[UN]BUILT
Raimund Abraham
Edited by Brigitte Groihofer

A wall, a door, a window, a roof have archetypical meanings. It is in their elaboration and repetitions, [Abraham] maintains, they they become abstract. This abstraction neutralizies the nostalgias dwelling in the elements. Although neither the column nor the window, nor any other isolated element, represents an aspect of the natural world, in their very isolation they conjure up a mode of cognition and a state of being to which moods inevitably cling.—P. Adams Sitney

A massive volume documenting the architecutral oeuvre of Raimund Abraham from 1961 to 1995. The book is structured in three parts: Imaginary Architecture; Projects; and Realizations. The architectural drawing occupies a central position in the evolution of Abraham’s work in challenging the predominant notion of built architecture. When Raimund Abraham refers to the reality of the [Un]built he does not simply want to equate buildings actually realized with projected ones, but he provides a view of the theoretical starting point of a project and its artistic statement.

Essays by Norbert Miller, John Hejduk, Kenneth Frampton, P. Adams Sitney, Lebbeus Woods, and Wieland Schmied.
In 1991 an exhibition of the same name was held in the Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery. Raimund Abraham is a member of the faculty of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. His project for the Austrian Cultural Institute in New York is currently under construction.
Designed by Maria-Anna Friedl.

VIENNA: SPRINGER-VERLAG, 1996.
316 PAGES, 9 X 12
402 ILLUSTRATIONS.
OUT-OF-PRINT