Through an in-depth exploration of nine projects ranging from retail to
residential design, Standard Architecture Design highlights the practice
of Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary studio Standard while it
deconstructs traditional conceptions of interior and exterior space.
By honing in on the malleability of the storefront and its
transformative role across varying sectors of architecture and design,
Standard presents an alternative understanding of the facade. The
public/private divide becomes permeable, and cultural narratives can be
written from the inside out--flowing from fundamental elements like
space and light to the contextual meaning of place. In Standard's world,
transitional spaces such as doors, windows and openings come to define
and bring meaning to our collective experience of place.
From nooks like Hidden House and Kayne Griffin Corcoran that escape
their immediate surroundings to the hybrid retail-gallery venues such as
the Helmut Lang Concept Store and Maxfield Gallery in West Hollywood,
Standard unveils the studio's unique philosophy in action.
Across all of Standard's work is the feeling of osmosis through space
and time: where old sites bleed into new structures, and apparently
contrasting elements of urban life are artfully exposed to one other,
re-producing themselves in the process. The result is a sophisticated
rendering of place that is at once as intimate as it is accessible, and
as nuanced as it is organic.
Standard is the partnership of Jeffrey Allsbrook and Silvia Kuhle, two
Los Angeles-based architects whose combined practice stems from a
research-based and collaborative approach to architecture, interiors and
design. Standard fuses classical teachings with contemporary
applications to arrive at new forms of living and working.The
contributors, international leading theorists from a variety of
disciplines, provide fascinating texts that contribute to the broad
discussion on architecture and its relationship with science, nature,
art and society. Kari Jormakka, Fabio Barry, Pedro Azara, Caspar Pearson
and Henry Dietrich Fernandez are just some of the respected scholars
whose writings comprise this authoritative look at the origins of
architectural practice and its importance to the development of modern
society. By exploring architecture as a basic human instinct, linking
contemporary architecture to ideas surrounding mythology and cosmos and
assessing the importance of architecture from an anthropological
viewpoint, The Founding Myths of Architecture is a refreshing take on
architectural theory. The oeuvre of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier,
Louis Kahn, Francesco Borromini, Andre Le Notre, Giorgio Grognet and
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio amongst others is visually referenced in the
context of these topics.Published in both French and English editions,
this collection of essays pushes the boundaries of architectural
criticism by encompassing history and anthropology in its analysis of
design theory and by moving away from a purely rational and functional
understanding of architecture.
