MAS Context 32: Character
Design With Company (Editor)
MAS Context, 2020
Paperback | 6 x 9 inches | 418 pages | English | ISSN: 2332-5046 | $30.00
PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
Welcome to the Character issue. In this issue we explore the opportunities of conjuring fictional characters as a device to demonstrate how a building is experienced, what makes a building have or become a character, and why architects formulate their own persona as a quasi-fictional character. Join us as we consider architecture in literary terms in order to reimagine how buildings can communicate with audiences through form, expression, structure, type, decoration, experience, narrative, and metaphor.
Contributions by Ellie Abrons, Joseph Altshuler, Jon Astbury, Gem Barton, T.E. Cames, Jimmy Carter, Design With Company, elii, Grant Gibson, Iker Gil, Joanna Grant, Jason Griffiths, Brian Guido, Stewart Hicks, Andrew Holder, Sam Jacob, Julia Jamrozik, Max Jarosz, Ania Jaworska, María Jerez, Coryn Kempster, Jimenez Lai, Morris Lesser, Eu Jin Lim, John McMorrough, Julia McMorrough, Michael Meredith, Norell/Rodhe, Office of Political Innovation, Zack Ostrowski, Joanne Preston, Paul Redmond, Colin Rowe, Adrian Shaughnessy, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Joshua G. Stein, Stanley Tigerman, and Tania Tovar Torres.
Stewart Hicks and Allison Newmeyer teach at the University of Illinois at Chicago and are cofounders of Design With Company. Stewart holds an M. ARCH degree from Princeton University and Allison from the University of Michigan.
dDAB COMMENTARY:
It's been two years since the previous issue of MAS Context: numbers 30 and 31 were released as a double issue in spring 2017 under the theme "Bilbao." The 32nd issue, Character, is effectively a double issue as well, or even a book, clocking in at 418 pages, just 40 pages less than Bilbao. Editor in chief Iker Gil handed off the reigns for issue 32 to Chicago's Design With Company, the design firm of Stewart Hicks and Allison Newmeyer. My first exposure to the work of Dw/Co was in 2015 at the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, in the BOLD exhibition curated by Gil and subtitled "Alternative Scenarios for Chicago." Dw/Co contributed "Late Entry to the Chicago Public Library Competition," referring to the design/build competition organized in 1987 for what became the Harold Washington Library and recalling in name the Late Entries to the Chicago Tribune Tower Competition organized by Stanley Tigerman in 1980. Their contribution, and the seventeen others in the show, were published as issue 29 of MAS Context in 2016.
Tigerman, who died in June 2019 at the age of 88, makes an appearance in Character as well, with one of his distinctive cartoons gracing the cover and others used as chapter headings (the issue is dedicated to Tigerman). The chapter names define the various characterizations, if you will, of the term character: "Why We Got Into Character," Building Occupants as Characters," "Buildings That Have or Are Characters," and "Architects as Characters." Hicks and Newmeyer are drawn to the duplicitousness of the word, which can be defined as "one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual" as well as "requiring or involving the portrayal of an unusual or eccentric personality" — one is honest, apparently, and one is all make-believe. Mainly, the term is appealing to the editors because it's not commonly used by architects; apartment hunters ("That place had so much character!") and preservationists ("You shall not paint your home in any colors that are not in accordance with the character of the neighborhood."), yes, but not architects. With Character, Dw/Co "resolve to take it back from the real estate agents and neighborhood development boards."
In any edited collection with a theme, the success of addressing the theme or topic is based first on who contributes. Character features a couple of Dw/Co acquaintances (what they call the "Company We Keep" on their website): Joseph Altshuler plots nearly 30 architects/firms onto a pair of matrices that have "character" as their subject, recalling New York Mag's approval matrix; and Jimmy Luu handles the graphic design for the issue, giving each article a background with unique — ahem — character. The bulk of the issue comes from beyond the company they keep, but from individuals and firms that appear to be aligned with Dw/Co's approach to architecture; these include Ellie Abrons (T+E+A+M), Grant Gibson (CAMESgibson), Andrew Holder (The LADG), Sam Jacob (formerly of FAT), Jimenez Lai (Bureau Spectacular), Michael Meredith (MOS Architects), and Office for Political Innovation, among others.
The pieces that stand out to me share a historical perspective, and they strongly correspond with the theme. There's a literal photocopy of Colin Rowe's "Character and Composition," first published in 1974, which starts the book and gives Dw/Co the opportunity to build a response; Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster's journey, with baby in tow, to some iconic modern dwellings in Europe to interview ancestors of their original clients; Adrian Shaughnessy's interview with designer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, who was responsible for Sea Ranch's bold supergraphics; Eu Jin Lim's lovely graphic novel-like pencil drawings of John Soane's house/museum; and Max Jarosz's essay on visionary architect Jean-Jacques Lequeu, who often made himself the character of his drawings (the exhibition on him at the Morgan, which I saw in March, was unfortunately cut short by COVID-19).
The links in the previous paragraph exhibit the generosity of the non-profit MAS Context, which provides content free online and in PDF form. Missing, though, is Rowe's essay, due to copyright, I'm guessing. But having that essay is just one reason to buy one of the 200 print copies of issue 32. Supporting MAS Context and its mission is another reason, but for a book lover like me it's the qualities of print-and-bound, such as the juxtaposition of the graphics that Jimmy Luu deploys as backgrounds, something that only comes when leafing through this issue that has lots of character.
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