Hans Ulrich Obrist & Cedric Price: The Conversation Series: Vol. 21

The Conversation #21

by Cedric Price (Artist), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Editor)

The British architect Cedric Price (1934-2003) completed relatively few buildings, but through his drawings, proposals, teachings and conversations, he exerted an enormous influence across many disciplines. For Price, as for an increasing number of architects today, architecture was an instrument towards social and pedagogical growth, and not an aesthetic gesture in itself. His two most famous structures of the early 1960s, the Fun Palace (1961) and the Potteries Thinkbelt (1964) were both intended to foster social cohesion, and were executed as short-term structures. Hans Ulrich Obrist met the great visionary and architectural theorist several times between 1999 and his death in 2003, and spoke with him about his ideas and his most important projects. The result is a spirited and vivid portrait of Cedric Price's life and work.

Genres: Architecture

172 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2010

Reviews

[Nabilla Zammali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discoverd Cedric Price this year through a professor when I talked about uncertainty in architecture.
Cedric Price is a no-body in Europe or maybe just France?
In Canada however, he's famous : permanent exhibition in the Canadian Center for Architecture, which made an edition of all of his works (sold for 400 dollars i think). So I picked up this book at the CCA.
Long story short, never heard of him before (excuse my european based ignorance), I got to Canada for vacation, I naturally visit the CCA (because as an architect, I enjoy torturing myself with architecture related themes), I stumble upon the short exhibition. Weird turn of events.
I will study this dude a bit more. At some point.

[Maighdlyn Hadley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look into a visionary mind. I can't help feeling it might have gone better as an audiotape rather than a redacted transcript of multiple conversations with Cedric Price. The tangents are sometimes delightful, sometimes half-remembered dead ends. Definitely worth a read, as he gets into the attitude and theory around which Price's seminal works (fun palace, thinkbelt, aviary) were conceived. Unexpected highlight: wonderful discussion on curation and signage, which benefits greatly from Obrist's insight.