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Books > Arts & Architecture > Architecture > Theory of architecture
In this fresh and authoritative account John Macarthur presents the eighteenth century idea of the picturesque - when it was a risky term concerned with a refined taste for everyday things, such as the hovels of the labouring poor - in the light of its reception and effects in modern culture. In a series of linked essays Macarthur shows: what the concept of picture does in the picturesque and how this relates to modern theories of the image; how the distaste that might be felt today at the sentimentality of the picturesque was already at play in the eighteenth century; how visual values such as 'irregularity' become the basis of modern architectural planning; how the concept of appropriating a view moves from landscape design into urban design; and why movement is fundamental to picturing the stillness of buildings, cities and landscapes.Drawing on examples from architecture, art and broader culture, John Macarthur's account of this key topic in cultural history, makes engaging reading for all those studying architecture, art history, cultural history or visual studies.
Landscape Architecture Criticism offers techniques, perspectives and theories which relate to landscape architecture, a field very different from the more well-known domains of art and architectural criticism. Throughout the book, Bowring delves into questions such as, how do we know if built or unbuilt works of landscape architecture are successful? What strategies are used to measure the success or failure, and by whom? Does design criticism only come in written form? It brings together diverse perspectives on criticism in landscape architecture, establishing a substantial point of reference for approaching design critique, exploring how criticism developed within the discipline. Beginning with an introductory overview to set the framework, the book then moves on to historical perspectives, the purpose of critique, theoretical positions ranging from aesthetics, to politics and experience, unbuilt projects, techniques, and communication. Written for professionals and academics, as well as for students and instructors in landscape architecture, it includes strategies, diagrams, matrices, and full colour illustrations to prompt discussion and provide a basis for exploring design critique.
In this fresh and authoritative account John Macarthur presents the eighteenth century idea of the picturesque - when it was a risky term concerned with a refined taste for everyday things, such as the hovels of the labouring poor - in the light of its reception and effects in modern culture. In a series of linked essays Macarthur shows: what the concept of picture does in the picturesque and how this relates to modern theories of the image how the distaste that might be felt today at the sentimentality of the picturesque was already at play in the eighteenth century how visual values such as 'irregularity' become the basis of modern architectural planning; how the concept of appropriating a view moves from landscape design into urban design why movement is fundamental to picturing the stillness of buildings, cities and landscapes. Drawing on examples from architecture, art and broader culture, John Macarthur's account of this key topic in cultural history, makes engaging reading for all those studying architecture, art history, cultural history or visual studies.
The Architect as Magician explores the connection between magic and architecture. There is a belief that a greater understanding of the meaning of magic provides insights about architecture and architects' design processes. Architects influence the effects of nature through the making of their buildings. In an analogous condition, magicians perform rituals in an attempt to influence the forces of nature. This book argues that architects could gain much by incorporating ideas from magic into their design process. The book demonstrates through historical and current examples the important influence magic has had on the practice of architecture. The authors explain how magic helps us to understand the way we infuse architecture with meaning and how magic affects and inspires architectural creation. Aimed at architects, students, scholars and researchers, The Architect as Magician helps readers discover the ambiguous and spiritual elements in their design process.
Learning from Failure in the Design Process shows you that design work builds on lessons learned from failures to help you relax your fear of making mistakes, so that you're not paralyzed when faced with a task outside of your comfort zone. Working hands-on with building materials, such as concrete, sheet metal, and fabric, you will understand behaviors, processes, methods of assembly, and ways to evaluate your failures to achieve positive results. Through material and assembly strategies of stretching, casting, carving, and stacking, this book uncovers the issues, problems, and failures confronted in student material experiments and examines built projects that addressed these issues with innovative and intelligent strategies. Highlighting numerous professional practice case studies with over 250 color images, this book will be ideal for students interested in materials and methods, and students of architecture in design studios.
In this book, Tsiambaos redefines the ground-breaking theory of Greek architect and town planner Constantinos A. Doxiadis (The Form of Space in Ancient Greece) and moves his thesis away from antiquity and ancient architecture, instead arguing that it can only be understood as a theory founded in modernity. In light of this, the author explores Doxiadis' theory in relation to the work of the controversial Greek architect Dimitris Pikionis. This parallel investigation of the philosophical content of Doxiadis' theory and the design principles of Pikionis' work establishes a new frame of reference and creates a valuable and original interpretation of their work. Using innovative cross-disciplinary tools and methods which expand the historical boundaries of interwar modernism, the book restructures the ground of an alternative modernity that looks towards the future through a mirror that reflects the ancient past. From Doxiadis' Theory to Pikionis' Work: Reflections of Antiquity in Modern Architecture is fascinating reading for all scholars and students with an interest in modernism and antiquity, the history and theory of architecture, the history of ideas and aesthetics or town planning theory and design.
Set within the broader context of post-war Austria and the re-education initiatives set up by the Allied forces, particularly the US, this book investigates the art and architecture scene in Vienna to ask how this can inform our broader understanding of architectural Postmodernism. The book focuses on the outputs of the Austrian artist and architect, Hans Hollein, and on his appropriation as a Postmodernist figure. In Vienna, the circles of radical art and architecture were not distinct, and Hollein's claim that 'Everything is Architecture' was symptomatic of this intermixing of creative practices. Austria's proximity to the so-called 'Iron Curtain' and its post-war history of four-power occupation gave a heightened sense of menace that emerged strongly in Viennese art in the Cold War era. Seen as a collective entity, Hans Hollein's works across architecture, art, writing, exhibition design and publishing clearly require a more diverse, complex and culturally nuanced account of architectural Postmodernism than that offered by critics at the time. Across the five chapters, Hollein's outputs are viewed not as individual projects, but as symptomatic of Austria's attempts to come to terms with its Nazi past and to establish a post-war identity.
David Wang's Architecture and Sacrament considers architectural theory from a Christian theological perspective, specifically, the analogy of being (analogia entis). The book tracks social and cultural reasons why the theological literature tends to be separate from contemporary architecture theory. Wang argues that retrieval of the sacramental outlook embedded within the analogy of being, which informed centuries of art and architecture in the West, can shed light on current architectural issues such as "big box stores," the environmental crisis and the loss of sense of community. The book critiques the materialist basis of current architectural discourse, subsumed largely under the banner of critical theory. This volume on how European ideas inform architectural theory complements Wang's previous book, A Philosophy of Chinese Architecture: Past, Present, Future, and will appeal to architecture students and academics, as well as those grappling with the philosophical moorings of all built environments.
This self-taught Dutch architect was among the most widely copied architects of the 1930s and 1940s. His international influence is all the more amazing when one considers that most of his architecture was built in the provincial town of Hilversum. Travel, word-of-mouth, and literature spread the news of his humane, modern approach to building design. The more than 1,200 bibliographic entries in this work are presented alphabetically by decades and further by genres. Each is summarized, described, and evaluated in the context of a critical overview of Dudok's career. Architectural scholars and students will profit from this comprehensive guide to the international literature on one of the most emulated champions of modern architecture. For too long, much was made in the English-language architectural literature of Germany's pioneer role in developing Modernism. That contribution was undeniably valuable, but the Dutch were unfairly overlooked; however, Dudok's work was not. Hilversum became a magnet for young foreign architects in the 1930s. He cast his spell upon much of continental Europe, the United States and Britain, and throughout the 1940s his style was so widely mimicked that a new adjective was coined: dudoky. This volume will reintroduce the importance of Dudok's work to today's scholars and students.
The Routledge Companion to Modernity, Space and Gender reframes the discussion of modernity, space and gender by examining how "modernity" has been defined in various cultural contexts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, how this definition has been expressed spatially and architecturally, and what effect this has had on women in their everyday lives. In doing so, this volume presents theories and methods for understanding space and gender as they relate to the development of cities, urban space and individual building types (such as housing, work spaces or commercial spaces) in both the creation of and resistance to social transformations and modern global capitalism. The book contains a diverse range of case studies from the US, Europe, the UK, and Asian countries such as China and India, which bring together a multiplicity of approaches to a continuing and common issue and reinforces the need for alternatives to the existing theoretical canon.
The relationship of architecture to the human body is a centuries-long and complex one, but not always symmetrical. This book opens a space for historians of the visual arts, archaeologists, architects, and digital humanities professionals to reflect upon embodiment, spatiality, science, and architecture in premodern and modern cultural contexts. Architecture and the Body, Science and Culture poses one overarching question: How does a period's understanding of bodies as objects of science impinge upon architectural thought and design? The answers are sophisticated, interdisciplinary explorations of theory, technology, symbolism, medicine, violence, psychology, deformity, and salvation, and they have unexpected and fascinating implications for architectural design and history. The new research published in this volume reinvigorates the Western survey-style trajectory from Archaic Greece to post-war Europe with scientifically-framed, body-centred provocations. By adding the third factor-science-to the architecture and body equation, this book presents a nuanced appreciation for architectural creativity and its embeddedness in other sets of social, institutional and political relationships. In so doing, it spatializes body theory and ties it to the experience of the built environment in ways that disturb traditional boundaries between the architectural container and the corporeally contained.
Architectures of Transversality investigates the relationship between modernity, space, power, and culture in Iran. Focusing on Paul Klee's Persian-inspired miniature series and Louis Kahn's unbuilt blueprint for a democratic public space in Tehran, it traces the architectonics of the present as a way of moving beyond universalist and nationalist accounts of modernism. Transversality is a form of spatial production and practice that addresses the three important questions of the self, objects, and power. Using Deleuzian and Heideggerian theory, the book introduces the practices of Klee and Kahn as transversal spatial responses to the dialectical tension between existential and political territories and, in doing so, situates the history of the silent, unrepresented and the unbuilt - constructed from the works of Klee and Kahn - as a possible solution to the crisis of modernity and identity-based politics in Iran.
Drawing on cultural theory, phenomenology and concepts from Asian art and philosophy, this book reflects on the role of interpretation in the act of architectural creation, bringing an intellectual and scholarly dimension to real-world architectural design practice. For practising architects as well as academic researchers, these essays consider interpretation from three theoretical standpoints or themes: play, edification and otherness. Focusing on these, the book draws together strands of thought informed by the diverse reflections of hermeneutical scholarship, the uses of digital media and studio teaching and practice.
This book looks at specific instances in the Renaissance, Enlightenment and our own time when architectural ideas and ideas of biological life come into close proximity with each other. These convergences are fascinating and complex, offering new insights into architecture and its role. Establishing architecture as a product of the ascendancy of the position of human life, the author shows here that while architecture is dependent on life forces for its existence, at the same time it must be, at some level, indifferent to the life within it. Life, for its part, privileges itself above all else, and seeks to continuously expand its field of expression. This, then, is the asymmetrical condition, and to understand it is to gain important new theoretical perspectives into the nature of architecture.
Gordon Strachan, author of Jesus the Master Builder (Floris Books) explores the magnificent structure of Chartres Cathedral, and examines the influences on the medieval master builders. Using Chartres as a starting point, Dr Strachan suggests that the origins of the Gothic style may lie in Islamic architecture. He goes on to consider how the experience of a particular architectural space affects us, and how sacred geometry works. Beautifully illustrated, this is an inspiring and informative book for anyone interested in religious architecture and spirituality.
The 1960s and the 1970s marked a generational shift in architectural discourse at a time when the revolts inside universities condemned the academic institution as a major force behind the perpetuation of a controlling society. Focusing on the crisis and reform of higher education in Italy, The University as a Settlement Principle investigates how university design became a lens for architects to interpret a complex historical moment that was marked by the construction of an unprecedented number of new campuses worldwide. Implicitly drawing parallels with the contemporary condition of the university under a regime of knowledge commodification, it reviews the vision proposed by architects such as Vittorio Gregotti, Giuseppe Samona, Archizoom, Giancarlo De Carlo, and Guido Canella, among others, to challenge the university as a bureaucratic and self-contained entity, and defend, instead, the role of higher education as an agent for restructuring vast territories. Through their projects, the book discusses a most fertile and heroic moment of Italian architectural discourse and argues for a reconsideration of architecture's obligation to question the status quo. This work will be of interest to postgraduate researchers and academics in architectural theory and history, campus design, planning theory, and history.
Today there are more tools for communication than ever before, yet very little in the way of reflection on how these are being used and even less on what exactly is being conveyed. This issue of AD looks at how architecture is communicated from a cultural perspective. Do the identities of practices or their business-driven branding and promotional efforts resonate with the critical acclaim many architects seek? Has slick image-led media coverage sold the profession short? How is it possible to convey the less visual and haptic qualities of architecture? Can architects be more creative in their communication efforts, making these joyous on their own terms as Le Corbusier did so memorably? Is there really a need to succumb to the world of corporate marketing processes and managerial business jargon? The issue explores notions of editing and curating work in an age of data deluge, and discusses social media as a genuinely alternative space for communication rather than for just repurposing and regurgitating information relayed. The Identity of the Architect encourages the promotion of practices as an integral extension of the very culture they hope to engender through their work. Contributors: Stephen Bayley, Caroline Cole, Adam Nathaniel Furman, Gabor Gallov, Jonathan Glancey, Justine Harvey, Owen Hopkins, Crispin Kelly, Jay Merrick, Robin Monotti, Juhani Pallasmaa, Vicky Richardson, Jenny Sabin, and Austin Williams. Featured architects: Ian Ritchie, BIG, MVRDV, IF_DO and Zaha Hadid Architects
Glenn Murcutt is an internationally acclaimed Australian architect who for five years taught a series of master studios for graduate architecture students at the University of Washington. This book combines examples of the students' studio work with edited transcripts of Murcutt's public lectures and sessions with students, professionals, and Finnish architect Juhanni Pallasamaa. Essays set the studios into the context of an inquiry about the local practice of a global architecture. The studio work shows an application, in the Northwest environment, of Murcutt's fundamental principles. These projects often make evident architecture that has a precise engagement with local conditions and the natural environment. Structures and material details take their measure from an industrial craft of making. The collected studio work shows a full progression from site sketches through detail development, in drawings and models. Jim Nicholls is a senior lecturer in the Department of Architecture, College of Built Environments, University of Washington.
This book explores the role of silence in how we design, present and experi-ence architecture. Grounded in phenomenological theory, the book builds on historical, theoretical and practical approaches to examine silence as a methodological tool of architectural research and unravel the experiential qualities of the design process. Distinct from an entirely soundless experience, silence is proposed as a material condition organically incorporated into the built and natural landscape. Kakalis argues that, either human or atmospheric, silence is a condition of waiting for a sound to be born or a new spatio-temporal event to emerge. In silence, therefore, we are attentive and attuned to the atmos-phere of a place. The book unpacks a series of stories of silence in religious topographies, urban landscapes, film and theatre productions and architec-tural education with contributed chapters and interviews with Jeff Malpas and Alberto Perez-Gomez. Aimed at postgraduate students, scholars and researchers in architectural theory, it shows how performative and atmospheric qualities of silence can build a new understanding of architectural experience.
As the commercialization of sport grows, the need for proper regulation increases. In legal terms, sport is part of the entertainment and media industries which are subject to rapid change. This work brings together experts in many fields to analyze these changes and to discuss the implications of issues such as the BSkyB-Manchester United case, civil and criminal actions on the playing field, the "Bosman" ruling, drugs in sport, the legality of boxing and the validity of decisions made by governing bodies. This collection should appeal to students of both sports history and sports sociology.
Management of Construction introduces all aspects of management practice to students and professionals based in the construction industry. It is also important for those involved in allied fields such as design, project development, and site monitoring and inspection. The book addresses each stage of the construction project from conception to completion, giving a perspective on the whole life cycle often missing from textbooks. The author also balances engineering concerns with the human resource and personal aspects of construction management that are so important to the successful outcome of a project. Structured on the project life cycle Covers design-build, build-own-operate-transfer, and construction management Discusses environmental issues important in today's construction practice
In an era when teachers commonly report that up to half of the children in their classes come from multiple homes and have multiple caretakers, the special psychological challenges of stepparenting have never been in greater need of examination. As thoughtful clinicians have long known, stepparenting is among the most complicated of psychological projects: it may simultaneously be a multifaceted burden and a spur to personal autonomy, deepened sensitivity to others, and newfound competence as a nurturer. Among the thousands of divorced people who remarry each year, most - despite their best resolve to live in the present - persist in reassessing the price of separation, especially as they come to appreciate the fact that divorce is seldom a total break for their children. Stepparenting is a comprehensive exploration of the process of reconstructing families. More specifically, it is a book about the perils and promise of stepparenting, a caretaking role that may be more challenging than biologically given child rearing. Contributors follow people as they try to reevaluate past misunderstandings and acclimate to new parenting contexts and obligations. Editors Cath and Shopper have taken pains to offer a balanced purview that includes both successful and maladaptive instances of stepparenting. Of special note are the clincal examples throughout the book that chart the extended periods of slow, creative learning experienced by parents and children, biological and step, as they test the waters of new family systems and try to elicit newly attuned responses from each other. |
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