20 / Narrative
Winter 13

MAS_Context_Narrative_cover
Download the PDF / Purchase a Copy

Architecture and narrative, as Victor Hugo nostalgically pointed out in The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831, have walked hand in hand through history, crossing paths without really risking the extinction that the archdeacon of Notre-Dame gloomily predicted. Today, in a moment where the conjunction of the crisis and the entrance into a new stage in the communication era impulse the discipline into new, multiple directions, the narrative aspects of architecture come to the front. This issue tackles the intersections between architectural practices and different forms of visual narrative. Within this overall theme, our NARRATIVE issue moves on both sides of the line that separates these two disciplines, presenting three different perspectives, organized in three consecutive parts. The first section of the issue deals with the presence of graphic narrative in disciplinary architecture, both past and present while the second one discusses the crossing of borders portrayed by comics artists who also make forays into the built world. Finally, the third one moves towards both sides of the spectrum, briefly covering the tangents with (implied) written narratives and emerging animation practices in architecture.

Contributions by Andrea Alberghini, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Sir Peter Cook, Manuele Fior, Factory Fifteen, Iker Gil, Jones, Partners: Architecture, Tom Kaczynski, Jimenez Lai, Klaus, Léopold Lambert, Luis Miguel (Koldo) Lus Arana, Marc-Antoine Mathieu, Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, Cesar Reyes Nájera, François Schuiten, Joost Swarte, Mélanie van der Hoorn, and Chris Ware whose work is featured in our cover.

This issue is guest edited by architectural scholar Koldo Lus Arana and architect-cartoonist Klaus.

  1. Introduction
    Architectural Narratives. Issue statement by Iker Gil,editor in chief of MAS Context.
  2. Building Stories
    Drawings by Chris Ware. Text by Klaus.
  3. Comics and Architecture, Comics in Architecture
    Essay by Koldo Lus Arana.
  4. Buildings and Their Representations Collapsing Upon One Another. Architecture in comic strip form
    Essay by Mélanie van der Hoorn.
  5. Amazing Archigram!
    Clara Olóriz and Koldo Lus Arana interview architect Sir Peter Cook.
  6. Lost in the Line
    Graphic Novel by Léopold Lambert.
  7. Out of Water
    Graphic Novel by Jimenez Lai.
  8. Kartun: The View!
    Graphic Novel by Jones, Partners: Architecture, Mark Simmons, and The Southern California Institute of Architecture.
  9. Cartooning Architecture and Other Issues
    Iker Gil interviews graphic artist Klaus.
  10. Starchitecture Redux
    Cartoons by Klaus.
  11. Sensing the Comic’s DNA: Excerpts of a conversation with François Schuiten
    Mélanie van der Hoorn in conversation with François Schuiten.
  12. Swarte’s Mystery Theater
    Koldo Lus Arana in conversation with Joost Swarte.
  13. Labyrinths and Metaphysical Constructions: An Interview with Marc-Antonie Mathieu
    Léopold Lambert interviews graphic novelist Marc-Antoine Mathieu.
  14. Images Come First
    Andrea Alberghini interviews Manuele Fior.
  15. Beta Testing Architecture: Yearning for Space with Tom Kaczynski
    Koldo Lus Arana interviews Tom Kaczynski.
  16. Archiporn or Storylines? Creative Architectural commercials as challenges to the communication and marketing of architecture
    Essay by Mélanie van der Hoorn.
  17. Beyond Built Architecture
    Ethel Baraona Pohl and César Reyes from dpr-barcelona interview Jonathan Gales, founding member of Factory Fifteen.