Phyllis Lambert

Observation Is a Constant That Underlies All Approaches

“My own use of the camera began in 1954 as I started to think about what a new building in New York – the Seagram building – could be. While in Rome during Easter, through the lens of a camera I had hardly used, I began to observe the quality of buildings: how they sat on the land, their articulation, and how architectural details related to a building as a whole.” – Phyllis Lambert

This curiosity is a constant in the work of Phyllis Lambert, who has devoted her career to studying and engaging with the changing conditions of urban landscapes. In this collection of personal photographs taken over several decades during her daily routines, her travels, or at work, observation turns into a quest to understand and reveal what might otherwise remain overlooked.

“My own use of the camera began in 1954 as I started to think about what a new building in New York – the Seagram building – could be. While in Rome during Easter, through the lens of a camera I had hardly used, I began to observe the quality of buildings: how they sat on the land, their articulation, and how architectural details related to a building as a whole.” – Phyllis Lambert

This curiosity is a constant in the work of Phyllis Lambert, who has devoted her career to studying and engaging with the changing conditions of urban landscapes. In this collection of personal photographs taken over several decades during her daily routines, her travels, or at work, observation turns into a quest to understand and reveal what might otherwise remain overlooked.


“Architectural criticism without words”
The Architectural Review

A volume capable of captivating the interested, aesthetic, and experienced viewer alike
– Architecture Ireland

"This compendium comprises 323 images she has taken since 1959 (...) It provides intriguing glimpses into Lambert’s long life of extraordinary privilege and strenuous purpose, with a heavy emphasis on her excursions to see architectural monuments, close-up details of those far-flung treasures, and meals shared with friends." – The New York Review


 

Author(s): Phyllis Lambert

With photographs by Phyllis Lambert

Design: Integral Lars Müller

16,5 × 16,5 cm, 6 ½ × 6 ½

336 pages, 338 illustrations

hardback

2023, 978-3-03778-708-3, English
CHF 35.00

Phyllis Lambert

Phyllis Lambert Foto

Phyllis Lambert (*1927) is an architect, author, photographer, conservation activist and a critic of architecture and urbanism. She is the Founding Director Emeritus of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), which she established in 1979 as an international research center and museum premised on the belief that architecture is a public concern. Lambert received numerous awards and honors, including the Gold Medal from the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada in 1991, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2014, and the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for Contribution to Architecture in 2023.