Much of contemporary architecture is characterized by great mobility. Instead of space, architects focus on the surface. Floors turn into walls and into roofs. Facades stagger and develop their own depth. Architecture as a metamorphosis. Frans Sturkenboom calls this "gestural architecture", or "gestures of architecture". This book shows that this contemporary tendency in architecture stems from historical Mannerism, which also emphasized the movement and texture of a building. Gestural architecture does not require concepts, but verbs. From sitting through tidying up, framing and hiding to growing and shrinking: Frans Sturkenboom discusses essential architectural concepts based on many examples across the history of architecture. The more than three hundred images included in the book form a visual story in which work is brought together by many, seemingly diverse architects such as Francesco Borromini, Le Corbusier, Adolf Loos and Michelangelo, but also OMA, Neutelings Riedijk Architects, Carlo Scarpa, Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, Frank Lloyd Wright and Peter Zumthor. From the structure as a staircase to the rolled-up square and the street that is folded inwards in the building: this book is a plea for dynamic architecture and for a mannerism forever.
Design: Josse Pyl
