Customer Reviews

Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To be honest, judging by the cover, I was a little worried that the book will just be one of Koolhaaslike pop cultural diarrhea or a coffee table inspiration that's only supposed to be read sideways. Pleasant surprisingly, the book turned out to be a strong manifesto of solving the dilemma between urban economics and ecological development problems through architectural interventions.

A manifesto may be an overstatement since the book never pounds on the cover tag-line "Yes is More", it's rather a composition of visual essays that's consistently informative, funny, poetic at times, and most importantly logical. Ranging from diagrams to face pic of the contractor, the so-called archicomic is only a medium that transcends the content from dimensions of space, time and state. It's this inherent subtle intimacy and degree of detailing that set it apart from other architectural portfolio compilations, and really inspire architects to approach problems differently through the visor of pragmatic Utopian.

p.s. Bjarke Ingels' TED talk closely assembles the first three chapters from the book, so go watch it if you are not sure if this book is for you. Nevertheless, it is nice to see that the ambition in his speech was not subsided through the transfer of medium.

First things first, "yes is more" is a great book, one that should be put in everyone's hand; At least to give a perspective of what modern architecture aspire to be today. Real aspiration or opportunistic promotion, you'll be the judge but the ideas presented in this book deserves to be there and should be, in my opinion, in every architect's mouth...

Second hand, this book is a great essay on how to present and sell your ideas. Using an extensive range of schemes and perspectives the ideas flow in a logical way leading from the first reflection to what seems the obvious answer.

Finally I would say that the ideas in this books are not fresh and may need to be further explored but it's an increadbly entertaining introduction.

Totally worth it.

Contrary to what its subtitle may imply, this work is not about architectural evolution in general. Rather, its purpose is to present a monograph of a specific Danish firm. With much originality, this is done in comic strip form.

The firm is called BIG which stands for Bjarke Ingels Group. It is named after its main partner and, some might add, the size of his ego. The book begins with a series of two-page spreads with quotations from Mies Van der Rohe, Robert Venturi, Philip Johnson, Rem Koolhaas, Barack Obama and ... Bjarke Ingels. Though this is perhaps a form of Danish humour, the necessity of Mr. Ingels' photograph appearing at least once on almost every single page that follows is more than questionable.

There is no doubt as to the firm's creativity. The fact that a very, very small percentage of its production has lead to actual buildings should however signal that it is perhaps poorly connected with reality.

It is clear that much labour and creativity have been required to produce this book. Sadly, that is not sufficient to make it worthwhile for the general public.