Event-Cities 3: Concept vs. Context vs. Content (No. 3) [Paperback]

Bernard Tschumi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0262701103 | ISBN-13: 978-0262701105

In Event-Cities 3, Bernard Tschumi explores the complex and productive triangulation of architectural concept, context, and content. There is no architecture without a concept, an overriding idea that gives coherence and identity to a building. But there is also no architecture without context -- historical, geographical, cultural -- or content (what happens inside). Concept, context, and content may be in unison or purposely discordant. Against the contextualist movement of the 1980s and 1990s, which called for architecture to blend in with its surroundings, Tschumi argues that buildings may or may not conform to their settings -- but that the decision should always be strategic.Through documentation of recent projects -- including the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, a campus athletic center in Cincinnati, museums in Sao Paolo, New York, and Antwerp, concert halls in France, and a speculative urban project in Beijing -- Tschumi examines different ways that concept, context, and content relate to each other in his work. In the new Acropolis Museum, for example, Tschumi looks at the interaction of the concept -- a simple and precise museum with the clarity of ancient Greek buildings -- with the context (its location at the base of the Acropolis, 800 feet from the Parthenon) and the content, which incorporates archaeological excavations on the building site into the fabric of the museum. Through provocative examples, Tschumi demonstrates that the relationship of concept, context, and content may be one of indifference, reciprocity, or conflict -- all of which, he argues, are valid architectural approaches. Above all, he suggests that the activity of architecture is less about the making of forms than the investigation and materialization of concepts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"not only eye-popping, but stimulating too." The Architect's Newspaper

About the Author

Bernard Tschumi is Principal of Bernard Tschumi Architects, New York and Paris. He was dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture from 1988 to 2003.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262701103
• ISBN-13: 978-0262701105
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #431,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A full monography from "la Villette" To "le Fresnoy", June 13, 2000

By 

Lionel "lio" (Switzeland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Event-Cities (Paperback)

This monography of Tschumi is very interesting and show well the conceptual approach in his works. the design of the book is also made by Tschumi himself. We can like or don't like these esthetism, I mean the black and white pictures with low resolution. But nevertheless, this book is a full monography of all the project until the beginning of the 90's. there is a new book planned to follow this one "Event-cities 2". So I believe these two books would be good to have in your own library if you want to have a full coverage of tschumi works.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must have for architecture students, September 1, 2008

By 

Eric Potterfield (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Event-Cities 3: Concept vs. Context vs. Content (No. 3) (Paperback)

This is an amazing book for anyone looking for insight as to how modern architects go about the practice of their profession. Tschumi provides many sketches to show the necessary rigor and logical progression of design developement. This is a must have for any architect or aspiring architecture student!

5 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Anti-Architecture, May 10, 2004

By 

Vishuna (Cincinatti) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Event-Cities (Paperback)

If the architecture of Frank Gehry, has been described as a movie composed entirely of special effects, then Tschumi's is like special effects that don't quite come off. Herbert Muschamp, the modernist cheerleader who is the architecture critic for the NY Times, began his review of Tschumi's Lerner Student Center at Columbia University by saying "By now, everyone knows that Bernard Tschumi's new Lerner Hall is a dud." And City Journal described his work as ""an agitated, irrational mix of limestone, brick, metal, and glass... giving the impression of a building on the edge of a nervous breakdown." Journalist Robert Locke has written, ""Tschumi's theoretical writings, the basis of his reputation, are a tangled mess that alternately induces dizziness and puzzlement as to whether the author actually knows what philosophy is, or merely heard it described by someone in a bar once ...... The worst of this stuff is so self-evidently empty as to defy attack". - It only remains for you to ask yourself whether you are one of those fools who will be taken in by this confidence trickster who has ruined the cities we live in, or whether you will move on to more intelligent reading. [Hint: Try Louis Kahn. It's a good start!]