Blur: The Making of Nothing by Elizabeth Diller

Creating spectacular buildings

When the visionary American architectural team of Diller + Scofidio won a commission for Swiss EXPO 2002, they reinvented the tradition of creating spectacular buildings for World's Fairs by creating an empty one - an ephemerally beautiful yet eerily vacant pavilion. Consisting of a mist formed by 30,000 fog nozzles mounted on an immense structure of steel cables, the Blur Building appears to float above a Swiss lake. It's a fabricated cloud, complete with a water bar.

Vaporous maze

The book of Blur captures the experience of passing through this vaporous maze. More than 240 pages, including four double gatefolds, document every aspect of the project, from the first conceptual sketches to the computer-programmed "braincoats" to be worn by the estimated 10 million visitors to construction documents and news clippings.

Provoking work

Even the transparent plastic cover and shadowy title typography convey the transitory essence of Diller + Scofidio's thought-provoking work. This unique book will be the permanent manifestation of the building, which will be dismantled after the Expo closes.

Diller + Scofidio

Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, as the New York–based, internationally renowned, husband-and-wife firm of Diller + Scofidio, are the first architects to be awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. Diller is a Professor of Architecture at Princeton University and Scofidio is a Professor of Architecture at Cooper Union in New York City.
Publisher: Harry N Abrams, 2002
ISBN: 0810921235