Theory and Experimentation. In Intellectual Extravaganza

An evocative book that captures the mood of the 90s now that an array of innovative architects have moved from the studio (the realm of artistic theory) to the building site. The barrier between theory and reality is being torn down as world architecture moves into a period of experimentation, invention and above all, freedom. Not since the early years of the Modern Movement has there been such a sense of renewal and such a diversity of theory and style - within the framework of a modernist theory of design. The liberated architecture of the last decade of the 20th century embraces the freedom resulting from new materials and new technologies and welcomes the breakdown between "reality" and image inherent in the electronic revolution. "Theory & Experimentation" is a recognition of architecture as an art and aims to highlight the welcome development of world architecture away from parochial issues of style towards a freer interplay between technology and art, function and invention. It is not only a source book of an international array of architects and ideas, an intellectual extravaganza of architectural theory and its realization, but also contains extensive biographies of 35 architects. It is the result of the events at London's Royal Academy of Arts in June 1992 including Bernard Tschumi's lecture on the six concepts of contemporary architecture, which is published here for the first time, and the conference and symposium on "Theory and Experimentation" held at the Royal Institute of British Archtects and the Royal Academy, respectively. Among the architects featured are well known names such as Peter Cook, Peter Eisenman, Itsuko Hasegawa, Daniel Libeskind, Morphosis, Peter Pran, Coop Himmelblau, Bernard Tschumi, Peter wilson and Lebbeus Woods. Each architect's work is presented in a comprehensive and objective survey of their designs and project realizations and in addition each architect has designed a section presenting his own work.