Surface Architecture. . - More Than Skin Deep - book review

Architectural Review, The, Feb, 2003 by Bobby Open

By David Leatherbarrow and Mohsen Mostafavi. London: MIT Press, 2002. [pounds sterling]26.50

Leatherbarrow and Mostafavi's Surface Architecture takes as its premise the contemporary conflict between architectural production methods and representation or, taken to its extreme, modernity and tradition. They ask: 'How can design utilise the opportunities of current industrial production so that the practice of architectural representation is neither independent of nor subjugated to the domination of technology?"

To answer this question they trace a fascinating path through architectural history, concentrating on the progression from symbolic load-bearing massive edifices to the conceptual and physical separation of skin and structure in modern architecture, The tension between the latter has in recent years been focused on the building's surface, which has become a canvas for stylistic extremes, generating vacuous and anonymous city office blocks and redundant historical pastiche. In contrast to these extremes, however, Leatherbarrow and Mostafavi present a wealth of architectural examples which explore the potential inherent in the resolution of the apparent incompatibility of mass production technology and architectural expression, and which offer possibilities for a future architecture of material and surface richness, and of meaning.

The final Postscript situates the debate within a philosophical, mythological and ecological context, contemplating what can be achieved through the appropriation of technological potential into the realm of human praxis and its specific conditions. This kind of reciprocal arrangement is shown as essential in giving architecture its relevance to the continually evolving process of human existence. Most refreshing is the attention given to previously marginalized architects and buildings, for example George Howe and William Lescaze's Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building, and Alejandro de Ia Sota's Civil Government Building in Tarragona. It is also a credit to the authors' skill that the content is kept utterly accessible. Meticulously and beautifully conceived and presented, Surface Architecture rewards reading and re-reading, inspiring the pursuit of new possibilities in the creation of architecture.