ARCHITECTURE –

“The book is dedicated to all those structures that are loaded with poison. Whether it is a system of empty petrol storage tanks or a historical Landhaus from 1700, ‘A.R.C.H.O.N.P.O.I.S.O.N.’ (Architecture on Poison) deals with structures which are welcome or not, destroyed or renovated, accepted or despised, structures looking forward neither to being replaced nor to ending in archives of conservation, but to an activation of their latent transformative power.” With these words, Guy Lafranchi introduces two of his recent projects, which at first glance seem quite different, but which are related on his radically conceived conceptual ground. By weaving together the realized “Landhaus” project and the unbuilt “Tank” project, Lafranchi invokes the power of architecture to transform meaning as well as space, the symbolic as well as the instrumental, liberating its potential to deepen our understanding and experience of the world. As Lebbeus Woods writes in his preface: “The RIEA book series is devoted to the exposure of young talent and fresh ideas. None could be more appropriate for our first monograph on the work of an architect than ‘A.R.C.H.O.N.P.O.I.S.O.N.’. It offers, I believe, a challenging glimpse into architecture’s future.”

About the Author: Guy Lafranchi, born in 1966, Bern, Switzerland, Diploma 1994 ETH Zürich, several projects with Atelier Ueli Schweizer, Bern. Recently he founded his own studio in Bern. He held lectures on his work at the Barlett School of Architecture, London, The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI), Rotterdam, the BorderLine Workshop, Kraljevica, Croatia, and the RIEAvico School of Architecture in Vico Morcote, Switzerland. Currently, he is working on an urban scale project for Iticare, Brazil, which extends the ideas presented in this monograph. He is living and working in Bern.

pp. 120 illusts First Edition #010326 (name blacked out on prelim)