Cecil Balmond: Crossover

Hardcover | 18.5 x 6 x 14.5 cm | 720 pp

Prestel | 2013 | 9783791345222

Designer, writer, and engineer Cecil Balmond invites readers into his creative process as he documents his most innovative projects in art, architecture, and bridge design. Hailed by friend and frequent collaborator Rem Koolhaas as having almost single-handedly shifted the ground in engineering and enabled architecture to be imagined differently, Cecil Balmond has achieved special status as a pioneer in cross-disciplinary thinking. Balmond's instinctual understanding and manipulation of forces has paved the way for generations of designers to break free from traditional systems of organisation and embrace the non-linear.

Crossover establishes and galvanises these radical ideas in the emergence of new forms and contemporary aesthetics. This book outlines more than a dozen international projects and five theoretical chapters that embody the notion of Crossover which Balmond describes as the movement between Metaphor and Substance through Pattern. Navigating between the ideal and the pragmatic, Balmond creates balance between the poetic and the essential. Crossover presents Balmond's thoughts and musings and charts his conceptual journey from the original fleeting idea to finished product.

Photographs, drawings, and plans for each project accompany never seen before journal notes, sketches, and in-depth commentary. The book includes the Weave Bridge at the University of Pennsylvania; the Serpentine Gallery Pavilions at London's Kensington Gardens; ArcelorMittal Orbit at the site of the London 2012 Olympics; and the world renowned CCTV tower in Beijing.