Book Launch Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Things
As part of Rotterdam Architecture Month (RAM), on Thursday 2 June 2022 Het Nieuwe Instituut and NAi Booksellers are organising a festive book presentation about 'Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Things', a new publication about the award-winning New York architecture firm Archi-Tectonics. On this occasion, architect and researcher Winka Dubbeldam, who founded the firm in 1994, will talk with director Aric Chen of Het Nieuwe Instituut
2 June 2022 17:30 - 19:00
Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Things explores the work of Archi-Tectonics, the award-winning architecture firm founded by Winka Dubbeldam in 1994 in New York.
The book explores the practice's work, in light of a paradigm shift in contemporary design enabled by advances in technology and design conceptualization. Examining the architectural object and the process of its emergence and production, the book demonstrates in great detail how the firm's unique design methodology of research, optimization, prototyping, and construction innovation leads to original, characteristic designs. Rather than a traditional monograph, the book, as manual, was conceived itself as a Strange Object reflecting the non-standard way the firm's projects come into being.
The book was designed by WSDIA and includes essays by Winka Dubbeldam, Manuel Delanda and Jonathan Jackson.
As showcased and examined in Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Forms, from the earliest projects and regardless of scale, Archi-Tectonics has valued performance over form, design intelligence over style. Through prototypes and mock-ups, process documentation and testimonials, the book presents 10 current and recent projects that celebrate the particular and singular over the ideal and universal.
Join us for a presentation about the book from Archi-Tectonics' founder Winka Dubbeldam, followed by a conversation with Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director of Het Nieuwe Instituut.