John Hejduk. Soundings. Series of Theory and Architectural Openness

John Hejduk (N.Y. 1929 - N.Y. 2000) was one of the most original american architects in the 1900s. The corpus of his work includes projects, paintings, poems, drawings, illustrations, critical theoretical essays collected in books and conceived as works of art. Especially known for his theoretical ideas on architecture and the city.
He was the director of Cooper Union in New York for 25 years, where he inspired generations of young architects, not only american. Hejduk largely abstained from conventional practice, focusing instead on real theoretical projects, developed in several drawings, expressions of a personal rigorous poetic.
His works have a unique stylistic variety which combine a vast knowledge of basic geometrical shapes and elemental biomorphism, with typological variations and the characters of the historical form of the city. He studded his work and drawings with angel, demons, animals and machines, in a game of metamorphosis and transfiguration where architecture takes on the role of sanctuary for art, for culture and for the human spirit.