Steven Holl Scale Cover
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Lars Müller (ed.)

Steven Holl – Scale

An Architect's Sketch Book

Following Written in Water (2002), this is the second publication devoted to Steven Holl’s legendary watercolors. Four hundred watercolors represent the creative process of this renowned and influential American architect and reveal his highly personal method developed over many years, containing preliminary ideas and sketches of all major projects. Holl is known for his sculptural architecture and his virtuosic use of light, and watercolors are the ideal means to visualize these characteristic aspects of his work. At a time of rapidly changing technology in the service of architectural design, these watercolors become spectacular examples of a low-tech method. The results are invariably original works of art. The watercolors are juxtaposed with photographs of the built architecture and emphasize the crucial aspect of scale.

Steven Holl is an American architect, perhaps best known for the 1998 Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland, the 2003 Simmons Hall at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the praised 2009 Linked Hybrid mixeduse complex in Beijing, China.

Following Written in Water (2002), this is the second publication devoted to Steven Holl’s legendary watercolors. Four hundred watercolors represent the creative process of this renowned and influential American architect and reveal his highly personal method developed over many years, containing preliminary ideas and sketches of all major projects. Holl is known for his sculptural architecture and his virtuosic use of light, and watercolors are the ideal means to visualize these characteristic aspects of his work. At a time of rapidly changing technology in the service of architectural design, these watercolors become spectacular examples of a low-tech method. The results are invariably original works of art. The watercolors are juxtaposed with photographs of the built architecture and emphasize the crucial aspect of scale.

Steven Holl is an American architect, perhaps best known for the 1998 Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland, the 2003 Simmons Hall at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the praised 2009 Linked Hybrid mixeduse complex in Beijing, China.

Edited by Lars Müller

Design: Integral Lars Müller

16.8 x 12.6 cm, 6 ½ x 5 in

480 pages, 420 illustrations

hardback

2012, 978-3-03778-251-4, English
Visual Diary Drawings Architectural Photography
CHF 48.00
Out of print

Steven Holl

Steven Holl (*1947) is one of the most important architects in America. He founded Steven Holl Architects in 1976 and has realized award-winning projects worldwide such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, the Nanjing Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing, China, or the LM Harbor Gateway in Copenhagen, Denmark. Holl’s planning is influenced not only by the surroundings, the architecture and the purposes, but also by his peculiar attention to the interconnection of architecture and visual and performing arts, physics and music. He is a tenured professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture and Planning and has taught at the University of Washington, the Pratt Institute, and the University of Pennsylvania.