Pure Hardcore Icons: A Manifesto on Pure Form in Architecture
Author: Cruz Garcia
Co-Author: Nathalie Frankowski
Published: London: Artifice Books on Architecture, 2013

In the kingdom of architecture, the shape reigns supreme. Ever since the beginning of history, pure geometric form has been one of architecture’s recurrent obsessions. A genealogy of buildings shaped as pyramids, spheres, and cubes can be traced back to ancient times, while contemporary projects, either as poured concrete or virtual bytes, often resemble stacked boxes and looping skyscrapers. Despite torrents of pure shapes flooding with evidence magazine pages and computer screens around the world, architecture lacks a written work to declare its intentions. Pure Hardcore Icons is the first manifesto on pure form in architecture. WAI Architecture Think Tank, directed by authors Nathalie Frankowski and Cruz Garcia, have created a vade mecum with provocative collages, essays and an interview that promise to bring form–a persistent taboo in the theoretical discourse–to the forefront of the architectural discussion. Through a mixture of perspicacity, conviction and humor, Pure Hardcore Icons aims to raise awareness about the dialectic of pure form and architecture, hoping that its potential and limitations could be fully grasped either in practice, academia, or as a cultural and intellectual exercise.

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