Public Program – Bookmaking Workshop with Phillip Denny (B.Arch ‘14, Harvard GSD)

It is almost impossible to imagine architecture without books: from theoretical treatises to construction documents, our field is built one page at a time. Although books are ubiquitous in practice and discourse, architects rarely have the opportunity to engage the book as a format with an architecture of its own. 

This workshop explores the material, experiential, historical, formal, and social dimensions of the book. A series of short exercises will introduce participants to fundamental bookmaking processes and techniques that make the book a generative medium for architectural thought.

Phillip Denny works across architecture. A trained architect and historian, his practice combines inquiry and design to create projects in formats including books, essays, archives, lectures, pedagogies, and exhibitions. Alongside Rem Koolhaas and Irma Boom, he taught The Book in the Age of…, a graduate research seminar at Harvard GSD, and subsequently created an exhibition and book under the same title.

He has recently contributed articles to Architectural Digest, Log, and Domus, and has previously written for The New York Times, Metropolis, and other publications. In parallel with his research and writing, Phillip collaborates with architects to develop books, exhibitions, and archives. He is currently working with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and SITE/James Wines. He is editing a comprehensive monograph on the work of Diller Scofidio + Renfro since its founding in 1981. 

A PhD Candidate at Harvard University, his dissertation attends to the architectural history of modern labor movements in Germany. Phillip holds a Master’s degree in architectural history from Harvard, as well as a Master’s in Architecture from Princeton University, where he received the School of Architecture History and Theory Prize as well as the Certificate in Media + Modernity. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, where he received the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Prize, the Louis F Valentour Fellowship, and the Henry Adams AIA Medal. In 2019, he was awarded a Graham Foundation grant to support his work on Nicolas Schöffer’s urban manifesto, La ville cybernétique. Phillip has taught courses in architectural design, history, and publishing at Pratt Institute, Boston Architectural College, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Syracuse University in NYC. He has given lectures and hosted workshops at ETH Zürich, Catholic University of America, Virginia Tech, Dessau Bauhaus Foundation, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Columbia University. He lives in New York City.