CONTENTS
Having Words
Scott Brown’s ability to adjust how she writes to the purpose of the writing is one of the most important things in her oeuvre from which architects can learn. The articles and texts included here were originally produced for a spectacularly diverse range of publications and occasions. It is a selection no less eclectic than the projects and buildings she has produced through the architectural office she shares with her husband, Robert Venturi. Scott Brown writes in ‘Words About Architecture’, written specifically for this collection, that ‘Bob and I vary our writing according to our purpose’. And how. These are two people who have produced words in a full spectrum of forms: as books, extended stories, countless lectures and speeches; as captions to exhibitions, as cartoon-bubbles offering commentary on design objects; as research documents, planning guidelines, and as decoration applied directly to their buildings in printed, painted, carved and electronic form. And as this collection so handsomely documents, in the more recognisable form of short essays and articles, of which Scott Brown proves herself a perfectionist, in terms of the construction of arguments, the telling of anecdotes, and the unexpected opportunities essays provide for self-analysis. The work of Denise Scott Brown is indeed a world of words very much at work; of words ‘doing things’ for the clearly stated purposes of their author’s invention. I would like to thank Denise Scott Brown for allowing us to bring together this vital collection of her writings and with it better understand the clarity and rarity of her world – an architect’s world where reading and writing operate in unison for the making of an architectural space out of the printed page. It is a space of great beauty, wit and persuasion; and one built one word at a time. Brett Steele Director, AA School and AA Publications
3. Foreword 5. Invention and Tradition (1986) 22. Towards an Active Socioplastics (2007) 55. On Pop Art, Permissiveness and Planning (1969) 60. The Hounding of the Snark (1999) 69. On Formal Analysis (1979) 79. SEXISM AND THE STAR SYSTEM (1989) 90. THE MAKING OF AN ECLECTIC (1979) 97. A Worm’s-Eye View (1984) 119. What Should New Orleans Do? (2005) 128. PLANNING THE POWDER ROOM (1967) 136. On Analysis and Design (1970) 145. Words About Architecture (2009) 154. afterword 158. FURTHER READING