Widely considered to be one of the most influential creators of his generation, Cecil Balmond successfully occupies multiple roles as artist, designer, architect, engineer, theoretician and writer. His approach is one of investigation and draws on 40 years of research into diverse forms. Through a unique interrogation of science, geometry and the structure of the non-linear, Balmond radically reorganises space and creates new horizons in art and architecture. He has written numerous critically acclaimed books, including Number 9 (1998), Element (2005) and the multi award-winning informal (2002). His new book Crossover, published by Prestel, is being released in November 2013. It picks up where informal left off, on it's last page. A diagram here proposed that metaphor was linked to substance through a negotiation of pattern, not a decorative, but a field condition of organising powers. www.crossover-book.com.Crossover explores this realm navigating Balmond's most recent solo work including his bridges Weave at UPenn and Pedro e Ines in Portugal, a masterplan for Battersea and Star of Caledonia, an art sculpture for Scotland. It also features his collaborative projects: CCTV, Taichung Opera House, the Serpentine Pavilions, Orbit, Temenos and Marysas. An exploration in the overlap zone between art and science, Hans Ulrich Obrist, who has penned the preface for Crossover, describes Balmond's books as his 'laboratory,' a toolbox for design practitioners.Balmond currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret Chair at Penn Design as Professor of Architecture where he is also the founder of the Non-Linear Systems Organization (NSO), a material and structural research unit at University of Pennsylvania. He has also been Kenzo Tange Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Architecture, Saarinen Professor at Yale University School of Architecture and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. Balmond's awards include the 2002 Japanese Gengo Matsui prize for the Serpentine Gallery pavilion he designed with Toyo Ito, which was based on an algorithm created by Balmond, the RIBA Charles Jencks Award for Theory in Practice in 2003 and the Sir Banister Fletcher Prize for his book, informal in 2005.