Copy Paste. The Badass Architectural Copy Guide, The Why Factory

We're back again with our series of architecture books in view of the upcoming festivities. “Copy Paste. The Badass Architectural Copy Guide” by The Why Factory (editor n010 publishers) was presented by Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV in SpazioFMG, Milan.


The tenth book in the Future Cities Series by The Why Factory, the research laboratory created in collaboration between MVRDV and the Faculty of Architecture of the Delft University of Technology has a provocative title in a world where everyone is trying to be original and unique, “Copy Paste”, with the subtitle “The Badass Architectural Copy Guide”. 
Presented during the lecture “What's Next? The Why Factory. Research, Education and Public Engagement” held by Winy Maas, architect, at the Polytechnic of Milan during the inauguration of “The Why Factory / Research, Education and Public Engagement / TU Delft + MVRDV”, the exhibition at the SpazioFMG gallery (link news) is a book that, also considering the looks on some of the faces of the audience, touches an exposed nerve, a huge taboo in architecture.
The book opens with a prescript, a re-adaptation of a text written by Winy Maas in 2014 on the obsession of our times for “newness”. By removing a few words here and there, the text is given a new value in its different context and is emblematic for the rest of the book.
One of the authors is Aaron Betsky, who introduces the architect hunter-gatherer rather than an inventor, since we could “make architecture in the same way we create most of our images, objects and spaces today: by collecting what already exists, using digital technology to assemble”. Indeed, why waste time inventing the wheel when for decades, sampling has been a recognised skill in the world of music and people go crazy for Kanye West? 
At a moment in time when “our professional references have expanded from a few well-published architects and the traditional canon to a global web of PR-active contemporary architects” added to which is the distribution power of architecture sites, which create a “contemporary reference catalogue” then “Copy Paste” becomes an integral part of the canon.
Do you want to see how good you are at it? Then play the game “El Croquet” - strictly in Spanish-English because it's "cuter" - proposed in the book. Train your eye and very quickly you'll agree with Eleonora Zambon who proposed “Farnsworth Tower”: “It's better to be cool than original” since “invention is overrated and transforming the existing repertoire is what changes the world”.
This book is a must under an architect's Christmas tree, a fun, practical guide on how to become a starchitect in fifteen days!

Christiane Bürklein

Book Copy Paste. The Badass Architectural Copy Guide
Winy Maas and Felix Madrazo. Contributions by Aaron Betsky, Bernard Hulsman a.o.
in conjunction with: The Why Factory, MVRDV, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) 
design: BENG
English | paperback | 15 x 21 cm | 424 pages
illustrated (350 full color) 
published by nai010 publishers
ISBN 978-94-6208-164-2
Images: (c) The Why Factory/Delft University of Technology TU Delft
https://www.nai010.com/en/publicaties/copy-paste/140843