Stressing Wachsmann
Title: Stressing Wachsmann: Structures for a future, publication, 306 pages, 240 × 170mm, sections of 2/2 and 5/5 colour printing, screen printed cover linen, quarter-bound, foil blocking on cover and back cover, Munken Lynx 120gsm, Arco gloss 130gsm, printed and produced with Johannes Fauland jr at Gerin Druck.
Clients: Florian Medicus and Roswitha Janowski-Fritsch, Institute of Architecture, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Awards: Most Beautiful Books of Austria 2020 (Schönste Bücher Österreichs 2020)
Design background
Stressing Wachsmann is the third in a series of publications about icons in the history of architecture and structural engineering, compiled and edited by Klaus Bollinger and Florian Medicus. Like the first two publications, Unbuildable Tatlin?! and Endless Kiesler, Stressing Wachsmann developed its formal qualities by examining and translating some of the contents key elements. Konrad Wachsmann was obsessed by finding the perfection connection nodes facilitating simple yet powerful architectural constructions such as the renowned Hangar for the US-Air Force. The design concept picks up on this and emphasises the binding with the screen printed cover linen and the choice of typeface, Korpus and Korpus Grotesk, designed by Nik Thoenen with the stroke-connections as a clear focus.
„Beginnend mit einer heute nicht mehr unbedingt erwartbaren schonen Haptik aus Leineneinband und Kartonage uber die clevere Platzierung des englischen Textes vorne und des deutschen Pendants hinten – getrennt durch seitlich eingezogene Bildseiten – bis hin zu eben jener reichen Bebilderung, fur die das Konrad-Wachsmann-Archiv der Berliner Akademie der Kunste zur Verfugung stand: ein in der direkten Bedeutung schones Buch.” (Bernhard Hauke in Stahlbau aktuell, 2021)
