deconarch

As I’m working on Coop Himmelb(l)au’s deconstructivist (or not) tendencies currently, I had to go through their “Get off of my Cloud”, too. With over 500 pages it is quite a tome!

By the way, I’m writing about the German edition.

Published in 2005 – in German -, it assembles selected texts by the Austrian Architects from 1968 (the year of their foundation) to 2005. Structured in 6 chapters, the book presents “Programmatic Texts” (these texts can hardly be missing in any publication of the Coop), “Selected Projects Texts” (Conceptual descriptions of some important projects, like Villa Rosa, Open House, Wien, Melun-Sénart), Speeches, Interveiws, Comments “About friends and foes” and “other texts”. Prefaces by Jeffery Kipnis and Christian Reder.

Particularly helpful and revealing are both speeches and interviews, even though they often repeat certain ideas and comments. As the pictures are in black-white and the volume is enormous – the pages can’t be easily turned over. Well, of course, turning them over is not the problem, but keeping them open while reading is. You know how it is with such a bulky tome). So I’d say – to watch the illustrations (it’s actually not that many illustrations), better choose other publications or the architects’ website, but for a collection of informative texts and a overview of 40 years of Coop Himmelb(l)au as well as a first approach to their theoretical thinking, the book is definitely worth its money.

Another “by the way”:

Get off of my cloud is the second international No.1 hit single by the Rolling Stones in 1965/66 – as Coop Himmelb(l)au not only have been avowed fans of the Stones and Rock’n'Roll since the 60s, but also have always included the ideas of clouds, sky, lightness, changeability, the title probably couldn’t have been chosen better.