2006-11-04

Anything
Edited by Cynthia C. Davidson
ISBN-10: 0-262-54130-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-262-54130-5


At a time when the fragmented ideas and styles in architecture make it seem as if "anything goes," Anything asks whether there are constraints to thought and action that change "anything" to "the thing." In thirty-two original essays, many of them illustrated, leading architects, theorists, historians and others discuss their works. The wide-ranging topics include a "refugee republic," "blur buildings," virtual environments, shopping, and stress. "Anything," it would seem, is many things, opening the way for architecture to embrace history, science, research, and technology.

The authors include, among others, Caroline Bos, Ignasi de Solà-Morales, Elizabeth Diller, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Jacques Herzog, Steven Holl, Osamu Ishiyama, Arata Isozaki, Romi Khosla, Rem Koolhaas, Greg Lynn, Rafael Moneo, Jean Nouvel, Wolf Prix, Hani Rashid, Bernard Tschumi, and Ben van Berkel.

Anything is the tenth and final book in the ongoing series that began in 1991 with Anyone and was followed by Anywhere, Anyway, Anyplace, Anywise, Anybody, Anyhow, Anytime, and Anymore. Each volume is based on a conference at which architects and leaders in other fields came together to present papers and discuss a particular idea in architecture from a cross-cultural and multidisciplinary perspective. The conference upon which Anything is based took place in New York City in June 2000.

Cynthia Davidson is the editor of ANY Magazine, the director of Anyone Corporation, and a member of the editorial board of the Writing Architecture serie

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Book bought:
-Anything--Edited by Cynthia C. Davidson
Book read:
-Corporate Fields: Office Project by AA Design Research Lab--Edited by Brett Steele
-The Architectural Review Magazine--October 2006