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A critical examination of the rational turn in postwar West German architecture

Postwar West German architecture experienced a “rational turn” characterized by a dramatic push toward ideals of optimization, economy, and accuracy based in calculation. Analyzing how architects reckoned with the political and cultural legacy of fascism and were driven by the desire to quantify and manage unpredictability in the human environment, Rationality Without Reason shows how they translated their design and production methods into numbers through protodigital technology and computational processes.

Daniela Fabricius examines architectural practices within the wider context of the shifting intellectual and cultural landscape as rationalism devolved between the student movements of 1968 and the reign of postmodernism in the 1980s. Showing how rationalism’s limitations and contradictions became increasingly apparent, she demonstrates how the intensity of these approaches ultimately led to a form of rationalism devoid of reason. Fabricius explores how the development of increasingly autonomous systems and formalist methods strayed from important economic, social, and ethical concerns and impeded the potential for developing more liberatory forms of architecture.

Using case studies involving the Ulm School for Design and the research-based work of Frei Otto and Oswald Mathias Ungers, Rationality Without Reason traces how debates around scientific thinking evolved throughout the Cold War era and offers a critical look at the utopian promises associated with supposedly rational systems of knowledge. Through an interdisciplinary approach steeped in archival research, Fabricius highlights how the logic of quantification is bound to be unsustainable without serious ethical considerations.

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Rod Penner infuses his photorealistic paintings of the American southwest with a cinematic quality in the first major monograph on this contemporary realist artist.

The abandoned and forgotten landscapes of rural southwestern towns are the favored subjects of Rod Penner's paintings. His deft use of contrasts in his images—despondency and hope, isolation and nostalgia—evokes memories of The Last Picture Show and elicits complex responses from viewers. "I'm interested in the look of things and the quality of being there," he says. "A moment that is completely frozen with all the variety of textures; rust on poles, crumbling asphalt, light hitting the grass."

Penner's works are based on his photographs, digital video stills, and his experience of the rural landscapes of Texas and New Mexico. He depicts desolate, often deserted locations, the character of old houses and abandoned buildings, weather, and unique geography. His chosen scenes are infused with a cinematic quality that is the result of the exquisite light that he captures with his meticulous process. "The finished paintings should evoke contrasting responses of melancholy and warmth, desolation and serenity," he says.

Penner's hyperrealistic technique meticulously records both the iconic imagery and the beauty in the ashes of these once-prosperous streets and nighborhoods that still endure. The incredible poignant scenes evoke a universalism, a collective experience seen through the lens of Americana. "You won't find any hidden or overt socio-political meaning in my work and at the same time I hope that by utilizing what I find in the American landscape I'm able to connect to viewers on a deeper psychological level."

Discover unforgettable writers who taught Minnesota how to see its wild heart

In this engaging collection, environmental journalist Mark Neuzil revives the voices that showed generations how to appreciate Minnesota’s wild places. Comprising twenty vivid biographical essays, Rooted in the North traces the lives and lore of writers who shaped our understanding of this great state, from Minnesota’s northwoods to its tallgrass prairies to the storied landscape of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Readers will encounter towering figures of conservation such as Sigurd F. Olson, whose spiritual vision of wilderness helped define the modern environmental movement, alongside beloved chroniclers like Florence Page Jaques and Helen Hoover, whose intimate portraits of wildlife still resonate decades later. Neuzil also highlights writers Charles Eastman and Maude Kegg, who share insights into their Indigenous childhoods, and once-popular authors like Charles Hallock and George Leonard Herter, restoring them to their rightful place in the state’s literary heritage. Rooted in the North broadens our definition of “nature writer” to include novelists whose fiction grew from close observation of the land. Writers such as Martha Ostenso, Frederick Manfred, and Gary Paulsen appear here not just as storytellers but as keen interpreters of Minnesota’s natural world.

In what began as a popular series for the Minnesota Star Tribune, these essays explore the philosophy, science, adventure, faith, and everyday oddities that enlivened their subjects. The result is the only book of its kind—an illuminating portrait of the voices that helped us define and fall in love with Minnesota’s natural landscapes.

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