CONTOURS & HORIZONS

Hatje Cantz’s second monograph on the Norwegian architect Reiulf Ramstad edited by Boris Brorman Jensen in collaboration with RRA.

“Bold and daring, yet unpretentious and simple: that sums up the buildings designed by the independent, Oslo-based architectural offices of Reiulf Ramstad Architects (RRA). The Norwegian architect Reiulf Ramstad who founded his firm in 1995, draws inspiration from the designs of Aldo Rossi, Carlo Scarpa, and Sverre Fehn. He examines their unique design vocabulary, vivid material qualities, and special look and feel and reinterprets them in his own buildings in innovative ways. The last monograph, now out of print, presented a broad palette of his trailblazing projects. Now, a long-awaited second monograph continues to explore his bold, yet plain architecture, anchored in a Scandinavian context. In addition, artists, philosophers, and architectural critics from Europe and the United States discuss the state of contemporary architecture with Reiulf Ramstad.”

Contours and Horizons has an ambition of offering comprehensive insight from inside, but it is not a tell-all book, and in principle, it has become a “collective autobiography.” The Danish architect and writer Boris Brorman Jensen has been part of the book project for more than a year and has helped us collect many of the bits and pieces we have stitched together. Our opening conversation with him is not a traditional interview. It is a series of thoughts accumulated over many months and carefully interwoven to form a coherent narrative. The process of editing our many talks with him into a cohesive text helped us—the daily staff at the office—develop a clearer picture of the long journey we have completed together.