Elements of Architecture focuses on each fragment of the rich and complex collage of this discipline. Windows, facades, balconies, corridors, chimneys, stairs, escalators, elevators: the book aims to delve into the micronarratives of construction details. The result is not a single story, but rather a network of origins, influences, similarities, and differences in architectural evolution, including the importance of technological advances, climate adaptation, political calculation, economic contexts, regulatory requirements, and new digital regimes.
Created, expanded, and updated from Koolhaas’s exhaustive and highly praised exhibition at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, this is an essential manual for understanding the fundamentals that make up constructions worldwide. Designed by Irma Boom and based on research from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, this 2,600-page monograph contains essays by Rem Koolhaas, Stephan Trueby, James Westcott, and Stephan Petermann; interviews with Werner Sobek and Tony Fadell (from Nest); and an exclusive photographic essay by Wolfgang Tillmans.
In addition to thoroughly updated texts and new images, this edition has been designed and produced to visually (and physically) represent all aspects of its content.
- Custom binding with a hinged spine: our printer modified their industrial binding machine to achieve a flexible spine eight centimeters thick.
- Includes a new chapter with forewords, table of contents, and an index
- Printed on 50 g Opakal paper, providing the necessary opacity to execute Boom’s design, inspired by a palimpsest
- Each chapter combines transparent sheets and personal annotations by Koolhaas and Boom to guide you through the book more quickly
- Printed at the originally intended 100% size
