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Pro Domo by Yona Friedman
Actar, 2006
The cover of this monograph on artist/architect/urbanist
Yona Friedman provides two snippets of its contents: a portion
of the Friedman's "Warning to the reader" that
begins the book and a sketch of his proposal for a "bridge-town"
over the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The text hints not only
at the admittedly fragmentary nature of the numerous selections,
but also the mix of the serious and levity. This also comes
across in the sketch, a serious proposal for something truly
fantastical that's illustrated in a cartoonish way that
most architects or urbanists would not venture to share
to the public. But even though Friedman admits that the
book is fragmentary, and the reader doesn't always know
whether to take his projects seriously or not, the book
(and it is a book) is a cohesive document of Friedman's
life.
As the cover is presented as a balance
of image and text, this is also the case inside. While there
are a number of selections (Interview with Myself, United
Nations papers) where images cannot be found, the majority
of the book is a balance of words and mainly sketches. The
latter ultimately wins the battle between the two -- if
such a battle were to take place -- because Friedman's sketches,
models, diagrams, and numerous cartoons capture the ideas
of the designer more than his words can do. The cities raised
overhead, the structures infilled by the various occupants
over the wishes of architects and planners, the Parisian
and other cityscapes montaged with Friedman's megastructures,
all of these strike chords in the reader more than the rather
dry text. And it's his designs and imagery that hold the
book together, both apparently unchanging over the 50+ years
(and counting) of Friedman's career. It's quite an interesting
story, in pictures.
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