Truth and Lies in Architecture

Truth and Lies in Architecture
Author: Richard Francis-Jones
Publisher: Oro Editions
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-04-19
Genre: Architectural practice
ISBN: 9781954081659

This is a collection of provocative essays that journey into the vexed circumstance of contemporary architectural practice. The nature of the great cultural, social, political, environmental, and consumerist challenges facing the contemporary architect are explored, interpreted, and questioned, while drawing connections from architecture theory, philosophy, science, literature, and film sources in an attempt to negotiate the territory between the truth and lies in architecture. These essays written by a leading Australian architect represent a level of comprehensive critical awareness rarely found within the architectural profession and one would be hard pressed to find another comparable figure in contemporary architectural practice. The entire argumentation is impressive, challenging, intellectually at the highest level and beautifully written.

Haute Couture Architecture

Haute Couture Architecture
Author: Anneke van Waesberghe
Publisher: Oro Editions
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2022-02-14
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781954081628

Haute Couture Architecture: The Art of Living Without Walls by Anneke van Waesberghe is so much more than a book about tented green building architecture. The book is part design manifesto, part personal diary, and part manual for future sustainable living. One in which rampant consumerism has been replaced by a more thoughtful design from the excesses of modern times to a new state of being for living sustainably and in harmony with the rhythms of the planet. It is the tale of one woman's odyssey living alone in the jungle finding true meaning in life and manifesting its beauty into a way of sustainable living that may set a blueprint for our future existence on Earth. The author leads readers to encounter a new paradigm by showing the luxury of simplicity and the beauty of small things. With our consumer way of living and doing things and how the world is evolving, the pace we follow as consumers rather than humans has become outdated and is not the way to go forward. We cannot solve new problems that follow our destructive actions; we have to shift our thinking from Me to We. Haute Couture architecture respects artisans, hand-made goods, self-sufficiency, and caring for nature. Being close to nature is a lifestyle of forward-thinking outside the box and is a natural means to discovering ourselves. Ultimately Haute Couture Architecture: The Art of Living Without Walls bridges the gap between nature and architecture.

Making Dystopia

Making Dystopia
Author: James Stevens Curl
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 539
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0191068160

In Making Dystopia, distinguished architectural historian James Stevens Curl tells the story of the advent of architectural Modernism in the aftermath of the First World War, its protagonists, and its astonishing, almost global acceptance after 1945. He argues forcefully that the triumph of architectural Modernism in the second half of the twentieth century led to massive destruction, the creation of alien urban landscapes, and a huge waste of resources. Moreover, the coming of Modernism was not an inevitable, seamless evolution, as many have insisted, but a massive, unparalled disruption that demanded a clean slate and the elimination of all ornament, decoration, and choice. Tracing the effects of the Modernist revolution in architecture to the present, Stevens Curl argues that, with each passing year, so-called 'iconic' architecture by supposed 'star' architects has become more and more bizarre, unsettling, and expensive, ignoring established contexts and proving to be stratospherically remote from the aspirations and needs of humanity. In the elite world of contemporary architecture, form increasingly follows finance, and in a society in which the 'haves' have more and more, and the 'have-nots' are ever more marginalized, he warns that contemporary architecture continues to stack up huge potential problems for the future, as housing costs spiral out of control, resources are squandered on architectural bling, and society fractures. This courageous, passionate, deeply researched, and profoundly argued book should be read by everyone concerned with what is around us. Its combative critique of the entire Modernist architectural project and its apologists will be highly controversial to many. But it contains salutary warnings that we ignore at our peril. And it asks awkward questions to which answers are long overdue.

Experiencing Architecture, second edition

Experiencing Architecture, second edition
Author: Steen Eiler Rasmussen
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1964-03-15
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780262680028

A classic examination of superb design through the centuries. Widely regarded as a classic in the field, Experiencing Architecture explores the history and promise of good design. Generously illustrated with historical examples of designing excellence—ranging from teacups, riding boots, and golf balls to the villas of Palladio and the fish-feeding pavilion of Beijing's Winter Palace—Rasmussen's accessible guide invites us to appreciate architecture not only as a profession, but as an art that shapes everyday experience. In the past, Rasmussen argues, architecture was not just an individual pursuit, but a community undertaking. Dwellings were built with a natural feeling for place, materials and use, resulting in “a remarkably suitable comeliness.” While we cannot return to a former age, Rasmussen notes, we can still design spaces that are beautiful and useful by seeking to understand architecture as an art form that must be experienced. An understanding of good design comes not only from one's professional experience of architecture as an abstract, individual pursuit, but also from one's shared, everyday experience of architecture in real time—its particular use of light, color, shape, scale, texture, rhythm and sound. Experiencing Architecture reminds us of what good architectural design has accomplished over time, what it can accomplish still, and why it is worth pursuing. Wide-ranging and approachable, it is for anyone who has ever wondered “what instrument the architect plays on.”

Thermal Delight in Architecture

Thermal Delight in Architecture
Author: Lisa Heschong
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 100
Release: 1979-12-05
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780262580397

Our thermal environment is as rich in cultural associations as our visual, acoustic, olfactory, and tactile environments. This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive element in building design. Until quite recently, building technology and design has favored high-energy-consuming mechanical methods of neutralizing the thermal environment. It has not responded to the various ways that people use, remember, and care about the thermal environment and how they associate their thermal sense with their other senses. The hearth fire, the sauna, the Roman and Japanese baths, and the Islamic garden are discussed as archetypes of thermal delight about which rituals have developed—reinforcing bonds of affection and ceremony forged in the thermal experience. Not only is thermal symbolism now obsolete but the modern emphasis on central heating systems and air conditioning and hermetically sealed buildings has actually damaged our thermal coping and sensing mechanisms. This book for the solar age could help change all that and open up for us a new dimension of architectural experience. As the cost of energy continues to skyrocket, alternatives to the use of mechanical force must be developed to meet our thermal needs. A major alternative is the use of passive solar energy, and the book will provide those interested in solar design with a reservoir of ideas.

Forty Ways to Think About Architecture

Forty Ways to Think About Architecture
Author: Iain Borden
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2015-03-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1118822579

How do we think about architecture historically andtheoretically? Forty Ways to Think about Architectureprovides an introduction to some of the wide-ranging ways in whicharchitectural history and theory are being approached today. The inspiration for this project is the work of Adrian Forty,Professor of Architectural History at the Bartlett School ofArchitecture, University College London (UCL), who has beeninternationally renowned as the UK’s leading academic in thediscipline for 40 years. Forty’s many publications, notablyObjects of Desire (1986), Words and Buildings (2000)and Concrete and Culture (2012), have been crucial toopening up new approaches to architectural history and theory andhave helped to establish entirely new areas of study. His teachingat The Bartlett has enthused a new generation about the excitingpossibilities of architectural history and theory as a field. This collection takes in a total of 40 essays covering keysubjects, ranging from memory and heritage to everyday life,building materials and city spaces. As well as critical theory,philosophy, literature and experimental design, it refers to moreimmediate and topical issues in the built environment, such asglobalisation, localism, regeneration and ecologies. Concise andengaging entries reflect on architecture from a range ofperspectives. Contributors include eminent historians and theorists fromelsewhere – such as Jean-Louis Cohen, Briony Fer, HildeHeynen, Mary McLeod, Griselda Pollock, Penny Sparke and AnthonyVidler – as well as Forty’s colleagues from theBartlett School of Architecture including Iain Borden, MurrayFraser, Peter Hall, Barbara Penner, Jane Rendell and Andrew Saint.Forty Ways to Think about Architecture also featurescontributions from distinguished architects, such as Tony Fretton,Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth, and well-known critics andarchitectural writers, such as Tom Dyckhoff, William Menking andThomas Weaver. Many of the contributors are former students ofAdrian Forty. Through these diverse essays, readers are encouraged to thinkabout how architectural history and theory relates to their ownresearch and design practices, thus using the work of Adrian Fortyas a catalyst for fresh and innovative thinking about architectureas a subject.

Architecture of the Absurd

Architecture of the Absurd
Author: John Silber
Publisher:
Total Pages: 108
Release: 2007
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

"In his twenty-five years as President of Boston University, Dr. Silber oversaw a building program totaling more than 13 million square feet. Here he constructs an unflinching case, beautifully illustrated, against the worst trends in contemporary architecture. He challenges architects to derive creative satisfaction from meeting the practical needs of clients and the public. He urges the directors of our universities, symphony orchestras, museums, and corporations to stop financing inefficient, overpriced architecture, and calls on clients and the public to tell the emperors of our skylines that their pretensions cannot hide the naked absurdity of their designs."--BOOK JACKET.

Twenty Over Eighty

Twenty Over Eighty
Author: Aileen Kwun
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2016-09-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1616895748

Twenty Over Eighty is a collection of insightful, intimate, and often irreverent interviews with twenty architecture and design luminaries over the age of eighty. Revealing conversations with leaders from a variety of fields—including graphic designers Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Lora Lamm, and Deborah Sussman; architects Michael Graves, Denise Scott Brown, and Stanley Tigerman; urbanist Jane Thompson; industrial designer Charles Harrison; furniture designer Jens Risom; and critic Ralph Caplan—spotlight creators, thinkers, and pioneers whose lifelong dedication to experimentation and innovation continues to shape their disciplines well into their ninth decade. Twenty Over Eighty is not only a record of the remarkable histories and experiences of design's most influential figures but also a source of knowledge and inspiration for contemporary creatives and generations to come.