Innovative study of state politics, identity and buildings that sheds new light on the links between the material and the ideational realms of contemporary life in Africa. Buildings shape politics in the ways they define communities, enable economic activity, reflect political ideas, and impact state-society relations. They are materially and symbolically interwoven with the everyday lives of elites and citizens, as well global flows of money, goods, and contracts. Yet, to date, there has been no research that explicitly connects debates about Africa's domestic and international politics with the study of architecture. This innovative book fills this gap, providing a new and compelling reading of the politics of identity in sub-Saharan Africa through an examination of some of its most significant buildings. Using case studies from nine countries across sub-Saharan Africa, this volume reveals how they are commissioned and built, how they enable elites to project power, and how they form a basis for popular conceptions of the state. Exploring a diverse range of buildings including parliaments, airports, prisons, ministries, regional institutions, libraries, universities, shopping malls, public housing, cathedrals and palaces, the contributors suggest a innovative perspective on African politics, identity and urban development. This book will be a compelling reference for scholars and students of African politics, development studies and city life in its elaboration of and challenges to established concepts and arguments about the relationship between material objects and political ideas. This book is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC-ND.

This book brings together all the projects that competed for the sixth International Biennial Barbara Cappochin Architecture Prize, which is articulated in three different sections: International Prize, Giancarlo Ius Gold Medal, and Provincial Prize. More than 300 projects, all completed within the last three years, were submitted with many entries from all over the world. The winning works are described and accompanied by photos and drawings, while those that received an honorable mention are presented through a series of photos. All remaining projects appear in a dedicated section with their image and main identifying data. The book also includes introductions by some institutional figures and Renzo Piano, presenting his project for the "architecture table" that was used to display the works selected by the international jury to the public.

An enthralling story of the iconic Grand Concourse in the West Bronx Stretching over four miles through the center of the West Bronx, the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, known simply as the Grand Concourse, has gracefully served as silent witness to the changing face of the Bronx, and New York City, for a century. Now, a New York Times editor brings to life the street in all its raucous glory. Designed by a French engineer in the late nineteenth century to echo the elegance and grandeur of the Champs Elysees in Paris, the Concourse was nearly twenty years in the making and celebrates its centennial in November 2009. Over that century it has truly been a boulevard of dreams for various upwardly mobile immigrant and ethnic groups, yet it has also seen the darker side of the American dream. Constance Rosenblum unearths the colorful history of this grand street and its interlinked neighborhoods. With a seasoned journalist's eye for detail, she paints an evocative portrait of the Concourse through compelling life stories and historical vignettes. The story of the creation and transformation of the Grand Concourse is the story of New York-and America-writ large, and Rosenblum examines the Grand Concourse from its earliest days to the blighted 1960s and 1970s right up to the current period of renewal. Beautifully illustrated with a treasure trove of historical photographs, the vivid world of the Grand Concourse comes alive-from Yankee Stadium to the unparalleled collection of Art Deco apartments to the palatial Loew's Paradise movie theater. An enthralling story of the creation of an iconic street, an examination of the forces that transformed it, and a moving portrait of those who called it home, Boulevard of Dreams is a must read for anyone interested in the rich history of New York and the twentieth-century American city.

In Breaking the Surface, Doug Bailey offers a radical alternative for understanding Neolithic houses, providing much-needed insight not just into prehistoric practice, but into another way of doing archaeology. Using his years of fieldwork experience excavating the early Neolithic pit-houses of southeastern Europe, Bailey exposes and elucidates a previously under-theorized aspect of prehistoric pit construction: the actions and consequences of digging defined as breaking the surface of the ground. Breaking the Surface works through the consequences of this redefinition in order to redirect scholarship on the excavation and interpretation of pit-houses in Neolithic Europe, offering detailed critiques of current interpretations of these earliest European architectural constructions. The work of the book is performed by juxtaposing richly detailed discussions of archaeological sites (Etton and The Wilsford Shaft in the UK, and Magura in Romania), with the work of three artists-who-cut (Ron Athey, Gordon Matta-Clark, Lucio Fontana), with deep and detailed examinations of the philosophy of holes, the perceptual psychology of shapes, and the linguistic anthropology of cutting and breaking words, as well as with cultural diversity in framing spatial reference and through an examination of pre-modern ungrounded ways of living. Breaking the Surface is as much a creative act on its own - in its mixture of work from disparate periods and regions, its use of radical text interruption, and its juxtaposition of text and imagery - as it is an interpretive statement about prehistoric architecture. Unflinching and exhilarating, it is a major development in the growing subdiscipline of art/archaeology.

This tenth edition of David Chappell's bestselling guide has been revised to take into account changes made in 2016 to payment provisions, loss and/or expense, insurance and many other smaller but significant changes, and includes a section on performance bonds and guarantees. This remains the most concise guide available to the most commonly used JCT building contracts: Standard Building Contract with quantities, 2016 (SBC16), Intermediate Building Contract 2016 (IC16), Intermediate Building Contract with contractor's design 2016 (ICD16), Minor Works Building Contract 2016 (MW16), Minor Works Building Contract with contractor's design 2016 (MWD16) and Design and Build Contract 2016 (DB16). Chappell avoids legal jargon and writes with authority and precision. Architects, quantity surveyors, contractors and students of these professions will find this a practical and affordable reference tool arranged by topic.

La arquitectura mexicana actual est mostrando su talento en las obras que proyectan. Sin embargo, sea cual fuese el proyecto arquitect nico, es indispensable considerar las condiciones que existir n en eventos s smicos. No hacerlo as significa exponerse a incertidumbres de servicio o riesgos de estabilidad, que pueden inhabilitar o hacer fallar la estructura que se trate. Fue as como se perdieron en la ciudad de M xico legados importantes de arquitectura, por los efectos del sismo de 1985. A partir de ese entonces somos mejores: aprendimos que la arquitectura est ligada a las condiciones de su entorno. La Torre Latinoamericana es un icono de la Ciudad de M xico porque conjunta arquitectura, estructura, cimentaci n y sismo. El sismo de 1957 permiti reconocer el avance que se estaba logrando al integrar el dise o s smico y la arquitectura. El de 1985 nos record que esa integraci n no es opcional, es necesaria. Esto exige que la participaci n del arquitecto y el ingeniero sea estrecha para beneficio de todos. El costo en vidas y los da os materiales se minimizan en la medida en que se incrementen las consideraciones s smicas en los proyectos arquitect nicos. El presente libro lo introduce a uno en el tema, c mo y por qu se originan los sismos, cu les son los principales elementos a considerar en el c lculo de las fuerzas s smicas, y c mo se integran esos resultados en el dise o final. Es m rito del autor haberlo logrado: su formaci n acad mica de licenciatura en ingenier a civil, su postgrado en arquitectura y su desarrollo profesional en ambas actividades, lo han permitido. Es as como logra llevar al lector en un recorrido que permite visualizar la importancia del proyecto arquitect nico en zonas s smicas. Explica de manera amena los elementos b sicos que se requiere conocer de f sica, sismolog a y estructuras para llegar a los conceptos de coeficiente s smico y espectro de dise o. Aborda el efecto de los sismos en los suelos: los tipos de suelos y sus caracter sticas, los reglamentos de inter s y comentarios en paralelo para ampliar las perspectivas del tema. Contin a con el efecto de los sismos en los edificios, el comportamiento de sus elementos y sistemas estructurales. Presenta las condiciones de dise o arquitect nico en zonas s smicas y las configuraciones antis smicas a considerar. Completa este marco general con el comportamiento de los diversos sistemas estructurales y los procesos aplicables, indicando las precauciones que deben tenerse durante su construcci n. Al final presenta casos pr cticos, que son ejemplos actuales de proyectos urbanos que no son ajenos al lector. Este libro de Alejandro Rojas ayudar a quien lo utilice, ya sea en el aula o en el taller de arquitectura... Carlos E Guti rrez Sarmiento Abril del 2008.

A contemporary of Soane, Nash and Pugin, Decimus Burton (1800-1881) was one of the most prolific architects of his day and is best known for his work in London's Royal Parks, including: the Wellington Arch and the Serpentine pavilion in Hyde Park; villas and terraces in Regent's Park and the London Zoo; the Temperate house at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; and the layout and architecture of the seaside towns of Fleetwood and St Leonards-on-Sea, and the spa town of Tunbridge Wells. Other projects include the Atheneum Club, Pall Mall, Adelaide Crescent in Brighton, and Phoenix Park in Dublin. Despite his success, little is known about Burton and this book is the first to fully examine his work, from his early years and his father's influence, through his apprenticeship with John Nash, his works in private practice and his growing reputation, to his exploits in town planning and glass houses. This is set within a fascinating social and political context, with stories of conflict and heated dispute amongst the key players which paint a vivid portrait of the architectural profession and construction industry during this period. It reappraises Burton's legacy and summarises his significant achievements and reveals how he contributed to the birth of the picturesque style that was to develop into the Arts and Crafts movement.

Architecture in Context: Designing in the Middle East provides a foundation for understanding the critical context of architecture and design in this region. It does this by: presenting a practical overview of architectural know-how in the Middle East, and its potential for cultivating a sense of place introducing local architectural vocabularies and styles, and how they can still be reactivated in contemporary design exploring the cultural and contextual meaning of forms as references that may influence contemporary architecture discussing important discourses and trends in architecture that allow a rethinking of the current global/local dichotomy. Highly illustrated, the book covers architecture and design in North Africa, the Levant, the Gulf, and Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

In this fully illustrated study, Rune Frederiksen assembles all archaeological and written sources for city walls in the ancient Greek world, and argues that widespread fortification of settlements and towns, usually considered to date from the Classical period, in fact took place much earlier. Frederiksen discusses the types of fortified settlement and the topography of urban fortification, and also the preservation of structures from early settlements. He also presents an architectural history of Greek fortification walls before the Classical period, and makes the intriguing observation that early monumental architecture developed just as much in fortifications as it did in early temples. This underlines the importance of the secular sphere for the development of early communities across the Greek world.

Will Pryce unveils a world of beauty and genius in this unparalleled, specially photographed survey of the world's architectural master- pieces. More than 350 color photographs celebrate the finest buildings from over two thousand years of civilization: Hagia Sophia, the Gothic cathedrals of Europe, Islamic masterworks at Isfahan, the Taj Mahal, the Palace of Westminster, Gehry's iconic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and much more. There are some eighty buildings featured, more than forty of which receive in-depth attention in detailed photo essays. Pryce's accompanying texts and commentaries provide an extra dimension of understanding for the contexts in which they were created, and of the evolution of architecture through history.

This important study introduces the key theories of national identity, and relates them to the broad fields of product, graphic and fashion design. Javier Gimeno-Martinez approaches the inter-relationship between national identity and cultural production from two perspectives: the distinctive characteristics of a nation's output, and the consumption of design products within a country as a means of generating a national design landscape. Using case studies ranging from stamps in nineteenth century Russian-occupied Finland, to Coca-Cola as an 'American' drink in modern Trinidad and Tobago, he addresses concepts of essentialism, constructivism, geography and multiculturality, and considers the works of key theorists, including Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm and Doreen Massey. This illuminating book offers the first comprehensive account of how national identity and cultural policy have shaped design, while suggesting that traditional formations of the 'national' are increasingly unsustainable in an age of globalisation, migration and cultural diversity. Javier Gimeno-Martinez is Lecturer in Design Cultures at the VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

"War Memorials as Political Landscape" critiques the social meaning of war memorials and their role in political and historical landscapes. Mayo argues that war memorials not only reflect the political history of a nation, but also that these memorials are mechanisms to symbolize and justify history. He posits that the presence or absence of commemoration for America's wars is largely explained by the war's importance in establishing the nation's symbolic identity as a political state and by the number of those who died in that war.

The Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism offers an ecclectic, comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to the immense cultural impact of the movement that encompassed literature, art, architecture, science, and politics.

Over 2,000 years of settlement give London its unique architectural heritage. Unlike Haussmann's Paris, neither monarch nor politician imposed their will; private ownership and enterprise shaped the city and defined its parts. Elegant West End squares and crescents hallmark the Classical townscape that emerged between 1600 and 1830, but medieval, Tudor and Victorian enclaves identified by occupation, class or guild make their own design statement, notably in the City and East End. From its renewal after the Great Fire of 1666 as a centre of commerce, culture, finance and as a railway hub, the seat of power and law, How to Read London reveals through the built environment how London's domestic, civic and commercial landscape has evolved and adapted from imperial capital to global city.

Beer has been brewed in England since Neolithic times, and this book combines a thoroughly enjoyable exploration of beer's history and built heritage with new in-depth research into the nuts and bolts of its production. Based around England's breweries, but occasionally ranging further afield, it tells the intriguing story of the growth of this significant industry. From Georgian brewing magnates who became household names - and their brewhouses notable tourist attractions - through magnificently ornate Victorian towers to the contemporary resurgence of microbreweries, the text throws new light on brewers and the distinctive architecture of their buildings. Detailed chapters explain what makes a brewery work, revealing the functions of sometimes enormous brewing vessels, the astonishing skills of coppersmiths and engineers, the work of heroic mill horses and the innovative steam engines which replaced them. The wider context of the brewing industry is also investigated, bringing out the breadth of the `beerscape', including those buildings put up with brewing profits such as the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. A brewery index allows readers to find which sites are extant and can still be visited. Traditional working breweries are to be treasured and celebrated, but complementing these, the book looks to the future, considering constructive redevelopment as part of our national brewing heritage. This fascinating and lavishly illustrated work shows how deeply interwoven beer and brewing are within English culture. If you care about beer, industry or England, this book is for you.

Between a nomad's tent and the Sears Tower lies a revolution in technology, materials, and structures. Here is a clear and enthusiastic introduction to buildings methods from ancient times to the present day, including recent advances in science and technology that have had important effects on the planning and construction of buildings: improved materials (steel, concrete, plastics), progress in antiseismic designs, and the revolutionary changes in both architectural and structural design made possible by the computer.

Childhood is an important period of contact with new things. Carefully crafted design and high-quality items are essential for a child's development. Therefore, a high-quality physical environment for children should demonstrate a huge sensitivity to the physical and mental experience of children, from the organisation of the building, to the use of materials. In this book, HIBINO SEKKEI illustrates its unique and innovative philosophy from three aspects - places for children, elements of places for children (kitchen, restroom, playground, material, colour, etc.) and things for children, such as furniture, uniforms, and stationery.