James Stirling and Michael Wilford

This is a concise and copiously illustrated paperback survey of all major buildings and projects from 1950 to 1997 published under ISBN: 3764352914 by Birkhäuser (Basel...) and ISBN: 0817952914 by Birkhäuser (Boston) on 207 pages in English and German side by side. Following 17 pages of analysis about the architect's style, each of the presented 58 works is headed by a description from just a few lines to over a page long followed by from one to several illustrations depending on work's scope. All of several hundreds only B & W (many multi-picture) illustrations - many of them technical (plans, sections, sketches, elevations, etc.), but also B & W photos of a good quality - are well balanced, superbly crisp and perfectly legible. A biography, selected bibliography, list of works, etc. on several pages end it. Like all from the Studio Paperback series, it is solid among architectural monographs even of a bigger size. Similar to smaller books from the Works and Projects series published by Gustavo Gili (GG) in English and Spanish. SYNOPSIS: James Frazer Stirling has been named as one of the most innovative forces of contemporary architecture. With his partner, Michael Wilford (since 1963), Stirling realized numerous projects in which he combined a historic sensibility with a creative architectural language. During the 1980s the office became a major representative of Post-Modernism with the Stuttgart State Gallery, the extension of the London Tate Gallery and the Science Center in Berlin. Since Stirling's death in 1992, Michael Wilford has headed the office and continues the series of projects - for example, the Lowry Center in Salford and the planned Embassy in Berlin. This monograph in the Studio Paperback series documents all Stirling and Wilford's important buildings and projects.

Few Americans are familiar with James Stirling's work which is a shame. He was one of the three or four great high-tech architects. Maybe not as high-tech as Rogers or Foster yet maybe more intuitive and with more feel. His work also had a post-modern flair. He was a few years ahead of some of the most famous architects of today and if you look closely enough at Stirling's work you may notice how they all may have been influenced by Stirling. The book itself is a good representation of his work but the photos are somewhat small and in black and white. The book gets 5 stars because Stirling was a master.