Ken Isaacs
Ken Isaacs (7 February 1927 – 8 June 2016),[1] born in Peoria, Illinois,[2] was an American designer. He is known for his creation of a matrix-based modular system to build living structures.[3]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Ken_Isaacs%2C_Fun_House_1967.jpg/220px-Ken_Isaacs%2C_Fun_House_1967.jpg)
Isaacs described in 1974 how to build modular houses in a book called How to Build Your Own Living Structures. He was head of the Design Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Arts from 1956 to 1958.[3] He maintained a design office and apartment in New York City between 1956 and 1972, often commuting from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.[3]
In 2019, a retrospective biography of Isaacs was written by Susan Snodgrass, who worked with him to exhibit his work during his lifetime. The book, Inside the Matrix: The Radical Designs of Ken Isaacs, was partially funded by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ "Architecture Professor Emeritus Ken Isaacs 1927-2016 | cada.uic.edu |". cada.uic.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
- ^ Ten things you should know about Ken Isaacs. Dwell. May 2007. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
- ^ a b c Margolin, Victor (2002). The Politics of the Artificial: Essays on Design and Design Studies. University of Chicago Press. pp. 60–77. ISBN 0226505049.
In 1956, he was called back to school (Cranbrook) to become the head of the design department
- ^ "Inside the Matrix: The Radical Designs of Ken Isaacs". Half Letter Press. Retrieved 2022-12-21.
External links
[edit]- Dwell Magazine - Ken Isaacs on YouTube
- Walker Art Center - Enter the Matrix: An Interview with Ken Isaacs
- Walker Art Center - Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia, Oct 24, 2015–Feb 28, 2016
- Cranbrook Academy of Art - Cranbrook Mourns the Loss of Ken Isaacs
- Cranbrook Art Museum - Culture Breakers: The Living Structures of Ken Isaacs, June 21, 2014 - October 5, 2014
- College of Architecture, Design and the Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago - Architecture Professor Emeritus Ken Isaacs 1927-2016
- Archive.org - Ken Isaacs, How to Build Your Own Living Structures (1974)