Helmut Jahn is world-famous for buildings like Frankfurter Messeturm (1985-1991), Sony Center with the Bahntower, Berlin (1993-2000), airport Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi (1995-2005) and the Veer Towers, Las Vegas (2006-2010). In a luxury edition this book shows in large scale and high-quality photos by the well-known photographer Rainer Viertlböck the increasing international reach of Helmut Jahn’s oeuvre, starting in Chicago and the United States in the 1980s and expanding initially to South Africa, then to Europe, with the focus on Germany, and from there via the Middle East to China, Singapore, Japan and Korea.
The photos are combined with a comprehensive collection of Helmut Jahn’s impressive design sketches. They provide inspiring insights into the development of the buildings and the underlying design process. The drawings present the buildings in their overall context of urban surroundings, the structural features, the proportions and ideas on the materials, not to forget just as clearly outlines of the engineering required for the facade technology and construction work.
An essay by architecture historian Franz Schultz explains the meaning of Jahn’s oeuvre within the contemporary architecture. An text by Helmut Jahn himself comments the philosophy behind his buildings.