Park Books International New Titles Spring 2022

Exceptionally enriching reading: the new book by Iñaki Ábalos,
acclaimed Spanish architect and professor of design at Harvard
GSD. Based on his longstanding teaching and practical experience
in the firms Ábalos & Herreros (1984–2006) and Ábalos+Sentkiewicz
Architects, Ábalos presents the quintessence of
his reflections about the current and future architectural trade.
He also takes stock of how architectural thinking has changed in
the twenty years since the publication of his best-known book,
The good life.
Table of contents:
Prologue
1 Somatic-Grotesque
2 Architecture for the Search for
Knowledge
3 A Conversation with Andrés de
Vandelvira
4 A Monstrous Encounter Between
Transcendentalism and Positivism
5 Robert Smithson: The Picturesque
Entropologist
6 Three Delirious Skyscrapers
7 Dualisms
Absolute Beginners is a major essay about the forms of innovation
in architecture. Ábalos draws on sources with a wide variety
of origins and explains how and why architectural creation—at
least the type that awakens cultural interest—is closely associated
with philosophical thinking, especially with the essay and
the aphorism. Moreover, Ábalos addresses why innovation—as
in philosophy—is inextricably entwined with reflecting on the
past, with the development of new ways of appropriating old
problems.
Also available:
The good life
A guided visit to the
houses of modernity
978-3-03860-051-0
English
sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00
£ 35.00 | $ 39.00
ISBN 978-3-03860-051-0
Iñaki Ábalos is founding principal of Ábalos+
Sentkiewicz Architects with offices in Boston,
Madrid, and Shanghai. He has also been a
Professor of Architectural Design and director
of the Laboratorio de Técnicas y Paisajes
Contemporáneos (LTPC) at the Escuela Técnica
Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM)
since 2002, and Professor-in-Residence at Harvard
Graduate School of Design since 2012.
9 783038 600510
ISBN 978-3-03860-287-3