Art is currently one of the most dynamic generators of architectural ideas and form. This is most evident in the media’ s interest of high-profile museums, such as the Bilbao Guggenheim and the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Looking beyond the well-publicised phenomenon of the art museum, this title explores the many different ways that contemporary architecture exchanges ideas with art: how are architects inspired by art? How do artists draw inspiration from architecture? How might architects and artist work together on schemes? The pivotal figure for artistic architectural practice is Le Corbusier. Here "Art and Architecture" pays homage to him by publishing "Dessins," a seminal text printed in full for the first time in English and by giving a full account of his work as a painter.

Through interviews with three internationally renowned architects, Will Alsop, Zaha Hadid and Steven Holl, it becomes apparent that there are many different routes to incorporating art into the design process. An exclusive interview with Terence Riley, the architecture curator of MoMA in New York, looks at the way architecture is now being successfully shown within the context of the modern art museum. For young conceptual artists, architecture has become a central preoccupation, there is an article on their work as well as that of well-known artist Ben Johnson who has made architecture the subject of his paintings. Artists and architects are finally brought together in a piece that looks at recent collaborative projects, in which architects such as Herzog & de Meuron and artist Michael Craig Martin have worked together.