Points + lines

With Points + Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City, influential architect and theorist Stan Allen proposes a series of new architectural strategies for the contemporary city. Organized in the form of a user's manual, it juxtaposes texts outlining Allen's theoretical principles with his projects, in which those principles are demonstrated in practice.

Finding inspiration in the artistic minimalism and postminimalism of the 1970s, Allen uses the city's vitality and infrastructure to support projects that reflect and augment the urban experience. Included in this volume are three essays by Allen along with six projects, including his designs for the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales, the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the Souks of Beirut, the Logistical Activities Zone of Barcelona, the Korean-American Museum of Art in Los Angeles, and the National Diet Library in Kansai Kan, Japan. Allen's work is introduced by K. Michael Hays; R.E. Somol provides an afterword. In addition, the book contains a complete, illustrated chronology of Allen's projects.