Non-Referential Architecture: Ideated by Valerio Olgiati - Written by Markus Breitschmid - Hardcover

Valerio Olgiati; Markus Breitschmid

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 303860142X ISBN 13: 9783038601425

Publisher: Park Books, 2021

Synopsis

• Demonstrates a new approach to architecture in a world increasingly free of ideologies and references and offers a foundation for conceiving a non-referential architecture in such a non-referential world
• Valerio Olgiati is one of the internationally most highly recognised Swiss architects, his writings and lectures are received widely around the world
• The book's first edition in 2018, published by Simonett & Baer (Zurich) was out of print within months and the book has been much sought-after since

More than ever, architecture is in need of provocation, a new path beyond the traditional notion that buildings must serve as vessels, or symbols of something outside themselves.

Non-Referential Architecture is nothing less than a manifesto for a new architecture. It brings together two leading thinkers, architect Valerio Olgiati and theorist Markus Breitschmid, who have grappled with this problem since their first encounter in 2005. In a world that itself increasingly rejects ideologies of any kind, Olgiati and Breitschmid offer Non-Referential Architecture as a radical, new approach free from rigid ideologies. Non-referential buildings, they argue, are entities that are themselves meaningful outside a vocabulary of fixed symbols and images and their historical connotations.

For more than a decade, Olgiati and Breitschmid's thinking has placed them at the forefront of architectural theory. Indispensable for understanding what the future might hold for architecture, Non-Referential Architecture will become a new classic.

The book's first edition, published in May 2018 by Simonett & Baer, was sold-out within months. This revised and slightly redesigned new edition makes this key text available again.

About this title

About the Author

Valerio Olgiati is a Swiss architect and a professor at the Accademia di Architettura der Università della Svizzera Italiana in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Markus Breitschmid is Professor of Architecture Theory at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

From the Back Cover

More than ever, architecture is in need of provocation, a new path beyond the traditional notion that buildings must serve as vessels, or symbols of something outside themselves.

Non-Referential Architecture is nothing less than a manifesto for a new architecture. It brings together two leading thinkers, architect Valerio Olgiati and theorist Markus Breitschmid, who have grappled with this problem since their first encounter in 2005. In a world that itself increasingly rejects ideologies of any kind, Olgiati and Breitschmid offer Non-Referential Architecture as a radical, new approach free from rigid ideologies. Non-referential buildings, they argue, are entities that are themselves meaningful outside a vocabulary of fixed symbols and images, and their historical connotations.

For more than a decade, Olgiati and Breitschmid's thinking has placed them at the forefront of architectural theory. Indispensable for understanding what the future might hold for architecture, Non-Referential Architecture will become a new classic.

Edition details

• Publisher: Park Books
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 303860142X
• ISBN 13: 9783038601425
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144