"Slickly textured, with a miniature mousepad affixed to its cover, the book is complemented by sharp graphics and an eye-opening photo dossier of urban scenes worldwide?Urban studies never looked, or sounded, so compelling." One.

"Mutations embodies the exuberant chaos of the cities it studies: A canary-yellow vinyl cover doubles as a mousepad, and a CD of urban sounds is tucked into the back?It's the book's startling, almost abstract photographs of man-made landscapes-massive? mall parking lots, convoluted highways, offshore landing strips-that makes Mutations such smart fun." Brill's Content.

"A fascinatingly unconventional look at the nature of global urbanism." House and Garden.

Contributions by Stefano Boeri, Harvard Project on the City, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Attali, Moulier Boutang, Francois Chaslin, Daniela Fabricius, Reinhold Grether, Sanford Kwinter, Bart Lootsma, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Celine Roz.

Featuring work and texts by:, Rem Koolhaas, Sanford Kwinter and Daniela Fabricius, Stefano Boeri, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nadia Tazi, Jean Attali, Moulier Boutang, Saskia Sassen, Bart Lootsma, And many others.

"This time working with a host of collaborators, architect Koolhaas, whose S, M, L, XL was that rare thing, a crossover architecture best seller, has returned with another bricklike tome. Mutations was developed in connection with Harvard Design School's Project on the City, an ongoing graduate-level analysis of "issues related to the urban condition." Year-long investigations have tackled such subjects as the impact of shopping on the city; Lagos, a massive, sprawling West African city that is highly functional despite a lack of infrastructure; and systematizing the structures and relationships in the prototypical Roman city. Results from these projects are gathered here along with a couple photo essays and short profiles of specific places from Pristina to Benelux. Interspersed throughout are a multitude of statistics about the current state and future of the city, presented in a captivating, highly graphical format. The whole does not cohere, and the reader will quickly turn to whatever is of greatest personal interest. But at the end of the day, the various views do coalesce into a portrait of powerful forces of our making but beyond our control: the modern city. As a result, this book is highly recommended for general cultural studies collections as well as all architecture/urban planning collections." Eric Bryant, Library Journal

Dimensions: 6?x8? (inches)
Pages: 720
Edition: Softcover
Languages: English