Urbanisms: Working with Doubt

by Steven Holl

Contemporary urban development is increasingly characterized by a reliance on diagrams to convey the rational, statistical point of view of the professional urban planner. In his new book Urbanisms , architect Steven Holl suggests that just as modern medicine has recognized the power of the irrational psyche, urban planners need to realize that the experiential power of cities cannot be completely rationalized and must be studied subjectively. With a selection of urbanand architectural projects from his thirty year practice, Holl stretches urban planning into the domain of uncertainty. Analyzing a wide range of matters from everyday experiences to spatial data, Urbanisms examines how perception and the senses are intertwined with the material, space, and light of urban form. Grouped under themes like Fragments, Porosity, Insertions, Precious, and Fusion, Holl explores concepts such as creating cities from pieces or edges; moving in and out of the spaces between a built environment; inserting architectural elements into complex urban situations; constructing small-scale mini-urbanisms; and preserving natural landscapes. Urbanisms presents design solutions for diverse locations including the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa in Iowa City; Green Urban Laboratory in Nanning, China; Toolenburg Zuid Schipol, The Netherlands; Fondation Pinault Ile Seguin in Paris, France; and the Master Plan for M.I.T.'s Vassar Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A comprehensive exploration of each project illustrates this much-celebrated and influential architect's perspective on large-scale planning.

Genres: Architecture

288 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 2007

About the author

Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is an American architect and watercolorist, perhaps best known for the 2003 Simmons Hall at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the celebrated 2007 Bloch Building addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri,[1] and the praised 2009 Linked Hybrid mixed-use complex in Beijing, China.

Holl graduated from the University of Washington and pursued architecture studies in Rome in 1970. In 1976, he attended graduate school at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and established his offices New York City. Holl has taught at Columbia University since 1981.

Holl's architecture has undergone a shift in emphasis, from his earlier concern with typology to his current concern with a phenomenological approach; that is, with a concern for man's existentialist, bodily engagement with his surroundings. The shift came about partly due to his interest in the writings of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and architect-theorist Juhani Pallasmaa.

Reviews

[Lilas · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring read on what it means to think the city through unifying “megaforms”—in Frampton’s words.
Holl’s collection of works is particularly engrossing in its pursuit of porosity and its recurrent use of poetry as a catalyst for architectural form.

[Lorenzo Diaz campos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Con el objetivo de explicar su visión sobre lo macro y su forma de interactuar en el espacio urbano Steven Holl explora su propia obra en búsqueda de respuestas. Para el arquitecto, el contexto en el que los diversos proyectos en los que ha participado se desenvuelven, son una circunstancia que debe de ser estudiada con duda. Parte de la premisa que hoy en día se crea con la incertidumbre constante y dentro de la complejidad de sistemas altamente dinámicos.
Con interesantes textos que explican su teoría sobre la escala macro de la arquitectura Holl habla de Geo-espacialidad, ciudades seccionales, capacidades negativas y otra serie de interesantes circunstancias que sirven como base para presentar sus proyectos en diferentes partes del mundo. 38 proyectos, agrupados por país o área geográfica, que abarcan más de 30 años de práctica son puestos en la palestra para evidenciar su tesis.
Urbanisms es un monográfico cargado de teoría y praxis. Un libro que presenta los proyectos en un contexto intelectual complejo y hace entender la arquitectura y el urbanismo contemporáneo en toda su incertidumbre.

[Bisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read, inspiring and creative works included in this book.