Scale is a word which underlies much of architectural and urban design practice, its history and theory, and its technology. Its connotations have traditionally been linked with the humanities, in the sense of relating to human societies and to human form. To build in scale is an aspiration that is usually taken for granted by most of those involved in architectural production, as well as by members of the public; yet in a world where value systems of all kinds are being questioned, the term has come under renewed scrutiny. The older, more particular, meanings in the humanities, pertaining to classical Western culture, are where the sense of scale often resides in cultural production.

Scale may be traced back, ultimately, to the discovery of musical harmonies, and in the arithmetic proportional relationship of the building to its parts. One might question the continued relevance of this understanding of scale in the global world of today. What, in other words, is culturally specific about scale? And what does scale mean in a world where an intuitive, visual understanding is often undermined or superseded by other senses, or by hyper-reality? Structured thematically in three parts, this book addresses various issues of scale. The book includes an introduction which sets the scene in terms of current architectural discourse and also contains a visual essay in each section. It is of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and practitioners in architecture and architectural theory as well as to students in a range of other disciplines including art history and theory, geography, anthropology and landscape architecture.

Scale is a word which underlies much of architectural and urban design practice, its history and theory, and its technology. Its connotations have traditionally been linked with the humanities, in the sense of relating to human societies and to human form. To build in scale is an aspiration that is usually taken for granted by most of those involved in architectural production, as well as by members of the public; yet in a world where value systems of all kinds are being questioned, the term has come under renewed scrutiny. The older, more particular, meanings in the humanities, pertaining to classical Western culture, are where the sense of scale often resides in cultural production.

Scale may be traced back, ultimately, to the discovery of musical harmonies, and in the arithmetic proportional relationship of the building to its parts. One might question the continued relevance of this understanding of scale in the global world of today. What, in other words, is culturally specific about scale? And what does scale mean in a world where an intuitive, visual understanding is often undermined or superseded by other senses, or by hyper-reality? Structured thematically in three parts, this book addresses various issues of scale. The book includes an introduction which sets the scene in terms of current architectural discourse and also contains a visual essay in each section. It is of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and practitioners in architecture and architectural theory as well as to students in a range of other disciplines including art history and theory, geography, anthropology and landscape architecture.

Riverscapes are the main arteries of the world's largest cities, and have, for millennia, been the lifeblood of the urban communities that have developed around them. These human settlements - given life through the space of the local waterscape - soon developed into ritualised spaces that sought to harness the dynamism of the watercourse and create the local architectural landscape. Theorised via a sophisticated understanding of history, space, culture, and ecology, this collection of wonderful and deliberately wide-ranging case studies, from Early Modern Italy to the contemporary Bengal Delta, investigates the culture of human interaction with rivers and the nature of urban topography. Riverine explores the ways in which architecture and urban planning have imbued cultural landscapes with ritual and structural meaning.

Riverscapes are the main arteries of the world's largest cities, and have, for millennia, been the lifeblood of the urban communities that have developed around them. These human settlements - given life through the space of the local waterscape - soon developed into ritualised spaces that sought to harness the dynamism of the watercourse and create the local architectural landscape. Theorised via a sophisticated understanding of history, space, culture, and ecology, this collection of wonderful and deliberately wide-ranging case studies, from Early Modern Italy to the contemporary Bengal Delta, investigates the culture of human interaction with rivers and the nature of urban topography. Riverine explores the ways in which architecture and urban planning have imbued cultural landscapes with ritual and structural meaning.

Robert Maguire was still a student at the Architectural Association in London in the early 1950s when he designed his first church. A committed Christian and enthusiast for contemporary design, he was a leading figure in the liturgical reform movement that sought to find an appropriate, modern setting for worship. His design for St Paul, Bow Common in London's East End was the first such church to be built in Britain, and was followed by a remarkable series of churches and other religious buildings in England in the 1960s and '70s designed together with the silversmith and designer Keith Murray, with whom he went into partnership in the late 1950s. The practice was famous for pursuing the intellectual and architectural toughness of the New Brutalism with the humanity and warmth of the Scandinavian tradition. They completely rethought the design of churches, and went on to reinvent the typology of both the school and of student accommodation. Bow Common school revolutionised open plan layouts, and Stag Hill Court student houses for the University of Surrey set new standards in communal living with its finely judged mix of privacy and community. Gerald Adler places this small but highly influential studio within the changing context of post-war architectural practice, where the Brutalism of the 1950s gave way to the more technologically oriented architecture of the 1970s, and the so-called Romantic Pragmatism of the 1980s. The book is richly illustrated with drawings from the office archive, in addition to new photographs.