Absolute Beginners

Absolute Beginners Synopsis

In his new book Absolute Beginners, acclaimed Spanish architect Iñaki ¦balos explores forms of innovation in architecture. Drawing on diverse materials elaborated during the 20 years since the publication of his best-known book, The Good Life, ¦balos examines questions centred on how and why architectural creation - at least the kind that arouses the greatest cultural interest - is strongly linked to philosophical thought, especially to the essay and the aphorism. He guides us to an understanding why innovation - as happens in philosophy - is inextricably linked to a reflection on the past and to the emergence of new ways of appropriating old problems.

Absolute Beginners is a single essay written with effort and passion, made for the pure pleasure of composing a new and complex work and understanding the source materials as necessary fragments, while remaining open to adjustments, changes, and bridges between them. ¦balos organises his materials like a piece of music into a cohesive composition, to the delight and insight of his readers.