Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124104
2 2 P E R S P E C T I V E | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 R E S O U R C E S Some of the considerations required in creating a volume with this much content led to a choice of paper stock that is very thin and has a small degree of translucency, as the page images show. This is the weight of stock you would see in an unabridged dictionary. The huge amount of content also sometimes leads to images that are very small and challenging to read, especially some of the postage stamp-sized plans and elevations, but with the use of a magnifier, even just using a phone camera to zoom in on the image, the detail in the printing allows the infomation to be clearly read. The structure of the book is unusual. A built-in crease in the binding makes it naturally open to the center, and the introduction, table of contents and glossary are all in the middle, with the themed sections arranged on each side. The pages also have two sets of numbers, with both the overall page number and the number within its specific section, so page 1909 is also stair page 183. At first this seems redundant, but is acually very useful when trying to find specific information. The book wants to challenge the way the reader thinks about architecture, and the pages of each section open with a provocative take on the subject. The toilet chapter broaches gender identity, the wall section begins with a human wall that preceded the building of the Berlin Wall, the window chapter shows the Las Vegas hotel window used in a mass shooting, and the facade section features a building in Britain where the flammability of the facade materials led to many deaths. In approaching the topic by element, and the way different cultures and times approached the use of these elements, rather than by looking at the architecture through the lens of the great buidings and their designers, Koolhaas and his contributors A. PAGES FROM THE STAIRS SECTION DETAILING HELIX STAIRS. B. & C. PAGES FROM THE CEILING SECTION DESCRIBING THE ROOF OF THE PARIS OPERA HOUSE AND THE GEOMETRIC COMPLEXITIES OF ISLAMIC CEILING PATTERNS. D-F. OPENING PAGES OF THE SECTIONS ON WALLS, WINDOWS AND FACADES. A B C