Question of Qualities

Jeffrey Kipnis's writing, thinking, and teaching casts architecture as both anintellectual discourse and a lived, affective experience. His essays on contemporary architects areless about making critical judgments than about explication, exegesis, and provocation. In theseeleven essays, written between 1990 and 2008, he considers projects, concepts, and buildings by someof the most recognized architects working today, with special attention to the productions ofaffect. He explores "intuition" in the work of Morphosis, "exhilaration" in CoopHimmelb(l)au, "freedom" in the work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA, "magic" in StevenHoll's buildings, and "anxiety" in Rafael Moneo's writing about contemporary architecture.

Kipnis's deft integration of art, critical theory, philosophy, pop culture,classical music, and science -- what the volume's editor Alexander Maymind calls "ancillarymaterial" -- into a rigorous architectural theory and criticism makes A Question ofQualities an exemplar of a new way to write about architecture. It is also a distinctpleasure to read. Kipnis transcends the fractious intellectual climate in architecture, steppingoutside the boundaries mandated by the vast specialized criteria that the discipline now claims toaddress. The essays in this volume demonstrate a style of writing that is not so much aboutarchitecture as it is an affect of architecture itself.

Jeffrey Kipnis is a Professor of Architectural Design and Theory at The Ohio State University.