Urbanisms: Working with Doubt [Hardcover]

Steven Holl (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568986793 | ISBN-13: 978-1568986791 | Publication Date: November 4, 2009 | Edition: 1

Contemporary urban development is increasingly characterized by a reliance on diagrams to convey the rational, statistical point of view of the professional urban planner. In his new book Urbanisms, architect Steven Holl suggests that just as modern medicine has recognized the power of the irrational psyche, urban planners need to realize that the experiential power of cities cannot be completely rationalized and must be studied subjectively. With a selection of urbanand architectural projects from his thirty year practice, Holl stretches urban planning into the domain of uncertainty. Analyzing a wide range of matters from everyday experiences to spatial data, Urbanisms examines how perception and the senses are intertwined with the material, space, and light of urban form.

Grouped under themes like Fragments, Porosity, Insertions, Precious, and Fusion, Holl explores concepts such as creating cities from pieces or edges; moving in and out of the spaces between a built environment; inserting architectural elements into complex urban situations; constructing small-scale mini-urbanisms; and preserving natural landscapes. Urbanisms presents design solutions for diverse locations including the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa in Iowa City; Green Urban Laboratory in Nanning, China; Toolenburg Zuid Schipol, The Netherlands; Fondation Pinault Ile Seguin in Paris, France; and the Master Plan for M.I.T.'s Vassar Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A comprehensive exploration of each project illustrates this much-celebrated and influential architect's perspective on large-scale planning.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...this thoughtful book, and the remarkable urban designs so compellingly presented therein, together form one of the most optimistic arguments for the importance of the city in both global and local culture, and the part architecture can play in the evolution of the contemporary city. While Holl calls for radical changes in the way we build in the city, in order to address the ecological imperatives now necessary for sustaining our survival, he also presents a series of optimistic, innovative, and inspiring designs that imagine enriching urban life in entirely new ways." --Robert McCarter

"Steven Holl Architects has just announced the release of a new book, Urbanisms: Working with Doubt." --Archinnovations

"Both an architectural monograph and an academic critique on practices of architecture and city-making, Steven Holl's Urbanisms offers an alternative to dependency on the diagram through explorations of phenomenology (sensory reactions to spatial qualities), poetry and acceptance of the unknown. `Working with Doubt' is a jarring concept in the context of our romanticizations. With the awe of a pioneer scientist, Holl makes his point that the paradigm of architecture has changed, and an element of doubt is key." --re:place Magazine

"Contemporary urban development is increasingly characterized by a reliance on diagrams to convey the rational statistical point of view of the professional urban planner.

In his new book Urbanisms architect Steven Holl suggests that just as modern medicine has recognized the power of the irrational psyche urban planners need to realize that the experiential power of cities cannot be completely rationalized and must be studied subjectively." --Dexigner

"Explores diverse concepts such as creating cities from pieces or edges; moving in and out of the spaces between a built environment; inserting architectural elements into complex urban situations; constructing small-scale miniurbanisms and preserving natural landscapes..." --WorldArchitectureNews.com

"intriguing, compelling, seriously gorgeous, data-driven, cool" --The Architect's Newspaper

"Steven Holl Architects announced the release of a new book, Urbanisms: Working with Doubt. Contemporary urban development is increasingly characterized by a reliance on diagrams, maps, and graphs to convey the rational, statistical point of view of the professional urban planner. This volume suggests that just as modern medicine has recognized the power of the irrational psyche, urban planners need to realize that the experiential power of cities cannot be completely rationalized and must be studied subjectively. With a selection of urban and architectural projects from his thirty-year practice, Holl stretches urban planning into the domain of uncertainty, from prose into poetry. Urbanisms examines how perception and the senses are intertwined with the material, space, and light of urban form." --ArtDaily.org

"Urbanisms and House become more summary than the architect's early monographs, though many of the themes that Holl discusses in his latest can be found in his early texts; his conceptual consistency is without refute." --Archidose

"Urbanisms: Working with Doubt, the new book of Steven Holl, which presents a selection of urban and architectural projects from the acclaimed architect's thirty-year practice, has been released by Princeton Architectural Press. Urbanisms presents design solutions for diverse locations, including Linked Hybrid in Beijing, China; Sliced Porosity Block in Chengdu, China; Horizontal Skyscraper in Shenzhen, China; Green Urban Laboratory in Nanning, China; Toolenburg Zuid Schiphol, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Fondation Pinault Ile Seguin in Paris, France; and the master plan for M.I.T.'s Vassar Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A comprehensive exploration of each project illustrates this much-celebrated and influential architect's perspective on urban planning.

Contemporary urban development is increasingly characterized by a reliance on diagrams, maps, and graphs to convey the rational, statistical point of view of the professional urban planner. In his new book, Urbanisms, architect Steven Holl suggests that just as modern medicine has recognized the power of the irrational psyche, urban planners need to realize that the experiential power of cities cannot be completely rationalized and must be studied subjectively. With a selection of urban and architectural projects from his thirty-year practice, Holl stretches urban planning into the domain of uncertainty, from prose into poetry. Urbanisms examines how perception and the senses are intertwined with the material, space, and light of urban form." --Dezeen Design Magazine

"Steven Holl, Urbanisms: Working With Doubt. This is a dazzling model of an architect's reflections upon his own work that generates open-ended questions of first-order. While disclosing the musical and poetic programs actualized in his designs, Holl articulates his sense of practical constraints that are integral to 21st-century urbanism. Annotating projects in the U.S., Europe, and Asia during the past two decades, an astute reader might want to begin the book in the middle with Holl's Chinese architecture. Buildings like the Horizontal Skyscraper and Linked Hybrid cast long shadows in terms of reformulating visions of high-density urban design. Probing, adventuresome, unsettling - and yet optimistic." --ArchNewsNow

"Urbanisms draws from Holl's thirty years of practice of working with rational statistical design and the doubts that began to enter his thinking about design.

Urbanisms is a catalog of sorts of both his uncertainties and his struggles to work his way through the doubt. Interestingly, he arrives at the conclusion that the doubts, not only will always be with us, but in fact, must always be with us." --Urban Paradoxes

"Dezeen have got together with Steven Holl Architects to give away five copies of their latest monograph, Urbanisms - Working with Doubt." --Dezeen Design Magazine

About the Author

Steven Holl has been recognized with architecture's most prestigious awards and prizes and has lectured and exhibited widely. He is a tenured professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture and Planning and has published numerous books, including Anchoring, Intertwining, Parallax, and House.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (November 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568986793
• ISBN-13: 978-1568986791
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended as a resource for architectural inspiration, April 12, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Urbanisms: Working with Doubt (Hardcover)

Award-winning architect Steven Holl presents Urbanisms: Working With Doubt, an illustrated compendium of architectural projects from his thirty years in the field. Black-and-white and color diagrams and photographs on practically every single page bring to life not only his creations, but an expression of the impulses behind their design - from the will to preserve natural landscapes to adapting to complicated urban situations. Text captions for the photographs and diagrams elucidate the creative problem-solving intent inherent in original architecture. Highly recommended as a resource for architectural inspiration, particularly with regard to the complex issue of effective urban planning.