In this episode of GSAPP Conversations, Kersten Geers—co-founder of OFFICE KGDVS—and Amale Andraos discuss their shared obsession with books, and the integral role that book-making plays in their professional offices and teaching. In this podcast, Geers echoes Aldo Rossi’s call to evaluate architecture within a cultural context, positioning books as the best tool to create a place in which architectural work acquires value and meaning; a device to establish a context of ideas.
David [Van Severen] and I think we have quite an open-minded practice, but even so you somehow cannot avoid that it is enclosed – it does have borders. And if you want to keep on living with the practice, it’s important to keep on thinking, to keep on looking, to keep on discovering. The books, and for that reason also the teaching, allow you to look further and to find these other things.
University Library / OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
10 From the architect. The new library for the faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Ghent can be considered a large, pavillion-like piece of furniture, inserted under the bacony of the existing Physics hall. The accessible, three-storied cupboard forms a complete perimeter around the central, atrium-like space, enforcing its monumental scale.
GSAPP Conversations is a podcast series designed to offer a window onto the expanding field of contemporary architectural practice. Each episode pivots around discussions on current projects, research, and obsessions of a diverse group of invited guests at Columbia, from both emerging and well-established practices. Usually hosted by the Dean of the GSAPP, Amale Andraos, the conversations also feature the school’s influential faculty and alumni and give students the opportunity to engage architects on issues of concern to the next generation.
You can listen to every episode of GSAPP Conversations, here. This particular episode is available to listen to directly on Soundcloud and through the iTunes store and iOS Podcasts app, where you can also Subscribe. GSAPP Conversations is a podcast produced by Columbia GSAPP's Office of Communications and Events in collaboration with ArchDaily.
