The Generic Sublime - by Ciro Najle (Hardcover)

About the Book

Skyscraper collectives, tower agglomerations, high-rise housing, mixed-use developments, luxury condominiums, airport hubs, suburban office enclaves, industrial and technology parks, hotel complexes and resorts, conference and financial centers, entertainment venues, gated communities, theme parks, branded cities, new central districts, and satellite cities: extra-large architectural typologies dominate the contemporary built environment worldwide. Despite the ubiquity of these building forms, their development has been largely restricted by a reliance on outmoded traditions of urbanism and the strict separation of disciplinary domains within current architectural practice.

The Generic Sublime investigates how the modern concept of the generic--once assumed to achieve universality by means of organizational homogeneity, formal neutrality, programmatic blankness, lack of identity, and insipidness of character--holds the potential to become its very opposite: the singular, the irreducible, and the extraordinary.

Directing the work of students of the departments of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Ciro Najle examines the organizational protocols of building collectives and develops architectural models for encompassing the unprecedented potential of the extra-extra-large.

The book includes essays by Ciro Najle, Mohsen Mostafavi, Inaki Abalos, Charles Waldheim, George L. Legendre, David Salomon, Paul Andersen, Lluis Ortega, Leire Asensio Villoria, David Mah, Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa, Alberto Delorenzini, Marcia Krygier, Julián Varas, Erika Naginski, Hiromi Hosoya, Farshid Moussavi, and Anna Font.

Book Synopsis

Skyscraper collectives, tower agglomerations, high-rise housing, mixed-use developments, luxury condominiums, airport hubs, suburban office enclaves, industrial and technology parks, hotel complexes and resorts, conference and financial centers, entertainment venues, gated communities, theme parks, branded cities, new central districts, and satellite cities: extra-large architectural typologies dominate the contemporary built environment worldwide. Despite the ubiquity of these building forms, their development has been largely restricted by a reliance on outmoded traditions of urbanism and the strict separation of disciplinary domains within current architectural practice.

The Generic Sublime investigates how the modern concept of the generic--once assumed to achieve universality by means of organizational homogeneity, formal neutrality, programmatic blankness, lack of identity, and insipidness of character--holds the potential to become its very opposite: the singular, the irreducible, and the extraordinary.

Directing the work of students of the departments of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Ciro Najle examines the organizational protocols of building collectives and develops architectural models for encompassing the unprecedented potential of the extra-extra-large.

The book includes essays by Ciro Najle, Mohsen Mostafavi, Inaki Abalos, Charles Waldheim, George L. Legendre, David Salomon, Paul Andersen, Lluis Ortega, Leire Asensio Villoria, David Mah, Pablo Lorenzo-Eiroa, Alberto Delorenzini, Marcia Krygier, Julián Varas, Erika Naginski, Hiromi Hosoya, Farshid Moussavi, and Anna Font.

Review Quotes

Luxury condominiums, airport hubs, resort complexes, gated communities, satellite cities -- these are among the "extra-large" architectural typologies that have proliferated globally in recent years. In The Generic Sublime: Organizational "Models for Global Architecture, a new book edited by Ciro Najle and co-published by Actar and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a series of essays explores these dominating edifices, investigating how the generic "holds the potential to become its very opposite: the singular, the irreducible, and the extraordinary."" --Archinect

"The Generic Sublime investigates the potential for the singular and extraordinary hidden in generic large-scale typologies--skyscrapers, airport hubs, industrial parks, gated communities, and high-rises. In this tome, various contributors consider the model of the once exploratory skyscraper taken to fantastical proportions to reimagine its possibilities for a quasi-utopian, post-urban development." --Metropolis Magazine

"This book stems from a series of studios conducted at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in the departments of architecture, urban planning and design, and landscape architecture. International contributors analyze architectural models for large-scale architecture such as airport hubs, entertainment venues, theme parks, gated communities, and satellite cities. Part 1 explores describing, advocating, and challenging the theory of the generic sublime. Part 2 presents three taxonomies of forms and organizational models, with case studies. Part 3 presents an interview, a glossary, and a set of principles. The book's two-color layout features many illustrations, charts, and diagrams." --ProtoView