Book Description
This trenchant re-examination of minimalism in architecture helps deepen our understanding of a style as diverse as the artists who practice it. What is minimalism? Or, more specifically, what isn’t? In this fascinating aesthetic voyage three experts in the field of architecture and art history trace the development of minimalism as a style and offer perspectives on the directions the movement is taking as it morphs toward the future. In double-page spreads filled with color photographs of the most innovative minimalist projects, this book illustrates three principal movements: the traditional, as practiced by Herzo & de Meuron, Peter Zumthor, Tadao Ando; the ambiguous, in which architects not commonly associated with minimalism, such as OMA or Zaha Hadid, use it for specific projects; and the subversive, which appropriates minimalist concepts across a variety of new fields. Coupled with an historical analysis of the relationship between minimalism in architecture to its appearance in art, the book examines minimalism as a paradigm for modern architecture.
Minimal Architecture FROM THE PUBLISHER
What is minimalism? Or, more specifically, what isn't? In this fascinating aesthetic voyage, three experts in the field of architecture and art history trace the development of minimalism as a style and offer perspectives on the directions the movement is taking as it morphs towards the future. In double-page spreads filled with color photographs of the most innovative minimalist projects, this book illustrates three principal movements: the traditional, as practiced by Herzog & de Meuron in early works, Adolf Krischanitz and Tadao Ando; the ambiguous, in which architects not commonly associated with minimalism, such as OMA or Zaha Hadid, use it for specific projects; and the subversive, which appropriates minimalist concepts across a variety of new fields as exemplified in the architecture of Shigeru Ban or Lacaton & Vassal.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
These are the first in Prestel's new "Architecture in Focus" series, "examining important themes, cycles, styles and movements in contemporary architecture." Both are slim, large-format volumes with flexicovers and fine illustrations. Featherweights looks at the idea of lightness in modern architecture. Herwig, a freelance journalist, begins with historical sketches of five well-known designers whom he considers pioneers of light architecture. He then ventures into recent examples of lightweight construction, membranes, inflatable architecture, mobile architecture, virtual architecture, and space station design. Examples include the Millennium Dome in London and Frank O. Gehry's Deutsche Genossenschafts Bank in Berlin. The book touches on many visionary and offbeat concepts, but it's a stretch to find a unifying theme of lightness among them all. Minimal Architecture's four authors, all art historians or architects, differentiate minimalism from modernism. They identify subtypes of essential minimalism, metaminimalism, and transminimalism. Their analysis is detailed and academic. The examples illustrated are mostly from Europe in the 1990s, and they include Herzog and de Meuron's Tate Modern and John Pawson's series of boutiques for Calvin Klein. Both these books are recommended for academic libraries with an interest in global contemporary architecture.-David R. Conn, Surrey P.L., B.C. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Art & Photography
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