Bricks & Balloons

Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, Bjarke Ingels, Norman Foster: all of these cutting-edge architects have at some time used comic strips to present their projects, or to reflect on the sociopolitical context that shaped them. Bricks & Balloons brings together a wealth of architectural projects that reach into the world of comics, many published here for the first time. The comic-strip medium has proved to be of importance for architecture in three ways: as architecture criticism; as a form of presentation (or representation); and in a few instances even as a method of designing or part of the design process. Bricks & Balloons is based on unique first-hand information collected during dozens of interviews with architects and comic-strip artists. It sheds light on how such work comes about, what drives architects to deploy this unconventional medium and the potentials they see for architecture in the use of comics, the “ninth art.”