PROJECT STORIES Vol.1
Project Stories is a 5-volume book series taking an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the stories of built projects to offer an insight into the nature of architectural practice today. The book series is the outcome of an ongoing lecture series begun in 2019, curated by Cristian Stefanescu (a-works) and hosted by the Bergen School of Architecture, Norway with support from the Bergen Architecture Society and Bergen Municipality.
The focus is one of storytelling: of architects who would seldom be placed side by side within the same publication sharing personal experiences, anecdotes and the lesser known details regarding their practice – and specifically of one work– that are not readily available online or in other print resources. With the planned 5-volume series, a total of 15 either lesser known architecture offices, or the lesser known sides of relevant known practices, will be profiled.
Intro
“Architecture is thought through what is built or constructed. Not otherwise. The rest is pure thought.” – Smiljan Radic
To build or realize a work of architecture means to engage with its core, with particularities that an architect does not encounter otherwise. It is the curiosity for these particularities and how such a process unfolds, where thinking and doing are intertwined and inseparable, that reveal an intimate understanding of the life of a project. The plotting and planning, the ups and downs, dead ends, unexpected turn of events and numerous discoveries along the way. The seemingly peripheral details, answers that sometimes arrive and at other times remain unresolved – possibly the source of new beginnings. The multiple sides of a project that don’t fit so neatly into a singular narrative and are left out when the stories go public. It is these types of insights that generate a vivid and multidimensional portrayal of the creative processes involved in making architecture. And it is these insights that are at the centre of this book series.
Project Stories invites an eclectic constellation of architectural practices from across the globe to tell the story of one of their significant built works. Each volume brings together three edited project stories accompanied by individual conversations with the architects. Every story chronicles how an idea comes into being, making visible the diverse approaches and the merging together of various fields that go into constructing a work of architecture. Part essay, part picture book, the series takes the form of a visual reader as a way to ‘see the thinking’ behind the works and practices. Equally intended for students in architecture, architects and teachers of architecture, as well as anyone curious about the process of design, together this collection of stories assembles a wide range of situated positions, conditions and approaches to making architecture today – all equally diverse and equally legitimate.
Project Stories celebrates the richness and diversity of voices, all as unique as they are legitimate, that make up the global practice of architecture today. The many who challenge and redefine the role of the architect and architecture in society and within our environment. The varied approaches and inspired works that shape a promising future. With an awareness of how little we know about the voices, thoughts and work processes behind their architecture, the book series seeks to establish a platform where these stories can be told.
Project Stories Vol. 2 featuring the work of Francesca Torzo (Italy), Wolff Architects (South Africa) and BARarchitekten (Germany) is due out in the fall of 2022.
Asst. Prof. Cristian Stefanescu is a Romanian/Canadian architect based in Bergen, Norway. Since 2013 he has run the architecture and art practice a-works in tandem with teaching at the Bergen School of Architecture on matters of urbanism, public space and building design through a social- ecological-relational lens. His work has been shown at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Romania, at the Architekturzentrum Wien as part of the Vienna Biennale and most recently in the Romanian pavilion at the 2021 Venice Biennale.
