Facticity

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AADCU, Beijing, 2013 (forthcoming), English

Nonfiction, Architecture

Facticity is used to describe two fundamental aspects of the work of NMDA: the precision of its material life, both built and virtual; and its intentional conceptual open endedness, i.e. facticity also refers to phenomena that resist explanation. Between facthood (indisputable facts) and ideality (an unobtainably pristine condition), the term captures a rather radical spectrum of intellectual and visual speculation that conceives of architecture as a functioning experiment. For an office that is obsessed with finish, clarity, and graphic immediacy, NMDA is also equally fascinated by and strives to make work that resists immediate gratification. With extensive documentation of 45 projects and ten essays, all authored by Neil Denari, the book explores the ways in which the concept of facticity both clarifies and problematizes the work of NMDA.

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