Out of the Ordinary - by John Ronan (Hardcover)

About the Book

In previous decades, architectural production was constrained by the limits of technology; architects pushed on the boundaries imposed by technology and it gave them common purpose. Those limits are gone. Over the preceding two decades it has been demonstrated that with enough technology (and money) anything is possible. What does an architect do when anything is possible? This is the question which confronts architects today, who now operate within a professional landscape where all is possible, but little has meaning. The "anything goes" mentality which currently prevails has resulted in innumerable self-referential "object" buildings which engage only with their architect's ego, often resulting in an urban fabric of autonomous formal objects comprised of arbitrarily-applied design tropes which celebrate formal invention for its own sake. But what do architects leave society once the novelty of form has worn off? In this architectural age of arbitrary shape-making, devoid of context or meaning, Out of the Ordinary proposes an architecture of innovation rising from ordinary concerns, about relationships not form, which exposes new spatial relationships with diagrammatic clarity in a process of distillation what seeks to lay bare meaningful relationships between essential building elements. -- From publisher website, viewed 19 September 2022.

Book Synopsis

This publication on the work of John Ronan Architects explores the firm's spatial-material approach to architecture and the underlying themes of its typologically diverse output.

Out of the Ordinary introduces a different approach to architecture which is based on spatial narrative rather than form and influenced by literature rather than appropriations from the world of art world. It advocates for architecture which privileges space over form, experience over image, and narrative over authorship.
In previous decades, architectural production was constrained by the limits of technology; architects pushed on the boundaries imposed by technology and it gave them common purpose. Those limits are gone.

Over the preceding two decades it has been demonstrated that with enough technology (and money) anything is possible. What does an architect do when anything is possible?

This is the question which confronts architects today, who now operate within a professional landscape where all is possible, but little has meaning. The "anything goes" mentality which currently prevails has resulted in innumerable self-referential "object" buildings which engage only with their architect's ego, often resulting in an urban fabric of autonomous formal objects comprised of arbitrarily-applied design tropes which celebrate formal invention for its own sake. But what do architects leave society once the novelty of form has worn off?

In this architectural age of arbitrary shape-making, devoid of context or meaning, Out of the Ordinary proposes an architecture of innovation rising from ordinary concerns, about relationships not form, which exposes new spatial relationships with diagrammatic clarity in a process of distillation what seeks to lay bare meaningful relationships between essential building elements.

Review Quotes

"Previously, architectural production was constrained by the limits of technology. But what does an architect do when anything is possible? chicago-based John Ronan is not after novelty of form, and instead says his work is about relationships. "I believe that too much contemporary architecture is about getting noticed, making visual one-liners that can be consumed in a single glance. My aim is to design buildings with richness and subtlety, that reward repeated experiencing and close attention."" --Architectural Record

"With the publication of "Out of the Ordinary: The Work of John Ronan Architects", the work of John Ronan Architects explores the firm's spatial-material approach to architecture and the underlying themes of its typologically diverse output. Informative enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a four page Chronology, two pages of Biography, two pages of Project Credits, and a one page listing of Book Credits, "Out of the Ordinary: The Work of John Ronan Architects" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, academic library Contemporary Architecture collections and supplemental curriculum reading lists." --Midwest Book Review

"If we take the number of pages given a project's documentation as an equivalence to its importance and quality -- and, really, is that so wrong? -- the top three projects by the eponymous Chicago firm of John Ronan are: the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship (32 pages), the Poetry Foundation (30 pages); and Independence Library and Apartments (28 pages). None of the sixteen other projects -- completed buildings among them, but also speculative projects, competition entries, unbuilt projects, and buildings under construction -- come close in terms of pages, but cumulatively they paint a comprehensive and cohesive picture of a firm with many more projects to its name. " --A Daily Dose of Architecture