Book Description

A comprehensive look at the work of two inspiring architects. New York-based architects Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto have been attracting international praise in recent months. This monograph focuses on their theories and designs and explores the latest freedom in geometry which has been brought about by the extensive use of the computer within architectural design. Andrew Benjamin (New York, NY) is a lecturer of philosophy at Columbia University. Daniel Libeskind (London, England) is a practicing architect who recently won the competition to design a new gallery at the V & A Museum.

Editorial - Maggie Toy

Introduction - Dr Rachel Armstrong
Architects in Space - John Zukowsky
How Soon Will Space Tourism Start? - David Ashford
Space Tourism - The Key to the Coming Economic Boom  Patrick Collins
A New Era of Space Medicine for Space Tourism - Kazuyoshi Yajima
Space Resort - Howard Wolff
Virtual Space Tourism - Anders Hansson
Why go into Space? - Thomas Taylor
Questions and Answers with Buzz Aldrin
X-Prize - Dr Peter Diamandis
Moving in Several Directions at Once - Jason Skeet
David Bowie - Dr Rachel Armstrong
Fashioning Space - Suzanne Lee
Space Between - Simon Thorogood
The Architecture of Extreme Environments - Ted Krueger
New Horizons - Robert T McCall
Quantum City - Mathis Osterhage
On the Possibility of Terraforming Mars - Martyn J Fogg
Lunar Embassy - Dennis M Hope
Sci-Fi Modernism and Space-Age Retro - Edwin Heathcote
UR-BOOR - A Rachel Rosenthal Performance
Space Architecture: The Bartlett Discussion
Popscene - Bob Fear
The Ideas Circus - an Overview of Architectural Design 1930-1977 -
Jan Henson
Practice Profile: Clare Design - Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper
Anthropomorphic Architecture - David Lewis
Highlights from Wiley-Academy
Book Reviews - Katherine MacInnes
Site Lines - Wendy Hitchmough

The work of New York based architects Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto is increasingly attracting international praise. In the words of Daniel Libeskind, their work is 'inspiring ... characterised by an inventive constellation of amazing objects which raise questions about the chaotic disorder of institutionalised arrangements'. This monograph focuses on recent works of Reiser + Umemoto which convey the freeing of geometry brought about by the extensive use of the computer within architectural design. The authors are significant exponents of this genre of innovative work, and in this book provide invaluable insight into recent developments in architectural theory and design.

Andrew Benjamin's essay, 'Opening Resisting Forms', provides a comprehensive exposition of Reiser + Umemoto's most recent work, elucidating the significance of their projects in wider cultural and philosophical terms. Among the projects covered in depth are their proposals for the Cardiff Bay Opera House, Yokohama Port Terminal, Kansai Library, and a Water Garden in Columbus, Ohio, for which the practice won a Progressive Architecture Award for Visionary Design in 1998. In addition, the book combines a portfolio of Reiser + Umemoto's built projects with the writings of the architects themselves, thus illuminating what Reiser + Umemoto term the 'horizontal' relationship between theory and practice.