Re:Crafted Interpretations of Craft in Contemporary Architecture and Interiors

SHoP is not nearly as "out of practice" as they claim. The prominent New York-based firm, founded in 1996, is at work on numerous projects--multistory housing, academic buildings, and master plans. SHoP--a truly collaborative office--did not achieve such success by keeping with the traditional structure of architecture firms, however. The partners look outside the profession for inspiration and ideas, in both their buildings and their business model, keeping in line with their mission to create real-world architecture that considers how design, finance, and technology can work together. They are known for streamlining the design and construction process using evolving computer-aided design technologies to produce innovative architectural forms. This method also helps them to reduce client spending by collaborating with manufacturers and trade contractors during the design process, rather than after all the plans have been laid out. This volume will explore six of the firm's ideologies--practice, typology, politics, finances, sustainability, and technology--based on six major projects as well as fifty smaller projects. This unique organization will allow readers to see and better understand the firm's work and business strategies, as well as provide ideas to improve their own building projects.

An architecture and design journalist, Marc Kristal is a contributing editor of Dwell, a former editor of AIA/J, and has written for Metropolis, the New York Times, Architectural Digest, Elle DTcor, and numerous other publications. In 2003, he curated the exhibition “Absence Into Presence: The Art, Architecture, and Design of Remembrance” at Parsons School of Design, and in 2009, he was part of the project team that created the Greenwich South planning study for the Alliance for Downtown New York. Also a screenwriter, Kristal wrote the film Torn Apart. He lives in New York.