Collected Works Volume 2: 2000–2012 traces twelve years of Caruso St John's practice through the interlocking themes of history, ornament, materiality, and the city — assembling unseen drawings, period reviews, and new commentaries into the most comprehensive account of this work yet published.
About This Book
This second volume in Caruso St John's Collected Works is structured not as a straightforward chronology but as a thematic inquiry — one that positions the practice's relationship to history at its centre. Where much architectural discourse valorises novelty, Caruso St John's work insists on the past as present, on working with the existing fabric of cities and buildings rather than against it. The influences of Milan, Chicago, and Rome on their understanding of urban form are examined alongside Switzerland's role in shaping the practice's trajectory. Collaborations with artists Thomas Demand and Damien Hirst illuminate the practice's sustained engagement with materiality and spatial drama. For architects and students serious about contemporary practice and architectural culture, this is essential reading.
Key Features
- 464 pages of project documentation, unseen drawings, competition entries, exhibition designs, and period essays
- Projects include Tate Britain, the Barbican, Newport Street Gallery, and Europaallee Mixed-use Building in Zurich
- Writings that informed Adam Caruso's and Peter St John's thinking, from T. S. Eliot to Rosalind Krauss to Louis Sullivan
- Published by Mack, ISBN 9781915743190
What You'll Discover
- How Caruso St John's rejection of architectural novelty operates as a theoretical position — treating the past as a living condition rather than a reference library
- The role of specific cities — Milan, Chicago, Rome, and Zurich — in forming the practice's evolving understanding of urban context and typology
- How sustained collaborations with contemporary artists shaped the practice's approach to the materiality and drama of interior space
- The 'alchemy of the everyday' as a design philosophy: the idea that attentiveness to ordinary conditions holds the potential to transform both buildings and the world they inhabit
About the Author
[Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Embossed and silkscreened linen hardcover
- Pages: 464
- Dimensions: 220 x 265 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781915743190
- Publisher: Mack
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and students engaged with contemporary European practice, historians of late twentieth and early twenty-first century architecture, and anyone tracing the intersection of art, ornament, and urban thinking in built work.