The architect Alvar Aalto once argued that what mattered in architecture was not what a building 'looks like' on the day it opens, but what it 'is like' to live in thirty years later. In this book Robert McCarter presents a persuasive defence of why and how interior spatial experience is the necessary starting point for design, and why the quality of that experience is the only appropriate means of evaluating a work of architecture after it is built.We live in an age dominated by images. We often feel we 'know' architecture and the places it makes, both old and new, through the photos of buildings we see in print and online, without ever inhabiting their spaces. McCarter argues that we need to counter our contemporary obsession with exterior views and forms, and makes a powerful case for the primacy of the interior experience in architecture.The Space Within explores how interior space has been integral to the development of Modern architecture from the late 1800s to today, and how generations of architects have engaged with interior space and its experience in their design processes.In doing so, they fundamentally transformed the traditional methods and goals of architectural composition. As McCarter argues, for many of the most recognized and respected architects practising today, the conception of the interior spatial experience continues to be the starting point for design. Through historical and current examples of architectural works he takes us through how this is done, and eloquently places us within the spaces.

This is a scholarly examination of the theoretical work of one of the most important architects of early modern Europe. Trained as a scientist, Wren applied the seventeenth-century scientific methods to his study of ancient, medieval, Renaissance and contemporary architecture. From his study of ancient buildings, he posited a new version of the origins and development of the Classical style, thereby becoming one of the first to challenge theoretical principles of architecture that had been upheld since the Renaissance. Rejecting the idea of beauty as absolute and innate, Wren formulated an empirical definition, based on visual perception and custom. His acceptance of the relativity of beauty also led him to recognize the Gothic style, then disparaged by himself and his contemporaries throughout Europe, as a legitimate one that evolved within particular cultural circumstances. This edition of Wren's writings includes accurate, annotated transcriptions of the texts.

Fire safety is an important part of building design. It consists of measures to prevent fires from starting, to facilitate the rescue of individuals in a burning building, and to help firefighters contain a blaze. Both statutory provisions and building codes lay down strict fire safety regulations for commercial and residential construction. The main task for architects when it comes to fire safety is to apply the principles and methods of fire prevention at the outset of the design process. The book explains the general concepts and fundamental issues of fire safety in building design beyond the particulars of local building regulations.

This 2004 book examines one of the key notions of modernist architecture as it was formulated in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century. Providing a close analysis of four major buildings - Olbrich's Secession Building, Hoffmann's Purkersdorf Sanatorium, Wagner's Postal Savings Bank, and Loos's Michaelerplatz building - Leslie Topp investigates how 'truth' could be interpreted in a variety of ways, including truth to purpose, symbolist or ideal truth, and ethical notions of authenticity. Drawing on newly uncovered archival materials, Topp offers an interpretation of familiar buildings that are shown to encompass utopianism, hyper-rationality, and subjectivism. She also explores the connections between Viennese modern architecture and contemporary painting, psychiatry, fashion, labor issues, and anti-Semitic politics.

Decoding Homes and Houses uses a computer-based method of analysis to explore the relation between the design and layout of traditional, vernacular, speculative and architect-designed houses and people's evolving tastes, lifestyles, habits and domestic routines. Its purpose is to show how it is possible to explore the relation between house form and culture by looking at the social information that is crystallized in the layouts of the houses themselves (as opposed to asking people how they respond to them).

For the first time this classic is available in a richly illustrated edition. It is a must read for India freaks and serious architects everywhere, the Second Edition of India's only architectural book ever to rank in the Top Ten Best Selling Non-fiction Books, entitled Letters to a Young Architect, is now appearing with one hundred and thirty-two colour, and black and white, illustrations. An all inclusive Index makes it easy for readers to locate people, places and ideas they wish to study. The author, Christopher Charles Benninger, is respected as one of India's leading architectural theorists and practitioners. He has won the Great Master's Award, the Architect of the Decade Award, the Indian Institute of Architects Award, the American Institute of Architects/Architectural Record/Business Week Award and many more. This book was awarded the Best Architectural Book of 2012 by Archidesign. The Chinese translation was released in January 2013 and the Gujarati version in November 2013. The book's narrative is a poetic and sensitive memoir of a stranger's adventures in Asia and his transformation in India. The book debates concerns about architectural theory, design and contemporary urban planning. Through the medium of written discourses and talks presented over the past decade, a lucid collection of essays emerge that testify the commonality of mankind's condition. This is a collection of autobiographical narratives and ideas, reflecting a journey of the spirit from America and Europe to India, and the philosophical considerations that matured from these experiences. His travels are not only stories of the dusty roads he traveled on, but also of the passions and emotions of those he met along the way. Letters to a Young Architect reflects on the role and direction of architecture in framing a new man and a new society in the new millennium. Benninger notes his encounters with gurus like Kevin Lynch, Charles and Ray Eames, Jose Luis Sert, Walter Gropius, Arnold Toynbee and Buckminster Fuller, and the manner in which their personal passion for humanity shaped the lives of others. Benninger is a strong believer in tradition, in gurus and in students and in a lineage of values, ideals, principles and of practices which have been matured from generation to generation. He is concerned with the education of architects; the nature of architecture itself; and the role of urbanism and planning in the creation of a new society. The role of Indian masters like Balkrishna Doshi, who guided him in his search, is a touching tribute to the Indian "Guru-Shishya" tradition. Christopher Benninger prepared the Capital Plan for Thimphu, Bhutan; for six cities in Sri Lanka and many towns and cities across Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka. His well known architectural works include the Suzlon One Earth, the United World College of India, the Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies, the Indian Institute of Management at Kolkata, the Centre for Development Studies and Activities in Pune and the Kirloskar Institute of Advanced management Studies in Pune. He founded the School of Planning at CEPT University in Ahmedabad, India after a stint teaching at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University where he studied architecture.

Platform 8 catalogs a curated selection of work generated in the past year at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Alongside final products of design education, Platform 8 places particular emphasis on collecting and documenting the people and artifacts that shape research-driven design practices. Here, design is presented both as process and as a final product. The book s indexical structure, punctuated with a collection of portraits, presents a comprehensive picture of the school. Platform 8 shows the intention, direction, and passion seen and experienced every day at the GSD.

A witty and engaging examination of style in architecture by bestselling author Witold Rybczynski

Haute Couture Architecture: The Art of Living Without Walls by Anneke van Waesberghe is so much more than a book about tented green building architecture. The book is part design manifesto, part personal diary, and part manual for future sustainable living. One in which rampant consumerism has been replaced by a more thoughtful design from the excesses of modern times to a new state of being for living sustainably and in harmony with the rhythms of the planet. It is the tale of one woman’s odyssey living alone in the jungle finding true meaning in life and manifesting its beauty into a way of sustainable living that may set a blueprint for our future existence on Earth. The author leads readers to encounter a new paradigm by showing the luxury of simplicity and the beauty of small things. With our consumer way of living and doing things and how the world is evolving, the pace we follow as consumers rather than humans has become outdated and is not the way to go forward. We cannot solve new problems that follow our destructive actions; we have to shift our thinking from ‘me’ to ‘we’. Haute Couture architecture respects artisans, hand-made goods, self-sufficiency, and caring for nature. Being close to nature is a lifestyle of forward-thinking outside the box and is a natural means to discovering ourselves. Ultimately Haute Couture Architecture: The Art of Living Without Walls bridges the gap between nature and architecture.

Contemporary architectural theory emphasizes the importance of "tectonics," the term used to articulate the relationship among construction, structure, and architectural expression. Yet, little consideration has been given to the term's origins or historical significance. In this study, Oechslin examines the attempts by early Modern theoreticians of architecture to grapple with the relationship between appearance and essence. He locates the culmination of this search for "truth" in architectural expression in the work of Adolf Loos and the writings of theorists such as Bötticher, Le Corbusier, and Lux.

Frank Lloyd Wright first noted the affinity between modern Western architecture and the philosophy of the ancient Chinese writer Laotzu. In this classic work, Amos Ih Tiao Chang expands on that idea, developing the parallel with the aid of architectural drawings and Chinese paintings. Now with a new foreword by David Wang, this book reveals the vitality of intangible, or negative, elements. Chang writes that these qualities make architectonic forms "come alive, become human, naturally harmonize with one another, and enable us to experience them with human sensibility." The Tao of Architecture continues to be essential reading for understanding the intersection between architecture and philosophy.

Today, it is hard to imagine the everyday work in an architectural practice without computers. Bits and bytes play an important role in the design and presentation of architecture. The book, which is published in the context of an exhibition of the same name of the Architekturmuseum der TUM at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, for the first time considers - in depth - the development of the digital in architecture. In four chapters, it recounts this intriguing history from its beginnings in the 1950s through to today and presents the computer as a drawing machine, as a design tool, as a medium for telling stories, and as an interactive communication platform. The basic underlying question is simple: Has the computer changed architecture? And if so, by how much?

With the improved efficiency of heating, cooling and lighting in buildings crucial to the low carbon targets of all current governments, "Building Science: Concepts and Applications" provides a timely and much-needed addition to the existing literature on architectural and environmental design education. Taking a logical and didactic approach, the author introduces the reader to the underlying concepts and principles of the thermal, lighting, and acoustic determinants of building design in four integrated sections.

The first section explores the thermal building environment and the principles of thermal comfort, translating these principles into conceptual building design solutions. The author examines the heat flow characteristics of the building envelope and explains steady state design methods that form the basis of most building codes. He discusses the sun as a natural heat source and describes the principles of active and passive solar building design solutions.

The second section introduces the scientific principles of light, color, and vision, stressing the importance of daylight in building design, presenting the Daylight Factor design concept and methodology, and discussing glare conditions and their avoidance. It also addresses artificial lighting, delving into the prominent role that electricity plays in the production of light by artificial means and comparing the efficacy and characteristics of the various commercially available light sources in terms of the energy to light conversion ratio, life span, available intensity range, color rendition properties, and cost.

The third section deals with the various aspects of sound that impact the design of the built environment, discussing the nature of sound as a physical force that sets any medium through which it travels into vibration and laying the foundations for the treatment of sound as an important means of communication as well as a disruptive disturbance.

The final section discusses the foundational concepts of ecological design as a basis for addressing sustainability issues in building design solutions. These issues include the embedded energy of construction materials, waste management, preservation of freshwater and management of graywater, adoption of passive solar principles, energy saving measures applicable to mechanical building services, and the end-of-lifecycle deconstruction and recycling of building materials and components.Covers the fundamental building science topics of heat, energy, light and soundTakes a logical and didactic approach, tracing the historical roots of building scienceIncludes summaries of new technologies in solar energy and photovoltaic systemsFeatures a section on the principles of sustainable architectureWebsite with answers to MC questions testing students' learning

Take a theoretical approach to architecture with "The Autopoiesis of Architecture," which presents the topic as a discipline with its own unique logic. Architecture's conception of itself is addressed as well as its development within wider contemporary society.

Author Patrik Schumacher offers innovative treatment that enriches architectural theory with a coordinated arsenal of concepts facilitating both detailed analysis and insightful comparisons with other domains, such as art, science and politics. He explores how the various modes of communication comprising architecture depend upon each other, combine, and form a unique subsystem of society that co-evolves with other important autopoietic subsystems like art, science, politics and the economy.

The first of two volumes that together present a comprehensive account of architecture's autopoiesis, this book elaborates the theory of architecture's autopoeisis in 8 parts, 50 sections and 200 chapters. Each of the 50 sections poses a thesis drawing a central message from the insights articulated within the respective section. The 200 chapters are gathering and sorting the accumulated intelligence of the discipline according to the new conceptual framework adopted, in order to catalyze and elaborate the new formulations and insights that are then encapsulated in the theses. However, while the theoretical work in the text of the chapters relies on the rigorous build up of a new theoretical language, the theses are written in ordinary language ? with the theoretical concepts placed in brackets. The full list of the 50 theses affords a convenient summary printed as appendix at the end of the book.

The second volume completes the analysis of the discourse and further proposes a new agenda for contemporary architecture in response to the challenges and opportunities that confront architectural design within the context of current societal and technological developments.

Design interventions for the reuse of existing structures must face the question of the past and the extent to which it should be included in the design for the future. This is the point of departure of Int|AR, a yearly publication on current issues in international adaptive reuse. Can architectural interventions become actions in the sense of interventions in art or civic involvement? Which forms are conceivable in design, building and representation of architecture? Where are the boundaries to performances and similar other forms of interventions? This Int|AR volume presents essays, built or unbuilt projects and ideas that investigate undiscovered potentials in building in existing fabric.

This collection of writings on beauty includes selections from twenty key philosophers and theoreticians spanning two millennia: Plato * Aristotle * Vitruvius * Alberti * Kant * Burke * Fiedler * Nietzsche * Wilde * Bergson * Bell * Scott * Benjamin * Bataille * Sontag * Jameson * Scarry * Nehamas * Zangwill * Freedberg and Gallese With an introduction and critical headnotes explaining the importance of each text, Mark Foster Gage offers a framework for a provocative history of ideas about beauty as they relate to contemporary thinking on architecture and design. In a world increasingly defined by sumptuous visuality, the concepts of beauty and visual sensation are not mere intellectual exercises but standards that define the very nature of design practice across disciplines and that are essential to the emerging worlds of design and architecture in the twenty-first century.

Modern American Poetry and the Architectural Imagination: The Harmony of Forms assesses the relationship between architectural and poetic innovation in the United States across the twentieth century. Taking the work of five key poets as case studies and drawing on the work of a rich range of other writers, architects, artists, and commentators, this study proposes that by examining the sustained and productive—if hitherto overlooked—engagement between the two disciplines, we enrich our understanding of the complexity and interrelationship of both. The book begins by tracing the rise of what was conceived of as 'modern' (and often 'international style') architecture and by showing how poetry and architecture in the early decades of the century developed in dialogue, and within a shared, and often transnational, context. It then moves on to examine the material, aesthetic, and social conditions that helped shape both disciplines, offering new readings of familiar poems and bringing other pertinent resources to light. It considers the uses to which poets of the period put the insights of architecture—and vice versa. In closing, Gill turns to modern and contemporary architects' written accounts of their own practice, in memoirs and other commentaries, and examines how they have assimilated, or resisted, the practice and vision of poetry.

Ontology of Construction explores theories of construction in modern architecture, focusing on the relationship between nihilism of technology and architecture. The essays articulate the implications of technology in works by such architects as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies Van der Rohe. Hartoonian also examines Gottfried Semper's discourse on the tectonic and the relationship between architecture and other crafts. Emphasizing "fabrication" as a critical theme for contemporary architectural theory and practice, Ontology of Construction is a provocative contribution to the current debate in these areas.

Museum Thresholds is a progressive, interdisciplinary volume and the first to explore the importance and potential of entrance spaces for visitor experience. Bringing together an international collection of writers from different disciplines, the chapters in this volume offer different theoretical perspectives on the nature of engagement, interaction and immersion in threshold spaces, and the factors which enable and inhibit those immersive possibilities. Organised into themed sections, the book explores museum thresholds from three different perspectives. Considering them first as a problem space, the contributors then go on to explore thresholds through different media and, finally, draw upon other subjects and professions, including performance, gaming, retail and discourse studies, in order to examine them from an entirely new perspective. Drawing upon examples that span Asia, North America and Europe, the authors set the entrance space in its historical, social and architectural contexts. Together, the essays show how the challenges posed by the threshold can be rethought and reimagined from a variety of perspectives, each of which have much to bring to future thinking and design. Combining both theory and practice, Museum Thresholds should be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students working in museum studies, digital heritage, architecture, design studies, retail studies and media studies. It will also be of great interest to museum practitioners working in a wide variety of institutions around the globe.

The Power of Process explores Michael Pearson's fascinating career, from his work in British architecture in the 1960s and 70s through to his innovative projects of the 90s to the present. Michael Pearson is past President of the Architectural Association, London's prestigious architecture school. The Power of Process sets out the importance of Michael Pearson and his work, from his initial work within the family firm, his teaching and presidency of the Architectural Association, to small-scale artists' studios and large-scale hospital planning, to the first thorough appreciation of Burne House, his most important work.
The title The Power of Process, refers to Michael Pearson's abiding concern for 'process' in modern architecture -- that is, how the conception and making of architecture is driven by information systems, the inter-connectedness between a buildings use, how it is manufactured and, importantly how its use can adapt and change over time. As such, his interest in process puts him at the forefront of the British High-Tech architecture, more famously associated with Richard Rogers and Norman Foster.

Somewhere between 1910 and 1970, architecture changed. Now that modern architecture has become familiar (sometimes celebrated, sometimes vilified), it's hard to imagine how novel it once seemed. Expensive buildings were transformed from ornamental fancies which referred to the classical and medieval pasts into strikingly plain reflections of novel materials, functions, and technologies. Modern architecture promised the transformation of cities from overcrowded conurbations characterised by packed slums and dirty industries to spacious realms of generous housing and clean mechanised production set in parkland. At certain times and in certain cultures, it stood for the liberation of the future from the past. This Very Short Introduction explores the technical innovations that opened-up the cultural and intellectual opportunities for modern architecture to happen. Adam Sharr shows how the invention of steel and reinforced concrete radically altered possibilities for shaping buildings, transforming what architects were able to imagine, as did new systems for air conditioning and lighting. While architects weren't responsible for these innovations, they were among the first to appreciate how they could make the world look and feel different, in connection with imagery from other spheres like modern art and industrial design. Focusing on a selection of modern buildings that also symbolize bigger cultural ideas, Sharr discusses what modern architecture was like, why it was like that, and how it was imagined. Considering the work of some of the historians and critics who helped to shape modern architecture, he demonstrates how the field owes as much to its storytellers as to its buildings. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

For the first time in more than half a century, Vitruvius' Ten Books on Architecture is being published in English. The only full treatise on architecture and its related arts to survive from classical antiquity, the Architecture libri decem (Ten Books on Architecture) is the single most important work of architectural history in the Western world, having shaped architecture and the image of the architect from the Renaissance to the present. Demonstrating the range of Vitruvius' style, this new edition includes examples from archaeological sites discovered since World War II and not previously published in English language translations. Rowland's new translation and Howe's critical commentary and illustrations provide a new image of Vitruvius, who emerges as an inventive and creative thinker, rather than the normative summarizer, as he was characterized in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Ingrid D. Rowland is an associate professor of Art History at the University of Chicago. Thomas Noble Howe is a professor in the Department of Art at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

At the turn to the twentieth century, architects began to realize that architecture should no longer find ist expression in historic styles. They had recognized that the reason for arbitrarily resorting to historical building forms established in advance was that the design process had been completely separated from construction. In spite of the incidental paths of architectural design approaches, there seems to be a consensus emerging in view of today's global challenges: It is no longer just a question of what shall I build or how shall I build. Instead, the question is how shall I organize and improve my design tools to new dimensions of architecture in order to increase building performance while saving resources and energy and to let digital design solve design tasks that could hardly be solved previously? Today, many projects are pointing in this direction and seem to inaugurate a sustainable fourth dimension of architecture. This book is a comparative critical analysis of such seemingly incidental design approaches, and thus it is an attempt to serve as a historical scenario for the future.

Thinking Big: A History of Davis Langdon provides a history of one of the world's largest quantity surveying companies. They have been involved in the rebuilding of Ground Zero, Chek Lap Kok, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York and the Millennium Dome in London, amongst thousands of other projects around the world. Thinking Big is complete with illustrations of projects and details the working of this global multi-million dollar corporation and their impact on some of the most exciting buildings of the last century. Organised around seven chapters that cover different elements of the company's history in detail and written by a senior partner of the company, Thinking Big provides details of the company's foundation in the early years of the twentieth century, through the difficult years of the depression, to the firm's growth in the 1930s and its international expansion in the post-war years. The book discusses the turbulent period of the 1970s and its leading to a merger and growth of new markets in the 1980s. Thinking Big outlines the company's survival during the recession through to its increasing growth and diversification in the new millennium. The book goes on to look at the new challenges the company faces, including sustainability and the current economic crisis.