In case you hadn’t noticed yet (via Archinect, butterpaper or gravestmor), the well respected Australian magazine, UME, has enable the entire back catalogue as a free download (as PDF files). That’s the good news. The annoying part of the deal for us, the user, is that each issue is not provided as a single PDF file. For some reason (possibly file size) UME has divided each issue in separate PDF files for each article.

Want to download an entire UME issue?

You’ll have to download each article individually. Of course, the download doesn’t have a useful name either, so it’s a pain to ‘recompile’ the original issue as a single file. Creating one file per issue is a simple process (and arguably less time than creating individual files), so why not give the user the option to download an entire issue at once?

So much for usability!

Despite my grumbles, the mere fact that UME made the decision to make the back issue content available for free is commendable. UME is a worthwhile and useful resource for architects, especially those missing some back issues.

Here’s my pick of the UME back catalogue:

UME Issues 1 to 7 (out of stock)

• Denton Corker Marshall: Tall Tower, Melbourne, Australia / Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Australia
• David Chipperfield: River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames, England
• Rem Koolhaas/OMA: House in Floirac, Bordeaux, France
• Alex Popov: Three houses by the water, Sydney, Australia
• MGT Architects (now fjmt): Architecture School, Sydney, Australia
• Richard Rogers Partnership: Law Courts, Bordeaux, France
• All of Issue 7 (includes Murcutt, Bolles + Wilson, Alsop & Stormer, DCM and Tschumi) as it’s a bumper edition!

UME Issues 8 to 14

• Wiel Arets: Pension Fund Directional Centre, The Netherlands
• Steven Holl: Chapel of St Ignatius, Seattle, USA
• Alberto Campo Baeza: Centre for Balearic Innovative Technologies, Spain
• Denton Corker Marshall: Farmhouse, Kyneton / Beach House, Cape Schanck / Melbourne Museum
• Zaha Hadid: LF one, Landes-Gartenschau, Weil am Rhein, Germany
• Glenn Murcutt: Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre, Riversdale, Australia
• Rem Koolhaas/OMA: Dutch Embassy, Berlin, Germany
• Sauerbruch Hutton Architects: GSW Headquarters, Berlin, Germany

UME Issues 15 to 21

• Koning Eizenberg Architecture: Architects’ Studio, Santa Monica, USA
• Donovan Hill: D House, Brisbane, Australia
• Tadao Ando: Komyo-ji Temple, Saijo, Japan
• Rick Joy: Casa Jax, Tucson, USA and Tubac House, Tubac, Arizona, USA
• Lab: Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia
• Abalos & Herreros: Public Library, Madrid, Spain
• Denton Corker Marshall: Tai Yip Office Building, Wanchai, Hong Kong
• Bolles + Wilson: New Luxor Theatre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Wood/Marsh: Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
• Zaha Hadid: BMW Administration Building, Leipzig, Germany
• Architectus: Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
• Richard Rogers Partnership: The National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay, Wales

(Unfortunately, I can’t provide exact links to the files as the UME website employs horrible Microsoft active server pages. You’ll have to browse yourself.)