THE ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. DUTCH ARCHITECTS VISUALISE THEIR CONCEPTS

For all of architecture's apparent grandness of scale, it is in the details that the architectural idea is rendered. The Architectural Detail gives an overview of architectural detailing by a galaxy of prominent Dutch architectural firms of the moment, exploring the relationship between detail and context. What is at issue here is not the purely constructional side of details--say wind- or water-proofing--but their architectural potential. These are strategic details, designed and made the way they are because the concept demands it--in the best cases the whole concept can be read in any of the details. How these details were arrived at--the detail design process--is illustrated through texts, drawings, and photographs. Author and architectural scholar Ed Melet devotes chapters to the "detail philosophy" of such architectural stars as OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Koen van Velsen, Neutelings Riedijk, MVRDV, Ben van Berkel (UN Studio), Benthem Crouwel, and CEPEZED.