Siteless: 1001 Building Forms [Paperback]

François Blanciak (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262026309 | ISBN-13: 978-0262026307 | Publication Date: February 29, 2008

An attempt to free architecture from site and program constraints and to counter the profusion of ever bigger architecture books with ever smaller content.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Some may call it the first manifesto of the twenty-first century, for it lays down a new way to think about architecture. Others may think of it as the last architectural treatise, for it provides a discursive container for ideas that would otherwise be lost. Whatever genre it belongs to, SITELESS is a new kind of architecture book that seems to have come out of nowhere. Its author, a young French architect practicing in Tokyo, admits he "didn't do this out of reverence toward architecture, but rather out of a profound boredom with the discipline, as a sort of compulsive reaction." What would happen if architects liberated their minds from the constraints of site, program, and budget? he asks. The result is a book that is saturated with forms, and as free of words as any architecture book the MIT Press has ever published.The 1001 building forms in SITELESS include structural parasites, chain link towers, ball bearing floors, corrugated corners, exponential balconies, radial facades, crawling frames, forensic housing--and other architectural ideas that may require construction techniques not yet developed and a relation to gravity not yet achieved. SITELESS presents an open-ended compendium of visual ideas for the architectural imagination to draw from. The forms, drawn freehand (to avoid software-specific shapes) but from a constant viewing angle, are presented twelve to a page, with no scale, order, or end to the series. After setting down 1001 forms in siteless conditions and embryonic stages, Blanciak takes one of the forms and performs a "scale test," showing what happens when one of these fantastic ideas is subjected to the actual constraints of a site in central Tokyo. The book ends by illustrating the potential of these shapes to morph into actual building proportions. François Blanciak is an architect and Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo. He has worked for architectural firms in Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, and New York, with architects including Frank Gehry and Peter Eisenman.

"Imagine Learning from Las Vegas as illustrated by Chris Ware, and you'll get a sense of François Blanciak's marvelously inventive new book." Metropolis

About the Author

"In Siteless: 1001 Building Forms, French architect François Blanciak surrenders the usual anchors of function and site for an exercise in pure form. His astoundingly imaginative 1,001 designs could challenge architects and engineers for decades." Santa Fe New Mexican

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262026309
• ISBN-13: 978-0262026307
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely helpful if your stuck in the design process, August 29, 2008

By 

NZarch (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Siteless: 1001 Building Forms (Paperback)

I would recommend this book to anybody who sometimes struggles with coming up with new ideas or often gets stuck in the design process.. I often flick through this book for inspiration or ideas. The forms inside do not necessarily need to be replicated, but can often lead to developments in your own ideas.

A really helpful, small book that should be kept in any architecture students backpack

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To the magic of architectural creativity, August 7, 2008

By 

Tor O. Austigard (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Siteless: 1001 Building Forms (Paperback)

To claim this book just adds to the general tendency of contemporary architecture seeking the immediately shocking, superficial and easily publishable is perhaps a sign of precisely this tendency: people losing the ability to dwell on things long enough for their imagination to come out.

Once applied on actual architecture these concepts would need to be closely linked to program, scale and site to be interesting. However in the initial program-, scale- and siteless condition they are presented in this book, they evoke intense imagination in me. The sketches being hand drawn also adds to this.

You can be impatient and flip through it in five minutes, or you can focus your attention and find the potential and depth these forms have.

Anyway, diverging criticism and provocation is usually a sign of quality.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A highly creative book, June 27, 2008

By 

Natrick Pickels (Munich) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Siteless: 1001 Building Forms (Paperback)

I am not an architect but I am fascinated by the multiple varieties of shapes in this book. I can literally dive into this imaginative world.
The architectural context seems to give the work some kind of
justification, which is not needed. It is a fine piece of art all by
itself.
It makes a good present as well, as the price is very reasonable, and can be a source of inspiration not only for architects but also for artists (I personally intend to offer it to a friend who is a wood sculptor). I think this book is an appealing work for all kinds of creative people.