#books #architecture | Carl Pruscha, singular personality : architect, bohemian, activist

Carl Pruscha, singular personality : architect, bohemian, activist / edited by Lars Müller, Arno Ritter, Eva Schlegel; with texts by Natalie Lettner, Michael Sorkin, Manjushree Thapa ; [photographs by Iwan Baan and Hertha Hurnaus].
Zürich : Lars Müller, 2019.
240 p. : il.
ISBN 9783037785904
/ EN / Libros / Arquitectura – Siglo XX – Austria / Carl Pruscha
ehuBiblioteka BCG A-72PRUSCHA CAR
https://ehu.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1129097843

This monograph on the work of Austrian architect Carl Pruscha (born 1936) is divided into the three geographical areas into which his life and legacy falls: the United States, Kathmandu and Vienna. Following his study of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Pruscha spent the early 1960s at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, constantly in search of inspiration and visions. An invitation by the UN to go to Nepal in 1964 enabled him to establish himself there as a practicing architect, embarking on various construction projects and the Kathmandu Valley Development and Preservation Project. After returning to Vienna in 1978, he became the head of the Academy of Fine Arts. The three sections in this book are accompanied by photographic portfolios by Iwan Baan and Hertha Hurnaus, numerous project documentations and a detailed timeline.

Carl Pruscha is an unusual architect. His works are found in New York, Kathmandu, and Vienna. Far removed from each other, these three geographical areas profoundly influenced his outlook and career. In the United States Pruscha planned visionary and utopian projects. He began to deal with the real world in Nepal where the UN had sent him as a consultant in 1964. In this foreign culture the young architect grew with the challenge. Aside from complex development proposals for the Kathmandu Valley he created remarkable buildings that blend tradition and Modernism in close harmony with their natural and landscape environment. Following his return to Vienna in 1974 he became visibly engaged in academic and social issues. As rector of the Academy of Fine Arts, the man-about-town bohemian became a prominent figure in Vienna’s architectural scene. In this book essays by Manjushree Thapa and Natalie Lettner, a memoir by Michael Sorkin, photographic documentations by Iwan Baan and Hertha Hurnaus along with portfolios of Pruscha’s projects cover his eventful life and extraordinary work.