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By honing in on the malleability of the storefront and its transformative role across varying sectors of architecture and design, Standard presents an alternative understanding of the facade. The public/private divide becomes permeable, and cultural narratives can be written from the inside out--flowing from fundamental elements like space and light to the contextual meaning of place. In Standard's world, transitional spaces such as doors, windows and openings come to define and bring meaning to our collective experience of place.

From nooks like Hidden House and Kayne Griffin Corcoran that escape their immediate surroundings to the hybrid retail-gallery venues such as the Helmut Lang Concept Store and Maxfield Gallery in West Hollywood, Standard unveils the studio's unique philosophy in action.

Across all of Standard's work is the feeling of osmosis through space and time: where old sites bleed into new structures, and apparently contrasting elements of urban life are artfully exposed to one other, re-producing themselves in the process. The result is a sophisticated rendering of place that is at once as intimate as it is accessible, and as nuanced as it is organic.

Standard is the partnership of Jeffrey Allsbrook and Silvia Kuhle, two Los Angeles-based architects whose combined practice stems from a research-based and collaborative approach to architecture, interiors and design. Standard fuses classical teachings with contemporary applications to arrive at new forms of living and working.The contributors, international leading theorists from a variety of disciplines, provide fascinating texts that contribute to the broad discussion on architecture and its relationship with science, nature, art and society. Kari Jormakka, Fabio Barry, Pedro Azara, Caspar Pearson and Henry Dietrich Fernandez are just some of the respected scholars whose writings comprise this authoritative look at the origins of architectural practice and its importance to the development of modern society. By exploring architecture as a basic human instinct, linking contemporary architecture to ideas surrounding mythology and cosmos and assessing the importance of architecture from an anthropological viewpoint, The Founding Myths of Architecture is a refreshing take on architectural theory. The oeuvre of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Francesco Borromini, Andre Le Notre, Giorgio Grognet and Marcus Vitruvius Pollio amongst others is visually referenced in the context of these topics.Published in both French and English editions, this collection of essays pushes the boundaries of architectural criticism by encompassing history and anthropology in its analysis of design theory and by moving away from a purely rational and functional understanding of architecture.