The French publisher, Le Moniteur, Département Architecture is the leading company publishing articles, books, etc. with the topic architecture in France and is accredited and influential across Europe. The Publisher Group Monituer has existed for almost a century and makes it its mission to present qualitatively excellent information and the latest news. They have newspapers, magazines and publish books on the topics of fashion, architecture, interior design, but also news. The division of the company publishing this book is the Département Architecture, which works on publications about architecture. The author Carol Maillard is an architect herself and her journalism is committed to this field. She lives in Paris as a freelance journalist, writing for several French publishers beside Le Moniteur, for an example “Le Cashiers”.
The book is about European buildings that were renovated and now serve as commercial centers. It contains 25 state‐of‐the‐art projects all over Europe. The projects are all excellent examples for wellthought through and carried out architectural designs. All of the buildings in the book are famous buildings in the regions they are situated in. It includes an article about Dr. Lari’s work on the old gas tank, the “Gasometer”, where he was responsible for the recreation of the A Hall. This hall serves as first impression the visitor gets when leaving the subway‐area. It is also the point to access the other three gasometers. This book focuses on the aspect of the commercial center in the building. The building offers space for various shops or cafes. The Gasometer is something that is well known around Vienna, and almost every Viennese has already been there at least once. Other functions, next to the commercial one are incorporated into the building as well. It serves as office space, includes apartments and parking space. The appearance of the building is that of a huge glass dome. In fact, the design incorporates a lot of glass, but also iron, which helps conserve the original industrial look the building, built in 1899, displays. The apartments and office spaces are located in the upper stories of the building. The glass dome which is the ceiling of the building, transfers natural light into all levels of the building, including the commercial spaces inhabited by shops and cafes. The utilization of this site combines historical and contemporary architecture.
