Johnsen Schmaling: On Rigor

(Paperback)

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In a world that fetishizes aesthetic frivolity and iconographic bombast at the expense of substance and nuance, the critically acclaimed work of Johnsen Schmaling Architects stands out for its conceptual rigor, profound simplicity, and quiet repose. Formally restrained and informed by innovative tectonic and material experimentations, Johnsen Schmalings precisely crafted architecture creates poetic atmospheres of enduring clarity.

Johnsen Schmaling: On Rigor is the firms first monograph and provides an in-depth look at thirteen seminal residential and commercial projects. The book reveals how the architects unique reading of context and cultural memory translates into an abstract palette of architectural operations that guide the entire design process, from initial concepts to intricate, meticulously detailed material assemblies. The crisply designed book features beautiful photography and delightful graphics that illustrate how the projects came to life.

Reviews

"Johnsen Schmaling designs buildings of near-monastic simplicity. Proportion, material, and setting reign supreme in the work, rather than showmanship or formal flamboyance. The result is a collection of buildings with a sense of place and an unfussy precision." --Asad Syrkett, Architectural Record
"...the studio has produced dozens of beautiful modern buildings, most of them houses in their home state of Wisconsin. This monograph is their first, and instead of providing exhaustive coverage of their work, On Rigor presents a baker's dozen of buildings completed between 2011 and 2021, or just the latter half of the studio's two decades." -- A Daily Dose of Architecture

"Johnsen Schmaling is doing seriously impressive, attention-grabbing work. The office has managed not only to maintain the creative energy of a design studio, but also to realize their engaging, stimulating solutions in buildings that get built--and perform--in the real world." --Architectural Digest
"There's a kind of joy in Johnsen Schmaling's architecture and the way they talk about their practice, a willingness to break the rulesnot in a transgressive way, but in a way that really amplifies the work. They have a distinctive body of work; in each project, there is the intensification of an idea." --Anne Rieselbach, Program Director, Architectural League of New York
"Ever since they appeared on the architecture scene, Johnsen Schmaling Architects has continued to surprise, delight, and sometimes confound... Apart from their obvious talent for creating distinctive residential buildings, the firm partners have a special knack for elucidating the intellectual underpinnings of every design decision they make." --S. Claire Conroy, Editor-in-Chief, Residential Design
"Johnsen Schmaling has designed some of the strongest residential work in the countrylocally inspired, national in caliber, and environmentally aware. Their houses distill geometry into poetry. Varied in setting, program, and response, Johnsen Schmaling assembles simple forms with a reductive logic whose outcomes seemlike the best poetryboth novel and inevitable."--Bruce Snider, Residential Architect magazine
"Johnsen Schmaling's architecture is so impactful and, ultimately, so moving because it heightens our sensibility toward the essential but often intangible qualities of our existence, inspiring us to experience consciouslyand embrace unconditionallythe complex and sometimes paradoxical conditions surrounding us." --Karl Wallick, Co-Author of "Kieran Timberlake: Inquiry" (Rizzoli, 2011)

Author Bio

Clifford Pearson is a writer and editor who covers architecture, urbanism, and culture. He served as deputy editor-in-chief and senior editor at Architectural Record for 26 years and was the director of the University of Southern Californias American Academy in China. In 2004 and 2006, he was co-curator of the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. He holds degrees in Architectural History from Columbia University and in Urban Studies from Cornell.

Johnsen Schmaling is widely recognised as an important voice in contemporary American architecture. The studios projects have garnered broad critical acclaim for their conceptual rigor, serene simplicity, and an unequivocal commitment to architectural innovation and environmental sustainability. Johnsen Schmaling received the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York and was featured in Architectural Record as an exceptional global architecture firm to watch, while Architectural Digest named Johnsen Schmaling one of Ten Rising Stars in American Architecture. The founding partners, Brian Johnsen and Sebastian Schmaling both teach design at the University of Wisconsin and regularly lecture on their work in the United States and abroad.