Dinner for Architects: A Collection of Napkin Sketches (Paperback)

~ Winfried Nerdinger (Editor), Ingrid Li (Translator, Publisher), Philip K. Howard (Foreword) "Architects are larger than life - or so they think, because they invent the human landscape drawing only on their own souls..." (more)
Key Phrases: selected projects

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A cadre of internationally recognized architects were invited to a dinner for the opening of a new exhibition space at the Architecture Museum of Munich's Technical University. But rather than their persons, the architects were asked to send the Museum a sketch on a dinner napkin, which would then be placed on a table as their "representative." This handsomely produced book presents their "colorful and whimsical" responses. Readers aren't told much more than this; both Nerdinger's introduction and Howard's foreword would fit on one of the Museum's napkins. Nerdinger, the Museum's current director, declines to say if the idea was his (or what year the dinner took place) but, in her afterword, Irene Meissner assures us that "a meal unlike any other was served, and the guests ate, drank, and were merry late into the night." Full-color reproductions of some 60 napkins-with sketches by Tadao Ando, Mario Botta, Steven Hall, Josef Paul Kleihues, Dominique Perrault and Robert Venturi, among others-are interspersed with bon mots on the subject of drawing by the likes of Josef Albers, Le Corbusier (who was never a fan of the architectural sketch) and Mies van der Rohe. The sketches themselves range from quick scribbles to more elaborate works of art; they are striking enough to carry the book on their own, with the wattage of the collective reputations behind them.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

The spontaneous sketch, drawn when occasion offers on whatever comes to hand, is a trademark of the architect's creativity.

On the occasion of the opening of the museum of architecture in the Gallery of Modern Art in Munich, the museum director asked architects of international standing to sketch their personal greetings and congratulations on a paper napkin. These napkins are now part of a colorful, imaginative, and often droll collection, reproduced here interspersed with pithy quotes from an array of famous architects. Included in this beautifully produced volume—an ideal gift not only for architects—are contributions by Tadao Ando, Mario Botta, Steven Holl, Josef Paul Kleihues, Dominique Perrault, Venturi, Scott Brown, and many more. Color illustrations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; illustrated edition edition (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393731545
• ISBN-13: 978-0393731545
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #802,452 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)