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Urbanisms:
Working with Doubt by Steven Holl
Princeton Architectural Press, 2009
Hardcover, 240 pages
In the foreword to what seems like
his umpteenth book for Princeton Architectural Press architect
Steven
Holl describes it as an accompaniment to the previous
House: Black Swan Theory, with a focus on the
macroscale where the predecessor dealt with the microscale.
These books present the buildings and unbuilt projects of
Holl's office back to the days of Anchoring and
Intertwining, his
first two PAPress monographs and examples of chronological
coverage. Urbanisms and House become more
summary than the architect's early monographs, though many
of the themes that Holl discusses in his latest can be found
in his early texts; his conceptual consistency is without
refute.
Thinking of Holl's projects on the
macroscale, a few projects spring to mind, all in China:
Beijing's Linked
Hybrid, Shenzhen's Vanke
Center and Chengdu's Sliced
Porosity Block. The three "cities-within-cities"
-- two recently completed -- dramatically surpass other
Holl projects in scale and ambition. Their distinctive combinations
of forms, massings and mixed-uses make them influential
if impossible to replicate. They also embody the eleven
tenets Holl outlines at the beginning of the book, all stemming
from the theme of the book: working with doubt. For example
"urban porosity" recalls the dynamic and varied
spaces of traditional neighborhoods in Naples, Paris and
Greenwich Village more than megaprojects, but Holl attempts
to reconcile the two in how the twelve buildings in the
Linked Hybrid relate to each other; a repetitive exterior
is balanced by bridges, pavilion and in-between spaces of
distinct character. "Sectional cities" obviously
also applies to this project, albeit quite literally and
exclusively. With these tenets Holl describes the essence
of urbanism today, what architects need to realize as they
undergo larger and larger projects. In China he is creating
the embodiment of his thinking on this macroscale. How successful
they are at "working with doubt" will surely be
scrutinized in the months and years to come.
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