Zur Architektur des Wohnens (New Edition)
Joost Meuwissen
Faculty of Architecture at Graz University of Technology (ed.)
Zurich: Park Books, 2018
German, 264 Pages, paperback
ISBN 978-3038600954
EUR 39.90

During the academic year 1992-93, the Dutch architect Joost Meuwissen held a lecture series - at what was, back then, the University of Technology in Karlsruhe - that has gone down in history. He sought to "liberate the typology of housing from its classifying restrictions in favor of an analysis of architecture that arises from certain housing ideas in different environments and with different framework conditions." His understanding of housing as a laboratory for architecture which can yield new forms, styles, or even paradigms was expressed during the lectures. This book was based on this lecture series, released for the first time in 1995, and revised by Meuwissen himself in 2016. It condenses his views in a tour d´horizon through architectural history, from antiquity to the closing twentieth century. The reading illustrates how his perspective has forfeited none of its topicality. On the contrary, his understanding of architecture has instead been enriched by inspiring and at times provocative points of view.

Joost Meuwissen (1950-2016) attended the Delft and Eindhoven universities of technology. From 1995 to 2000 he headed the architectural firm One Architecture together with Matthijs Bouw and then, starting in 2001, his own studio Joost Meuwissen Architects, both in Amsterdam. His teaching activity included professorships at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (1992-95), Berlage Institute in Amsterdam (1994), Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2002-07), and Graz University of Technology (1997-2002 and 2007-16).