HOUSE X
Peter Eisenman, Massimo Vignelli [Designer]
Peter Eisenman: HOUSE X. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1982. First edition.. Quarto. Black embossed cloth. Printed dust jacket. 168 pp. Fully illustrated with black and white photographs (and a few color plates) and line drawings. Design by Massimo Vignelli. Wrappers lightly rubbed with mild edge wear—some repaired via black marker— and some reinforcements to verso. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. A nearly fine copy in a very good dust jacket. Uncommon in cloth.
10.25 x 10.25 hardcover book with 168 pages with 221 illustrations, most black and white. Includes an introduction by Mario Gandelsonas "From Structure to Subject: The Formulation of an Architectural Language" and an essay by Eisenmann "Transformation, Decompositions and Critiques: House X." An insight into the great architect's process amply illustrated with axonometric drawings, models, diagrams, floor plans and elevations.
Prior to establishing his architectural practice in 1980, Eisenman was primarily an educator and theorist. In 1967, he founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS), an international think tank for architecture and served as its director until 1982. In 1969, through an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, he became associated with a group of young, emerging architects who quickly gained fame as the New York Five (the "Whites"). This group, with Eisenman generally acknowledged as the leader, included Charles Gwathmey, Michael Graves, Richard Meier and John Hejduk. Eisenman continues to study and use concepts from other fields - linguistics, philosophy, and mathematics - in his imaginative designs, which include large-scale housing and urban design projects, facilities for educational institutions, and private houses.
Massimo Vignelli (Italy, 1931 – 2014) recalls the exact day that he found the design language that he would be known for. It was 1963, he had a studio in Milan, Lella & Massimo Vignelli Design & Architecture, where he designed in a reductive manner using Helvetica, black rules, and solid colored backgrounds. He put this into practice for Sansoni designing formats for scores of series and hundreds of books until leaving Italy for American in 1965. Today he uses more Bodoni, but hasn’t changed his basic design attitude one iota. He made his early reputation by designing strict formats for series like these.
"I always worked like this from the very beginning, I never had another way but this structural approach," admits Vignelli proudly. "My aim was always to reach maximum impact, so I used Helvetica on white or solid color backgrounds, which stood out — boom — from the texture of all the other books on the shelves. I designed many series this way, I had some books with only white covers with type raining down and some with a black and white illustration on bottom. We wanted to develop standards to avoid gratuitous criticism by publisher’s wives or secretaries and sales people. First and foremost we were searching for objectivity. So we convinced the publisher that a book was like a soap box. The publisher’s brand was the important thing, so each book looked alike. We played safe with the illustration by using things from the past. Who could argue with Rembrandt and Durer?"