On December 11, the Jaap Bakema Study Centre will host an afternoon dedicated to the Smithsons' recently published book The Space Between. With Andrew Ballantyne, M. Christine Boyer, Carme Pinós, Max Risselada and Dirk van den Heuvel.

The Space Between completes The Charged Void trilogy envisaged by Alison and Peter Smithson as a summary of their thinking and work as architects. After the two volumes Architecture (2001) and Urbanism (2005), The Space Between brings together a selection from their vast body of writings as compiled and edited by Alison Smithson. In the 1950s, the Smithsons gained an international reputation as inventors of the New Brutalism. The Space Between is a testimony of their development over the years demonstrating an intellectual versatility far beyond the current Brutalist revival. Richly illustrated, mostly with drawings and photographs taken by the Smithsons themselves, the book is an example of what the Smithsons’ liked to call a ‘sensibility primer’, full of observations of ordinary life, the long-term effects of modernization on our landscapes and how we perceive them, and the importance of the special identity of places.

Speakers include: Andrew Ballantyne (Newcastle University), who will talk about Brutalism, Ruskin, and the Lamp of Truth; M. Christine Boyer (Princeton University), who will focus on the Smithsons’ writings as explored in her forthcoming book Not Quite Architecture; Carme Pinós (Estudio Carme Pinós, Barcelona), who will talk about her personal friendship with the Smitsons, and Max Risselada, who will share his experience in editing The Space Between and take the Smithsons’ trilogy to a conclusion. Dirk van den Heuvel will moderate the afternoon.

(photo: Alison and Peter Smithson at the Patio & Pavilion Exhibition as rebuilt, London 1990, Smithsons Family Archive)