In 1950s Britain, the figure of the arrow had a strange kind of ubiquity in architectural drawings, publications, and advertisements, symbolising everything from the circulation of cold and warm air in a kitchen fridge to the flow of traffic in assorted New Towns. Twenty-five years earlier there were barely any arrows within architectural publications, and 15 years later they had all but disappeared.
In On Arrows, Laurent Stalder looks back at the near past to trace the idea of performance in architecture by following a pervasive yet relatively unnoticed figure within the history of British architecture.
My role involved working directly with the author in advance of submitting a manuscript to the publisher. Together we developed a structure and rubric for the collection. I brought the individual essays (those that had been previously published) up to date through sometimes intensive revision and served as a sounding board for the new pieces written for this volume.
Designed by Studio Christopher Victor
Published by MIT Press
