Présentation de l'éditeur :
Named America's Best Architect by Time magazine in 2001 "for buildings that satisfy the spirit as well as the eye," Steven Holl
is known for an experimental approach to architecture that is at once
romantic, humanistic, and resplendently modern.
Ranging across the
globe, his multifarious body of work-including the Kiasma Museum of
Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland; Beijing Looped Hybrid, an
apartment complex in China; and the highly anticipated Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art in Kansas City-demonstrates a profound appreciation for
the subtleties, power, and possibilities implicit in the materials of
his trade: light, space, form; concrete, steel, glass.
Marked by what
has been called a "unique husbandry of space" (Time), Holl's work
invites the participation of the observer in a joyful celebration of
light and shadow, a festival in which movement becomes integral, where
clouds passing through the night sky interact with shifting planes of
heaven-bound glass.
Steven Holl: Architecture Spoken
offers the reader unprecedented access to the thought processes and
work of this groundbreaking, cutting-edge architect through his own
words-and more than 300 sumptuously photographed illustrations.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, described by The New Yorkeras "one of the best museums of the last generation," chose Holl
is admired by practitioners for the abstract and theoretical aspects of
his work, by critics for his boldness and by clients for his clear and
expressive geometries. The architect himself compiled this monograph
around four lectures he delivered on architectural concepts:
"Pro-Kyoto," "Compression," "Porosity," and "Urbanisms."
Although compromised by occasionally opaque language, each lecture
makes a point that relates to an understanding of the buildings.
Interspersed among the lectures are chapters on specific residential,
educational, cultural, or religious buildings; the descriptions are
simultaneously specific and presumably related to the preceding
concept. The roughly 300 richly colored and highly informative
photographs appearing throughout are accompanied by plans and sections.
Although the project chronology is helpful, the absence of an index is
an unfortunate limitation.
This work is not as comprehensive as Kenneth
Frampton's Steven Holl: Architect,
but its graphic material, combined with the architect's words and
current work, makes it essential for all architecture collections.
(architecture, Columbia Univ.) to design its expansion.
nos livres 
