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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000000146625 | NA2760 K76 1986 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
The Belgian architect Lucien Kroll is known internationally for his iconoclastic way of making architecture; his complex and idiosyncratic forms delight some, enrage others, and intrigue many. His medical faculty buildings for the University of Louvain outside of Brussels aroused widespread controversy in the early 1970s, their fragmented and improvisational appearance - the result of a deliberate participatory design process - in stark contrast to the adjacent massive and repetitive hospital, the embodiment of a centralized bureaucracy. In An Architecture of Complexity Kroll describes his working method and the theory that informs it, with reference to and illustrations of actual building projects over a period of twenty years. During this time, while harboring no love of technology itself, Kroll has made a long and detailed study of system building and has experimented with industrialized building methods and computer-aided design. Here he shows how rich the potential can be when these advanced techniques can be employed to create variety and complexity. In plain, intelligent professional talk, Kroll discusses the problems he wrestles with and explains how his architecture is done. Unlike most of the proponents of soft architecture, Kroll shows how standardized industrialized components and, more recently, use of the computer can yield highly customized buildings and spaces that are less expensive than handcrafted buildings. He also investigates the role that architects have among other specialists and criticizes the militaristic approach to modernist architecture and the postmodernist use of history as a catalog of forms for stylistic purposes. The translator, Peter BlundellJones, is an architect, lecturer, and frequent contributor to architectural journals.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Kroll is a Belgian architect and a leading European advocate of user participation in the design and construction of buildings. This is an English translation of his first book, Composants (Brussels, 1983). In simple and direct language Kroll criticizes the alienating quality of modern architecture. He then describes his own vision of an industrialized architecture that utilizes modern materials and techniques (including computer-aided design techniques), incorporates hand craftsmanship, and is based on modulor design methods. He explains his own working methods and illustrates his discussion with drawings, diagrams, and photos of his own work, including his medical facility at the University of Louvain, one of the most controversial European buildings of the early 1970s. More of a personal manifesto than a professional manual, this book provides valuable insights into the work of this important contemporary European architect. For college and University libraries.-D.P. Doordan, University of Illinois at Chicago
