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Books > Arts & Architecture > Architecture > Theory of architecture
In an age of pandemics the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. Waste and the City is a call to action on one of modern urban life's most neglected issues: sanitation infrastructure. The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the devastating consequences of unequal access to sanitation in cities across the globe. At this critical moment in global public health, Colin McFarlane makes the urgent case for Sanitation for All. The book outlines the worldwide sanitation crisis and offers a vision for a renewed, equitable investment in sanitation that democratises and socialises the modern city. Adopting Henri Lefebvre's concept of 'the right to the city', it uses the notion of 'citylife' to reframe the discourse on sanitation from a narrowly-defined policy discussion to a question of democratic right to public life and health. In doing so, the book shows that sanitation is an urbanizing force whose importance extends beyond hygiene to the very foundation of urban social life.
How does it feel to live in a 'haunted home'? How do people negotiate their everyday lives with the experience of uncanny, anomalous or strange events within the domestic interior? What do such experiences reveal of the intersection between the material, immaterial and temporal within the home? How do people interpret, share and narrate experiences which are uncertain and unpredictable? What does this reveal about contested beliefs and different forms of knowledge? And about how people 'co-habit' with ghosts, a distinctive self - other relationship within such close quarters? This book sets out to explore these questions. It applies a non-reductive middle-ground approach which steers beyond an uncritical exploration of supernatural experiences without explaining them away by recourse only to wider social and cultural contexts. The book attends to the ways in which households in England and Wales understand their experience of haunting in relation to ideas of subjectivity, gender, materiality, memory, knowledge and belief. It explores home as a place both dynamic and differentiated, illuminating the complexity of 'everyday' experience - the familiarity of the strange as well as the strangeness of the familiar - and the ways in which home continues to be configured as a distinctive space.
This book poses spatial violence as a constitutive dimension of architecture and its epistemologies, as well as a method for theoretical and historical inquiry intrinsic to architecture; and thereby offers an alternative to predominant readings of spatial violence as a topic, event, fact, or other empirical form that may be illustrated by architecture. Exploring histories of and through architecture at sites across the globe, the chapters in the book blur the purportedly distinctive borders between war and peace, framing violence as a form of social, political, and economic order rather than its exceptional interruption. Regarding space and violence as co-constitutive, the book's collected essays critique modernization and capitalist accumulation as naturalized modes for the extraction of violence from everyday life. Focusing on the mediation of violence through architectural registers of construction, destruction, design, use, representation, theory, and history, the book suggests that violence is not only something inflicted upon architecture, but also something that architecture inflicts. In keeping with Walter Benjamin's formulation that there is no document of civilization that is not also a document of barbarism, the book offers "spatial violence" as another name for "architecture" itself. This book was previously published as a special issue of Architectural Theory Review.
Learn about key concepts behind the world's most incredible buildings in The Architecture Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Architecture in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Architecture Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Architecture, with: - A global scope, covering architecture from all over the world - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Architecture Book is a captivating introduction to buildings and the ideas, and principles that make them key to the history and evolution of our built environment - aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll discover the most important ideas, technologies, and movements in the history of architecture and structural engineering, through exciting text and bold graphics. Your Architecture Questions, Simply Explained Learn about the evolution of construction, from ancient and classical architecture through Medieval, Gothic, and Renaissance buildings, Baroque and Rococo, to 19th-century emerging modernism and postmodernism and glittering skyscrapers. If you thought it was difficult to learn about buildings and the ideas behind them, The Architecture Book presents key information in a clear layout. Explore architectural movements, styles and celebrated buildings from all over the world, and stunning religious structures from mosques to churches, stupas to pagodas and temples. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Architecture Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.
This text brings together a unique collection of writing by a leading researcher and critic which outlines the evolution of the environmental dimension of architectural theory and practice in the past twenty-five years. It deals with the transformation of the environmental design field which was brought about by the growth of energy awareness in the 1970s and 1980s, and places environmental issues in the broader theoretical and historical context in architecture.
In the mid-1920s a physiologist, a glass chemist, and a zoo embarked on a project which promised to turn buildings into medical instruments. The advanced chemistry of "Vita" Glass mobilised theories of light and medicine, health practices and glassmaking technology to compress an entire epoch's hopes for a healthy life into a glass sheet - yet it did so invisibly. To communicate its advantage, Pilkington Bros. spared no expense as they launched the most costly and sophisticated marketing campaign in their history. Engineering need for "Vita" Glass employed leading-edge market research, evocative photography and vanguard techniques of advertising psychology, accompanied by the claim: "Let in the Health Rays of Daylight Permanently through "Vita" Glass Windows." This is the story of how, despite the best efforts of two glass companies, the leading marketing firm of the day, and the opinions of leading medical minds, "Vita" Glass failed. However, it epitomised an age of lightness and airiness, sleeping porches, flat roofs and ribbon windows. Moreover, through its remarkable print advertising, it strove to shape the ideal relationship between our buildings and our bodies.
This illustrated guide to 100 of the world's most important concert halls and opera houses examines their architecture and engineering and discusses their acoustical quality as judged by conductors and music critics. The descriptions and photographs will serve as a valuable guide for today's peripatetic performers and music lovers. With technical discussions relegated to appendices, the book can be read with pleasure by anyone interested in musical performance. The photographs (specially commissioned for this book) and architectural drawings (all to the same scale) together with modern acoustical data on each of the halls provide a rich and unmatched resource on the design of halls for presenting musical performances. Together with the technical appendices, the data and drawings will serve as an invaluable reference for architects and engineers involved in the design of spaces for the performance of music. Leo Beranek is an internationally recognized authority in acoustics who has consulted on the design of dozens of important auditoriums around the World. He has received the highest honors of the Acoustical Society of America and of the Audio Engineering Society.||Some praise for the previous edition:||"No one has done more to unlock for musicians the scientific mysteries of acoustics and for acousticians an appreciation of the aesthetic experience of musicians and listeners."|- Philip Gossett, Professor of Music, University of Chicago||"Directed in large part to musicians and concert goers, it is as easy to read as it is informative . . . the descriptions [of concert halls] are a terrific asset to visiting conductors."|- Yuzo Toyama, Conductor||"Provides an invaluable resource for the understanding and design of music facilities."|- I.M. Pei, Architect
This book is unique in its attempt to explore the many ways we have of thinking about buildings. In particular it raises questions about the kinds of knowledge we have and will need in designing, making and enjoying our buildings. At the very least this book provides an overview of the fragmented construction industry, making it a vital purchase for all construction related students. However, the author has written for a wider audience making the book an essential guide for those interested in the form of buildings or the deliberate ways in which people build them.
Architecture and Adaptation discusses architectural projects that use computational technology to adapt to changing conditions and human needs. Topics include kinetic and transformable structures, digitally driven building parts, interactive installations, intelligent environments, early precedents and their historical context, socio-cultural aspects of adaptive architecture, the history and theory of artificial life, the theory of human-computer interaction, tangible computing, and the social studies of technology. Author Socrates Yiannoudes proposes tools and frameworks for researchers to evaluate examples and tendencies in adaptive architecture. Illustrated with more than 50 black and white images.
This book delves into the life and work of architect William Richard Lethaby (1857-1931) and his relationship with the occult and alchemy, in particular. Using detailed analysis of Lethaby's drawings and architecture, the research uncovers Lethaby's familiarity with occult concepts and ideology during the spiritual revolution of the nineteenth century. Throughout this time, countless individuals, particularly members of the avant-garde, rejected more traditional religious pathways and sought answers through experimental and mystical alternatives. William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult reveals how the architect was profoundly influenced by the Zeitgeist, which was saturated with references to spiritualism, mysticism and the occult, and explores the impact of occultism on his contemporaries and the wider Arts and Crafts Movement. This book is written for upper-level students, researchers and academics interested in architectural history, William Lethaby and nineteenth century culture and society.
Architecture is a powerful medium for representing, ordering and classifying the world, and understanding the use of space is fundamental to archaeological inquiry. Architecture and Order draws on the work of archaeologists, social theorists and architects to explore the way in which people relate to the architecture which surrounds them. In many societies, houses and tombs have encoded cultural meanings and values which are invoked and recalled through the practices of daily life. Chapters include explorations of the early farming r archi*eye of Europe, from before the use of metals, to the Classical and Medieval worlds of the Mediterranean and Europe. Research of the recent past and present include an overview of hunter-gatherers' camp organization, a reassessment of the use of space amongst the Dogon of West Africa and an examination of mental disorders relating to the use of space in Britain. The volume goes beyond the implication that culture determines form to develop an approach that integrates meaning and practice.
Non-Plan explores ways of involving people in the design of their environments - a goal which transgresses political categories of 'right' and 'left'. Attempts to circumvent planning bureaucracy and architectural inertia have ranged from free-market enterprise zones, to self-build housing, and from squatting to sophisticated technologies of prefabrication. Yet all have shared in a desire to let people shape the built environment they want to live and work in. How can buildings better reflect the needs of their inhabitants? How can cities better facilitate the work and recreation of their many populaces? Modernism had promised a functionalist approach to resolving the architectural needs of the twentieth-century, yet the design of cities and buildings often appears to confound the needs of those who use them - their design and layout being highly regulated by restrictive legislation, planning controls and bureaucracy. Non-Plan considers the theoretical and conceptual frameworks within which architecture and urbanism have sought to challenge entrenched boundaries of control, focusing on the architectural history of the post-war period to the present day. This provocative book will be of interest to architects, planners and students of architecture, design, town-planning and architectural history. Its contributors include architects, critics and historians, including many whose work helped shape the Non-Plan debate during the period. List of contributors: Cedric Price, Benjamin Franks, Elizabeth Lebas, Eleonore Kofman, Ben Highmore, Yona Friedman, Paul Barker, Clara Greed, Barry Curtis, Colin Ward, Ian Horton, John Beck, Chinedu Umenyilora and Malcolm Miles.
This interdisciplinary collection explores the dynamic relationship between literature and architecture from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Contributions take the reader on a journey through unexplored byways, from Istanbul to New York to London, from event spaces to domestic interiors to the fictional buildings of the novel. Topics include the building of imaginary spaces, such as the architectural models of comic book worlds created by the cartoonist Seth and the Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk, which is both novel and building. Real architectural spaces are recontextualized through literature: reading the work of Louis Kahn through his personal library and envisioning the writing haven of James Baldwin through his novels. Another approach links literary style with architectural form, as in the work of the New York School poets, who reformulate the built environment on the page. Architectural landmarks like Robert Stevenson's Roundhouse (1847), Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition and the 2012 Olympic Park are reconsidered as counter-narratives of postcolonialism and empire, and the New York skyline is examined alongside literature and visual culture. This collection demonstrates the reciprocal exchange that exists between the disciplines of literature and architecture and promotes new ways of understanding these interactions.
Nation-states have long used representational architecture to create symbolic identities for public consumption both at home and abroad. Government buildings, major ensembles and urban plans have a visibility that lends them authority, while their repeated portrayals in the media cement their image as icons of a shared national character. Existing in tandem with this official self, however, is a second, often divergent identity, represented by the vast realm of domestic space defined largely by those who occupy it as well as those with a vested interest in its cultural meaning. Using both historical inquiry and visual, spatial and film analysis, this book explores the interaction of these two identities, and its effect on political control, class status, and gender roles. Conflicted Identities examines the politicization of both public and domestic space, especially in societies undergoing rapid cultural transformation through political, social or economic expansion or restructuring, when cultural identity is being rapidly "modernized", shifted, or realigned to conform to new demands. Using specific examples from a variety of national contexts, the book examines how vernacular housing, legislation, marketing, and media influence a large, but often underexposed domestic culture that runs parallel to a more publicly represented one. As a case in point, the book examines West Germany from the end of World War II to the early 1970s to probe more deeply into the mechanisms of such cultural dichotomy. On a national level, post-war West Germany demonstratively rejected Nazi-era values by rebuilding cities based on interwar modernist tenets, while choosing a decidedly modern and transparent architecture for high-visibility national projects. In the domestic realm, government, media and everyday citizens countered this turn to state-sponsored modernism by embracing traditional architectural aesthetics and housing that encouraged patriarchal family structures. Written for readers interested in cultural theory, history, and the politics of space as well as those engaged with architecture and the built environment, Conflicted Identities provides an engaging new perspective on power and identity as they relate to architectural settings.
Choreographing Space is a reflection on the collaborative work of New York City-based architecture practice, e+i studio. In the book, the founders of the practice, Eva Perez de Vega and Ian Gordon, outline a fascinating selection of projects from the studio, which will take the reader on a journey and give them a key understanding of the important work of this dynamic and forward-thinking architecture and design practice. This insightful book offers both a retrospective and speculative outlook. Retrospectively, it explores the people, places and practices that have influenced each project. For certain projects it also proposes speculative post-human scenarios, to support the idea that the impact of architecture on its environment involves a reconning with the ecologies it replaces. The book is uniquely structured. Organised into four parts, each part opens with a philosophical text that acts as an insightful prelude to the topics, questions and reflections posed by each project. Each part concludes with a speculative scenario, where one of the projects is imagined thriving in a future where life is now almost extinct. These are not intended as apocalyptic or even nostalgic scenarios, but rather as affirmative alternatives to the bleak imaginary arising from the world's current climate crisis. Choreographing Space involves the self-reflexive act of selecting the conceptual strands of each project and organising them under headings, or species. Much like the concept of 'speciation' where living creatures are categorised into seemingly related groups, under their 'genus'. This type of grouping synthesizes the ideas, intents and hopes for each project, and looks into how it could have been implemented differently. Nothing is static, or definite; projects are in continuous process of becoming, as they continue to relate to evolving ecologies of thought.
Architectural Type and Character provides an alternative perspective to the current role given to history in architecture, reunifying architectural history and architectural design to reform architectural discourse and practice. Historians provide important material for appreciating buildings and guiding those who produce them. In current histories, a building is the product of a time, its form follows its function, irresistible influences produce it, and style, preferably novel, is its most important attribute. This book argues for an alternative. Through a two-part structure, the book first develops the theoretical foundations for this alternative history of architecture. The second part then provides drawings and interpretations of over one hundred sites from different times and places. Architectural Type and Character: A Practical Guide to a History of Architecture is an excellent desk reference and studio guide for students and architectures alike to understand, analyze, and create buildings.
Paul Virilio is an innovative figure in the study of architecture, space, and the city. Virilio for Architects primes readers for their first encounter with his crucial texts on some of the vital theoretical debates of the twenty-first century, including: Oblique Architecture and Bunker Archeology Critical Space and the Overexposed City The Ultracity and Very High Buildings Grey Ecology and Global Hypermovement In exploring Virilio's most important architectural ideas and their impact, John Armitage traces his engagement with other key architectural and scientific thinkers such as Claude Parent, Benoit B. Mandelbrot, and Bernard Tschumi. Virilio for Architects allows students, researchers, and non-academic readers to connect with Virilio's distinctive architectural theories, critical studies, and fresh ideas.
Architecture is conventionally seen as being synonymous with building. In contrast, this book introduces and defines a new category - the unbuildable. The unbuildable involves projects that are not just unbuilt, but cannot be built. This distinct form of architectural project has an important and often surprising role in architectural discourse, working not in opposition to the buildable, but frequently complementing it. Using well-known examples of early Soviet architecture - Tatlin's Tower in particular - Nerma Cridge demonstrates the relevance of the unbuildable, how it relates to current notions of seriality, copying and reproduction, and its implications for contemporary practice and discourse in the computational age. At the same time it offers a fresh view of our preconceptions and expectations of early Soviet architecture and the Constructivist Movement.
- Structured thematically to align with the process and project-driven nature of professional designers, in academia and practice - Identifies and articulates new forms of practice that are increasingly unbound by conventional territories, procedures, and strategic objectives - Includes open-ended set of activities, charts, worksheets, and discussion questions to foster entrepreneurial thinking in formative projects and practices - Includes curated selection of contemporary examples of entrepreneurship around the world and interviews from leading entrepreneurs and design professionals |
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