Product Description

Architects, designers, and engineers have been using computers for decades to increase productivity, to solve seemingly insoluble problems, and for sophisticated presentations. Frank Gehry is particularly recognized for his innovative use of the computer. It is only recently, however, that computers are being used not just as tools, but as creative devices capable of generating startling new design ideas and entirely unexpected forms for the built world. For the first time in decades, a generation of technocratic architects and designers are producing buildings and structures that are redefining the practice and understanding of architecture. By breeding ideas with form, the real with the virtual, they create hybrid spaces that challenge long-held conventions of space, architecture, and time.

This innovative publication presents the work of twelve leading international practitioners of architecture who are spearheading the creative wave. The explosive growth in the field has been fueled by a variety of new softwares and computer-programming techniques. Whether derived from digital animation or complex algorithms, the results of these methods are sending shockwaves around the architecture world. From Greg Lynn's animate forms to UN Studio's diagrammatics, from dECOi's multidisciplinary researches to NOX's crossbreeding of biology and technology, little of this work has been seen in any but the most exclusive design circles.

The author introduces the various approaches that lie behind Hybrid Space, while placing the new work within the context of contemporary developments in architecture and technology. The book's core features extensive profiles of the architects, which detail their philosophies and design processes, and present several of their most recent projects. A substantial reference section includes comprehensive information on each architect and a glossary of technical terms.

At a time when architects around the world search for new forms of creative expression, this timely publication considers the exceptional work of architects for whom technology is expression, not just a means to an end.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1437822 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-03
• Released on: 1999-12-03
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

About the Author
Peter Zellner holds a master's degree from the Harvard School of Design, where he studied with Rem Koolhaas. He has taught at Australia's RMIT in Melbourne and published numerous articles. He is the author of Pacific Edge (Rizzoli), and has exhibited his own architectural work around the world.

Customer Reviews

A must have for cyber-architects:)
On first glance of the title i knew i was in for something good. This book provides a good analysis of the present work of worldwide architects that employ the computer as a 'means to the end' of architecture for the next millennium. I was already familiar with the architecture firms of today that are on the cutting edge of computer design work. So it was nice to see that this author is able to acknowledge these architects and present their architecture story in the form of this book. The luscious illustrations and graphics that this book presents are plentiful, informative and in other terms unique. The information is theorectical and practical which compliment the illustrations which gives this book the depth required for the serious architect. I dont hesitate to recommend this book for the future architects that intend to take their designs to a new level, the computer level.

Potential Unfullfilled
Unfortunately, this book is, almost exclusively, one of the worst attempts at analytic architecture that I have ever read. It oversimplifies and underestimates the depth of sensitivity with which architects are using emerging computer technologies to explore new domains of design philosophy. Having quite a familiarity of the the firms that the author hurriedly squimmed over in his text, I found no new insights or comprehensive frameworks with which to view the current architectural landscape. If you are looking for attractive, computer renderings, then by all means purchase this book. But if you are searching to refine your understanding of the current architectural culture, find a different author.

Well worth a second look
This is one book that slipped under my radar screen. I passed it up several times but once you get past the cloyingly bright graphics and the unfortunate coffee table format this volume is well worth the effort. As it turns out, Hybridspace delivers what might be seen one day as the first accessible account of the impact of digital technologies on architectural design. The introduction is particularly clear, intelligent and succinct and the firm profiles are condensed, neat introductions to the works of an emerging and talented generation of architects.

To boot, if you get rid of the silly jacket, you'll have a handsome, black cloth bound volume that will sit nicely your shelves.