Jeffrey Kipnis

My second trip to New York City was timed to, of all things, the last ANY conference, titled Anything, which took place in June 2000 at the Guggenheim museum. One of the highlights of the two days of dense theory and architectural camaraderie was Jeffrey Kipnis's talk, titled "In the Mood for Architecture" in the later book documenting the conference. In it he spoke about, among other things, Hitchcock's Rear Window, a favorite film for architects but one that took on many more shades of meaning in Kipnis's hands. Remembering that talk prompted me to buy this book when I came across it, a book full of the usual suspects: Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, Steven Holl, even Jacques Derrida. The fairly long essays point to the need for probing the work of architects and certain issues in depth, something missing in blogs and many publications today. That Kipnis is (at times) accessible to more than those on the ANY stage is a commendable trait.… (mer)