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Too Blessed To Be Depressed: Crimson Architectural
Historians, 1994-2002, Ewout Dorman, Ernst van
der Hoeven, Michelle Provoost, Wouter Vanstiphout, Cassandra
Wilkins, editors.
The five members of Crimson
live and work in Rotterdam, "the city that never thinks."
This situation affects their practice to a great degree,
and subsequently this book - a collection of writings over
almost a decade. But instead of rallying against the postwar,
industrial city, like others they criticize, they embrace
it in all its "mediocrity and pragmatism." Split
into three sections (History, Obsession, Top Down), the
first and last focus primarily on their home city, primarily
its reconstruction after World War II and its industrial
ports. For somebody who hasn't traveled to Rotterdam, the
middle section provides the most enjoyment, not dependent
upon a stronger understanding or interest in the place.
Obsession's subjects include OMA's House
in Bordeaux, Philip Johnson, Reyner
Banham, Jon Jerde,
and a book on Alvar Aalto, among others. The book's design
- from its use of glossy and matter papers to its mixture
of historical images and computer-generated collages and
fractals - illustrates a certain underlying conflict (evident
more directly in the cover). Perhaps this conflict is between
past and future, between those who want to clean Rotterdam's
slate and those who want to celebrate the city's industrial
past; mainly it's indicative of Crimson themselves: a hybrid
practice that is the collision of history, criticism, design,
teaching, exhibition, and research.
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