Prenota
Jean Tschumi: Architecture at Full Scale is the first book on an important Swiss architect who, following his training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, entered the polemical field of modernity and its technological expression.
Interrupted by his tragic death in 1962 at the age of 57, Tschumi’s work is rich in architectural questions. These questions are presented in this book as a series of themes. What is the meaning of the design at full scale, not only for tables or chairs, but also for construction details such as cornices and columns? Why does the architect study his compositions at the minimal scale of the “post-age stamp”? Is furniture the starting point for architecture? Why should a project be studied through the systematic use of variants? Does the future of the city lie in the planning of underground systems and networks?
A key chapter addresses Tschumi’s work as the chief architect for the pharmaceutical company Sandoz and Nestlé in France and Switzerland. Tschumi’s involvement in “corporate architecture” is related to the theme of “architecture as image.” Does the image proceed from the sublimation of the technical system or from the sculptural effect of “volumes under the light”? What role is played by the personal relationship between patron and architect? Is the rendering of a project in perspective intended for information or for seduction?
Tschumi played a key role in education as the founder of the architecture school at the Ecole Polytechnique de l’Université de Lausanne. What was his method of teaching architecture and urbanism? Is it possible to teach through a “tolerant eclecticism” as opposed to doctrines based on unchanging principles? Tschumi’s buildings are conscious responses to twentieth-century masters, among them Le Corbusier, Auguste Perret, Marcel Breuer, and Eero Saarinen.
