Never Modern

by Irenee Scalbert, Tom Emerson (Contributor), Stephanie MacDonald (Contributor)

In Never Modern , Irenee Scalbert explores the role of narrative, history, and appropriation in the works of the London-based firm 6a Architects, whose recent projects include the South London Gallery, Raven Row, and the new fashion galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Scalbert examines the unique approach of the members of 6a, wherein they avoid style and signature in favor of what Scalbert calls a premodern sense of metis , or “flair, wisdom, forethought, subtlety of mind, deception, resourcefulness, vigilance, opportunism, varied skills, and experience.” Scalbert’s analysis is accompanied by a striking visual essay of archival photographs, artworks, film stills, and recent projects by the firm. In the end, Scalbert argues that like contemporary society in general, the architecture of 6a Architects is fundamentally a work of bricolage, creating art composed of various objects on hand, drawing from history and the everyday to create something new and vital.   

Genres: Architecture

176 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2013

Reviews

[Seven Pesos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy Moses, this book stinks. Just like my thoughts on the Gert & Uwe Tobias' book from the other week: a lot of flowery language used to sell mediocre work. At least with the Tobias' book the masturbatory critique was limited to the forward. Here, the wankery takes up a full 180 pages. At least the font is big and there's a bunch of pictures and big empty spaces. This book sucks, but it's designed really nicely. The high production value of this mediocrity makes me suspect something like nepotism or perhaps a lot of trust fund money being dumped into some unspectacular architecture firm. What a waste of a dollar. Sometimes you get what you pay for when you dive to the bottom of the bargain bin. Sometimes you get less.

[Thomas Rasmussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Med sine vage formuleringer og fejende generaliseringer, at denne bog et virkelig godt eksempel på hvor svært det er at sætte ord på arkitektur.

Den beskriver en retning, en sensibilitet som ikke er utypisk på kunstneriske uddannelser, men som desværre nok er svær at fastholde i kommerciel praksis.

Man kunne drømme om en prosa med færre fluffy little clouds og større mod til præcision. Og Never Modern er sikkert præcis det den gerne vil være… inspiration, kreativt vag… men den er også tekst nummer 10.000 som sætter Levi-Strauss og Tati sammen med Nadja og bricolage og det er relativt uforpligtende og umodigt… men charmerende, altid.

[Alexandra Daw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite philosophical. Not for the common man or woman me thinks. Some quotes to give you a sense of it..."Architecture must not be separated from everyday experience....there is not one process that applies to humans and another that applies to their environment." Best quote or the one that makes you think was "humans speak and buildings don't, buildings last (or some do) but humans don't." Perhaps too philosophical for its own good .... there was a bit of me that felt I was being "had" by clever speak. Perhaps I was hampered in my understanding by not actually being able to experience the work spoken about in real life.