DOCOMOMO Must-Reads

While searching for interesting mid-century modern buildings to see on my upcoming trip to Manhattan, I stumbled across the new DOCOMOMO website for New York/Tri-State area. Within their news feed, they posted a wonderful list of must-reads for anyone interested in mid-century modern architecture. The Modern Library is a compilation of notable books published in 2010, ranging in topic from women in architecture to utopian modernist Japan, to the influence of Cold War architecture, to the beginnings of eco-architecture in mid-century design. Fans of Danish Teak Classics may especially be interested in Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg: Saving a Modern Masterpiece by Markku Karjalainen, and Knoll: A Modernist Universe by Brian Lutz. 

DOCOMOMO stands for the DOcumentaton and COnservation of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods of the MOdern MOvement and is an international organization founded in the Netherlands in 1988. Their mission is to "increase public awareness and appreciation of Modern movement architecture, landscape and urban design; to identify and document local examples; and to advocate for the protection of those determined most significant." There are 10 regional chapters within DOCOMOMO US and many more DOCOMOMO International chapters. Whether you are a modernist affictionatto or working in the field, these sites are a great source for news and opportunities for involvement in the preservation of the structures of our recent past.

Caroline Engel for Danish Teak Classics