A New Spirit in Architecture

Architecture today is moving at a faster pace than ever before. Many of the projects featured here reached us as proposals only a short while ago. The most recent progress of various architects is documented, including Peter Wilson, Gunter Behnisch, Philippe Starck, Zamp Kelp and Hani Rashid. Projects featured include Peter Wilson's house for David and Jancie Blackburn, which provides a visually and spatially supportive framework for their collection of contemporary furniture; Gunter Behnisch's whose recently completed Postal Museum, the latest in a series of 13 museums commissioned by the city of Frankfurt. New work by Philippe Starck finds a perfect outlet in Japan where it has captured the imagination of a wide range of corporate clients. And Christian Norburg-Schulz, in his article "The New Tradition", asks if and how it is possible to derive an architecture that both reflects the dynamism of modernity and answers the need for a timeless built environment. Also included is an inside view of Carter Wiseman's recent book on IM Pei which conveys the controversy surrounding Pei's much-needed Louvre addition.
The single spirit uniting writings and buildings is the persistent questioning of the direction that contemporary architecture is taking today. This profile, with its variety of answers, proves that pluralism is alive and leading to some of the best architecture for decades.