Stan Allen is an architect and Professor at Princeton University, and has won global acclaim, primarily for his work in town planning, and his influential essay „Field Conditions“, which was published in 1996. Situated Objects now shows a very different facet of his creative process: a selection of small buildings and projects within the landscape of the Hudson Valley, New York. They demonstrate an approach to architecture that engages in a dialogue with this partly wild, and wholly non-urban environment that lies just outside the gates of New York City.

The projects are presented in drawings and a rich array of photographs, and are arranged in three thematic categories: Compounds, Material Histories, and New Natures, supplemented by the architect’s writings and essays by Helen Thomas and Jesús Vassallo. The numerous photos taken by celebrated architectural photographer Scott Benedict convey the special atmosphere of the Hudson Valley and the buildings that are embedded in it.


Stan Allen is an American architect and theorist. He teaches as Professor of Architecture and Design at Princeton University School of Architecture and runs his own studio Stan Allen Architect in New York.

Helen Thomas is an architect, writer and editor. She also holds a teaching and research appointment at ETH Zurich’s School of Architecture.

Jesús Vassallo is an architect and author of Seamless: Digital Collage and Dirty Realism in Contemporary Architecture and Epics in the Everyday: Photography, Architecture, and the Problem of Realism (both published by Park Books). He teaches and engages in research as assistant professor at Rice University School of Architecture in Houston, Texas.