New Directions in Contemporary Architecture: Evolutions and Revolutions in Building Design Since 1988

Rem Koolhaas has defined architecture as a chaotic adventure. Nothing could be more true than that of the last two decades. Never has architecture been so unbridled and so extraordinary: the architectural cast has never been so wide and their works so diverse. What though if you are new to the subject? How is it possible to make sense of this seemingly unruly architectural landscape? There are so many different types of architecture, so many designers with such varying and even contradictory approaches.

This book is a much needed navigation guide for anyone interested in modern architecture. Organised chronologically, it enables you to find your way through one of the most prolific periods of building design. It looks at buildings in often contrasting styles that have been built almost simultaneously across the world with their roots in very different tendencies and schools of thought. A loose but effective framework is provided, which pulls all these multiple threads together, while key buildings are described individually with a unique clarity and precision.

Aaron Betsky, Director of Cincinnati Art Museum: ′Comprehensive, coherent and cogent, Puglisi′s book sorts out the messy history of the last quarter century of the world′s best architecture.′ Professor Iain Borden, Head, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL: ′Illuminating and insightful – a must–have read for students.′ Hans Ibelings, Editor of A10 new European architecture: ′Lucid and concise′. Charles Jencks, Architecture Critic and Author: ′A compelling, comprehensive overview of the avant–garde since 1988 as it oscillates in and out of the global star system.′ Bill Menking, Editor of The Architect′s Newspaper: ′This is the first clear and systematic study of the culture of architecture from the "reds" of deconstruction to the sustainable "greens".′

1. After Deconstructivism 1988–92.

1.1. Precedents.

1.2. Deconstructivist Architecture.

1.3. A New Paradigm.

1.4. Zaha and the Game of Opposites.

1.5. Rem Koolhaas: Method and its Paradoxes.

1.6. Frank O Gehry: New Compositions.

1.7. Disjunction and Dis–location.

1.8. Between Gesture and Perception: Fuksas and Holl.

1.9. The Minimalist Approach: Herzog & de Meuron.

1.10. Minimalism in England, France and Japan.

1.11. The Development of High Tech.

1.12. Post–Modernism and Modernism Continued.

1.13. The Inheritance of Deconstructivism.

2. New Directions: 1993–7.

2.1. The Turning Point.

2.2. Explosive Buildings.

2.3. Los Angeles, Graz and Barcelona.

2.4. The Radicals and Coop Himmelb (L)au.

2.5. Nouvel: Beyond Transparency.

2.6. Herzog & de Meuron and the Skin of the Building.

2.7. Minimalisms.

2.8. Questions of Perception.

2.9. Koolhaas: Euralille.

2.10. The Poetics of the Electronic: Between the Blob and the Metaphor.

2.11. Eco–Tech.

2.12. Renzo Piano′s Soft–Tech.

2.13. PAYS–BAS—perspectives.

2.14. Pro and Versus a New Architecture.

2.15. The MoMA Extension.

2.16. The Beginnings of a New Season.

3. A Season of Masterpieces: 1998–2001.

3.1. The Guggenheim in Bilbao (Frank O Gehry)

3.2. The House in Floriac (Rem Koolhaas)

3.3. The Jewish Museum in Berlin (Daniel Libeskind)

3.4. The KKL in Lucerne (Jean Nouvel)

3.5. The Un–Private House.

3.6. The Möbius House.

3.7. A Dutchness in the State of Architecture.

3.8. New Landscapes, New Languages.

3.9. New Landscape: The West and East Coast.

3.10. A New Avant–Garde.

3.11. Landscapes of Aesthetic Objects?

3.12. Aesthetics, Ethics and Mutations.

3.13. The Eleventh of September.
Two Thousand and One.

3.14. Starting Over.

4. Trends: 2002–7

4.1. The World Trade Center.

4.2. Clouds and Monoliths.

4.3. The Star System.

4.4. The Crisis of the Star System.

4.5. The Crisis of Architectural Criticism.

4.6. The End of the Star System?

4.7. Ten Projects.

4.8. Super–Creativity and Ultra–Minimalism.

4.9. Back to Basics.

4.10. The Next Stop.

Timeline.

Bibliography.

Index.

Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi is an architectural writer and critic. He teaches Contemporary Architectural History at La Sapienza University in Rome. He writes for: Domus, The Plan, L′Arca, Abitare and Architectural Design. He is the Italian correspondent for A10 new European architecture, Monument (Australia) and The Architect′s Newspaper (USA). He is an editor for Le Carre Bleu. Prestinenza Puglisi is the director of the weekly pres S/Tletter ( www.presstletter.com) and curator of numerous exhibitions and events. He has written many books and is also the guest–editor of Italy: A New Architectural Landscape, Architectural Design, 2007. His writings can be found online at: http://www.prestinenza.it