Reading Drawing Building

Pamphlet Architecture

by Michael Silver

Number 19 in the Pamphlet Architecture series, Reading Drawing Building, is an exquisitely designed volume that juxtaposes two projects; the Library and the Drawing Machine. Together, these projects explore reading and drawing as activities occurri ng within, on, about, and through architecture. In collapsing the separation between language and architecture, the projects trace an indivisible continuity between these seemingly distinct modes of representation. As Stan Allen explains in his introducti on, the projects' "meaning is in the way [they] work, and vice-versa." Reading Drawing Building also examines the place of the book in a world increasingly dominated by computers and the way chance determines structure and operation of the metropolis. Pamphlet Architecture, begun in 1978 by William Stout and Steven Holl, has become a popular venue for publishing the works and thoughts of a younger generation of architects. Small in scale, low in price, but large in impact, these books present and disseminate new and innovative theories.

Genres: Architecture

40 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1996