflect what’s already in architecture culture that doesn’t get the kind of attention that it deserves.’

All zines are included in their full runs, encouraging contemplation of how their context has changed over time: the internet has lowered the barriers to new voices joining the fray, the architect’s role has expanded, mainstream publications have become more accessible, and the line between zine and mainstream has been blurred. Pin-Up, for example, is strongly rooted in zine culture but plays a role more akin to a mainstream glossy. Its editor, Felix Burrichter, discussed at the exhibition’s opening how including high-end advertisers from the fashion world made his magazine more approachable and appealing to general readers, who now compose about half its audience.

Loud paper has changed with the times as well, shifting formats over the years and finally making the leap to blog-form recently. And there are more gaps to bridge in future. ‘I’ve always been a fan of crossing between the art, architecture and music worlds,’ Ms. Zeiger said, ‘and I think bringing in literature would be the fourth leg.’ Nor is the show itself a static creation. Ms. Zeiger said she was adding new publications to the line-up right up until the show’s opening, and expects to continue that process as the show continues on to Boston and other cities: ‘I’m a collector,’ she concluded.

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The Tate Modern in London made Herzog & Meuron famous all over the world. The projects and structures they have built since then are distinguished by the sensitive treatment of materials for which the architects are renowned. In addition, these Pritzker Prizea “winning architects have developed a topographical conception of architecture that not only locates their designs in a larger context but also frequently structures them as landscapes. In order to represent them, the layout of volume 4 of the complete works has been completely redesigned. The publication contains essays by the architects themselves in which they situate their projects. The structures presented include such icons of contemporary architecture as the Prada store in Tokyo Aoyama and the Allianz Arena in Munich, where the opening game of the 2006 Soccer World Cup was played. Pathbreaking museum structures such as the Schaulager near Basel, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the De Young Museum in San Francisco continue the conversation surrounding what constitutes a truly contemporary presentation of modern art.

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This book provides a set of tools for keeping track of when and where you are in complex projects against the background of creative thinking and design practice. Illustrated with examples, the emphasis is on the aerospace industry, being the most experienced in Systems Engineering, but many other fields are included, from painkiller packaging to game shows.

Five centuries after it was originally published in Cologne, Braun and Hogenberg’s magnificent collection of town map engravings, “Civitates Orbis Terrarum”, has been brought back to life with this reprint taken from a rare and superbly preserved original set of six volumes.

Produced between 1572 and 1618 – just before the extensive devastation wreaked by the Thirty Tears’ War – the work contains 531 plans, bird’s-eye views, and map views of all major cities in Europe, plus important cities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.Edited and annotated by theologian and publisher Georg Braun and largely engraved by cartographer Franz Hogenberg, the Civitates was intended as a companion volume for Abraham Ortelius’ 1570 world atlas, “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”. Over a hundred different artists and cartographers contributed to the sumptuous artwork, which not only shows the towns but also features additional elements, such as figures in local dress, ships, ox-drawn carts, courtroom scenes, and topographical details, that help convey the situation, commercial power, and political importance of the towns they accompany.

The Civitates was, and remains, a unique undertaking which gives us a comprehensive view of urban life at the turn of the 17th century. “Taschen’s” reprint includes all of the city plates, accompanied by selected extracts from Braun’s texts on the history and contemporary significance of each urban center as well as translations of the Latin cartouches within each plate. A detailed commentary places each city map in its cartographical and cultural context and examines earlier sources and later editions. Rounding off this comprehensive publication is a separate introductory essay examining the Civitates in its cultural and historical context. From Paris, London, and Rome to Mexico City, Cairo, and Jerusalem, readers will find many a familiar city to zoom back in time and explore – in fact, many of the maps can still be used for orientation in historical town centers today.