SITE : Architecture as Art

by Pierre Restany, Bruno Zevi (Contributor)

SITE, a "multidisciplinary architecture and environmental organization", designed large scale commercial buildings that combine architecture, art, and technology with contemporary issues such as "ritual, irony, humor, entropy, disorder, and social/political statement. 112 pages, with a list of SITES projects, a bibliography, and 14 "Selected Projects" , briefly described and summarized in a black/white section, then more fully displayed in 79 pages of mostly color plates. An example? The Forest Building, a large Best catalog outlet, planned for a previously forested area, is fronted by the regulation sprawling parking lot placed in a natural clearing, but trees surround and almost obscure the edges of the building, and pop up through the roof as well; a nearby bank has a roof designed of about 35% trees rather than 100% asphalt. Fun and fascinating, but also thought-provoking architecture.

Genres: Architecture

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[jw468 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, compact survey of SITE's early work. (Unfortunately, although the Forest Building is included, there aren't photos; this book was published the same year that project was finished.) Basic publication structure is introductory texts including one by SITE, information about SITE, descriptions of selected projects, and an album of photographs and drawings depicting a selection of the included projects. Considering the date of publication, color photographs are abundant and print quality is pretty good.

For those projects that receive the full treatment (not all projects are depicted beyond a single black and white photo) the coverage is pretty good and includes: a brief project description noting the conceptual goals of the project; a description of notable project features, such as engineering challenges, relationship to the local environment, etc; drawings; details; construction photos; and photos of the completed work. For projects that weren't built at the time of publication, model photos are sometimes included.

For those that want to learn about the BEST Showrooms before tracking down any publications, check out Bright Sun Films' video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYS9f....

[Ichor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Borderline incomprehensible introductory texts, incongruity between the projects described and those photographed and a lack of breadth make this one to skip. If you're looking to learn more about SiTE, pick up SITE instead.