Reiser + Umemoto: Recent Projects

The work of New York based architects Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto is increasingly attracting international praise. In the words of Daniel Libeskind, their work is 'inspiring ... characterised by an inventive constellation of amazing objects which raise questions about the chaotic disorder of institutionalised arrangements'. This monograph focuses on recent works of Reiser + Umemoto which convey the freeing of geometry brought about by the extensive use of the computer within architectural design. The authors are significant exponents of this genre of innovative work, and in this book provide invaluable insight into recent developments in architectural theory and design.

Andrew Benjamin's essay, 'Opening Resisting Forms', provides a comprehensive exposition of Reiser + Umemoto's most recent work, elucidating the significance of their projects in wider cultural and philosophical terms. Among the projects covered in depth are their proposals for the Cardiff Bay Opera House, Yokohama Port Terminal, Kansai Library, and a Water Garden in Columbus, Ohio, for which the practice won a Progressive Architecture Award for Visionary Design in 1998. In addition, the book combines a portfolio of Reiser + Umemoto's built projects with the writings of the architects themselves, thus illuminating what Reiser + Umemoto term the 'horizontal' relationship between theory and practice.

DANIEL LIBESKIND is a practising architect with a high international profile, having recently won the competition to design a new gallery at the V&A Museum, London.

ANDREW BENJAMIN is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, where he is also Director of the Centre for Research in Philosophy and Literature. He has been Visiting Professor of Architectural Theory at Columbia University in New York and teaches regularly at the Architectural Association in London. His most recent book is Present Hope: Philosophy, Architecture, Judaism.