ARCHITECTURAL WORLD

The 20th century is indelibly marked by the new vision realized by modern art. This vision is no doubt a response to the success of material science, but it is also a cultural phenomenon, an invention that helps us adjust to the new and often daunting horizons that science and technology have opened up. Architecture has benefited as much from that new artistic vision as it has from directly adopting new technology, and the invention of abstract art is one of the important strands of this development. Abstract art is a product of modern times. It can be seen to follow from the loss of conviction sustained by the ancient view of art as imitation, or mimesis, that is, representing the visible world and placing humanity into a visible narrative. To say that photography supplanted representational art would be to oversimplify the story, but it certainly played a part, and throughout the 19th century one can trace the steps by which another standard gradually took the place of the time-honor...

Architect, Austria and United States The Austrian-born architect Raimund Abraham has played an influential role in architectural discourse and education over the last four decades. His challenging oeuvre of unbuilt work, consisting almost entirely of seductive architectural renderings, delineates a complex architectural position revolving around subversion, metaphor, and a fascination with archetypal forms. His recently completed high-rise in Manhattan for the Austrian Cultural Institute is the most recognizable of a portfolio of built work that has brought together many of the philosophical themes that have preoccupied this enigmatic architect over a prolonged period. Raimund Abraham was born in Lienz, Austria, in 1933 and was educated at the Technical University in Graz, graduating in 1958. In the early sixties Abraham followed in the footsteps of avant-garde groups such as Archigram, the Metabolists, and fellow Austrians Coop Himmelb(l)au in offering proposals for technology-driven ...