Harvard GSD — "Jeanne Gang on 'Actionable Idealism' and architecture that connects"

“We have been very busy making architecture, in this broad sense, for the past twenty years. But every so often it is important to pause and reflect on the work that has been made and enable it to be seen. This book provides that opportunity. It allows us to take a moment to celebrate, as each building is a triumph in a way, the result of hard work and collaboration with our clients and colleagues. It also gives us a platform to inspire others—to let them know it is possible to accomplish bold, beautiful things with deep ambitions.

Finally, it asks us to consider and articulate the work anew. Though I was initially tempted to make a book like Reveal, my first, which aimed to show the total scope of our creative output and thinking, this monograph offered a framework for a different but equally important task: to gather together our signature, more “traditional” architectural projects (built and yet-to-be built), and through a critical process, organize and explain them in a way that makes our major underlying interests visible. Creating this kind of book not only helps others understand the defining qualities that are present in our work, it also helps us learn more about ourselves. By focusing on buildings, we are able to see and to share the way in which the discoveries from all the other activities of the studio influence and inform what is finally made physical.”

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