Product Description

In this volume, the latest addition to the award-winning Pamphlet Architecture series, the authors examine common architectural forms (chairs, doors, and walls) and programs (a cinema, a health club, a skyscraper) in order to dissect and reconfigure them. In the process they create ten new projects that draw their power from an oscillation between the recognizable and the surreal. Cleverly undermining the conventions and norms of contemporary architectural design, the authors pose a direct challenge to the seemingly endless search for new styles, arguing instead that the greatest potential for architecture in the twenty-first century rests on an imaginative examination of what we take for granted. Designed by authors, Situation Normal... weaves together text, photographs, and drawings. An introductory essay establishes the theoretical and historical position of the book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #263093 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

About the Author
Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, and David J. Lewis (Lewis-Tsurumaki-Lewis) is a collaborative architectural group based in New York City. Their work has been featured in a solo exhibition at StoreFront for Art and Architecture. Paul Lewis teaches at Columbia a

Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, and David J. Lewis (Lewis-Tsurumaki-Lewis) is a collaborative architectural group based in New York City. Their work has been featured in a solo exhibition at StoreFront for Art and Architecture. Paul Lewis teaches at Columbia a

Customer Reviews

beautiful drawings
The selected projects are presented with concise explanations and always that just-right drawing that conveys an idea effectively. Definitely worth owning.

a primer to tactical thinking
While the pencil provides a compelling graphic for the authors, their method of representation is not the point (I think they've moved on to renderings at this stage, anyway). LTL discusses the advantages of TACTICS over STRATEGIES. Strategies rely heavily on an overall structure, while tactics are much more agile and fluid. Although definitely not the only architects to promote a situationist method, LTL offers a way of thinking in a way that is succinct, and they make their point without too much embellishment. They instead use this framework to present past (conceptual) projects. A good example of letting the work talk as much as the text, itself.

an excellent example of the power of the pencil
situation normal is a fine example or what can be done in architecture with a tool that is becoming somewhat of a lost art, the pencil. the authors use the pencil exclusively in their design process, and Situation Normal is a fine resource for architectral students and architects, whom it is very important to, to understand the power of the pencil. the pamphlet is by no means wordy, but it does contain a strong body of designs and projects by the author, that demonstrate how the pencil can holds its own in a profession where the pen and especially the computer have become the norm.