In the era of cybernetics, architects suddenly encountered entirely new ways of operating technical systems: buildings could be calculated using circuit diagrams, creativity and imagination were confronted with the technical intelligence of thinking machines. Architects found themselves in the crosshairs of cybernetics. At stake was nothing less than the continued existence of the architect's inventive intelligence in a techno-scientific world. Today, we see computing machines, once so heavy, losing weight while gaining power. Computers are fully colonizing the human environment, creating their own digital ecosystems, and giving rise to forms of society and ways of being that cannot even be explained without big data. Available for the first time in English as a new edition.

Your eyes meet with the memory of everything you have heard and this has a huge in uence on your opinion of the place where you live. The summary of your story in a city will have slowly crystallized, not into emotional richness but into a single powerful image known as Supernapoli.

Architectural objects confront their environment. They constitute a boundary, a form with an internalised point of view. Understanding architecture as environmental objects suggests a questioning of these dichotomies of separation between the symbolic landmark and the landscape background. It represents an architecture that amplifies nature, attunes to it and makes us aware of it. Portugal Lessons takes Portugal as a case study for such contextualism going beyond an understanding of design as immunisation. Based on the latest research program conducted by EPFL's Laboratory Basel (laba), it explores the topic of this architectural boundary: with whom we live, to whom we open our house, how permeable the boundary should be. The findings are visualised in striking images, graphics and maps. The book also features proposals for architectural interventions by laba's students, all of them tackling issues of housing.

Everyone is a designer. But while many practitioners may be looking for solutions or ideological certainties, Easterling argues that solutions are mistakes and ideologies are unreliable markers. Instead, Medium Design speaks to anyone looking for alternative approaches to the world's unresponsive or intractable dilemmas-from climate cataclysm to inequality to concentrations of authoritarian power. Such an approach joins many disciplines in considering not only separate objects, ideas and events but also the space between them. In case studies dealing with everything from automation and migration to explosive urban growth and atmospheric changes, Medium Design looks not to new innovations but rather to sophisticated relationships between emergent and incumbent technologies. It does not try to eliminate problems but put them together into productive combinations. And it offers forms of activism for modulating power and temperament in organization of all kinds

Architecture is commonplace. We inhabit it and use it; it is constantly present; it serves as foreground and background and usually has a story to tell. Numerous volumes are devoted to its typology, history, construction, and design. But apart from its most illustrious makers, we know almost nothing about the people who conceived it: the architects. What Kind of Architect Are You?, the question most architects encounter when they reveal their profession, is difficult to answer. What Kind of Architect Are You? showcases a panoply of architectural practices to a reading audience that shares an interest in the profession. Topics range from the theoretical to design build, from installations that challenge our preconceptions to the set of TV shows on home remodelling, from instructing future architects in the US to expanding the reach of the profession worldwide. The collection offers a glimpse into a vast array of professional possibilities and points out meaningful alternatives to the prevailing myth of the 'starchitect'. It provides those in search of an architect with insights into how we work and helps them to formulate expectations. It challenges practitioners to think introspectively and examine how they fit into the architectural spectrum. And finally, the collection documents the cross-section of cultural and architectural practice across America. The reader may find that the 'voice' varies throughout the collection. That variation is consistent with the variety of architects included in fact, it underscores the myriad of responses to What Kind of Architect Are You?

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.

Bringing together the reflections of an architectural theorist and a philosopher, this book encourages philosophers and architects, scholars and designers alike, to reconsider what they do as well as what they can do in the face of challenging times. It does so by exploring the notion that architecture and design can (and possibly should), in their own right, make for a distinctive form of ethical investigation. The book is less concerned with absolutist understandings of the two components of ethics, a theory of 'the good' and a theory of 'the right', than with remaining open to multiple relations between ideas about the built environment, design practices and the plurality of kinds of human subjects (inhabitants, individuals and communities) accommodated by buildings and urban spaces. The built environment contributes to the inculcation of all sorts of values (good and bad). Thus, this book aims to change the way people commonly think about ethics, not only in relation to the built environment, but to themselves, their ways of thinking and modes of behaviour.

Against those who consider architecture to be a wholly optimistic activity, this book shows how the history of modern architecture is inextricably tied to ideas of failure and ruin. By means of an original reading of the earliest origins of modernism, the Architecture of Failure exposes the ways in which failure has been suppressed, ignored and denied in the way we design our cities. It examines the 19th century fantasy architecture of the iron and glass exhibition palaces, strange, unprecedented, dream-like structures, almost all now lost, existing only as melancholy archive fragments; it traces the cultural legacy of these buildings through the heroics of the early 20th century, post-war radicals and recent developments, discussing related themes in art, literature, politics and philosophy. Critiquing the capitalist symbolism of the self-styled contemporary avant-garde, the book outlines a new history of contemporary architecture, and attempts to recover a radical approach to understanding what we build. Douglas Murphy blogs at http://www.youyouidiot.blogspot.com/

Authored by seasoned professionals, this book explains the various types of projects, covers the all-important "lifestyle" concept that motivates sales, and provides state-of-the-art best practices in development, including planning and design, marketing tools and strategies, and the legal framework.

The modes of diffusion of ideas that shape planned environments, and the ways these ideas are realised, have been gaining prominence as subjects of study and discussion among planning historians and others. However, most studies have focused on the diffusion that has occurred within the sphere of the so-called First World, where the participants have been considered as relatively equal partners. On the other hand, where the diffusion took place between the First and Third Worlds, these exchanges have often been projected as one-way impositions where the receivers are silent, oppressed, impotent – if not outright invisible.

More recently, some researchers have begun to approach the relations between actors and stakeholders in processes of planning diffusion in a more complex and ambiguous way. To begin with, the natives in developing countries, whether colonial or post-colonial, are being recognised as fully-fledged actors in the shaping of the built environment, with a variety of roles to play and means to play them, even if they frequently face many constraints to their actions. Moreover, the planning influences have started to be acknowledged as going in multiple directions, including back to the source of dissemination. Adaptation, hybridisation, mimicry and appropriation are just some of the forms of diffusion and adoption that are relevant. The specific traits of the indigenous also came to be viewed as something that is not necessarily evident: ultimately, who are the ‘locals’?

Urbanism – Imported or Exported? is the first book to examine the full complexity of these issues in detail. It raises conceptual questions concerning the identities of locals, the roles of relevant actors, and the modes of diffusion, as well as investigating the methodological implications for historians of the city-building process. Using examples from around the world, with a particular emphasis on Mediterranean countries, it offers a bold new approach to the concepts and methods of the study of planning history.

Since the construction of the first skyscrapers in the nineteenth century, urban environments have been increasingly marked by verticality. The experience of modernity fed a spatialised lexicon derived from the sense of balance - 'groundlessness', 'suspension' and 'freefall' - which resonates acutely today. At a time of instability, the rise and rise of vertical cities poses new challenges to the perception of gravity, but the implications of vertigo remain unacknowledged. This book reflects on the precarious equilibrium at the heart of contemporary cities, where the drive to conquer ever greater heights has reconfigured our notion of abyss. Through an interdisciplinary approach informed by social and medical sciences, the book explores how built environments elicit a range of spatial thrills as well as anxieties. On Balance first provides an overview of how the modern discourse on vertigo has permeated the sciences, arts and humanities. The second part of the book shifts the attention to spatial practices predicated on the mastery of vertigo such as climbing and wire walking. The final part moves into the realm of architectural culture, offering an original reading of modern and contemporary spaces that affect our perceptual stability. Since the turn of millennium, urban environments have been increasingly turned into gravity playgrounds as new and existing buildings alike furnish the stages for visceral thrills. On Balance argues that, within the experience economy, architecture has become a site for games of vertigo. The loss of grounding is not only an inherently spatialised experience, but one that is bound up with the design and representation of space. Hence, this book provokes up to consider architecture as deeply implicated in our perception of balance at multiple sensory, spatial and social levels.

The theatre is the central theme of this fourth volume in our series titled 'Art Brut - The Collection', published to coincide with the fourth Art Brut Biennale. After exploring architecture, vehicles, and bodies, attention turns to the theatre, a theme that is developed in its various aspects. The simplest example is the depiction of theatrical architecture, as in the work of Eugen Gabritschevsky or Victorien Sardou. Other artists create works that are intimately connected to the world of theatre, however without necessarily being a part of it. For example, for Giovanni Battista Podesta or Vahan Poladian, a public stage is a place where they put on a 'performance' that responds to a society that consigns them to its margins. Their intrinsically ephemeral approach uses clothing or accessories as a means of communication and to have their voices or protestations heard. Other artists conceive whole cosmogonies that take the form of a gigantic staging of a fanciful, phantasmagoric world, as in the case of Aloise Corbaz, whose work is to be viewed as a 'Theatre of the universe', or in that of Marguerite Burnat-Provins, with her graphic work titled 'Ma Ville'. The book includes over 100 illustrations, many of which are published for the first time, carefully chosen to enable the reader to explore the theme of the theatre in Outsider Art, or Art Brut. Also available in the series: Vehicles ISBN 9788874396580, Architecture ISBN 9788874397105, Body ISBN 9788874397884.

This volume examines one year of research and pedagogy at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, engaged in the conditions of
the built environment, relative to 3 states of Flux, Stasis and Crisis.
The questions we ask are: What is the impact of design on the forces that shape our contemporary reality? To what extent do contingencies of time and place impact our practice, and in return how effective is our response in re-shaping the same contingencies?
Contributions: Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh, Inaki Alday, Robin Dripps, Rebecca Hora, Ryan Metcalf, Matthew Pinyan
Published with University of Virginia School of Architecture

Modern Construction Case Studies focuses on the interface between the design of facades, structures and environments of 12 building projects, all developed by Newtecnic. The Author compares facade technologies, particularly in the way they interface with structure and MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing services) in complex projects, to provide insights into the design process for building envelopes. Each envelope technology is described with an emphasis on one of three aspects: geometry, construction and performance. The analysis links the 12 case studies by comparing their structural and environmental performance. The aim is achieved by analyzing typical bays which are representative of each project and which illustrate the implications of using different building envelope technologies.

A sharp and lively text that covers issues in depth but not to the point that they become inaccessible to beginning students, An Introduction to Architectural Theory is the first narrative history of this period, charting the veritable revolution in architectural thinking that has taken place, as well as the implications of this intellectual upheaval. * The first comprehensive and critical history of architectural theory over the last fifty years * surveys the intellectual history of architecture since 1968, including criticisms of high modernism, the rise of postmodern and poststructural theory, critical regionalism and tectonics * Offers a comprehensive overview of the significant changes that architectural thinking has undergone in the past fifteen years * Includes an analysis of where architecture stands and where it will likely move in the coming years

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.

One of today's foremost art historians and critics presents a strikingly original view of architecture and the city through the twin lenses of cultural theory and psychoanalysis. Hubert Damisch--whose work on the history of perspective, the notion of imitation, and the question of representation has emerged as the most important body of critical thought on painting since, perhaps, Meyer Shapiro's collected essays--here engages a subject that has been of continuing interest to him over the last thirty years.
In the field of architecture, this book has been awaited for a long time; in the fields of art history and cultural studies, it will be welcomed as a powerful argument for utilizing in an urban context interpretive approaches developed for the analysis of spatial and visual phenomena. Though architecture has served since Descartes as a structural analogy for philosophical discourse and has played a similar role in literature, contemporary studies on architecture have tended to be very specialized, with little regard for their accessibility to scholars in the humanities and social sciences. This book, however, with its solid grounding in architecture and urban theory and its profoundly humanistic approach, will prove deeply rewarding to specialist and generalist alike.
The book engages a wide range of subjects, including reconstructions of the Egyptian labyrinth, architectural museums, European visions of New World cities, the great spaces and national parks of the American West, and landscape gardening in the United States. These subjects work together to develop a unique way of looking at the city and its architecture, the landscape and its spaces.

"A civic economy is emerging," this book declares, "one which is fundamentally both open and social." In the aftermath of the financial crisis, and in an era of profound environmental and social change, a collective reflection is taking place on how to share civic prosperity. In the meantime, an increasing number of social innovators are getting on with the job of remaking local economies. Though locally driven, their initiatives are rooted in global cultural and technological trends that preceded the recent economic downturn. "Compendium for the Civic Economy" looks at 25 trailblazing projects, including the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., which helps young people with writing skills (while also selling superhero gear); Tcho, a participatory chocolate manufacturer in San Francisco; and various collectively founded or structured supermarkets, hospitals, theaters and even internet providers throughout the United Kingdom and mainland Europe.

Set against the background of a 'general crisis' that is environmental, political and social, this book examines a series of specific intersections between architecture and feminisms, understood in the plural. The collected essays and projects that make up the book follow transversal trajectories that criss-cross between ecologies, economies and technologies, exploring specific cases and positions in relation to the themes of the archive, control, work and milieu. This collective intellectual labour can be located amidst a worldwide depletion of material resources, a hollowing out of political power and the degradation of constructed and natural environments. Feminist positions suggest ways of ethically coping with a world that is becoming increasingly unstable and contested. The many voices gathered here are united by the task of putting critical concepts and feminist design tools to use in order to offer experimental approaches to the creation of a more habitable world. Drawing inspiration from the active archives of feminist precursors, existing and re-imagined, and by way of a re-engagement in the histories, theories and projected futures of critical feminist projects, the book presents a collection of twenty-three essays and eight projects, with the aim of taking stock of our current condition and re-engaging in our precarious environment-worlds.

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.