In this book, stories portray the production of our built environment, guided by three characters: Giraffes, Telegraphs, and Hero of Alexandria. Having developed its long neck to reach the leaves of high trees, the giraffe represents the vernacular approach to architecture, in which construction follows forces of nature. The telegraph, in contrast, embodies the modernist paradigm, in which technology reigns supreme and forces nature to adapt. Inspired by Hero of Alexandria, SMAQ subscribe to a third paradigm – using technology to optimize nature and, inversely, nature to assimilate technology. Their design concepts appear as tools ready to engage our contemporary urban environment, free of today’s ecological and technological fundamentalism and in favor of experimentation, pleasure, and play.

The book is a collection of 13 architecture and urban research projects told as stories. Because stories, to borrow the language of Michel de Certeau, carry out the labor that transforms geometrical, abstract space into a lived space, and because a project should offer the interpretational openness of fiction. Complemented by photos, drawings, and diagrams the narratives guide the reader of the book through contested contexts as diverse as Dubai, Beijing and Halle/Leipzig, revealing otherwise invisible forces contemporary urban design may utilize.

With contributions by Theo Deutinger, Rodney LaTourelle, Sabine Müller, Caroline O’Donnell, Andreas Quednau, Deane Simpson and a poster showing a selection of the beautiful playful pneumatic inventions of Hero of Alexandria, Greek mathematician and engineer born in 10 AD. Graphic Design of book and poster Katja Gretzinger. 

Editors: Sabine Müller, Andreas Quednau, SMAQ
English
Ruby Press 2016
430 pages
240 x 170 mm
with more than 150 drawings, illustrations and photos
ISBN: 978-3-944074-13-9 

Now available at Ruby Press webshop, Amazon and at your local bookseller. 

Further information including movie with flip through the book: Idea Books