Architect, verb: The New Language of Building by Reinier de Graaf
28/02/2023.
OMA [ED. Verso]
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
How to build world-class, award-winning, creative, innovative, sustainable, liveable and beautiful spaces that foster a sense of place and well being
Be it sci-fi megastructures in the Middle East or historicist towns in the UK, new projects are invariably marketed with the same buzzwords:
“world-class”, “award-winning”, “creative”, “innovative”, “sustainable”, “livable”, “beautiful” or fostering “a sense of place and well-being”. What is the significance of such terms? When does a building warrant the label “world-class”? Why is one city more “liveable” than the next? What is the meaning of “innovation” in architecture? And what building can credibly claim to improve anyone's “well-being”?
Be it sci-fi megastructures in the Middle East or historicist towns in the UK, new projects are invariably marketed with the same buzzwords:
“world-class”, “award-winning”, “creative”, “innovative”, “sustainable”, “livable”, “beautiful” or fostering “a sense of place and well-being”. What is the significance of such terms? When does a building warrant the label “world-class”? Why is one city more “liveable” than the next? What is the meaning of “innovation” in architecture? And what building can credibly claim to improve anyone's “well-being”?
architect, verb. Cover.
Reinier de Graaf. Photograph by Adrienne Norman.
architect, verb. Cover.
OMA announces the release of "architect, verb" by Reinier de Graaf, a book tracing the history of the terms dominating architecture discourse today.
If De Graaf’s debut book Four Walls and a Roof was about debunking myths within the architecture profession, "architect, verb" aims to debunk myths projected onto architecture by the outside world – a rebuttal of doctrines which have been applied to architecture over the last twenty years. The incorporation of extraneous terms such as “livability”, “innovation” or “well-being” into the glossary of architecture is part of an ongoing trend in which the language to debate architecture is less and less architects' own, and more and more that of outside forces imposing outside expectations. Once a profession known for its manifestos, architecture finds itself increasingly forced to adopt ever-more extreme postures of virtue, held accountable by the world of finance, the social sciences or the medical sector.
The book includes a satirical dictionary of ‘Profspeak’, the corporate language of consultants, developers and planners, from “active listening” to “zoom readiness”.
Architect, verb is published by Verso and will be launched in London at the Design Museum on February 28, and at the AA Bookshop on March 1st.
Reinier de Graaf is a Dutch architect and writer. He joined Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in 1996 and was co-founder of its think tank AMO. He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, the Hospital of the Future Film, the novel The Masterplan, and Architect, verb: The New Language of Building.
If De Graaf’s debut book Four Walls and a Roof was about debunking myths within the architecture profession, "architect, verb" aims to debunk myths projected onto architecture by the outside world – a rebuttal of doctrines which have been applied to architecture over the last twenty years. The incorporation of extraneous terms such as “livability”, “innovation” or “well-being” into the glossary of architecture is part of an ongoing trend in which the language to debate architecture is less and less architects' own, and more and more that of outside forces imposing outside expectations. Once a profession known for its manifestos, architecture finds itself increasingly forced to adopt ever-more extreme postures of virtue, held accountable by the world of finance, the social sciences or the medical sector.
The book includes a satirical dictionary of ‘Profspeak’, the corporate language of consultants, developers and planners, from “active listening” to “zoom readiness”.
Architect, verb is published by Verso and will be launched in London at the Design Museum on February 28, and at the AA Bookshop on March 1st.
Reinier de Graaf is a Dutch architect and writer. He joined Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in 1996 and was co-founder of its think tank AMO. He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, the Hospital of the Future Film, the novel The Masterplan, and Architect, verb: The New Language of Building.
More information
Author
Reinier de Graaf.
Editorial
City / Editorial / Year
London / Ed. Verso / February 2023.
Language
English.
Dimensions
Hardcover. 272 pages and Ebook.
ISBN
9781839761911.
Reinier de Graaf
Reinier de Graaf (1964, Schiedam) is a Dutch architect and writer. Reinier de Graaf joined OMA in 1996. He is responsible for building and masterplanning projects in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, including Holland Green in London (completed 2016), the new Timmerhuis in Rotterdam (completed 2015), G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (completed 2014), De Rotterdam (completed 2013), and the Norra Tornen residential towers in Stockholm. In 2002, he became director of AMO, the think tank of OMA, and produced The Image of Europe, an exhibition illustrating the history of the European Union.
He has overseen AMO’s increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning, including Zeekracht: a strategic masterplan for the North Sea; the publication in 2010 of Roadmap 2050: A Practical Guide to a Prosperous, Low-Carbon Europe with the European Climate Foundation; and The Energy Report, a global plan for 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, with the WWF.
De Graaf has worked extensively in Moscow, overseeing OMA’s proposal to design the masterplan for the Skolkovo Centre for Innovation, the ‘Russian Silicon Valley,’ and leading a consortium which proposed a development concept for the Moscow Agglomeration: an urban plan for Greater Moscow. He recently curated two exhibitions, On Hold at the British School in Rome in 2011 and Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants (Venice Biennale, 2012; Berlin, 2013). He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof, The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession.
He has overseen AMO’s increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning, including Zeekracht: a strategic masterplan for the North Sea; the publication in 2010 of Roadmap 2050: A Practical Guide to a Prosperous, Low-Carbon Europe with the European Climate Foundation; and The Energy Report, a global plan for 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, with the WWF.
De Graaf has worked extensively in Moscow, overseeing OMA’s proposal to design the masterplan for the Skolkovo Centre for Innovation, the ‘Russian Silicon Valley,’ and leading a consortium which proposed a development concept for the Moscow Agglomeration: an urban plan for Greater Moscow. He recently curated two exhibitions, On Hold at the British School in Rome in 2011 and Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants (Venice Biennale, 2012; Berlin, 2013). He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof, The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession.
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