Iwan Baan: Moments in Architecture

Baan’s visionary photography offers a broad panorama of human building, from famed works by Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas to the vernacular architectures of China and Ethiopia

Iwan Baan is one of today’s leading photographers of architecture and urban design. His images document the growth of global megacities and portray buildings by prominent contemporary architects including Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid. Baan’s vibrant realism presents architecture not as an abstract ideal, but as the setting of everyday life, an organic part of the urban fabric―be it suburban sprawl or the booming metropoles of Africa and Asia.

This first comprehensive publication on the Dutch photographer’s work includes a number of Baan’s iconic works, many of which are familiar from magazines and books, as well as photographs of vernacular and informal architecture all around the world, from the round Tulou of southern China to the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia. In addition to extensive image plates, the publication includes several text contributions on topics such as the current discourse on architectural photography and the classification and contextualization of Baan's work within it. Interviews and narrative text elements offer insight into the artist’s creative process.

Dutch photographer Iwan Baan (born 1975) has collaborated on several successful book projects such as Brasilia & Chandigarh: Living with Modernity, Francis Kéré & Iwan Baan: Momentum of Light and Dudok by Iwan Baan. His work also appears in the pages of architecture, design and lifestyle publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Architectural Record, Domus, Abitare and Architectural Digest. Baan was named one of the 100 most influential people in contemporary architecture by Il Magazine dell’Architettura.