Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes – förlag

A new translation of a leading architect’s magnum opus.  The book offers for the first time the translation of two surveys conducted by the leading Danish modern architect Kay Fisker and the students of his classes. The two texts are reproduced as a facsimile edition, so the scope has maintained the original layout along with critical examinations, diagrams, and an impressive quantity of comparative drawings. The book is not solely the translation of the two analyses; it delves into the main features of Fisker’s works of architecture and the cultural context within which the explorations on housing types were conducted at the School of Architecture of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The systematic approach, the richness of selected examples, as well as the analytic content, make this book valuable beyond its historic and geographic limits. Due to the topical interest in the field of housing studies, the translation of Copenhagen Housing Types (1936) and Row-House Types (1941) will provide students and professionals a clear and useful instrument for comprehending the evolution of the cities, as well as for housing design from an architectural and urban perspective.

Every engineer and decision scientist must have a good mastery of optimization, an essential element in their toolkit. Thus, this articulate introductory textbook will certainly be welcomed by students and practicing professionals alike. Drawing from his vast teaching experience, the author skillfully leads the reader through a rich choice of topics in a coherent, fluid and tasteful blend of models and methods anchored on the underlying mathematical notions (only prerequisites: first year calculus and linear algebra). Topics range from the classics to some of the most recent developments in smooth unconstrained and constrained optimization, like descent methods, conjugate gradients, Newton and quasi-Newton methods, linear programming and the simplex method, trust region and interior point methods. Furthermore elements of discrete and combinatorial optimization like network optimization, integer programming and heuristic local search methods are also presented. This book presents optimization as a modeling tool that beyond supporting problem formulation plus design and implementation of efficient algorithms, also is a language suited for interdisciplinary human interaction. Readers further become aware that while the roots of mathematical optimization go back to the work of giants like Newton, Lagrange, Cauchy, Euler or Gauss, it did not become a discipline on its own until World War Two. Also that its present momentum really resulted from its symbiosis with modern computers, which made it possible to routinely solve problems with millions of variables and constraints. With his witty, entertaining, yet precise style, Michel Bierlaire captivates his readers and awakens their desire to try out the presented material in a creative mode. One of the outstanding assets of this book is the unified, clear and concise rendering of the various algorithms, which makes them easily readable and translatable into any high level programming language. This is an addictive book that I am very pleased to recommend. Prof. Thomas M. Liebling

To mark its fiftieth anniversary, the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) gave free rein to three photographers, who were asked to capture the essence of the school and its future direction. Catherine Leutenegger’s work delivered many detailed portraits of science, blurring the lines between the images she created and those that she discovered and made her own. Bogdan Konopka, meanwhile, stripped EPFL’s buildings down to their still-life form. And Olivier Christinat brought places to life by roaming the grounds and discreetly immersing himself in the society of campus. All three offer distinct perspectives on a unique institution, one that has seen its influence spread far and wide during its first half century of existence.

The creator of buildings that stand out as surrealistic marvels amid the skylines of America, Europe, and Asia, Rem Koolhaas, along with his Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), is justly considered as one of the leaders of contemporary architecture. This book, the first critical monograph on the work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA, does more than just describe projects and buildings: It places Koolhaas’s career in a cultural context that allows the reader to better understand the creative process of modern architecture. The works considered are presented in chronological and thematic order, thus retracing the career of Koolhaas from his student days to his neo-avant-garde experimentation at the end of the 1970s and finishing with his most recent works in Porto, Seoul, and Beijing. The individual projects are analyzed from conception to construction, paying particular attention to the conceptual and technical reasons for choices of materials and configuration. Overall, the book addresses the theoretical formulations of Koolhaas, offering a reflection on the fundamental principles of the contemporary architectural project.

Choosing Architecture traces the history of arguments about architecture in the West via analyses of key documents to show how vital a subject it is for anyone interested in our contemporary world.For as long as there have been buildings, architecture has been a major subject of public discussion, considered and argued about not just by architects or residents, but also by critics, theoreticians, historians, and writers. This book offers an overview of these discussions in the Western world by means of four thematic trajectories, focused on housing, society, history, and art. Each of these four chronological paths starts in the nineteenth century, traverses the twentieth century, and ends as closely as possible to the contemporary moment. The stepping stones that Christophe Van Gerreway uses are historical documents—texts, books, essays, and articles—that are analyzed, interpreted, criticized, and compared. The aim of the book is to show that architecture remains a vital subject matter for anyone interested in our contemporary world and its recent history. Reading, inquiring, and thinking are essential for making substantiated choices, and, Van Gerreway shows, architecture can be a useful starting point.

Realtime is an investigation into China’s digital and urban infrastructure, practices, and imaginary spaces. It attempts to capture the pace, scale, and depth of China’s complex and changing reality. Realtime is a collection of original accounts, analyses, stories, articles, artworks, pictures, maps, illustrations, and materials collected by researchers and practitioners from various fields of design, geography, architecture, anthropology, economics, and art.

A groundbreaking work resulting from the collaboration between the three major Swiss architectural archives and the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel.  Concrete in Switzerland is a historical assessment of the most controversial building material of our time: concrete. The book addresses a number of issues of global relevance from a particular vantage point: reinforced concrete construction in Switzerland. Through contributions by internationally renowned researchers, Concrete in Switzerland analyzes a series of moments in the Swiss history of reinforced concrete, from the initial phase of its introduction in the country to the most refined applications in architecture and engineering. Groundbreaking and thorough, Concrete in Switzerland explores the history and application of a contentious material.

Successful leaders tend to have one thing in common: They are experts in social interaction. They express themselves clearly and effectively, understand their colleagues, and adapt to all situations. A leader needs to not only be able to inspire, motivate, and convince those around them, but also listen, be attentive, and adapt to their coworkers. It is by combining these skills that the authors of this book have come up with the Leaderspritz: an interpersonal leadership cocktail. Written by experts in the field of leadership education in universities and corporations, Leaderspritz is based exclusively on scientific research. Whether a person is currently in a leadership position or about to become a leader, this accessible, interactive reference, which is rich in empirical results, anecdotes, scientific theories, and practical tools, will allow them to improve their skills and successfully carry out their responsibilities.

A thorough and interdisciplinary look at the many aspects of wood construction over the past three hundred years.The IBOIS Notebooks offer a societal, ecological, cultural, and political look at wood construction. Through the work and critical analyses of authors from various disciplines, these notebooks reveal the structuring, sometimes contradictory, and often underestimated role of timber construction in the architectural evolution of the last three centuries. This biannual editorial project, led by Christophe Catsaros, philosopher, journalist, and architecture critic, and Yves Weinand, architect-engineer and director of the Wood Construction Laboratory (IBOIS) at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), draws the outlines of an original and transdisciplinary account. Going beyond the established distinction between the humanities and applied sciences, the notebooks offer alternative relationships for innovative wood construction. Behind this original and cross-disciplinary panorama—where researchers, builders, and historians question the potential of a material—is the ambition of a radical change, as evidenced both by the research and the achievements of the EPFL’s Wood Construction Laboratory.

In 1919, after five years of brutal conflict, World War I ended. And while the living soldiers returned home, the dead stayed where they had fallen, in war graves throughout Europe. This book takes readers to many of the graveyards that serve as the final resting places of British soldiers who died during World War I.  British cemeteries, we discover, are gardens, and many of them were designed by the greatest British architects of the time, such as Edwin Lutyens or Charles Holden, and their architectural quality is exceptional. Gardens of War invites us to discover these unique places by approaching them in two ways. First, we see them as a project, building our understanding from archival documents and the testimonies of the actors involved in this vast undertaking, including politicians, diplomats, and, above all, architects. But we are also invited to discover them as visitors who travel along the roads that connect them, restoring our impressions through sketches, photos, and drawings, as closely as possible to the sensitive and emotional experience of actually being there.

The most significant research conducted on concrete architecture in the United States from 1940 to 1970.The affirmation of reinforced concrete and the kinds of space generated by its structures is one of the most fascinating and revolutionary chapters in the history of twentieth-century architecture and engineering. This richly illustrated, three-volume essay offers the first complete overview of all the most significant research conducted in concrete in the United States from 1940 to 1970. It includes the greatest architects of the time, from Frank Lloyd Wright to I.M. Pei, Louis Kahn, Emery Roth & Sons, and others.The analysis of the works presented on the pages of the three books reconstructs the most important inventions in the use of concrete, whether reinforced or not, prefabricated or cast in place, used in the form of skeleton, walls, columns, blocks, or panels. The book also includes a chapter on a new kind of ornament, permitted by special plastic products applied to formwork, and other chapters dedicated to the different processing techniques used to obtain various surface textures. It enters the complex theoretical universe of truths and lies, upon which the greatest architects have debated through the manipulation of concrete. Finally, it guides readers up to the decline of the creative force of structures. A New Era of American Architectural Concrete not only offers the first exhaustive history of an architectural technique that was decisive in the United States, but also a new vision of twentieth-century American architecture.

A unique book about one of the most famous buildings in Switzerland.  The Rolex Learning Center at EPFL Lausanne opened in 2010. Designed by Pritzker Prize laureates SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) from Japan, it soon became one of the more well-known buildings of recent times. In this book, akin to an architectural novella,  Christophe Van Gerrewey tells the variegated story of this piece of architecture—from many points of view, with some unexpected twists, and accompanied by unusual images. Through Higher Knowledge, the Rolex Learning Center emerges not only as a remarkable architectural achievement, but also as a building that contains knowledge, and that can speak to us in different ways.

An up-to-date book about art through the lens of neuroscience and psychology.  In Creativity & Art, Andreas and Barbara Steck use an interdisciplinary approach to discuss creative processes from a neuroscientific and psychoanalytic perspective. By referring to the current knowledge of brain sciences, the authors explore the understanding of the neural bases innate to the creation of art. Beginning with historical aspects of aesthetic experience and creation in ancient and modern times, the authors go on to present numerous artists in various fields, with an emphasis on how their subjective lived experiences are expressed and reflected in their artwork. Finally, the Stecks describe the building blocks of creativity in early childhood development discuss the psychoanalytic understanding of human aesthetic experience and creativity. Insightful and thought-provoking, Creativity & Art examines art through the lens of neuroscience and psychology.

The definitive guide on non-destructive testing.  Non-Destructive Testing and Testability of Materials and Structures encompasses a wide range of methods for inspecting an object without modifying it. Analysis must be unambiguous, particularly in sensitive industrial sectors such as nuclear and aeronautics. This book provides an exhaustive presentation of the parameters for carrying out this sort of evaluation, the conditions under which it can occur, and the characteristics of potential defects. Additionally, it explores the physical principles, technology, and current methods of non-destructive testing (NDT), both common and specific. This manual also describes methods for identifying factors that can deteriorate measurements and distort analysis. In this way, it introduces and defines the concepts of structural noise and environmental parameters. The book also proposes solutions to these challenges, notably based on progress made in phenomena modeling and inversion methods. Finally, it deals with information post-processing (both of signals and images) and presents a new approach called Recommandations de Conception basées sur des règles de Contrôle Non-Destructif (RC-CND). Aimed at both experienced professionals and students of NDT, this book will constitute a precious and lasting reference.

A study of the equilibrium properties of Coulomb systems in physics that is the first of its kind.This book studies the equilibrium properties of Coulomb systems, namely classical or quantum systems of charged particles interacting purely with the Coulomb force, drawing on results that are mathematically rigorous or derived from formal perturbation series, without resorting to ad hoc modeling or phenomenological descriptions. It also includes the findings of ab initio numerical simulations, as well as a presentation of simple and accurate approximations. Exercises with corrections are proposedThere are two main themes. The first aims to gather and summarize the demonstrations of fundamental theorems on the stability and extensivity of matter, the screening phenomena, and the existence of atomic and molecular phases. The second theme revolves around an in-depth analysis of the Coulombic correlations by means of diagrammatic series of Mayer type, that incorporate screening in a non perturbative way. This tool is well suited to low-density calculations of van der Waals forces and viral expansions in fully or partially ionized regimes. Considerations about the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and phase transitions in simple models are also presented. The book is the first of its kind, providing an authoritative text for any physicist working in this area.

A contemporary reminder of the importance of the carpenter and wood in Japanese architecture.  When Japanese architecture is mentioned today, images of temples or pagodas generally come to mind. Others may think of more contemporary works: massive modular walls of rough concrete poured in place and bearing imprints of their formwork in the manner of Ando Tadao, the lighter structures of Ito Toyo and Sejima Kazuyo, or the finely wrought facades of Kuma Kengo. A generational chasm and, rather surprisingly, even a historical one seems to have opened up between the emblematic images of traditional Japanese architecture, in which wood is the material of choice, and more current and innovative work, in which its use has been reduced. Even though the carpenter has long been the lead builder, contemporary architectural culture appears to have forgotten this reservoir of construction experience accumulated over centuries. The Carpenter and the Architect expertly corrects this outdated notion.

A book that fills a niche in academic analysis of the Tour de France.The Tour de France is an event known worldwide by both fans of cycling and the general public as a distinguished and extreme physical challenge. Since the 1990s, however, the Tour has also become notorious as a testing ground for performance enhancement and a proving ground for anti-doping measures. The Tour has long been the focus of books that concentrate on racing, the personalities, the scandals, and gossip. Racing Time, instead, offers a serious study of the event, analyzed within its political, social, cultural, and economic context. Racing Time presents expert analyses of a range of topics and issues which the recent history of the Tour has shown to be of contemporary significance, including several studies that examine issues around doping from a range of perspectives.

The first book on Le Corbusiers’s iconic apartment-studio.  Le Corbusier’s apartment-studio is an iconic object of the twentieth century, combining the indisputable material values of the building with the intangible “sense of place” of an architect’s home. Le Corbusier, who lived there from 1934 until his death in 1965, treated it as a permanent construction site—a unique place of spatial, plastic, and constructional experimentation.  The phases of change at the apartment-studio are layered over each other, and thus the apartment’s “many lives” create major philosophical problems for conservation. The “stratigraphy” itself, hard to unscramble yet full of meaning, is key to the apartment’s importance.  This first book on the apartment-studio, richly illustrated with largely unpublished visual material, presents research undertaken by the Laboratory of Techniques and Preservation of Modern Architecture (TSAM) for the Fondation Le Corbusier during preparatory investigations for the program of restoration. Lavish and thorough, Many Lives of Apartment-Studio Le Corbusier is an exploration of an iconic space.

A clear and enriching examination of the basic design and dimensioning principles that govern dam engineering.  Dams are one of the largest and most complex civil engineering projects and have always been an important element in development and economic prosperity. Their major role is to store water supplies to meet the vital and energy needs of the populations, to protect people and landscapes from the destructive effects of water, and to serve as a recourse in the event of water shortages.Dams clearly articulates the basic design and dimensioning principles that govern dam engineering. It also details a three-pillar safety concept, the different types of concrete and embankment dams as well as their impact on the environment, foundation design, and monitoring and maintenance. The material is enriched with numerous examples that reflect the internationally recognized competence of Swiss engineering in dam design. Clear and thorough, Dams enriches readers’ understanding of dam engineering.

The first comprehensive book explaining the backbone for digital construction methods: the Industry Foundation Classes schema.  Interoperable data schemas are the prerequisite to advancing the use of digital methods in the architectural engineering and construction industry. However, the predominant Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) are complex and have been focused on the representation of buildings only. With the extension for infrastructures, Interoperability aims to provide a comprehensive explanation of the IFC structure as well as its application to infrastructure assets. Finally, buildingSMART specifications are presented and contextualized for their use in digital workflows.

A groundbreaking and interdisciplinary work on architectural collage.  Design Strategies in Architecture collects wide-ranging reflections on the use of architectural collage, which has become a popular way of sharing a project’s design because collages can be faster and more approachable than traditional detailed renderings. This book brings together contributions from architectural historians, theoreticians, and architects to look at the role of collage. The essays gathered here reconstruct the role of representation in the evolution of architecture and offer a large selection of relevant case studies in the use of collage, incorporating critical historical analysis of the technical aspects and significance of the case studies within their cultural and political contexts. Together they also provide a critical and historical framework for architectural offices engaged in research related to representation. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking Design Strategies in Architecture is vital reading for understanding architectural collage.

A book that brings awareness to preservation in architecture.This third TSAM volume presents content from teaching courses that have been developed at the EPFL for fifteen years. The aim is to promote preservation as a discipline, one of the main branches in the emerging field of socioecological transition. This book also demonstrates how the educational potential of preservation can be harnessed, uniting many social and scientific disciplines, the history of architecture and architects, materiality and its constructed expression, the theory of architecture and design, and the examination—both abstract and concrete—of what surrounds us in every sense, from the teaspoon to the territory. In short, what a minority of responsible architects has always concerned itself with: a silent and sometimes fragile architecture. These qualities should enable preservation to reform and reconstruct a new design process for architecture, which will in turn lead to a new kind of practice.

An analysis of dormitories as an architectural type.Concepts of type and typology are not specific to architecture. Rather they represent an interdisciplinary approach to ordering knowledge and gaining insight. In the field of architecture, the study of types and typology offers a didactic perspective that allows us to see the complex network of interconnections between theory and practice as an inseparable material and social construct. This book is the result of a research project focused on dormitories as an architectural type, conducted at Laboratory EAST. Through a structured analysis, it unveils how architecture has offered solutions to the challenges of creating buildings designed for sleeping collectively.

A whimsical examination of math in the Middle Ages.This book brings together many unusual and entertaining examples of Medieval mathematical exercises. Medieval treatises on arithmetic and algebra frequently include along with the usual commercial and daily life applications, mathematical games, and recreational problems. The latter, while still on the subject of trade or daily life, involve conditions that are quite unrealistic if not totally absurd. As this book demonstrates, the authors of these problem sets hoped to show that mathematics could both be fun and useful.

A guide to both risk management and insurance. Risk management is becoming increasingly important to companies and society in general, and Risk Management & Introduction to Insurance offers an accessible guide for anyone trying to understand it. Divided into two parts, the book first offers an introduction that examines the concept of risk and its historical context while defining the key terminology. In addition, the tools necessary for risk assessment are reviewed and the different steps of the risk management process are discussed. The second part of the book focuses on the economics of insurance, social insurance, and the private insurance market. The different branches and products of private insurance are analyzed, and an overview of the basics of calculating insurance premiums based on contractual benefits and the practice of an actuary is provided. Numerous practical applications (such as cyber risk management), examples, and illustrations complete the book. As a whole, the book is an essential reference for business school students, professionals, and anyone interested in risk management and insurance.