Steven Holl: Idea and Phenomena

An overview of the built work of architect Steven Holl, Idea and Phenomena focuses on the sculptural expression inherent in his designs, material, composition, and use of light. Apparent in such projects as his Makuhari Housing in Chiba, Japan, where he designed a new city block on dredged fill at the rim of Tokyo Bay, Holl has devoted over 20 years of his professional life to exploring the use of movable walls for creating variety and what he calls "spaces for individual life." Even more essential to his oeuvre is what critic Herbert Muschamp has described as its "astonishing sculptural presence," created from the "strikingly assured interplay between windows and walls, curves and grids, voids and planes." In his fine-fibered use of materials, Holl employs his principle of "the stone and the feather," juxtaposing thin sheets of zinc roofing with rough concrete walls along knife-edged junctures. The results, as Idea and Phenomena clearly shows, from the first sketch to the final construction, are buildings alert to emotional needs, the spiritual properties of space, and the specifics of their own surroundings.

Essays by Dietmar Steiner, Michael Bell, Wolf Prix and Yehuda E. Safran.

Hardcover, 128 pages, 80 color and 20 b&w images.