Customer Reviews

Mockbee Coker: Thought and Process

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This book explores the mystery and beauty of the art that people make for themselves, and the art (read here as architecture) that is made for them. Starting from a principle that there is nobility and worth in every person, and that the architect must use all the techniques at his/her disposal to enhance that nobility and worth, the singular team of Mockbee Coker have produced some of the most beautiful and novel architecture in recent years.

This book is a good way to discover this design team's wonderful (and wonderous) work and philosophy. The rhetoric the architects use to explain their work and art can get a bit thick. And many of the photos and illustrations are small and black & white. In the end, what you want is a great big "coffee table book" with lots of color pictures of the art, architecture, and people whose lives are enriched by the work of Mockbee Coker. One hopes this book will serve to introduce the works of Mockbee Coker to a larger audience and inspire additional explorations of their fasinating work.

Finally, a book focusing on this inspired pair of architect/designers. Theirs is an especially beautiful blend of aesthetics and social activism. As the first monograph I've seen on their work, this book succeeds in introducing the concepts and projects of this very special firm. However, the book left me wanting much more--more writing on the individual structures, the inclusion of more structures, and, of course, more pictures...