Gyroscopic Horizons: Prototypical Buildings and Other Works

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this first monograph on his work, architect Neil Denari sets his sights on the gyroscopic horizon, a term based on the altitude device found in most aircraft. Just as a plane's gyroscope creates an artificial horizon line for the pilot, Denari often eliminates the physical earth as datum or locus of experience, turning to cultural, economic, and graphic forces as points of departure for his work.


Angeles and Japan, along with DenariÕs trademark computer renderings and descriptions of over 20 architectural projects from the last ten years. Three of the most important projects discussed are the addition and renovation of the Arlington Museum of Art, the construction of an experimental space at Gallery MA in Tokyo (which won awards from I.D. Magazine and the Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles), and the first Microsoft retail store. Other projects include prototype housing in Tokyo, the Kansai-kan Library Competition, the Vertical Smoothouse in Los Angeles, Technology Research Park in Agoura Hills, and the
Museum of the 20th Century in Los Angeles.

Author Biography: Neil Denari is the director of SCI-Arc, where he has been a professor since 1988. He also runs his own architecture firm in Los Angeles.

SYNOPSIS

In this first monograph on his work, architect Neil Denari sets his sights on the gyroscopic horizon, a term based on the altitude device found in most aircraft. Just as a plane's gyroscope creates an artificial horizon line for the pilot, Denari often eliminates the physical earth as datum or locus of experience, turning to cultural, economic, and graphic forces as points of departure for his work. Denari, the third director of Los Angeles's innovative Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), has made a reputation worldwide for his projects, installations, and writings on the question of technology and contemporary culture; it has been said of Denari's firm that it moves toward the question of place "with the same dynamic flow as a Boeing crossing the International Dateline headed for the arrival lounge at Narita Airport." This long-awaited book combines photography, cultural criticism, and meditations on Los Angeles and Japan, along with Denaris trademark computer renderings and descriptions of over 20 architectural projects from the last ten years. Three of the most important projects discussed are the addition and renovation of the Arlington Museum of Art, the construction of an experimental space at Gallery MA in Tokyo (which won awards from I.D. Magazine and the Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles), and the first Microsoft retail store. Other projects include prototype housing in Tokyo, the Kansai-kan Library Competition, the Vertical Smoothouse in Los Angeles, Technology Research Park in Agoura Hills, and the Museum of the 20th Century in Los Angeles. Gyroscopic Horizons, whose territory ranges from the freeway to the Internet, illustrates the intense vision

FROM THE CRITICS

Philip Nobel - Metropolis

A gorgeous, hefty thing, and early reports from the field suggest that it is flying off the shelves. Richard Massey's design of the book is suitably tight, matching the rigor of Denari's images, while still wisely offering enough white space to offset their exhausting density.

Mark Branch - I.D. Magazine

It wets the appetite for more built work, which will surely pose and exhilarating challenge to our notions of space.

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