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Architecture of the Absurd
John Silber
A Case Against Dysfunctional Buildings
Que
November 2007
On Sale: November 1, 2007
128 pages
ISBN: 1593720270
EAN: 9781593720278
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Photography
Have you ever wondered why the Guggenheim is always covered
in scaffolding? Why the random slashes on the exterior of
Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum, supposed to represent
Berlin locations where pre-war Jews flourished, reappear,
for no apparent reason, on his Royal Ontario Museum in
Toronto? Or why Frank Gehry's Stata Center, designed for
MIT's top-secret Cryptography Unit, has transparent glass
walls? Not to mention why, for $442 per square foot, it
doesn't keep out the rain? You're not alone. In Architecture of the Absurd, John Silber dares to peek
behind the curtain of "genius" architects and expose their
willful disdain for their clients, their budgets, and the
people who live or work inside their creations. Absurdism in
a painting or sculpture is one thing—if it's not to your
taste, you don't have to look—but absurdism in buildings
represents a blatant disregard for the needs of the
building, whether it be a student center, music hall, or
corporate headquarters. Silber admires the precise engineering of Calatrava, the
imaginative shapes of Gaudi, and the sleek beauty of Mies
van der Rohe. But he refuses to kowtow to the egos of those
"geniuses" who lack such respect for the craft. Absurdist
architects have been sheltered by the academy, encouraged by
critics, and commissioned by CEOs and trustees. They stamp
the world with meaningless monstrosities, justify them with
fanciful theories, and command outrageous "genius fees" for
their trouble. As a young man, Silber learned to draw blueprints and read
elevations from his architect father. In twenty-five years
as president of Boston University, Silber oversaw a building
program totaling 13million square feet. Here, Silber uses
his experience as a builder, a client, and a noted
philosopher to construct an unflinchingly intelligent
illustrated critique of contemporary architecture. Le Corbusier's megalomaniacal 1930s plan for Algiers, which
called for the demolition of the entire city, was mercifully
never built. But his blatant disregard for context and
community lives on. In Boston, Josep Lluis Sert's
unprotected northeast-facing entrance to the B.U. library
flooded the first floor with snow and ice every New England
winter. In Los Angeles, sunlight glinting off the sharply
angled steel curves of Gehry's Walt Disney Music Hall raises
the temperature of neighbors' houses by 15 degrees. And of
course, Libeskind's World Trade Center plan, with its
spindly 1776-foot tower and quarter-mile-high gardens,
proved so impractical it had to be re-designed, in an
exasperating negotiation hardly worthy of the complex
tragedy of the site. Dr. Silber, an honorary member of the American Institute of
Architects, asks all the questions that critics dare not. He
challenges architects to derive creative satisfaction from
meeting their clients' practical needs. He appeals to the
reasonable public to stop supporting overpriced
architecture. And most of all, he calls for responsible
clients to tell the emperors of our skylines that their
pretensions cannot hide the naked absurdity of their
designs. 103 color illustrations.
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