Booklist
Perhaps humans are not meant to operate in the "dry grid" of cubic spaces. A leading Dutch theorist and architect, Lars Spuybroek (principal of NOX) pushes form and substance in astoundingly improbable, winding, curving, globular directions. Jazzed by neurology and philosophy, and influenced by ever-more intricate computer modeling, Spuybroek asks whether building movement ought to more comfortably reflect body movement. "A curve is an intelligent, better-informed straight line," he writes. In Spuybroek's realm the operative idea is no longer that form follows function; it's a unified system where typology precedes topology. His projects thus lead to "soft" offices and sinuous biomorphs. Best known on these shores for envisioning a complex of twisting, porous towers on the World Trade Center site, Spuybroek is commanding increasing attention. This huge compendium of his work and ideas is sometimes dense, but in a challenging, eye-opening way as it navigates the implications of the intellectual dichotomies and design complexities in NOX's^B vision and projects. Visually dazzling, this book will appeal to architects, design and architecture students, artists, and futuristic dreamers.
Steve PaulCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Part manual, part manifesto, part monograph: a comprehensive look at the methods and techniques of Spuybroek's hugely inventive architecture. In the avant-garde of digital architects, Rotterdam-based Lars Spuybroek and his studio NOX are among the few who have completed built projects. Before the advent of large-scale processing power, digital modeling, and computer-aided manufacturing, NOX's structures would have been unbuildable. Today, the work is taken seriously on an international scale as the possibilities for construction and spatial innovation attain new levels of feasibility.
Written and compiled largely by the architect, the book reveals the inspirations, insights, and techniques that allow him to conceive—and build—such experimental work. There is a complete documentation of NOX's oeuvre, including built and unbuilt work—some twenty-three projects in total; essays by leading critics Manual De Landa, Detlef Mertins, Andrew Benjamin, Brian Massumi, and Arjen Mulder; and explanatory texts by Spuybroek that link the projects together.
Many of the illustrations in the book have been specially created, making accessible for the first time the complex strategies employed by Spuybroek. This in turn will make the publication an invaluable resource for both students and practicing designers. Over 800 illustrations, 400 in color.
