Customer Reviews

Instrumental Form: (Boss Architecture) Words, Buildings, Machines

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What this book is: a large collection of exciting and dynamic projects, virtually a must-have resource for its striking and dynamic style of presentation. Jones presents a full exploration of what may be termed 'machine-design', and his examples are wonderful specimens of craftsmanship.

Of course, with so many architects, his complete presentation is overloaded with visual goodies, i.e., "eye-candy". One wishes he's spent more time in making his verbal presentation more lucid. The text is confusing, jumbled, and affectatious. It may be fashionable to speak about architecture in lofty, disjointed metaphors, but instrumentally helpful it is not. It is ironic that with such a cut-and-dried, what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach to the design of buildings, Jones has chosen render his thoughts so murky.

It is, nonetheless, a wonder to peruse: the honesty of utilitarian pieces and the import of machine-design strategies is a marvelous gift to architecture.

Since the early nineties, I've been an avid fan of Jones' architecture, using the tectonics of the machine as the driving force in his designs. The illustrations and models are extrordinary to look at and study and offer an adaquate summary of his career (although I wish he included more detailed accounts of his earlier works).

Wes Jones' architecture may not be practical from the humanistic or economical point of view, but the machine architecture he practices continually evokes compelling examples and images which inspire me and other fans of design to search for innovation in our field.

My only complaint about the monogram is his pretensious writing style which is difficult to follow - much of it pure 'train-of-thought' writing, it seems.

If you find Jones to your liking, however, Neil Denari will be another architect you'll enjoy.

Back in 1992 I happened to see Wes Jones give a lecture at the "Emerging Voices" series in new York City's architectural league. I was anticipating this event greatly; Jones was at the time a member of the firm HHPJ whose graphic drawing style, and provocative designs were making a name for themselves. They had just one and completed the construction of the Astronauts Memorial in Florida. It was a double bill lecture and Jones was up first. As he spoke and showed slides, my anticipation turned to disappointment to anger. Reading rigidly from a prepared text he talked about philosophy, Hiedegger, and modern living. His slides were of the text he was reading from, pictures of typewritten pages. Some of the audience members left, I almost did too. He finally finished to a polite applause.

Jones' new book, "Boss Architecture" evokes similar feelings that I had those years ago. Beautifully produced, thoughtfully designed and chock full of those cool looking drawings of pseudo-industrial structures, it is imbalance with dense self conscious writings and stories. Architects who write about architecture can't seem to avoid wordy, pretentious complicated writing style, and Jones is no exception. Even the footnotes have footnotes. Of all the essays presented here, only one I found engaging, readable and clearly illustrated his concept of "bossness". "Hot Rod" is a great comparison between European and American attitudes about machinery, and cars in specific.

Jones' architect has maintained the same consistent fascination with machinery. All the projects express the structural, mechanical and fabrication systems as a visual image. The "contemporary vernacular" of the industrialized nation is a consistent theme is his work. Projects such as the Donner Lake cabins using shipping containers or the KOMA Museum in LA combine modern materials with innovative plans to make an architecture that sings. Other highlights include the Lake Superior Freshwater Aquarium i! n Michigan, the Head Start Childcare Facility in NJ, the spec. office complex in Philadelphia, PA, and the Zimmer stair at the University of Cincinnati. Other projects, such as the government center in Taiwan and the convention center in Romania project a robotic, and banal authoritarianism that gives these buildings a dismal bureaucratic air.

It's also interesting to see that of the 20 projects presented 15 are competitions, the majority of them not won by him. Also striking is the absence of color photographs of the few built works. I guess this is in keeping with his machine esthetic. Color is left to highlight the drawings.

Most disturbing is his fascination with the German philosopher Martin Hiedegger. Its a known fact the Hiedegger was a avid member of Germany's Nazi party, and Jones liberally drops his name and use of his quotes. This reader is left with a strange aftertaste seeing these machinery buildings born from an influence by the infamous German philosopher, something that Jones apparently has no qualms about. perhaps this is one of the reasons why this is a compelling book. Like trying not to look at a car crash on the highway, we are instead transfixed by the carnage, and someone else's misfortune.