Stefan Popa - Design by Words Writing Workshop

Dear Ms Lathouri and Mr Gallanti, I am writing to persuade you to publish a book which aims to undo, if not to destroy, some of the most well-­established misappropriations of architectural figures. It will not only reveal a missing gap in the way we look at architecture, but also create the urge to fulfil it.

Undoing Similars, tentatively titled, addresses those architectural objects in which their similarity has been taken for granted. Objects that have been equated by common believe now will be assessed and reframed to avoid oversimplifications. More precisely, the book will explore how basic concepts such as voids, cubes and pedestals have been used in different ways, with more or less rigour to their attributes. In consequence, the misleading association of different architectures have doomed their richness and banalized their forms. Advocating instead for a more sensible reading of those forms, the book is set up to threaten the superficial and lazy reading that nowadays indulgently ends on the surface.

The absence of this topic among architectural readings is contrasted with the proliferation of writings that rely too much in stealing objects or references from their context or content. On the contrary, this book addresses an open audience, not necessarily specialized in architecture, by means of a comparative analysis that straightforwardly elucidates the differences between the two similars. Departing from a comprehensive example of this phenomena, namely the differences in painting between Picasso and Gris –one painted cubism as a way of seeing while the other painted what he saw in cubist–, a series of comparisons will guide the reader through a journey of different couples: from the purist cube of Robert Mallet-­Stevens and Le Corbusier, to the geometrical voids of Louis Kahn and Carlo Scarpa, in addition to the raised platforms of Alvar Aalto and Jorn Utzon.

These will display how works that are apparently very similar are conceived in completely opposed ways.

With that methodology in mind, the book is geared toward an audience that will be able to appropriate their own interest in architecture, whether it comes from space, technique or contemplation without a previous knowledge other than experience. It won’t attempt to provide guidelines of how to use them, but to engage the reader with a reflection on the deep dimension of architecture. Therefore, the book will inform and generate questions that might be common to the keen eye, but may remain invisible to the curious one.

Thank you for your consideration, I eagerly await your reply.

Yours sincerely,