- Shadrach Woods
Shadrach Woods (
June 30 ,1923 –July 31 ,1973 ) was an American architect, urban planner and theorist. Schooled in engineering atNew York University and in literature and philosophy atTrinity College, Dublin , Woods joined the Paris office ofLe Corbusier in 1948. Assigned to the project for the "Unité d'Habitation ", then under construction inMarseille , France, Woods met the Azerbaijan-born Greek architectGeorge 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 theCasablanca 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 to design thousands of suburban housing units, Woods and Candilis joined with the Yugoslavian architectAlexis Josic to create in 1956 the firmCandilis-Josic-Woods .Among the firm's major built projects were the extension of the village of
Bagnols-sur-Cèze and the development of the quarter of Le Mirail inToulouse in France and, with Manfred Schieldhelm, the Free University inBerlin . Simultaneously, Candilis and Woods participated in the proceedings ofTeam 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 fellowTeam X memberGiancarlo de Carlo .After the breakup of the firm in 1969, Woods returned to
New York City . He taught at Harvard and Yale universities and lectured widely. Until his untimely death in 1973, he continued to work as an architect and urban planner on such projects as theLower Manhattan Expressway and the renovation of theSoHo neighborhood. His book "The Man in the Street: A Polemic on Urbanism" was published posthumously by Penguin in 1975. Woods' architectural drawings and papers are now held by the Drawings and Archives Department ofAvery Architectural and Fine Arts Library atColumbia University .External links
* [http://housingprototypes.org/project?File_No=fra022 Bobigny HLM Low Cost Housing in Paris by Woods, Candilis & Josic] (with photos and drawings)
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