Book 2

Beginning in 2003, Mark Wigley and Peter Eisenman sat down each summer with an audience of students to debate issues pertinent to contemporary architecture practice and education. This publication compiles all ten years of the debates and presents them a single edited volume. The discussions were wide-ranging, tackling issues from pedagogy to image production and from architectural style to architecture's place within culture. The cast of characters they invoked was equally expansive--Manfredo Tafuri and Colin Rowe, of course, and a host of historical and contemporary architects (alongside cultural figures like Thomas Pynchon and Steven Colbert). Although often trenchant in their points of disagreement, these debates are marked by a sense of levity and mutual respect as Eisenman and Wigley explore deeply held theoretical concerns and a series of questions about the future of the architectural discipline.