Asymptote: Architecture at the Interval

Founded in New York in 1987, Asymptote is a highly regarded, innovative young firm whose avant-garde work includes building designs, urban planning proposals, gallery installations, and computer-generated imaging and environments. Asymptote's practice explores the meaning of architectural production in today's post-information age, when digital and telecommunications technology and an increasingly sophisticated media are radically changing our perception of space and time. In this first volume of their work, Asymptote presents fifteen speculative and experimental works and ten architectural projects, many of which were for prestigious international invited competitions. These include the new library for Alexandria, Egypt; the Moscow State Theater; a national courthouse for Groningen, the Netherlands; the Berlin Spreebogen, a new parliamentary precinct; and a proposal for a new city center in Lanciano, Italy. Also featured is Asymptote's award-winning design for the Los Angeles West Coast Gateway, a national monument commemorating Pacific Rim immigration. Their work has been exhibited in Paris, Berlin, London, Kyoto, Montreal, Los Angeles, Toronto, and New York. Hani Rashid and Lisa Anne Couture, Asymptote's principal's, introduce the book with a lyrical essay, an appeal for a new architecture that is anticipatory, imperfect, and precisely misaligned. A critical essay by Frederic Migayrou discusses Asymptote's practice in the context of contemporary architectural theory and practice.