The House of Doctor Koolhaas

Gumshoe is new series of architectural books, introducing a new approach to the writing of architectural history. It returns the focus of architectural discourse back onto buildings, in a style and form that is original and scholarly but also easy and enjoyable to read. It emulates the detective novel a form of writing beloved by many, but also one that has enjoyed a parallel academic life in disciplines and by writers as diverse as psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud), film (Sigfried Kracauer), and art history (Carlo Ginzburg) but, significantly, not yet by architecture. Each volume will investigate a singular building as if it were a mystery waiting to be solved.

Written by distinguished French architectural critic and historian Françoise Fromonot, the first case 'The House of Doctor Koolhaas' is about the Villa dall Ava, a private residence in Saint-Cloud, a suburb of Paris. Fromonot brilliantly unpicks, explains and interprets the very first building completed by Rem Koolhaas, who is universally regarded as the world's most celebrated architect, and his Rotterdam-based firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

. First volume in the highly anticipated new Gumshoe series of architectural books, introducing a new approach to the writing of architectural history
. Gumshoe's focus is on buildings rather than theories or speculative projects
. Distinguished authors from various countries write on notable buildings from across architectural history
. Each volume investigates a singular building, emulating the style and book format of a detective novel

Françoise Fromonot is Professor of Design, History and Theory at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville, and William Wayne Caudill Professor of Architecture at Rice Architecture Paris. Thomas Weaver is an architectural writer, educator, and editor, and a lecturer at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland.