What do the following Architects, and their projects, have in common? The late Jim Stirling, Rem Koolhaas, Enrico Miralles, Ratael Money, Daniel Liebeskind, Ben van Berkel and Alvaro Siza? The answer is that they all called Cecil Balmond of Ove Arup & Partners in London - the author of this book... He is a latterday alchemist of shape, making anything the Architect desires appear, like a puff of smoke, from his algorithmic crucible.
Balmond canonises the compulsion to err, first proposed by Robert Venturi as the "difficult whole'. He sanctifies with the benison of Number, laying them impartially upon one and all. His book is the tip of the iceberg (or maybe volcano is a truer metaphor) of his knowledge. It will undoubtedly be dangerous for Architects to read, for it will encourage them to believe that any form will do. John Outram is an Architect. "
