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Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan Paperback – December 1, 1997
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Since its publication - Delirious New York (1978) has attained mythic status. Rem Koolhaas's celebration and analysis of New York depicts the city as a metaphor for the variety of human behavior
At the end of the nineteenth century, population, information, and technology explosions made Manhattan a laboratory for the invention and testing of a metropolitan lifestyle - "the culture of congestion" - and its architecture. "Manhattan," he writes, "is the 20th century's Rosetta Stone . . . occupied by architectural mutations (Central Park, the Skyscraper), utopian fragments (Rockefeller Center, the U.N. Building), and irrational phenomena (Radio City Music Hall)." Koolhaas interprets and reinterprets the dynamic relationship between architecture and culture in a number of telling episodes of New York's history, including the imposition of the Manhattan grid, the creation of Coney Island, and the development of the skyscraper.
Delirious New York is also packed with intriguing and fun facts and illustrated with witty watercolors and quirky archival drawings, photographs, postcards, and maps. The spirit of this visionary investigation of Manhattan equals the energy of the city itself.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe Monacelli Press
- Publication dateDecember 1, 1997
- Dimensions7.3 x 1 x 9.4 inches
- ISBN-101885254008
- ISBN-13978-1885254009
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Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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About the Author
Rem Koolhaas is the internationally known architect, a founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) in Rotterdam, and author of the critically acclaimed S,M,L,XL.
Product details
- Publisher : The Monacelli Press (December 1, 1997)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1885254008
- ISBN-13 : 978-1885254009
- Item Weight : 2.12 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.3 x 1 x 9.4 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #96,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7 in Architectural Criticism
- #20 in Urban & Land Use Planning (Books)
- #36 in Architectural History
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Customers find the content fascinating from start to finish. They also describe the book as a great read with understandable content.
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Customers find the content fascinating from start to finish, with interesting case studies and a socio-architectural retrospective. They also say the book provides an interesting comparison of Le and the Manhattanist lifestyle.
"...It's not a totally normal style of writing but it's still very interesting and understandable if you can pay attention. One of my favorite reads...." Read more
"Fascinating from start to finish. This is a gripping history of the city of New York, tracing its architectural evolution from the Dutch's rational..." Read more
"An insightful and original history of the coming into being of Manhattan, New York as a metropolis, by a great writer and (now) internationally..." Read more
"...go with it though and you'll be glad you did; it's a captivating interpretation of New York that is certainly at least as valuable as whatever you..." Read more
Customers find the book a great read.
"...Very enjoyable, I have read this more than once...." Read more
"...Well worth a read for the romantics and the sceptics." Read more
"Good read, good quality" Read more
"...or not - for anyone who lives in New York or not... This book is a great read" Read more
Customers find the book understandable, and say it's written in a clear and concise way. They also say it’s a must read for architects.
"...normal style of writing but it's still very interesting and understandable if you can pay attention. One of my favorite reads...." Read more
"Lucidly written, it manages to be simultaneously clear yet poetic...." Read more
"This classic is a must read for every architect, ......" Read more
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The book itself then and its' structure; it starts off with a chapter on Coney Island, as being the laboratory for Manhattan; if one can make it through this first chapter, one is well positioned for the next chapters dealing with Manhattan's development, until the last one, where the author shifts gears suddenly, to get into the heads of two European celebrities of the Art & Architecture community, and basically finishes off the 'Manhattanism' process/period described in the previous chapters, thru the tales and eyes of these two. In terms of reading, a somewhat discontinuous experience, and asking the reader (once more), to find his/her bearing on a new 'platform' of thought(s) / thinking, this time centered around a newly introduced idea of a so-called 'Paranoia-Critical-Method', and the aspects of Paranoia itself. It is not quite clear why this shift is needed in view of the preceding chapters and history, and does not contribute to its core story, imho.
The book is an intellectual and theoretical approach to Planning and Architectural history, where an objectivity has been maintained most of the time, albeit one cannot miss the at times sarcastic/sceptical/comical tones, when describing rather bizarre moments and ideas in the history of Manhattan. Almost every paragraph, headed by a short keyword of its content/subject, is concluded with a transcendental thought, a 'one-liner' providing a philosophical condensation of the evolving step in the process, which in themselves are the little pearls the writer adds on a string (of the story-line).
One of the main values of the approach is that it puts Architecture, Planning and Design in an historical context that's including cultural, socio- and economic forces, as much, and most of the time, more than the Architecture, Planning and Design itself. What it tries to convey is a sense of processes beyond any one's control, where the Architect, Engineer and Designer are merely the ones providing the means to the forces that are occurring and shaping the processes. Their 'ideas' appear as makeshift, when seen against a 'bigger picture' background, their particular 'Architectural' approach or style more or less irrelevant.
The book does include at the end, design proposals for Manhattan by the author / Architect around the time of writing / conception of the book (mid-seventies), that are presented as visual illustrations of the principles discovered and described in the book. However, partly due to the scale of the graphics included (small singular conceptual 3D images) and in part due to a listing of programmatic characteristics that one has been inundated with already a lot in the book, it doesn't really add to the story-line, imho. It seems that what one would expect, based on knowing what we know now in regards to the author and his career, that is a summarizing and a valuation of the principles in terms of how they would be made to guide one in projects for the future, is a missing stepping stone.
As such, the shown projects in a way act more as a 'smoke-screen' than an unveiling of a future 'manifesto' (or set of rules), since it is not clear what is 'different' than what one has come to see before, nor what value, rejection or acceptance, is placed upon it. The Architect did not come out and valuate what the author has distilled. Perhaps that had not happened to the point of conclusion yet, but instead what is presented seems to represent a phase of mesmerizing and fascination with the subject. As such, the Architect and the subsequent work of the office remains a subject of study for me. One has to start somewhere, and this is most likely an obligatory starting point.