Global Perspectives on Critical Architecture

Global Perspectives on Critical Architecture
Author: Gevork Hartoonian
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2016-03-03
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317127455

Judging from the debates taking place in both education and practice, it appears that architecture is deeply in crisis. New design and production techniques, together with the globalization of capital and even skilled-labour, have reduced architecture to a commodified object, its aesthetic qualities tapping into the current pervasive desire for the spectacular. These developments have changed the architect’s role in the design and production processes of architecture. Moreover, critical architectural theories, including those of Breton, Heidegger and Benjamin, which explored the concepts of technology, modernism, labour and capital and how technology informed the cultural, along with later theories from the 1960s, which focused more on the architect’s theorization of his/her own design strategies, seem increasingly irrelevant. In an age of digital reproduction and commodification, these theoretical approaches need to be reassessed. Bringing together essays and interviews from leading scholars such as Kenneth Frampton, Peggy Deamer, Bernard Tschumi, Donald Kunze and Marco Biraghi, this volume investigates and critically addresses various dimensions of the present crisis of architecture. It poses questions such as: Is architecture a conservative cultural product servicing a given producer/consumer system? Should architecture’s affiliative ties with capitalism be subjected to a measure of criticism that can be expanded to the entirety of the cultural realm? Is architecture’s infusion into the cultural the reason for the visibility of architecture today? What room does the city leave for architecture beyond the present delirium of spectacle? Should the thematic of various New Left criticisms of capitalism be taken as the premise of architectural criticism? Or alternatively, putting the notion of criticality aside is it enough to confine criticism to the production of insightful and pleasurable texts?

Global Perspectives on Critical Architecture

Global Perspectives on Critical Architecture
Author: Dr Gevork Hartoonian
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2015-10-28
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1472438132

Judging from the debates taking place in both education and practice, it appears that architecture is deeply in crisis. New design and production techniques, together with the globalization of capital and even skilled-labour, have reduced architecture to a commodified object, its aesthetic qualities tapping into the current pervasive desire for the spectacular. These developments have changed the architect’s role in the design and production processes of architecture. Bringing together essays and interviews from leading scholars such as Kenneth Frampton, Peggy Deamer, Bernard Tschumi, Donald Kunze and Marco Biraghi, this volume investigates and critically addresses various dimensions of the present crisis of architecture.

Architecture of First Societies

Architecture of First Societies
Author: Mark M. Jarzombek
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 1107
Release: 2014-05-27
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1118421051

ARCHITECTURE OF FIRST SOCIETIES THIS LANDMARK STUDY TRACES THE BEGINNINGS OF ARCHITECTURE BY LOOKING AT THE LATEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH From the dawn of human society, through early civilizations, to pre-Columbian American societies, Architecture of First Societies traces the different cultural formations that developed in various places throughout the world to form the built environment. It is the first book to explore the beginnings of architecture from a global perspective. Viewing ancient cultures through a lens of both time and geography, this history of early architecture brings its subjects to life with full-color photographs, maps, and drawings. The author cites the latest discoveries and analyses in archaeology and anthropology and discovers links to the past by examining how indigenous societies build today. “Encounters with Modernity” sections examine some of the political issues that village life and its architectural traditions face in the modern world. This fascinating and engaging tour of our architectural past: Fills a gap in architectural education concerning early mankind, the emergence of First Society people, and the rise of early agricultural societies Presents the story of early architecture, written by the coauthor of the acclaimed A Global History of Architecture Uses the most current research to develop a global picture of human interaction and migration Features color and black-and-white photos and drawings that show site conditions as well as huts, houses, and other buildings under construction in cultures that still exist today Highlights global relationships with color maps Analyzes topics ranging in scale from landscape and culture to building techniques Helps us come to terms with our own modern approaches to historical conditions and anthropological pasts Architecture of First Societies is ideal reading for anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of the strong relationships between geography, ecology, culture, and architecture.

Global Design

Global Design
Author: Peder Anker
Publisher: Prestel Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Architectural design
ISBN: 9783791353586

This text examines the possibilities for scaling design solutions to global warming. The featured projects showcase leading-edge design innovations at multiple scales.

Architecture’s Theory

Architecture’s Theory
Author: Catherine Ingraham
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2023-04-18
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0262544970

A collection of illuminating essays exploring what theory makes of architecture and what architecture makes of theory in philosophical and materialized contexts. From poststructuralism and deconstruction to current theories of technology and nature, critical theory has long been closely aligned with architecture. In turn, architecture as a thinking profession materializes theory in the form of built work that always carries symbolic loads. In this collection of essays, Catherine Ingraham studies the complex connectivity between architecture's discipline and practice and theories of philosophy, art, literature, history, and politics. She argues that there can be no architecture without theory. Whether considering architecture’s relationship to biomodernity or exploring the ways in which contemporary artists and designers engage in figural play, Ingraham offers provocative interpretations that enhance our understanding of both critical theory and architectural practice today. Along the way, she engages with a wide range of contemporary theorists, including Giorgio Agamben, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Graham Harman, and Timothy Morton, considering buildings around the world, including the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, the Viceroy’s House complex in New Delhi, Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam's Wolfsburg Science Center project in Germany, and the Superdome in New Orleans. Approaching its subject matter from multiple angles, Architecture’s Theory shows how architecture's theoretical and artifactual practices have a unique power to alter culture.

Building Theories

Building Theories
Author: Franca Trubiano
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 681
Release: 2022-11-25
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 131751033X

Building Theories speaks to the value of words in architecture. It addresses the author’s fascination with the voices of architects, engineers, builders, and craftspeople whose ideas about building have been captured in text. It discusses the content of treatises, essays, articles, and letters by those who have been, throughout history, committed to the art of building. In this, Building Theories argues for the return of a practice of architectural theory that is set amongst building, buildings, and builders. This journey of close reading reinterprets the words of Vitruvius, Alberti, de L’Orme, Le Camus de Mézières, Boullée, Laugier, Rondelet, Semper, Viollet-le-Duc, Hübsch, Bötticher, Berlage, Muthesius, Wagner, Behrendt, Gropius, and Arup. With chapters dedicated to texts from antiquity, the Renaissance, and the nineteenth century, and with a critical eye on architectural theory popularized in the Anglo-Saxon world post-1968, readers are introduced to a wider, more inclusive definition of architectural ideas. Building Theories considers how contemporary scholarship has steered away from the topic of building in its reluctance to admit that both design and construction are central to its concerns. In response, it argues for a realignment of architecture with the concept of techné, with a dual commitment to fabrica e ratio, with a productive return to l’art de bien bastir, with the accurate translation of the term Baukunst, and with an appeal to the architect’s ‘composite mind.’ Students, practitioners, and educators will identify in Building Theories ways of thinking that strive for the integration of design with construction; reject the supposed primacy of the former over the latter; recognize how aesthetics are an insufficient scaffold for subtending the subject of architectural ethics; and accept, without reservation, that material transformations have always been at the origins of built form.

A Critical History of Contemporary Architecture

A Critical History of Contemporary Architecture
Author: Dr Elie G Haddad
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 539
Release: 2014-03-28
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 140943981X

This book provides a comprehensive, critical overview of the developments in architecture from 1960 to 2010. The first section provides a presentation of major movements in architecture after 1960, and the second, a geographic survey that covers a wide range of territories around the world. This book not only reflects the different perspectives of its various authors, but also charts a middle course between the 'aesthetic' histories that examine architecture solely in terms of its formal aspects, and the more 'ideological' histories that subject it to a critique that often skirts the discussion of its formal aspects.

Touching Architecture

Touching Architecture
Author: Anthony Brand
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2022-12-30
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1000828492

This book is about perception, emotion, and affect in architecture: how and why we feel the way that we do and the ways in which our surroundings ​and bodies contribute to this. Our experience of architecture is an embodied one, with all our senses acting in concert as we move through time and space. The book picks up where much of the critique of architectural aestheticism at the end of the twentieth century left off: illustrating the limitations and potential consequences of attending to architecture as the visually biased practice which has steadily become the status quo within both industry and education. It draws upon interdisciplinary research to elucidate the reasons why this is counter-productive to the creation of meaningful places and ​to articulate the embodied richness of our touching encounters. A "felt-phenomenology" is introduced as a more​-than visual alternative capable of sustaining our physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. By recognising the reciprocal and participatory relationship that exists between atmospheric affect and our (phenomenological) bodies, we begin to appreciate the manifold ways in which we touch, and are touched, by our built environment. As such, Touching Architecture will appeal to those with an interest in architectural history and theory as well as those interested in the topic of atmospheres, affect, and embodied perception.

Energy at the Crossroads

Energy at the Crossroads
Author: Vaclav Smil
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2003
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780262194921

An objective, comprehensive and accessible examination of today's most crucial problem: preserving the environment in the face of society's insatiable demand for energy.