Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Rotterdam-based NOX, run by Lars Spuybroek, is the most important digital architecture studio in Europe. This major publication serves as a manifesto of the next techniques in digital design; a manual of instruction, showing how complex spaces can actually be built; and a monograph of NOX's complete output. An introduction by Spuybroek explains the background to his thinking and his general approach to architecture. The book is divided into three essential elements: documentation of NOX's oeuvre, including built and unbuilt work, some twenty-three projects in total; essays by leading lights in design and cultural criticism who are carrying out research in the area of architecture and the computer - Manuel Delanda, Brian Massumi, Detlef Mertins, Andrew Benjamin and Arjen Mulder; and explanatory texts by Spuybroek that link the projects together and give clear, step-by-step descriptions of his design methodologies. Many of the illustrations in the book have been specially created, making accessible for the first time the complex strategies and techniques employed by Spuybroek. This in turn will make the publication an invaluable resource for students and practising designers looking

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

Perhaps humans are not meant to operate in the dry grid of cubic spaces. A leading Dutch theorist and architect, Lars Spuybroek (principal of NOX) pushes form and substance in astoundingly improbable, winding, curving, globular directions. Jazzed by neurology and philosophy, and influenced by ever-more intricate computer modeling, Spuybroek asks whether building movement ought to more comfortably reflect body movement. A curve is an intelligent, better-informed straight line, he writes. In Spuybroek's realm the operative idea is no longer that form follows function; it's a unified system where typology precedes topology. His projects thus lead to soft offices and sinuous biomorphs. Best known on these shores for envisioning a complex of twisting, porous towers on the World Trade Center site, Spuybroek is commanding increasing attention. This huge compendium of his work and ideas is sometimes dense, but in a challenging, eye-opening way as it navigates the implications of the intellectual dichotomies and design complexities in NOX's\b vision and projects. Visually dazzling, this book will appeal to architects, design and architecture students, artists, and futuristic dreamers. --Steve Paul Copyright 2005 Booklist