Eva Guttmann - Böcker

Jan Turnovský (1942-95), born and educated in Prague, emigrated to Austria in 1966 and worked for various architectural firms in Vienna. In 1975 he was appointed as a research and teaching assistant at Technische Universität Wien's Institute for Architecture and Design. During his tenure, and as temporary head of the institute's department of residential architecture in 1995, he proved to be an equally dedicated and unorthodox assistant and lecturer. His thinking and intellectual legacy has been influential for an entire generation of younger Austrian architects.This new book presents for the first time Turnovský's previously unpublished The Weltanschauung as an Ersatz Gestalt as a facsimile-reprint of his illustrated and highly original typo-script. Penned as a thesis to obtain his Master's degree at the AA in London, the text focuses on a philosophy of "open systems", which Turnovský applies to the architectural design process. He relates the psychological term "gestalt" to the philosophical weltanschauung: A collective, contemporary, etc. "weltanschauung" always affects our perception of a "gestalt", in this case a work of architecture. Turnovský questions conventional thinking both critically and constructively and presents his strategy of reading architecture and its elements in new contexts.Text in English and German.

Christopher Alexander is a Vienna-born, British-American architect and theorist and the father of the pattern language movement, popularised in his pivotal 1968 book, A Pattern Language, with Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein, as well as the 1979 follow-up, The Timeless Way of Building. Lesser known but as essential to understanding Alexander's work is his theory of 'systems generating systems' which explains that systems as a whole are created by 'generating systems', and, if we wish to make things which function as 'wholes', we shall have to invent generating systems to create them.Taking the Eishin Campus outside Tokyo, built between 1983 and 1989, as its example, Shifting Patterns is the first book to examine Alexander's theory of 'systems generating systems' and its application to a building design. It brings together essays from an interdisciplinary, international cast of experts, including Eva Guttmann, Gabriele Kaiser, Ernst Beneder, Walter Ruprechter, Hisae Hosoi, Christian Kuhn, Ida Pristinger, and Norihito Nakatani, as well as conversations with Hajo Neis and Takaharu Tezuka to investigate the application of this theory to the school and university complex, the largest project Alexander has realised based on pattern language. Among the issues discussed are topicality, interdisciplinary and internationality, and culture transfer. The essays also look at the design-build movement as an antithesis to today's standardised and commerce-driven architectural production.

On the occasion of their 30th anniversary, Vienna-based Pichler & Traupmann Architekten review their body of work to date. This lavishly illustrated monograph documents in great detail their most important designs, built and unrealised, arranged by topic. Internationally renowned architectural publicists and scientists contribute essays that explore the firm’s vision and approach. A complete index of their 250 or so projects and studies rounds out the book.At the core of Pichler & Traupmann Architekten’s ambitious design philosophy is the potential of a given site in the field of tension between polarities. The focus of their work is on commercial, residential, and educational structure. Their key designs include the headquarters of the Austrian motorists’ association ÖAMTC in Vienna (2013–16), the extension of the Kulturzentrum Eisenstadt (2006–12), the Future Art Lab of Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts (2014–20), the RAIQA (Raiffeisen-Quartier) in Innsbruck (ongoing since 2019), and the Pinkafeld Campus of Burgenland University of Applied Sciences (ongoing since 2019).Text in English and German.

The Werkgruppe Graz played a major role in post-war Austrian architecture. All four of its members were educated at the Technical University in Graz and began their collaboration in the late 1959, with the first building completed in 1963. The group was an important precursor of what became known as the Graz School in Austrian architecture. Socially progressive, with a participatory as well as scientific approach they created projects that remain significant milestones until the present day.Werkgruppe Graz 1959-1989 is the first comprehensive documentation of the group's work; putting it in historical and international context. With comprehensive details of 30 building projects, it is a complete catalogue of their work.Text in English and German.