Absolute Beginners

Inaki Abalos presents the quintessence of his thinking about architecture and the future of the trade.

In his new book Absolute Beginners, acclaimed Spanish architect Inaki Abalos 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, Abalos 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. Abalos organises his materials like a piece of music into a cohesive composition, to the delight and insight of his readers.

About the Author

Inaki Abalos is founding principal of Abalos+Sentkiewicz Architects with offices in Boston, Madrid, and Shanghai. He has also been a Professor of Architectural Design and director of the Laboratorio de Tecnicas y Paisajes Contemporaneos (LTPC) at the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) since 2002, and Professor-in-Residence at Harvard Graduate School of Design since 2012.