Extreme Minimalism by Chris Van Uffelen, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters

Based on a selected range of contemporary buildings, this book examines how built esthetics can be achieved with reduced shapes, few materials and simple implementation, revealing minimalism as an attitude aiming at abstraction, functionalism and purification. During many eras of architectural history, builders and architects aimed to construct buildings with pure shapes and clear geometry, while foregoing decorative elements. With the advent of Classical Modernity, minimalism has become a seminal architectural style. However, the approach of architects cannot be limited to Mies van der Rohe's dogma of Less is more", but corresponds rather to "Less is all you need". Based on a selected range of contemporary buildings, this book examinesthe question of how compelling esthetic impressions and expressions can be achieved with reduced shapes. Representing various types of structures, the chosen examples are mostly based on the concept of a simple comprehensive overall shape, focusing on a few main materials as means of expression, and are comparatively simple to implement. Despite, or perhaps due to the consistently applied limitations, the results are extremely remarkable." | Extreme Minimalism by Chris Van Uffelen, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters