ARCHITECTURE Reversible Sites, Reversible Destiny (Architectural Experiments after Auschwitz-Hiroshima)

Author:Shusaku Arakawa, Madeline Gins

Published/Year:[English] Academy Editions, London/1994  [Japanese] Suiseisha/1995

Language:Japanse, English

By means of architecture, or by means of what will be slightly but significantly different from what architecture has until now been, perception can be re-routed and new sites for the originating of a person can be found or formed.

– Arakawa and Madeline Gins, Architecture: Sites of Reversible Destiny

“A person initiates the site of herself and determines the possible extend of herself as site through the actions of her body. It is useful for this purpose to provide the body with the widest possible range of actions. To effect this, instead of leveling terrains for the sake of plans, have plans bend to the contour of terrains, that is, let terrains dominate plans.”

– Architecture: Sites of Reversible Destiny, p. 79.

Architecture: Sites of Reversible Destiny begins with an essay by Australian philosopher Andrew Benjamin and showcases a selection of projects including Site of Reversible Destiny (Gifu,Japan), Reversible Destiny House I, The Bridge of Reversible Destiny (Epinal,France), and Double Horizon Public Housing (Berlin,Germany).

Art+Design Monograph, Academy Group, 1994

Arakawa and Madeline Gins

Table of Contents

Andrew Benjamin Landing Sites

Pictorial Preface

Arakawa and Madeline Gins Architecture: Sites of Reversible Destiny

Section One

Ubiquitous Site

Section Two

Constructing the Perceiving of an Ordinary Room/

Generating a Site of Reversible Destiny

Section Three

Constructing the Site/Terrain Studies

Section Four

Projects

Some Notes on Tentative Constructed Plans

Site of Reversible Destiny/Reversible Destiny House II (Gifu, Japan)

Reversible Destiny House I

Trench House

Bridge of Reversible Destiny (Epinal, France)

Antartica/Horizon Project

Double-Horizon Public Housing (Berlin/Tokyo)