Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects (The MIT Press) PDF Book

Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects (The MIT Press) PDF, ePub eBook Kindle

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Author : Rafael Moneo,Gina Carino
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Book Information

A prominent architect considers his contemporaries—James Stirling, Robert Venturi, Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman, Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, and Herzog & De Meuron—in a lavishly illustrated series of profiles.

The internationally acclaimed architect Rafael Moneo is known to be a courageous architect. His major works include the Houston Museum of Fine Art, Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College, the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and Architecture, and the Potzdammer Platz Hotel in Berlin. Now Moneo will be known as a daring critic as well. In this book, he looks at eight of his contemporaries—all architects of international stature—and discusses the theoretical positions, technical innovations, and design contributions of each. Moneo's discussion of these eight architects—James Stirling, Robert Venturi, Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman, Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, and the partnership of Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron—has the colloquial, engaging tone of a series of lectures on modern architecture by a master architect; the reader hears not the dispassionate theorizing of an academic, but Moneo's own deeply held convictions as he considers the work of his contemporaries. More than 500 illustrations accompany the text.

Discussing each of the eight architects in turn, Moneo first gives an introductory profile, emphasizing intentions, theoretical concerns, and construction procedures. He then turns to the work, offering detailed critical analyses of the works he considers to be crucial for an informed understanding of this architect's work. The many images he uses to illustrate his points resemble the rapid-fire flash of slides in a lecture, but Moneo's perspective is unique among lecturers. These profiles are not what Moneo calls the "tacit treatises" that can be found on the shelves of a university library, but lively encounters of architectural equals.

Book ID Asin: 0262134438
Book Title: Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects (The MIT Press)
Book Author: Rafael Moneo,Gina Carino
Book Format and Price:
Book Format Name: Hardcover
Book Format Price: $206.00
Book Format Name: PerfectPaperback
Book Format Price: $76.00
Book Price: $76.00
Book Category: Books, Engineering & Transportation, Engineering and unknown
Book Rating: 34 ratings

Book Product Detail

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The MIT Press; First Edition (December 23, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Perfect Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262134438
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262134439
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.65 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.31 x 1.69 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,107,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #468 in Architectural Criticism
- #884 in Individual Architects & Firms
- #1,079 in Architecture Reference (Books)

Customer Reviews:
34 ratings

Review

Theoretical Anxiety and Architectural Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects...keeps the 'live' feel of a master performance. The result is an exacting but easy read that unfolds like a novel by Italo Calvino....Moneo moves beyond the common denominator of form to touch on the rich complexity of what architecture is. In the sense that architecture is between the lines, you have to read between the lines of this book.—Bernard Tschumi, The Architect's Newspaper—

Moneo's insights and analyses are often brilliant, and hisperspective as a Spaniard and as a former chair of the GSD (Harvard Graduate School of Design) is a unique one. He conveys his ideas inlively prose, peppered with anecdotes.

—Architectural Record—

About the Author

José Rafael Moneo is an internationally renowned architect, in practice since 1965. He has taught in both Spain and America, and from 1986 to 1990 he was Chairman of the Architecture Department at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. He holds the Gold Medal for Fine Arts awarded by the government of Spain, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize for Architecture, and the Schock Prize.

Book Review

Name: Di Xu
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book and for sure is "very good" condition.
Date: Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2022
Review: Is hardly believed this is a used book, clear and cared.
Great book recommonded by my mentor!

Name: Khuyen Luong
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great sharing experience book
Date: Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2012
Review: This book is really useful for who study architecture, sometime there were some stories behind the architect that we didn't know, and always wonder how and why they approach to their design work. Nice to know this book, it helped me a lot in doing researching also!Nice, strongly recommending!

Name: sangkoo park
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: double single
Date: Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2012
Review: it is a very helpful book to study contemporary architects. moneo explains the architects's phylosophy with theorical basis well. this book will be a good text book to understand 8 world class architects' ideas and works regarding architecture.

Name: Rapha
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very nice book, the only strange thing is that the ...
Date: Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2014
Review: Very nice book, the only strange thing is that the pictures are sooooo small, but i guess it was the writers choice, not related to amazon services.

Name: Janek B.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Highly recommended
Date: Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2016
Review: Rigorous insights of the some of the best.

Name: Andrew Blocha
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Well Considered History of Contemporary Architecture
Date: Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2005
Review: This collection of essays on contemporary architects reminds me of why I love great contemporary architecture, and why I will continue to work as an architect. The text demonstrates the wonderful diversity of the times we live in and the recent history which has formed these times. Read these essays and you will recognize the lineage of form and theory which has led to any building built or published today, from any suburban house to the Freedom Tower.

A reflection on 50 years of history, this book could only have come together now. Moneo's observations of his peers are dead on and written with the clarity of a historical text while still managing to to provide the insight of a work of architectural criticism. This is the book I wish I had as a student in the 1980's but know that in the throes of theoretical debate at the time that the history was too fresh for hindsight. As a direct result of the debate around "modernism", more than at any other time in history we are able to recognize how theory affects our design strategies. In collecting these transcripts of lectures and essays on these architects Moneo codifies what we know we knew about how we got here, but had not yet put all together.

I only wish I could have been there to hear his lectures. At times the text seems to stradle the grammatical form of essay and transcript of a discussion on a particular slide. But perhaps it is that sometimes awkward format which energizes and saves the book from becoming "text"book. To actually see slides and drawings rather than the somewhat small and at times poor black and white images that dot the text would be of great benefit. As a result this is probably not a book for the casual reader of architecture not familiar with the work of these architects and who does not have the time to look for better images. Mr. Moneo has in this book nthe raw material for what could be a very powerful multimedia publication, either CD or web based.

I recommend that every student of architecture today read this book. It offers the critical tools to recognize where from what you do comes and in doing so opens the possibilities of where you can take your work.

Name: Ian D. Zapata
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A rare Architect....
Date: Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2005
Review: There are Architects who write eloquently about Architecture, but whose built works disappoint, then there are those whose buildings inspire and yet seem unable to communicate clearly about their ideas, but Rafael Moneo is the rare architect who appears in easy command of both realms. A colleague who studied under him said that Moneo could look at a project and tell exactly how it was designed, and this book seems to substantiate this ability to understand both method and reason behind the work of some of the most important Architects of the last third or the 20th century. Moneo's prose is informal, yet studied, and this book serves as a once in a lifetime conversation with a master Architect.
His ideas seem better defined when dealing with James Stirling and Aldo Rossi, and more speculative when dealing with relative newcomers like Koolhaas, and Herzhogg+DeMeuron, but the book is always insightful. Moneo comes across as someone who loves his profession and who, despite earning international renown, approaches the work of his colleagues with the same fascination of a brilliant student. This fascination is contagious, and the book is a worthy addition to the library of anyone who loves contemporary architecture.

Name: Emcee
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Nice primer on a select group of influential architects
Date: Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2007
Review: In this deceptively thick volume, Moneo presents a compilation of lectures he gave during the early 90's while at Harvard's GSD. Digging into his archives, he reassembles slides and text specific to the work of eight individuals that Moneo believes to be among the most influential contemporary architects of the late 20th century.

Don't let the title intimidate you. Moneo is simply referring to the mechanisms, operational strategies, formal devices and procedures that architects utilize in their design process and their unwillingness to reveal those systematic theories of design. Rather, he believes that the current architectural discourse assumes a more reflective or critical posture rather than revolving around the process of design.

Moneo manages to reveal to varying extents the working process of each architect by analyzing a body of work over the course of their career, identifying key changes in strategies. As an architect, learning the working process of such significant architectural figures is quite useful, allowing one to locate themselves (or others) within the greater architectural sphere. Here, connections begin to reveal themselves and linkages to architects past and present become evident.

The project images are often a bit too small to be incredibly useful especially since Moneo often refers to specific features within the drawings and photos to explain his thoughts. However, this remains an excellent and recommended read.

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