32 Beijing/New York (Issues 1-3)

by Steven Holl and Li Hu, Eds.

Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2003, 2004
32 pp., illus. 50 b/w. Paper, $12.00
ISBN: 1-568-98435-9; ISBN: 1-568-98444-8; ISBN: 1-568-98453-7.

Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Jan Delvinlaan 115, 9000 Gent, Belgium

stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be

From the editorial of issue number one of this new architecture magazine, we can learn that:

"32 is a non-thematic, non-hierarchical structure of open-ended linkages which bracket a space between origins in Beijing and New York. The aim is to open vessels of communication [sic] and to define dynamic lines of thought. As a cosmopolitan exploratory structure it is a small architecture magazine. Each issue has 32 'nodes' instead of sections or themes. 32 focuses on reality—seeking the relevant and necessary influences of architecture today. 32 asks questions that don't yet have answers—allowing its authors and readers relief from obvious closure."

In its first issue, 32 opens with a picture of the famous Monument to the Third International by Vladimir Tatlin and connects or links this, openly of course, to photographs by Sze Tsung Leong, Marc C. Taylor, and Robert Slutzky. There is a Mies Van der Rohe and a Louis I. Kahn building alongside Luis Barragan's Gilardi House and the Couvent de la Tourette by Le Corbusier. Xu Bing contributes an epigraphical article on wooden print blocks. Apart from Sze Tsungs’s and Xus’s work, nothing refers to Beijing or China. All of the articles are printed both in the original and in translation, so those who do not read English need not worry.

In the second issue, which is fortunately printed on much better quality paper, the editors seem to have radically altered course, presenting a much more interesting and balanced selection of articles and photographs. The articles certainly are 'nodes' waiting for the reader to be connected or loosened at her own desire or inclination. I found Zhang Yiwu's Donuts—Hollow Hamburgers—Beijing: What Are Architects to Do?, with its obvious reference to Lenin, a nice starting point to hop from page to page, ending on a thought-provoking article A New Naturalism (7 micromanifestoes) by Inaki Abalos and Juan Herreros.

The third issue falls into step with the previous one. By now, the reader will notice a lukewarm breeze of criticism on worldwide capitalism and globalisation, uniformity in architecture, and the power structures of contemporary Koolhaas-like building practice. Definitely read James Wei Ke's analysis of badminton in the streets of Beijing, as opposed to tennis, and as a metaphor for the future of building.

Looking forward to the next issue, Walls, which is found at http://www.32bny.org.