Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture, Not Architecture

The first comprehensive monograph on the cross-disciplinary practice including over 100 built and ephemeral works

Since its founding in 1981, New York-based studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) has designed some of the world’s most revered civic spaces and cultural institutions. Their practice covers architecture, urban design, installation art, performance, digital media, and print.

From the renowned High Line in New York City to the upcoming V&A East Storehouse in London to some of their earliest projects like the Blur building designed for the 2002 Swiss Expo, DS+R explores alternative strategies in space-making that engage and surprise on a global scale.

Designed by DS+R as a pair of structurally conjoined volumes, this monograph invites readers to bridge different modes of production and reconsider the limits of architecture. The unique binding allows each volume to be read individually or in parallel by unfolding the book at the spine. Special crossover layouts link the two volumes with shared obsessions.

The monograph features layouts by design consultancy 2x4, with photography by Iwan Baan and Matthew Monteith amongst other photographers. It also includes new dialogues with visionaries from other creative fields, including artist Edmund de Waal, art critic and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator Paola Antonelli, actor Alan Cumming, choreographer William Forsythe, professor Sylvia Lavin, curator Ana Miljacki, and Jill Medvedow.

Founded in 1981, Diller Scofidio + Renfro is a design studio whose practice covers architecture, urban design, installation art, performance, digital media, and print. With a focus on cultural and civic projects, DS+R’s work addresses the changing role of institutions and the future of cities. The studio is based in New York and is composed of over 100 architects, designers, and artists, led by four partners - Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Charles Renfro, and Benjamin Gilmartin.