Mobile: The Art of Portable Architecture (Paperback)

~ Jennifer Siegal (Editor), Robert Kronenburg (Introduction), Andrei Cordescu (Foreword) "The information age whets our appetite for the exploration of the unknown..." (more)
Key Phrases: fluidic muscle, new nomadism, mobile architecture, New York, Academy Editions, Portable House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The allure of mobile, portable architecture is worldwide and centuries old, from the desert tents of the bedouin to the silvery capsules of the Airstream trailer. Mobile explores the ever-growing range of possibilities of portable, demountable, and mobile structures. Jennifer Siegal brings together the work of the most interesting contemporary designers of dynamic, active structures, whose work ranges from the microenvironment of a house that literally attaches to your body to the city-scaled macroenvironment of London's Millennium Dome, from the interior of a Boeing jet to an entire mobile community whose living units plug into a framework of flexible communal space, and from the practical design of transportable office space to the whimsical design of Pink Floyd's The Wall stage set. All of the designs celebrate the lightness, transience, and practicality that mobile architecture makes possible.

Mobile includes work by Office of Mobile Design, LOT/EK, Vito Acconci, Doug Jackson/LARGE, Mark Fisher, Michael Fox, FTL Happold, Festo, and Lawrence Scarpa. In beautiful color images, detailed drawings, and thoughtful text, the contributors reveal their working methods.

About the Author

Jennifer Siegal is head of the Office of Mobile Design in that most mobile of cities, Los Angeles, and Associate Professor at Woodbury University, Burbank.

Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568983344
• ISBN-13: 978-1568983349
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #833,439 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars meh, August 30, 2005

By	John Diller (Wilton Manors, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A little anemic, but some solid ideas are represented here. I would have liked a little coherency in the presentation, and a lot more depth.

4.0 out of 5 stars Cool, May 19, 2004

By	"tomazb" (Ljubljana Slovenia) - See all my reviews

You get the comprahensive overview of the subject. The book is quite small so don't expect too much. But it is a good buy for home library.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mobile: the Art of Portable Architecture, March 13, 2003

By	Michael Webb (London, England > Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews

A paean to inflatables, tensile canopies, demountable stages, and trailers, by an innovative LA architect and teacher who believes that "Anything you can't fold up and take with you is a blight on the environment and an insult to one's liberty." (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)