Shadrach Woods (June 30, 1923 – July 31, 1973) was an American architect, urban planner and theorist.

Biography

Schooled in engineering at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

and in literature and philosophy at

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

, Woods joined the Paris office of

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

in 1948. Assigned to the project for the ''

Unité d'Habitation The ''Unité d'habitation'' (, ''Housing Unit'') is a Modern architecture, modernist residential housing Typology (urban planning and architecture), typology developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afons ...

'', then under construction in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, France, Woods met the Azerbaijan-born Greek architect George Candilis, with whom he would later form a lasting partnership. With Candilis and the engineer Vladimir Bodiansky, Woods designed and built housing throughout North Africa during his tenure as head of the

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

office of ATBAT-Afrique (''Atelier des Bâtisseurs''). Ideas developed during the course of this work led to a winning proposal for ''Opération Million'', a public housing competition in France, in 1954. Commissioned by the

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the State (polity), state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal oppor ...

to design thousands of suburban housing units, Woods and Candilis joined with the Yugoslavian architect Alexis Josic to create in 1956 the firm Candilis-Josic-Woods. Among the firm's major built projects were the extension of the village of

Bagnols-sur-Cèze Bagnols-sur-Cèze (, "Bagnols-on-Cèze"; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania Regions of France, region in Southern France. History A small regiona ...

and the development of the quarter of Le Mirail in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

in France and, with Manfred Schieldhelm, the Free University in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Simultaneously, Candilis and Woods participated in the proceedings of Team X, a group of architects that emerged from the meetings of CIAM in the postwar years. Woods is perhaps best known as a thinker and writer. He published numerous essays on urban themes, including explanations of his concepts of "stem" and "web", and participated in the 1968 Milan Triennale at the invitation of the Italian architect and fellow Team X member

Giancarlo de Carlo Giancarlo De Carlo (1919−2005) was an Italian architect and anarchist. He was a member of the ''Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne'' (CIAM) and became closely linked to Urbino as its town planner and creator of its master plan. Thr ...

. After the breakup of the firm in 1969, Woods returned to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He taught at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

and

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

universities and lectured widely. Until his untimely death in 1973, he continued to work as an architect and urban planner on such projects as the

Lower Manhattan Expressway Interstate 78 (I-78) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Union Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, to New York City. In the US state of New York, I-78 extends . The entirety of I-78 consists of the Holland Tunne ...

and the renovation of the

SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

neighborhood. His book ''The Man in the Street: A Polemic on Urbanism'' was published posthumously by

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

in 1975. Woods'

architectural drawing An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building (or building project) that falls within the definition of architecture. Architectural drawings are used by architects and others for a number of purposes: to deve ...

s and papers are now held by the Drawings and Archives Department of

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, the world's largest architecture library, is located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in New York City. Serving Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning a ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Bibliography

*Jürgen Joedicke, ''Candilis, Josic, Woods, une décennie d'architecture et d'urbanisme'', éd. Eyrolles, 1968, 224 p. *Tom Avermaete, ''Another Modern: The Post-war Architecture and Urbanism of Candilis-Josic-Woods'', Rotterdam, Nai, 2005. *Karl Kiem, ''Die Freie Universität Berlin (1967-73). Hochschulbau, Team-X-ideale und tektonische Phantasie/The Free University Berlin (1967-73) Campus design, Team X ideals and tectonic invention'', Weimar, VDG, 2008.

External links

Shadrach Woods architectural records and papers, 1923-2008 (bulk 1948-1973) Held in the Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York City
*
Bobigny HLM Low Cost Housing in Paris by Woods, Candilis & Josic
(with photos and drawings) 1923 births 1973 deaths Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni Harvard University faculty Yale University faculty Modernist architects from the United States Structuralists 20th-century American architects {{US-architect-20C-stub

Biography

See also

Bibliography

External links