2 Tom Schilb Tom, a consummate artist with a strong engineering background, is an architect who tends not to collect books on architecture – rather his books are inspirations from places other than design. He has very few books on architecture, but many Italian cookbooks, books on philosophy, forensic facial reconstruction and paleontology, graphic novels, poetry and field guides. Tom is truly in love, or as he puts it ‘crazy and neurotic about books’ and considers buying them as a form of self-reliance knowing that he’s assembling his own library of
treasures – sometimes twice when he realises that somehow he’s lost a book he once had. To him bookcases are furniture, a major part of almost every room in his house, as are tables stacked with books. Books are everywhere. Although he tries to organise and stow them tidily in bookcases, they mysteriously migrate to appear within arm’s reach, no matter if he is on the couch, sitting in his favourite chair, cooking in the kitchen or lying in bed. Like all good partners, books bring Tom comfort by just knowing they are there.
not so romantic liasons The internet displaces the need to maintain a physical library of Sweets Guides, binders from manufacturers and vendors, code books, and so on. It’s difficult to find outdated material online, whereas years ago, keeping up to date with current products and code changes was never ending. We all consider online liaisons more as acquaintances rather than long-term, serious relationships. Tom sums up our collective feeling that ‘the internet is not the place for inspiration and getting in the right frame of mind to be at your best creatively. This duty still falls to getting lost in a book – shutting off the outside world and taking a journey that resets you with yourself’.
Tom Schilb
3 Brett Pawson Brett, the architectural animator, has books from eastern metaphysics to more practical subjects – ‘gardening to archery to construction to animation’. Most of his active collection is piled on the floor within 10 feet of his desk, clear except for his laptop, paper and pens. Books on his shelves are stored in a mix of the horizontal and vertical; horizontal piles frequently serve both as bookends for the vertical books and as independent horizontal stacks; what one sacrifices in removability from the pile one gains in easy reading of the spines. He borrows from the library, buys used books and uses Wikipedia and other online resources (books reviews, general articles) as a first resort or to expose related items he may not have initially considered. Although convenient, he usually calls in the text through library services just to check page numbers and accuracy.
Brett Pawson
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on site review 40 : the architect’s library :: books, shelves, collections
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