American architect Lebbeus Woods (1940–2012) remains a quiet hero not only among his colleagues, but also for architectural students intrigued by the ideas and fluent beauty of his powerful graphic verve, as well as of his writing. His projects from the mid-1980s until the end of his life have been widely published. However, this AD, in collaboration with the Estate of Lebbeus Woods, explores the earlier period beginning in the late 1960s when Woodswas honing his draughtsmanship and theoretical positions while experimenting with a variety of themes and different modes of expression.
When he burst onto the international architectural scene with a solo exhibition and accompanying catalogue (Lebbeus Woods: Origins) at the Architectural Association, London, in 1985, some wondered how anyone could emerge so fully formed, from nowhere. Working against the logic of ‘nowhere’, this issue charts his early trajectory through the largely unpublished drawings and texts, linking them with what came after. Aiming to generate new scholarship, its roster of international interdisciplinary critics and commentators offer a new understanding of Woods’s work and of his formative years, also shining a light on how we might think about the ‘early work’ of any architect’s career.
Contributors: Joseph Becker, Aaron Betsky, Peter Cook, Mark Dorrian, Riet Eeckhout, Kevin Erickson, Joerg Gleiter, Sharon Irish, Eliyahu Keller, Lawrence Rinder, Ashley Simone, Ben Sweeting.
"About the Editors 5 Neil Spiller and Aleksandra Wagner Introduction 6 A Fecund Lucidity Spadework for a Palace Neil Spiller and Aleksandra Wagner Self-Portrait with Burned Weapon 14 The Wound That Does Not Heal Mark Dorrian Inventing the World 22 In and Around Illinois, 1960-75 Sharon Irish From Experimental Epistemology to Experimental Architecture 30 Ben Sweeting Framing the Sky, Etching Clay 38 Walls of the Midwest Kevin Erickson Lebbeus — A Postmodernist? 48 Early Scenes of Shopping and Dwelling Aaron Betsky Attuned Rigour 58 Between Pictorial and Material Conditions Riet Eeckhout Magical Transubstantiations 68 A Voyage to Italy Aleksandra Wagner and Neil Spiller Myth and Measure 74 Drawings of the 1970s Lawrence Rinder Post-Apocalypse 84 The 'Ring' Cycle Jörg H Gleiter In Place of Light 92 On Early Writings Eliyahu Keller Polymorphic Matters 102 Architecture, Change and Imagination Ashley Simone Exit Velocity 110 Einstein Tomb Joseph Becker Catalytic Moments, Friendships and Journeys 118 Peter Cook 'The notion of ""early years"" – a search for modes of thought and for techniques that would make such thoughts readable – has an aura of excitement and discovery, combined with a youthful productivity of output' — Neil Spiller and Aleksandra Wagner From Another Perspective The Samizdats 128 Subversive Polemic Neil Spiller Contributors 134"
Aleksandra Wagner, Ph.D., is a Professor Emerita The New School University, Member, Training and Supervising Analyst and Faculty at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, and a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. She co-edited Considering Forgiveness (2009) and Lebbeus Woods: Zagreb Free Zone Revisited (2021), and translated Lebbeus Woods, War and Architecture (1993) into Serbo-Croatian. Executor of the Estate of Lebbeus Woods. Neil Spiller, Editor-in-Chief of AD, previously the Hawksmoor Chair of Architecture and Landscape and Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, London, where he was also Dean of the School of Architecture, Design and Construction and Professor of Architecture and Digital Theory. He was also a Vice-Dean and Graduate Director of Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Neil’s previous publications include the books Educating Architects (2014), Architecture and Surrealism (2016), and How to Thrive in Architecture School—A Student Guide (2020). He has guest-edited several issues of AD.
