The House of Doctor Koolhaas: Gumshoe #1 Volume 1 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9783038604075)

Investigates the history of the Villa dall'Ava in the playful style of a detective novel.

Gumshoe is a new series of architectural books that introduces an original approach to the writing of architectural history. It returns the focus of architectural discourse back onto buildings in a style and form that is fresh and scholarly but also easy and enjoyable to read. It emulates the detective novel--a form of writing beloved by many, but also one that has enjoyed a parallel academic life in disciplines and by writers in fields as diverse as psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud), film (Sigfried Kracauer), and art history (Carlo Ginzburg)--but, significantly, not yet by architecture. Each volume will investigate a singular building as if it were a mystery waiting to be solved.

Written by distinguished French architectural critic and historian Fran?oise Fromonot, the first case--The House of Doctor Koolhaas--is about the Villa dall'Ava, a private residence in Saint-Cloud, a suburb of Paris. Fromonot brilliantly unpicks, explains, and interprets this very first building completed by Rem Koolhaas, who is universally regarded as the world's most celebrated architect, and his Rotterdam-based firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture. The house is resolutely part of a modern architectural canon, but until now has not been the focus of a dedicated book or analysis.

Author: Fran?oise Fromonot
ISBN-10: 3038604070
ISBN-13: 9783038604075
Publisher: Park Publishing (WI)
Language: English
Published: 06/20/2025
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs