Rethinking the modular
Subtitle: adaptable systems in architecture and design
By: edited by Burkhard Meltzer and Tido von Oppeln
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 297
ISBN-13: 9780500292358
Subjects: Modular coordination (Architecture); Modularity (Engineering)
Description: The modular did not have to be invented: it can be found everywhere. We divide surfaces into grids, spaces into parts, and time into rhythmic units. Modular structures are also increasingly being recognized as a way of communicating, where the aim is not to construct a universal principle but to facilitate interplay between different systems. Building on the visionary design system that architect Fritz Haller and engineer Paul Scharer developed in 1965 for Swiss furniture company USM, 'Rethinking the modular' brings together specially commissioned essays and interviews with leading designers, architects and thinkers to present the wide-ranging importance and influence of modular design over the past fifty years. In revealing the broad possibilities created by balancing structure with flexibility, the timely publication redefines the place of modularity in modern design history, and offers a rich resource for designers today.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Preface : notes on the 50th anniversary of USM Modular Furniture Haller  -- Alexander Schärer; title: Introduction : balancing the modular  -- Burkhard Meltzer, Tido von Oppeln; title: Back to the present  -- John Thackara; title: An open invitation to the grid  -- Thomas Lommée; title: There is always an alternative : systems and production  -- Nathalie du Pasquier, Catharine Rossi, Antonio Scarponi, Jerszy Seymour; title: The prospects and limits of connection  -- Rick Poynor; title: We don't live for a system : new perspectives for modular architecture  -- Wolf Magelsdorf; title: How, then, does one organize a city? : Fritz Haller's city system  -- Georg Vrachliotis; title: Working irrationally with a rational system  -- Allan Wexler; title: Squaring up to superstudio : grids, modularity and utopianism in Italian radical design  -- Catharine Rossi; title: It's more like a service  -- Bless; title: From functional object to icon : the changing face of the USM Haller system in advertising  -- Marino Stierli; title: Dynamic labyrinth (Seoul)  -- Rem Koolhaus, Hans Ulrich Obrist; title: I try to be architecture  -- Go Hasegawa; title: Wide minds  -- Alva Noë; title: Calling someone in China  -- Dimitri Bähler; title: Modularity and adaptation  -- Thomas Dienes, Jürgen Mayer H.; title: For a tree, modularity is not an issue  -- Lorenzo Bini; title: Appendix : a retrospective of USM Haller.