Speculative Coolness Architecture, Media, the Real, and the Virtual

Foreword: ‘Architectural Cymbalism and the Caress of Steel

Editorial: ‘Read Me’ Instructions for Proper Use 

ME-di@ Logics + Being in the [k]now

Alice [2.0] 

CSFU Sentinel 

‘Ten Years After’ 

Social AMPs 01,02 + 03 

OMWFT WYSIWYG 

COSMO 

Tree Hugger 

On the Move

Palimpsestuous Relationships 

Ideal for frequent drawers. Not for any use on skin, including tattoos 

Ozone Metric Anomaly

Ministry of [w]Hore-2:culture

Calibrating Space 

Towards a s[Y/N]thetic Reality 

‘S(y/n)taxo[G]nome + (taxon objects)’ 

‘20220202_02’ 

Camera Noxoculo

H[n]otel-CA

DomestiC-19

Eye, Hand and Mind: an interview with Bryan Cantley

Afterword: Human Error

Biography

Author: Prof. Bryan Cantley:

Bryan’s work attempts to blur the undefined zone between architecture and its representation. In 1992, Bryan Cantley established Form:uLA, a practice that explores the boundaries of architecture, representation and the role of experimental drawing, within the discourse of visionary space. He is a Full Professor of Design at California State University Fullerton. Bryan has lectured at a number of architecture schools internationally including The Bartlett School of Architcture, SCI-arc, and UCLA. He has been visiting faculty at SCI-ARC and Woodbury University. Bryan was the recipient of a Graham Foundation Grant in 2002. His work is in the Permanent Collection at SFMOMA, as well as the personal collection of Thom Mayne. Bryan has shown work in a number of institutions, including SFMOMA, and solo exhibitions at The Bartlett, SCI-arc, and UCLA. His first monograph, Mechudzu, was published by Springer in 2010.

Editor: Peter J Baldwin:

Peter is a registered and chartered Architect and Senior Lecturer in Architecture, M, Arch Programme Leader and Director of Scholarship and Professional Practice at the University of Lincoln’s School of Architecture and the Built Environment. Peter has taught and lectured at Schools across the UK. Peter’s research explores the role of the drawing as an environment for speculation and the generative potential of non-traditional modes of architectural representation. Peter has lectured and taught in schools of architecture across the UK and his work has been published and exhibited internationally, most recently as part of the "In Memoriam" Exhibition at the Yale School of Architecture 2020.

"Bryan Cantley’s latest book Speculative Coolness is a tour de force in speculative architectural representation. Through an impressively displayed selection of Cantley’s work, it critically explores the liminal realm that separates—and integrates—the digital and analogue voices of architectural representation. For those readers who have been unable to acquire Cantley’s first book Mechudzu: New Rhetorics for Architecture—now long out of print—Speculative Coolness will be a revelation."

Daniel K. Brown, Architecture New Zealand May/June 2023

"For decades, Bryan Cantley has been coolly speculating about architecture that surfs through the suburbs with expressive technology. His beautifully layered drawings, combining computer generation with the craft of hand delineation, manage to evoke without designating, and are in themselves objects of architecture. This book collects some of his best work in an accessible and seductive manner."

Aaron Betsky, Professor, Virginia Tech.

"Delectable, deliberate and dizzying in equal parts, Speculative Coolness is […] a requiem for the masses where promiscuous marks, coded indexes, innovative formations, linguistic shenanigans, and seemingly mystical calibrations are rendered visible in a mind-warping collection. These extraordinarily tantalizing speculations are protests against the spatial and representational straitjackets that for too long have plagued architecture’s visualized and material agency."

Perry Kulper, Architect and Professor, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan