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Christian Sumi

The Goddess – La Déesse

Investigations on the Legendary Citroën DS

At its launch in 1955, the Citroën DS was a sensation and a magnet for designers, philosophers, and politicians alike. No other automobile was able to combine form and technology so coherently and seemingly effortlessly. Radical in its implementation and revolutionary in terms of comfort and safety, the DS is one of the most innovative design icons of the 20th century.

In collaboration with Lars Müller Publishers, the Swiss architect Christian Sumi published the new edition of AS in DS by Alison and Peter Smithson in 2001. In this new publication, he analytically examines the characteristics of the classic vehicle. Carefully arranged picture series and drawings by Flaminio Bertoni and the Citroën design team, for example of the body, the chassis and the legendary hydraulics, illustrate the essay. Using advertising images Sumi critically analyzes, in both a contemporary and a philosophical context, the iconization and reception of the Citroën DS, as well as the theories arising from this phenomenon.

At its launch in 1955, the Citroën DS was a sensation and a magnet for designers, philosophers, and politicians alike. No other automobile was able to combine form and technology so coherently and seemingly effortlessly. Radical in its implementation and revolutionary in terms of comfort and safety, the DS is one of the most innovative design icons of the 20th century.

In collaboration with Lars Müller Publishers, the Swiss architect Christian Sumi published the new edition of AS in DS by Alison and Peter Smithson in 2001. In this new publication, he analytically examines the characteristics of the classic vehicle. Carefully arranged picture series and drawings by Flaminio Bertoni and the Citroën design team, for example of the body, the chassis and the legendary hydraulics, illustrate the essay. Using advertising images Sumi critically analyzes, in both a contemporary and a philosophical context, the iconization and reception of the Citroën DS, as well as the theories arising from this phenomenon.

“perhaps the final word on the creation, status and legacy of the remarkable automobile”
– Wallpaper

«eine interessante und lesenswerte Ergänzung der DS-Literatur»
– MOTORWORLD

Author(s): Christian Sumi

With photographs by Michel Zumbrunn, Heinz Unger

Design: Karin Schiesser

24 × 16,5 cm, 9 ½ × 6 ½ in

232 pages, 198 illustrations

hardback

2020, 978-3-03778-626-0, English
Design History Design Research
CHF 40.00

Christian Sumi

Christian Sumi graduated from the Zurich Polytechnic, where he worked for the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture (gta). He has taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design GSD, the Lausanne Polytechnic EPFL and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. From 2008 to 2016 he had a full professorship at the Accademia di Architettura Mendrisio AAM, together with Marianne Burkhalter. Since 1984, Sumi and Burkhalter have been running an architectural practice in Zurich. The firm acquired an international reputation by, among other things, transformations of existing structures, new housing typologies, hotels and innovative wooden constructions and distinctive use of polychrome colors. Sumi also made a number of exhibition installations: "Gottfried Semper" and "Robots" for the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (2004 and 2009); "The unexpected view" and "Konrad Wachsmann – the Grapevine Structure" for La Biennale di Venice (2014 and 2018). He is the editor of the reprint of Alison and Peter Smithson's publication “AS in DS,” published by Lars Müller Publishers (2001).

AS in DS Cover

Alison and Peter Smithson

AS in DS

CHF 100.00
Out of print
CHF 40.00