The Four States of Architecture

The work of New York architects Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan is remarkable for its interpretation of the modern world and minimalism, mixing ideas from philosophy and science. Their palette of materials includes wood, stone, glass and metals and these elements are carefully woven into the projects in finished and raw states. This gives the work both a natural and an abstract quality. Their work has an intellectual rigour stemming from the history of ideas and the arts, while maintaining a precise formal vocabulary that has allowed them to craft buildings that work equally well in rural and urban settings. The four states of architecture described in this book– horizon, light, atmospheres and ground – are derived from contemporary interpretations of matter, light and the natural world. This book features 14 of Hanrahan + Meyersa projects, each of which is aligned with one of these states. The projects range in scale from individual residences to galleries, museums, and buildings for the performing arts. The context of ideas in which they are set crosses the boundaries that typically divide architecture, art, science and experience. The projects represented – three performance spaces, three galleries, two museums, one urban design project and five residences – include: aeo Holley Loft, New York aeo Interpretive Center, Elise Chapin Wildlife Sanctuary, Chattanooga, Tennessee aeo Museum of Women, Battery Park City, New York aeo Ojai Festival Shell, Libbey Park, Ojai, California Forewords by Billie Tsien, architect, and Terence Riley, Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York