TECHNO ARCHITECTURE & CONCRETE REGIONALISM & COOL CONSTRUCTION & RADICAL TECTONICS.

TECHNO ARCHITECTURE

By Elizabeth Taylor 

CONCRETE REGIONALISM 

By Catherine Slessor

COOL CONSTRUCTION

By Raymund Ryan

RADICAL TECTONICS 

By Annette LeCuyer

London: Thames & Hudson. 2000 and 2001.

[pound]12.95 each

'4 international architects x 4 innovative works = 16 visionary buildings.' This equation is boldly displayed on the back covers of the first four volumes in Thames & Hudson's new '4 x 4' series. It is a neat publishing formula and at only [pound]12.95 for each 128 page, medium format, copiously illustrated paperback it will no doubt appeal to architects and architecture students who can't afford the more lavish and unwieldy monographs that fill the architectural bookshops. Such a determined and thoroughgoing packaging operation does, however, have a distorting effect on the contents. There has to be some rationale for the grouping, some justification for putting, for example, Chipperfield with Souto de Moura and Predock with Ando rather than the other combination which would be equally plausible. The publisher's answer to this problem is to invent a new architectural movement or -ism for each volume and then require the poor author to write a l0-page introduction making a case for its legitimacy. This is a v ery difficult assignment since the new movements are entirely fictitious. They don't correspond to any real intellectual alliances or patterns of influence out there in the world of architecture. It is not surprising, therefore, that one or two of the introductions are mere word spinning.

But perhaps this doesn't matter too much. The consumers of these particular packaged goods are probably less interested in generalized critical interpretations than in the hard information contained in the well written biographical essays and building descriptions. And of course they are even more interested in the photographs and drawings, which are generally of reasonable size, quality and legibility. But there is another problem with the packaging: organizationally and graphically it is far too elaborate. For some reason the first few pages are devoted to short quotations from the introduction, in very large type, overlaid on fragmentary monochrome images of the featured buildings. This is pure padding and of no possible use to any reader.

The rest of the book is divided into four sections corresponding to the four architects, which is straightforward enough, but why are the four building descriptions in each section all grouped together rather than printed alongside the appropriate illustrations? Then there are all the irritating graphic mannerisms -- the drawings in pale coloured ink, the patterned backgrounds, the thumbnail reference images, the three digit numbering system and, worst of all, the picture captions (all of them) rotated 90 degrees clockwise. Paradoxically, given the attempt to invent more and more architectural styles, the effect of this visual clutter is to make all the buildings look the same.