Synopsis
Today there is a broad trend towards an architecture that could be called ecstatic – partly motivated by pure architectural ideas pushed to their limits and a shift from functional concerns to sensual ones. Ecstatic Architecture is stimulating, holistic and overpowering; its primary contemporary monument is Frank Gehry′s New Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa.
Ecstatic Architecture has opened up architectural thought and made links with historic building. The term encompasses buildings widely distant in function and time, from cave art to the new cinema centre in Dresden, from explicitly erotic architecture to buildings which have a spiritual role, from conceptual and cybernetic artefacts to pure architecture. It suggests comparisons between the current practice of leading architects such as Hans Hollein, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Nigel Coates and Egyptian, Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture.
Essays examining the historic and philosophical implications are complemented by major projects in the genre by Frank Gehry, Will Alsop, Ron Arad, Odile Decq, Eric Owen Moss and Shin Takamatsu. Major rhetorical tropes of Ecstatic Architecture are clarified in two extensive photo essays by Charles Jencks. The surprise is that Ecstatic Architecture links such widely divergent strands and forces us to reconsider architecture in a new key.
From the Back Cover
Ecstatic Architecture – The Surprising Link Today there is a broad trend towards an architecture that could be called ecstatic – partly motivated by pure architectural ideas pushed to their limits and a shift from functional concerns to sensual ones. Ecstatic Architecture is stimulating, holistic and overpowering; its primary contemporary monument is Frank Gehry′s New Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Ecstatic Architecture has opened up architectural thought and made links with historic building. The term encompasses buildings widely distant in function and time, from cave art to the new cinema centre in Dresden, from explicitly erotic architecture to buildings which have a spiritual role, from conceptual and cybernetic artefacts to pure architecture. It suggests comparisons between the current practice of leading architects such as Hans Hollein, Coop Himmelb(I)au, Nigel Coates and Egyptian, Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture. Essays examining the historic and philosophical implications are complemented by major projects in the genre by Frank Gehry, Will Alsop, Ron Arab, Odile Decq, Eric Owen Moss and Shin Takamatsu. Major rhetorical tropes of Ecstatic Architecture are clarified in two extensive photo essays by Charles Jencks. The surprise is that Ecstatic Architecture links such widely divergent strands and forces us to reconsider architecture in a new key. ′The unexpected juxtaposition of architecture and ecstasy in Charles Jenck′s new book has the power to make us rethink even the statics of architecture!′ Daniel Libeskind ′Once again Charles Jencks has revealed a hidden stream running beneath the surface of contemporary architecture. Without him we should all be lost. With him we are incomparably the wiser.′ Simon Jenkins
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