MICHAEL SORKIN

Las ciudades norteamericanas están sufriendo una transformación siniestra y homogénea. Un nuevo tipo de urbanismo –manipulador, disperso y hostil al espacio público tradicional– está emergiendo en lo

His celebrated Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao has ensured Frank Gehry a place in the pantheon of 20th-century masters. In this volume, Gehry himself offers illuminating commentaries on various aspects of the processes involved in developing his revolutionary designs, including his influences, clients, use of materials and new technologies. This is a document of a decade of Gehry''s work, from 1988 to 1998, tracing his evolution from a southern California architect known for his idiosyncratic use of materials to an internationally known figure. The book features 33 of Gehry''s most renowned projects, influding the Vitra Furniture Museum and Factory in Weil am Rhein, Germany, the Entertainment Centre at Disneyland Paris, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

AMBASZ, EMILIOSORKIN, MICHAELArchitect, museum curator, and industrial designer Emilio Ambasz is renowned for projects that fuse architecture and landscape high-rise buildings enveloped in verdant screens of trees and plants, houses that virtually disappear beneath mounds of earth. His highly original work defies easy categorization and analysis, and Ambasz has himself presented his designs as springing from his deeply felt mythical and poetic desires, serving notice of his own uncomfortable fit with conventional critical categories. In this penetrating collection of essays, prominent scholars and architects take up the challenge and set about rigorously "analyzing Ambasz." In addition to exploring his architectural work, the authors examine Ambasz's innovative industrial designs, including the Vertebra chair and dozens of other ingenious objects. Ambasz's curatorial work, particularly the seminal "New Italian Design" exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, is also discussed in an effort to fill out a complex picture of the man. Completing the volume is Sorkin's interview with Ambasz and Emilio, the self-described visionary and pragmatic sides of the designer's personality. Photographs and drawings accompany this lively debate that dramatically expands an understanding of Ambasz and his work.