Parallax by Steven Holl Illustrated

by Steven Holl

Steven Holl is probably a pretty cool architect. With its clean, racy curves both inside and out, his recent Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (and biggest project to date) in Helsinki looks like an artfully cut-out chunk of a late '50s sports car, or better yet--given its minty-blue tones and au courant materials--a huge iMac. His very intimate Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle (about which he published a previous book, The Chapel of St. Ignatius; he's also put out Anchoring and Intertwining), with its exterior reflecting pool and beguiling interior play of light, curves, and color couldn't be more iconoclastic for a Catholic house of worship, yet it exudes a queer grace in the same spirit as Le Corbusier's famous Chapel at Ronchamp. And surely the banks of Boston's Charles River have never seen anything like the dormitory complex Noll has designed for MIT--the model of which, included here, promises a multicube city unto itself with an intricate, discontinuous façade of overlapping grids and screens, so radical in concept that it defies written description (or a really good one, at any rate). And yet the reason why the very chicly designed Parallax (with a list price of $40, it's probably the world's most expensive cardboard-covered book) only probably affirms that Holl is a cool architect is that there are simply not enough full-color photographs of his completed work here to tell. Holl is a very conceptual architect, and most of the pages here contain what he refers to as his "liner notes" on his projects--leaden, humorless meditations on such themes as "chemistry of matter," "pressure of light," "strange attractors," and "porosity" as they relate to his work. Beyond that, there's a profusion of computer renderings, simple sketches, and tiny black-and-white photographs of small portions that, alas, also do very little to illuminate his work for the reader.What little color photography is offered here is excellent, going a long way even in its paucity toward suggesting why Holl has already created a stir (and you can click on our unique Look inside this book! link below the cover image to get a sense of it). Just one limited shot of even a modest project like his 1996 Ikebana House in Makuhari, Japan, seizes the eye with its almost astonishing manipulation of color, texture, and curvature, leaving the beholder hungry for more. If you're already familiar with Holl's work and really curious about his scientific-minded musings on them, you'll appreciate Parallax. Otherwise, keep your fingers crossed that in the next book of his work, Holl shows more and tells less. --Timothy Murphy

Genres: Architecture, Art

Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is an American architect and watercolorist, perhaps best known for the 2003 Simmons Hall at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the celebrated 2007 Bloch Building addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri,[1] and the praised 2009 Linked Hybrid mixed-use complex in Beijing, China.

Holl graduated from the University of Washington and pursued architecture studies in Rome in 1970. In 1976, he attended graduate school at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and established his offices New York City. Holl has taught at Columbia University since 1981.

Holl's architecture has undergone a shift in emphasis, from his earlier concern with typology to his current concern with a phenomenological approach; that is, with a concern for man's existentialist, bodily engagement with his surroundings. The shift came about partly due to his interest in the writings of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and architect-theorist Juhani Pallasmaa.

Reviews

[Gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

for me the best thing about this book is the titillating (architectural) imagery: moving plays of shadow & light, holl's lovely watercolors, piquant assemblages of shapes. an irksome thing is the lack of identification of said imagery - a good number of the buildings are holl's projects, but to know that you need a preexisting familiarity with his built works, and certain other images are anybody's guess. (the book arose from a series of lectures, which i'm sure is the explanation.) holl's theorizing is not so much what grabs me here, though one might like that too; like i said, the images are the thing here.

[Wei Cho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Architects can be poets and philosophers sometimes. At least Steven Holl is. His writing is magnificent. The way in which he expresses himself is wonderful, very deep and thoughtful. I understood what he was trying to communicate. His graphics communicate and read very well. He is a master at developing diagrams, his diagrams are very alluring, entertaining, pleasing to look at, understandable, and colorful. His water color sketches are luxurious, very well crafted and communicated very well the idea.

Steven Holl seems to get inspiration from everywhere and anything. He is one of the most popular architects of our modern time. Some of the buildings I like from him are the Bellevue Art Museum and the dorm he design for MIT. I wish I could go and experience those spaces. He places emphasis on experiencing spaces, it just feels differently, a great kind of different.

His subdivision of the book is marvelous and informative. I learned quite a couple of things of his persona by reading the book. It's like he poured his soul onto these pages and I'm quite happy he wrote this book. The architect also becomes a philosopher.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of his best books. something new every time i read it. i guess i'd call it a monograph, but it's not a typical one. the book is divided into sections based around several ideas (like light, or material), and he weaves the work into those ideas.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good architecture theory in here! Holl roxors my balls!