The bold promise of Inscriptions: Architecture Before Speech, a sprawling volume edited by K. Michael Hays and Andrew Holder, is written across its spine in inch-tall lettering: “A theory of contemporary architecture in 112 practices, 750 images, and 10 essays.” Several of the essays—particularly those by Sylvia Lavin and Lucia Allais—are thoughtful and provocative. The vast majority of the 624-page book, though, is given over to the images, most without description and many presented in grids and tables that mix drawings, diagrams, and photography.
The book rejects the trite view of contemporary architecture as a “centerless field where anything goes,” Holder writes, and instead searches for commonalities of purpose, method, and thought that unify a highly disparate field. This seems like a worthy undertaking, but only a narrow slice of contemporary architecture is represented. Almost all we find are small or unbuilt projects by young, theory-oriented American architects with academic affiliations, including First Office (led by Andrew Atwood and Anna Neimark), JaJa Co (led by Michelle Chang), and, perhaps unsurprisingly, The LADG—Holder’s own firm. In fact, more than half of the practices featured are led by alumni or current or former faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where both Hays and Holder teach.
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