Crossover

In this long-awaited follow-up to the enormously popular informal, designer, writer, and engineer Cecil Balmond invites readers into his creative process as he documents his most innovative projects in art, architecture, and bridge design.

Hailed by friend and frequent collaborator Rem Koolhaas as having "almost single-handedly shifted the ground in engineering – and enabled architecture to be imagined differently," Cecil Balmond has achieved special status as a pioneer in cross-disciplinary thinking. Balmond’s instinctual understanding and manipulation of forces has paved the way for generations of designers to break free from traditional systems of organization and embrace the non-linear. Crossover establishes and galvanizes these radical ideas in the emergence of new forms and contemporary aesthetics.

This crucial new book outlines more than a dozen international projects and five theoretical chapters that embody the notion of Crossover which Balmond describes as the movement between Metaphor and Substance through Pattern. Navigating between the ideal and the pragmatic, Balmond creates balance between the poetic and the essential. Crossover presents Balmond’s thoughts and musings and charts his conceptual journey from the original fleeting idea to finished product. Photographs, drawings, and plans for each project accompany never seen before journal notes, sketches, and in-depth commentary. The book includes the Weave Bridge at the University of Pennsylvania; the Serpentine Gallery Pavilions at London’s Kensington Gardens; ArcelorMittal Orbit at the site of the London 2012 Olympics; and the world renowned CCTV tower in Beijing.

Widely considered to be one of the most influential creators of his generation, Cecil Balmond successfully occupies multiple roles as artist, designer, architect, engineer, theoretician, and writer. His approach is one of investigation and draws on 40 years of research into diverse forms. Through a unique interrogation of science, geometry and the structure of the non-linear, Balmond radically reorganises space and creates new horizons in art and architecture.

Balmond s awards include the 2002 Japanese Gengo Matsui prize for the Serpentine Gallery pavilion he designed with Toyo Ito, , the RIBA Charles Jencks Award for Theory in Practice in 2003 and the Sir Banister Fletcher Prize for his book, informal in 2005. His other publications include Crossover (2013) Element (2007) and Number 9 (1998).