What is the Agbar Tower? A headquarters. Why this shape? The oblong top of the tower creates an optimised environment to raise a war cyborg. What is the Casa da Musica? A beach! Why that form? To collect medicinal seawater in the autumn. This collection of bestiaries is a critique of Monster Contemporary Architecture. It is a reinterpretation of contemporary iconic forms and the contemplation of the future states of these masterpieces, or more fittingly, Monsterpieces. Two Harvard architecture graduates challenge themselves to unlearn architecture history. They speculate on the future state of post-occupancy of contemporary architectural icons, creating a retrospective of future archaeological studies. A response and critique of iconic perFORMance?the current architectural trend in competing for attention?this fiction tells the story of building forms that do follow function. In this book, each eccentric form finds its justification in a speculative function, with surreal and dystopian connotations. The Casa da Musica is now a beach, and Selfridge Birmingham is a prison for TV addicts?nothing more, nothing less. AUTHOR: Aude-Line Duliere and Clara Wong are rebellious daughters of the Koolhaasian 90s. They hold Master of Architecture degrees from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and together are a model of global collaboration. Aude-Line Duliere is an architect and movie production designer in the US SLondon, with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Institut Superieur d'Architecture La Cambre. Her academic work builds on the dual nature of her experience and explores the crossroads between architecture and cinema. Clara Wong is a practicing architect, artist, and assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong, with academic activities bridging between the US and Hong Kong. She received her Bachelor degree summa cum laude from Princeton University School of Architecture, and graduated with awards from the Princeton University Program in Visual Arts, focusing on Drawing and Painting. 20 photographs, 150 illustrations
