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Stephan Jaklitsch: Habits, Patterns, Algorithms 1998-2008
Stephan Jaklitsch: Habits, Patterns, Algorithms 1998-2008
Stephan Jaklitsch: Habits, Patterns, Algorithms 1998-2008
Stephan Jaklitsch: Habits, Patterns, Algorithms 1998-2008
Stephan Jaklitsch: Habits, Patterns, Algorithms 1998-2008
Stephan Jaklitsch would never be mistaken for what has come to be the saccharine descriptive, enfant terrible. His work stands firmly apart from the pomp and narcissism of the rebel yell, the ditching of the suit and tie and the familiar traps of a dialectical posturing that result in the emptiness of negation. ORO’s tome, Stephan Jaklitsch: Habits, Patterns, Algorithms 1998-2008 (edited by Oscar Riera Ojeda, foreward by Calvin Tsao, introduction by Rodolphe el-Khoury, and text by Mark Gardener and Stephan Jaklitch, and primary photography by Paul Warchol ORO editions/ $75), reveals the languages of spatial identity that create this architect’s thoughtful corpus.
In contrast to the hubris that haunts the widespread contemporary phenomenon of the architect-cum-brand, this volume is not an advertisement in disguise and doesn’t proffer another stale attempt at creating a vehicle for eye candy or other common ploys to grab the reader. Each of the meticulously considered 422 pages of this extra-large volume suggests a refreshingly sincere confidence in the informative and educational poise of its narrative and the reader’s intelligence is never insulted with visual antics. Jaklitsch’s work is allowed to speak for itself. The theoretical positioning of his projects by Calvin Tsao’s forward and Rudolphe el-Khoury’s introduction suggests that Jaklitsch’s work is post-Modern insofar as it declines the conscious articulation of an ideological thrust. This, of course, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have one - it just refuses this articulation beyond the formal/informal constraints of the projects themselves. As Tsao states, “In [Jaklitch’s] retail space, for example, I sense his ability to draw out many primal and subliminal impulses through the spaces and the forms he composes…But this volume shows that he is not limited to retail, and he has the rare ability to employ the same strategy in his residential and other projects.” With a seeming nod to a neo-Hegelian vision of architectural progression, each essayist makes a case for the contemporary relevance of his articulation of a Loosian ethos, which el-Khoury describes as “good design is invisible design.”
To that end, the volume is especially successful in presenting Jaklitsch’s numerous projects. Marc Jacobs boutiques aren’t frivolous, here. Instead, they are presented as exquisite full-page photographic portraits to be studied with the eye of an art/architectural historian. Early drafts of boutique renderings hold their weight next to a breadth of residential projects, from the Duffy house in Provincetown to the Gambaccini residence in Columbia County, New York. Each image reveals the possibility inherent in the ruse of simplicity that is repetition. Algorithm, habit and pattern all offer to the naked eye a series of steps; normative processes, familiar and safe. And they are. That is, until we examine the performance/language of the process, the dance of the similar, the familiar in their repetition—or as the inimitable Ms. Stein would perhaps suggest, their insistence. – Joanne Molina
To order: Stephan Jaklitsch: Habits, Patterns, Algorithms 1998-2008
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