Lebbeus Woods: Exquisite Experiments, Early Years

American architect Lebbeus Woods (1940-2012) remains a quiet hero not only among his colleagues, but also for architectural students intrigued by the ideas and fluent beauty of his powerful graphic verve, as well as of his writing. His projects from the mid-1980s until the end of his life have been widely published. However, this AD, in collaboration with the Estate of Lebbeus Woods, explores the earlier period beginning in the late 1960s when Woodswas honing his draughtsmanship and theoretical positions while experimenting with a variety of themes and different modes of expression.

When he burst onto the international architectural scene with a solo exhibition and accompanying catalogue (Lebbeus Woods: Origins) at the Architectural Association, London, in 1985, some wondered how anyone could emerge so fully formed, from nowhere. Working against the logic of 'nowhere', this issue charts his early trajectory through the largely unpublished drawings and texts, linking them w ith what came after. Aiming to generate new scholarship, its roster of international interdisciplinary critics and commentators offer a new understanding of Woods's work and of his formative years, also shining a light on how we might think about the 'early work' of any architect's career.

Contributors: Joseph Becker, Aaron Betsky, Peter Cook, Mark Dorrian, Riet Eeckhout, Kevin Erickson, Joerg Gleiter, Sharon Irish, Eliyahu Keller, Lawrence Rinder, Ashley Simone, Ben Sweeting.

Inhaltsverzeichnis:

About the Editors 5
Neil Spiller and Aleksandra Wagner

Introduction 6

A Fecund Lucidity
Spadework for a Palace
Neil Spiller and Aleksandra Wagner

Self-Portrait with Burned Weapon 14

The Wound That Does Not Heal
Mark Dorrian

Inventing the World 22

In and Around Illinois, 1960-75
Sharon Irish

From Experimental Epistemology to Experimental Architecture 30
Ben Sweeting

Framing the Sky, Etching Clay 38

Walls of the Midwest
Kevin Erickson

Lebbeus -- A Postmodernist? 48

Early Scenes of Shopping and Dwelling
Aaron Betsky

Attuned Rigour 58

Between Pictorial and Material Conditions
Riet Eeckhout

Magical Transubstantiations 68

A Voyage to Italy
Aleksandra Wagner and Neil Spiller

Myth and Measure 74

Drawings of the 1970s
Lawrence Rinder

Post-Apocalypse 84

The 'Ring' Cycle
Jörg H Gleiter

In Place of L ight 92

On Early Writings
Eliyahu Keller

Polymorphic Matters 102

Architecture, Change and Imagination
Ashley Simone

Exit Velocity 110

Einstein Tomb
Joseph Becker

Catalytic Moments, Friendships and Journeys 118
Peter Cook

'The notion of "early years" - a search for modes of thought and for techniques that would make such thoughts readable - has an aura of excitement and discovery, combined with a youthful productivity of output' -- Neil Spiller and Aleksandra Wagner

From Another Perspective

The Samizdats 128

Subversive Polemic
Neil Spiller

Contributors 134