A-frame
- Oct 29, 2017
- 2 min read
★★★★☆
From the Fisher-Price “little people” A-frame I played with at my grandparents’ house as a kid to the multicolored-gable A-frame just before the Iowa border that my wife, Megan, and I can’t wait to spy on our way to visit her family in Sioux City to the Instagram A-frame collection I curate for my personal obsession, it’s safe to say I love A-frames. Chad Randl’s A-frame had been in my wish list for some time, but with the hardback long out of print prices had gotten a bit outrageous (currently ranging from nearly $400 to just over $1,400 on Amazon.com). Sure, there is a paperback reprint available directly from the publisher for $25, but that was only an option of last resort I barely considered. With some keen searching and a little luck, Megan scored a like-new hardback copy for a steal, and surprised me with it for my birthday.
For the prices this book was going for I expected a hefty coffee table book, but A-frame is a relatively diminutive 8.2” x 7.6” with type so small and lightweight I pity anyone who doesn’t have my 20/15 vision; both the average reader and the wonderful images would have benefitted from a larger format. To further distance itself from casual architectural picture books—no disrespect to Taschen, but this is from Princeton Architectural Press, after all—Randl’s incisive text provides a wonderful examination of the A-frame, from prehistoric roots to ascendance as modernist icon, from affordable do-it-yourself kit home to architect-designed church, from pop culture phenomenon to cultural also-ran.
The A-frame isn’t for everyone, but if you appreciate architecture, history, and popular culture—and can get your hands on a copy—Chad Randl’s A-frame is for you. And if you’re not already a fan of one of the simplest, most alluring, and most underappreciated forms in architectural design, it might just change your mind.
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