A study of the complex relationship between technological development and the conceptual basis of architectural design, from World War II to early 1990s.
In Tower and Office, Spanish architects Inaki Abalos and Juan Herreros look at the role and impact of advanced building technologies in American architecture since World War II. The war, they claim, marked the end of the first cycle of modernism, challenging the belief that technological progress alone could produce a perpetually better future. At the same time, the war was the source of powerful new structural models and construction methods. The authors examine the ways these technologies have been inflected over the last half century by more subjective and integrated processes of spatial organization.
In the first part of the book, Abalos and Herreros focus on the work of Le Corbusier, revealing the degree of complexity achieved in his interpretation of the modern skyscraper. In the second part, they look at the intersection of technical and cultural determinants in the design of high-rise structures since World War II. Among the issues they consider are the evolution of the load-bearing frame, the impact of high-tech systems on tall buildings, and the transparent building skin. In the third part, they address developments in office design and planning, tracing an evolution from the repetitive and homogeneous office skyscraper to the present-day mixed-use structure. Overall they demonstrate how the objective technical analysis associated with modernist architectural theory has given way in recent building practice to a variety of flexible, pragmatic, and environmental approaches. These, they suggest, have opened the way to new urban and architectural forms.

Tower and Office: From Modernist Theory to Contemporary Practice

Science & Math

Herreros, Juan

Ábalos, Iñaki

Technology

Mit Pr

Tower And Office: From Modernist Theory to Contemporary Practice

EstudioHerreros: Lambda Files: The Project for the Munch Museum in Oslo

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Spector Books

TEXTOS CRÍTICOS #9

Ediciones Asimétricas

Product Description 
As a consequence of their teaching, editorial, research, public and design activities 
Iñaki Ábalos and 
Juan Herreros have created their own identity as architects committed to the contemporary world and antagonistic towards all professional mysticism. Their interests are basically centered on contemporary programs, the relationship between technics and nature, the rapport between the natural and the artificial, their collaboration with visual artists, and the techniques and mixed programs which they themselves have called "a new naturalism." Their oeuvre delves into regions which turn out, on occasion, to be marginal to the professional world of the architect (rubbish tips, artificial beaches, etc.) and has a kinship with American pragmatism and figures from the former School of Madrid such as Alejandro de la Sota. An investigation into building techniques based on the products available in catalogues along with a concern for the urban situation, without ever falling into contextualism, are two of the main features of such built works as the Usera Library, the Valdemingómez Recycling Plant and their studio for Luis Gordillo, all in Madrid, the Environmental Education Center in Arico (Tenerife) and their office building for the University of Extremadura. 
 Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. \nUna nueva naturalidad (7 Micromanifiestos) por Ábalos&Herreros 1. El jardín latente Sólo como un resto puritano de modernidad puede entenderse que aún hoy la palabra belleza esté proscrita de los debates profesionales. Basta con enunciar que la atracción por construir una nueva noción de belleza es casi lo único que da sentido a nuestra profesión (si quiere seguir entendiéndose como tal), para imaginar un programa de acción contundente, alejado de las trampas que meticulosamente nos tendemos. Si uno acepta esta proposición, la propia obra se transforma en notas de un particular cuaderno de viajes. Se construye con él un atlas mental, una geografía imaginaria capaz de iluminar cada lugar desde la propia proyección (invirtiendo el contextualismo tradicional) y dando forma, paso a paso, a un jardín latente. Esta visión remite quizás al filón pintoresco, superviviente subterráneamente hasta nosotros, encadenando nombres (Uvedale Price, Frederick L. Olmsted, Le Corbusier, Bruno Taut, Roberto Burle Marx, Lina Bo Bardi, Robert Smithson, Archigram, Cedric Price y otros). La fusión de naturaleza y artificio, la disolución de límites disciplinares entre arquitectura, arte, jardín y pensamiento, la organización de la experiencia como secuencias narrativas, la primacía de lo visual y el movimiento, también en lo inmaterial e invisible, la construcción de un espacio público y una arquitectura reflejo de las nuevas sensibilidades... Estos ingredientes conducen a un nuevo jardín que se ve o no se ve, pero sin él no hay nueva arquitectura sino, a lo sumo, variaciones. Quien lo imagina no se alimenta sólo de enunciados abstractos y nombres propios; debe construir otra cartografía paralela que ilumine sus proyectos conquistando nuevas referencias formales, nuevos símbolos, palabras y técnicas que le permitan abandonar los antiguos, carentes ya del atractivo necesario. Y debe reconstruir el interlocutor, a quién habla, a qué mundo se dirige (ver puntos 2, 3, 4 y 5). El cuaderno de notas se configura así con esbozos (las obras y proyectos), notas a pie de página, ideas prestadas y originales, nombres, imágenes, conversaciones, múltiples materiales que se miran a sí mismos y que recomponen nuestra propia mirada. El trabajo del arquitecto se confunde con el del jardinero: desbrozar, preparar el terreno, escoger las especies y sembrarlas de forma organizada, cuidando después de que el paso del tiempo haga bien su trabajo. 2. Descampados/Áreas de impunidad La disolución de la oposición natural-artificial que observamos a todas las escalas, conlleva un programa de trabajo que no es otro que el de redescr

2G N.22 Ábalos & Herreros

Beigel, Florian

Christou, Philip

Editorial Gustavo Gili, S.L.

Artwork by Inaki 8balos. Contributions by Juan Herreros.

Áreas de Impunidad

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

EDITORIAL ACTAR

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