Steven Holl: Written in Water

by Steven Holl

Built as a diary, the 365 watercolors reproduced in Written in Water represent the creative process of famed American architect Steven Holl. Holl's highly individual method of capturing in watercolors his initial ideas and sketches for all major buildings and competition projects was developed over many years. As an architect, Holl is known for the sculptural qualities he gives to structures and for his genuine use of light -- two qualities which are in tune with the characteristics of the watercolor technique. Among the increasingly high-tech working methods common to his profession, Steven Holl's reliance on a highly artistic and resolutely low-tech process becomes spectacular and inspiration.

Genres: Architecture

400 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2006

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

[Wei Cho · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Steven Holl and the way he thinks. I enjoy looking at his water colors and paintings of the potential spaces that those places might become. It is so beautiful.
This book is just a series of his sketches of the concept and design process of a building. I find it quite useful in terms of inspiration for my own projects and concepts as well as how to think spatially and graphically.