STILL AGILE IN BODY AND MIND after nearly a century of living, John M Johansen continues to utilize this 3-story spiral staircase to access his home office “nest” where he writes, paints, composes and plays music, examines emerging technologies, and creates his nanoarchitectural designs.

IMITATION IS SUICIDE:

The Life-work of John M Johansen by Richard Rogers, from his introduction in John M Johansen’s book, A Life in the Continuum of Modern Architecture

My interest in John Johansen's work transcends his architecture: it is his energy, curiosity, and approach to design and life which I share and admire. And it is this energy, curiosity, and enjoyment of life that still provides inspiration today as it did thirty years ago when we first met. When I consider the lack of vision and inventiveness of most current architecture in America, I am reminded of the period of intense creativity, innovation, and research (that has all but disappeared) synthesized by John Johansen's career. Johansen's work has spanned five decades of American history, a period that has seen the architectural pendulum swing from modernism to postmodernism, and back again. Throughout his career his architecture has demonstrated a rare consistency, transcending experimentation in a range of formal languages: from early experiments in neoclassicism and biomorphism to successive waves of conventional modernism, organicism, and deformed geometries. His buildings are equally informed by the organising principles of biotechnology and electromagnetics as they are by conventional functional requirements, confirming that design is an indeterminate science: a theoretical as well as an aesthetic process.

American Architectural pioneer JOHN M JOHANSEN, FAIA has been producing exciting, outrageous architecture for over 60 years. Recognized as one of the preeminent architects in the United States, Johansen’s architectural genius, expressed in his innovative sense of design - and always utilizing the latest in technologies - is imbued with a deep concern for social responsibility, ethics and the environment. In a feature documentary film about Johansen’s extraordinary life, his keen, inquisitive mind, his most inventive works, and those of his colleagues and mentors, SEASONS OF THE SOUL takes viewers on an odyssey of modern architecture. 

Now in the Winter of his life, 92 year-old Johansen is designing for the future when a “new species of architecture” -  NANOARCHITECTURE - will emerge.

Based upon his research of nanotechnologies, biomorphics, astrophysics and electromagnetics, and influenced by his studies of engineering, analytical psychology, and integrated philosophies, Johansen is planting the seeds of future environments by creating nanoarchitectural designs that may some day be used to “grow” buildings that will exist in symbiotic harmony with nature.

As nanoarchitecture evolves and eventually becomes available  -  inevitable, according to Johansen and many others - concerns and questions arise. If nanoarchitecture is to be used in the creation of the buildings of the future, what impact will this have on society? Of crucial importance are questions regarding the ethical use and international regulation of nanoarchitecture, and the effect it may some day have on our natural world. These issues, and others, are explored in the film.

Filmed and directed by John Veltri, who has been inspired by Johansen for over 30 years. Produced by Marguerite Lorimer  www.earthalive.com

JOKING WITH DIRECTOR JOHN VELTRI after emerging from a chilly “last swim of the season” in an upstate New York pond near his home, 92 year old Johansen remarked, “You know, I’m taking my chances, swimming into late October.”

ALWAYS PUSHING THE ENVELOPE in his architectural designs and technological  explorations, Johansen’s futuristic NANOARCHITECTURE is “certain” to some day become a reality, according to Johansen. Inspired by his book, an exhibition of Johansen’s nanoarchitectural designs was featured at COMA in the Netherlands.

LAST OF THE FAMED HARVARD FIVE