Space & Anti-Space: The Fabric of Place, City, and Architecture, by Steven Peterson & Barbara Littenberg; introduction by Michael Dennis; foreword by Jonathan Barnett. ORO Editions, 295 pages, $40.
The argument posed in the title dates to an essay Steven Peterson wrote in 1980, when he pointed out how the free, open, Miesian modern space was “anti-space”—abstract and ineffable. In this rich exploration, Peterson and Littenberg, architect-planners and educators, further develop their ideas about space and place as volumetric and “differentiated, formed, finite, particular, multiple, and discontinuous.” The two, who both studied with Colin Rowe at Cornell University, give a close, insightful, and clear analysis of key concepts that Rowe developed on figure/ground, contextualism, phenomonal transparency, and collage that influence their approach to urban design. Through diagrams, they show how such elements as networks of streets, matrices of blocks, and architectural enclosures can beneficially shape a contemporary city’s fabric—and keep precedent and continuity intact. Suzanne Stephens
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