Tom Kundig: Works by Tom Kundig
Princeton Architectural Press, 2015
Hardcover, 300 pages

With each book that Seattle architect Tom Kundig puts out with Princeton Architectural Press there is a jump in scale. Tom Kundig: Houses from 2006 is a fairly modest monograph that presents only five projects across its 176 pages. Tom Kundig: Houses 2, the follow up from 2011, features 17 houses on its 240 larger-format pages. With the same page size as the second book, Tom Kundig: Works notches it up to 19 projects on 300 pages to include commercial and institutional buildings as well as the houses he is known for.

Thankfully the increased size isn't just an excuse to show more and larger photographs (though there is plenty of that here). It allows for more insight into Kundig's working process through conversations with the architect's key collaborators: Phil Turner, Olson Kundig's "Gizmologist"; Jim Dow from contracting firm Schuchart/Dow; and Jack Anderson and Shane Atchison, two of Kundig's clients. Fans of Kundig's architecture will no doubt appreciate the conversation with Turner, but they will also love the numerous detailed photographs of the mechanisms the pair excels at creating. More than just cool devices, the mechanisms are a means of enabling owners and users to interact with their buildings in a physical way, something missing in the drive toward smart homes where operating mechanisms are invisible. The gizmos also allow for some fairly large-scale tr...