Making Architecture Through Being Human

Making Architecture Through Being Human

Author: Philip D. Plowright

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-11-26

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0429537301

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Architecture can seem complicated, mysterious or even ill-defined, especially to a student being introduced to architectural ideas for the first time. One way to approach architecture is simply as the design of human environments. When we consider architecture in this way, there is a good place to start – ourselves. Our engagement in our environment has shaped the way we think which we, in turn, use to then shape that environment. It is from this foundation that we produce meaning, make sense of our surroundings, structure relationships and even frame more complex and abstract ideas. This is the start of architectural design. Making Architecture Through Being Human is a reference book that presents 51 concepts, notions, ideas and actions that are fundamental to human thinking and how we interpret the environment around us. The book focuses on the application of these ideas by architectural designers to produce meaningful spaces that make sense to people. Each idea is isolated for clarity in the manner of a dictionary with short and concise definitions, examples and illustrations. They are organized in five sections of increasing complexity or changing focus. While many of the entries might be familiar to the reader, they are presented here as instances of a larger system of human thinking rather than simply graphic or formal principles. The cognitive approach to these design ideas allows a designer to understand the greater context and application when aligned with their own purpose or intentions.


Book Synopsis Making Architecture Through Being Human by : Philip D. Plowright

Download or read book Making Architecture Through Being Human written by Philip D. Plowright and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Architecture can seem complicated, mysterious or even ill-defined, especially to a student being introduced to architectural ideas for the first time. One way to approach architecture is simply as the design of human environments. When we consider architecture in this way, there is a good place to start – ourselves. Our engagement in our environment has shaped the way we think which we, in turn, use to then shape that environment. It is from this foundation that we produce meaning, make sense of our surroundings, structure relationships and even frame more complex and abstract ideas. This is the start of architectural design. Making Architecture Through Being Human is a reference book that presents 51 concepts, notions, ideas and actions that are fundamental to human thinking and how we interpret the environment around us. The book focuses on the application of these ideas by architectural designers to produce meaningful spaces that make sense to people. Each idea is isolated for clarity in the manner of a dictionary with short and concise definitions, examples and illustrations. They are organized in five sections of increasing complexity or changing focus. While many of the entries might be familiar to the reader, they are presented here as instances of a larger system of human thinking rather than simply graphic or formal principles. The cognitive approach to these design ideas allows a designer to understand the greater context and application when aligned with their own purpose or intentions.

Urban Design Made by Humans

Urban Design Made by Humans

Author: Anirban Adhya

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-29

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1000652653

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The design of urban environments is complex and involves diverse needs, organisations, professions, authorities, and communities. It requires relationships to be constructed and sustained between infrastructure, resources, and populations across multiple scales. This can be quite daunting. However, at the core of urban design is a simple idea—our urban spaces are designed to allow people and communities to thrive. For that reason, a good starting point for urban designers is to focus on the way people think when engaging our built environment. This thinking is embodied, developed through the interactions between our mind, body, and the environment around us. These embodied concepts are central to how we see the world, how we move and gather, and how we interact with others. They are also the same ideas we use to design our environments and cities. Urban Design Made by Humans is a reference book that presents 56 concepts, notions, ideas, and agreements fundamental to the design and interpretation of our human settlements. The ideas here parallel those found in Making Architecture Through Being Human but extends them into urban environments. Urban Design Made by Humans distinctly highlights priorities in urban design in how we produce meaningful environments catering to wider groups of people. Each idea is isolated for clarity with short and concise definitions, examples, and illustrations. They are organised in five sections of increasing complexity. Taken as a whole, the entries frame the priorities and values of urban design while also being instances of a larger system of human thinking.


Book Synopsis Urban Design Made by Humans by : Anirban Adhya

Download or read book Urban Design Made by Humans written by Anirban Adhya and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-29 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The design of urban environments is complex and involves diverse needs, organisations, professions, authorities, and communities. It requires relationships to be constructed and sustained between infrastructure, resources, and populations across multiple scales. This can be quite daunting. However, at the core of urban design is a simple idea—our urban spaces are designed to allow people and communities to thrive. For that reason, a good starting point for urban designers is to focus on the way people think when engaging our built environment. This thinking is embodied, developed through the interactions between our mind, body, and the environment around us. These embodied concepts are central to how we see the world, how we move and gather, and how we interact with others. They are also the same ideas we use to design our environments and cities. Urban Design Made by Humans is a reference book that presents 56 concepts, notions, ideas, and agreements fundamental to the design and interpretation of our human settlements. The ideas here parallel those found in Making Architecture Through Being Human but extends them into urban environments. Urban Design Made by Humans distinctly highlights priorities in urban design in how we produce meaningful environments catering to wider groups of people. Each idea is isolated for clarity with short and concise definitions, examples, and illustrations. They are organised in five sections of increasing complexity. Taken as a whole, the entries frame the priorities and values of urban design while also being instances of a larger system of human thinking.

Making

Making

Author: Tim Ingold

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-12

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1136763678

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Making creates knowledge, builds environments and transforms lives. Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture are all ways of making, and all are dedicated to exploring the conditions and potentials of human life. In this exciting book, Tim Ingold ties the four disciplines together in a way that has never been attempted before. In a radical departure from conventional studies that treat art and architecture as compendia of objects for analysis, Ingold proposes an anthropology and archaeology not of but with art and architecture. He advocates a way of thinking through making in which sentient practitioners and active materials continually answer to, or ‘correspond’, with one another in the generation of form. Making offers a series of profound reflections on what it means to create things, on materials and form, the meaning of design, landscape perception, animate life, personal knowledge and the work of the hand. It draws on examples and experiments ranging from prehistoric stone tool-making to the building of medieval cathedrals, from round mounds to monuments, from flying kites to winding string, from drawing to writing. The book will appeal to students and practitioners alike, with interests in social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art and design, visual studies and material culture.


Book Synopsis Making by : Tim Ingold

Download or read book Making written by Tim Ingold and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-12 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making creates knowledge, builds environments and transforms lives. Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture are all ways of making, and all are dedicated to exploring the conditions and potentials of human life. In this exciting book, Tim Ingold ties the four disciplines together in a way that has never been attempted before. In a radical departure from conventional studies that treat art and architecture as compendia of objects for analysis, Ingold proposes an anthropology and archaeology not of but with art and architecture. He advocates a way of thinking through making in which sentient practitioners and active materials continually answer to, or ‘correspond’, with one another in the generation of form. Making offers a series of profound reflections on what it means to create things, on materials and form, the meaning of design, landscape perception, animate life, personal knowledge and the work of the hand. It draws on examples and experiments ranging from prehistoric stone tool-making to the building of medieval cathedrals, from round mounds to monuments, from flying kites to winding string, from drawing to writing. The book will appeal to students and practitioners alike, with interests in social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art and design, visual studies and material culture.

A Pattern Language

A Pattern Language

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-09-20

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0190050357

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You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.


Book Synopsis A Pattern Language by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book A Pattern Language written by Christopher Alexander and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.

Integrative Approaches in Urban Sustainability

Integrative Approaches in Urban Sustainability

Author:

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2024-04-10

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 085014003X

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Integrative Approaches in Urban Sustainability - Architectural Design, Technological Innovations and Social Dynamics in Global Contexts takes readers on an academic exploration of the complex realm of urban sustainability. This extensive book explores the significant changes in the worldwide demographic environment, documenting the swift process of urbanization that has taken place from the beginning of the 19th century. This highlights the impact of the shift from rural to urban environments on our global society, bringing both difficulties and possibilities in equal proportions. This intellectually stimulating investigation transcends mere academic inquiry. It emphasizes the need for comprehensive strategies in urban planning, combining user-focused design with inventive solutions and environmental consciousness. Key themes encompass the incorporation of eco-friendly technology, such as solar energy systems, into urban architecture, the significance of designs that prioritize pedestrians and green spaces for the development of sustainable and livable communities, and the crucial role of technological progress in energy and health management within the urban environment. This book also addresses the socioeconomic consequences of urbanization, encompassing issues such as the cost of housing and the availability of high-quality education and health care. This analysis explores the impact of urban hubs on promoting economic expansion and innovation, emphasizing the necessity for policies that balance economic progress and social fairness. This book is essential for politicians, urban planners, researchers, and everyone with an interest in the future of our cities. It presents a persuasive concept of developing urban settings that are financially prosperous, technologically sophisticated, environmentally sustainable, and socially inclusive. The tactics and concepts provided are crucial in constructing cities that can effectively address the intricate requirements of the 21st century and beyond. Participate in reimagining the potential of urban spaces and molding a future where cities thrive as vibrant centers for everyone.


Book Synopsis Integrative Approaches in Urban Sustainability by :

Download or read book Integrative Approaches in Urban Sustainability written by and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2024-04-10 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Integrative Approaches in Urban Sustainability - Architectural Design, Technological Innovations and Social Dynamics in Global Contexts takes readers on an academic exploration of the complex realm of urban sustainability. This extensive book explores the significant changes in the worldwide demographic environment, documenting the swift process of urbanization that has taken place from the beginning of the 19th century. This highlights the impact of the shift from rural to urban environments on our global society, bringing both difficulties and possibilities in equal proportions. This intellectually stimulating investigation transcends mere academic inquiry. It emphasizes the need for comprehensive strategies in urban planning, combining user-focused design with inventive solutions and environmental consciousness. Key themes encompass the incorporation of eco-friendly technology, such as solar energy systems, into urban architecture, the significance of designs that prioritize pedestrians and green spaces for the development of sustainable and livable communities, and the crucial role of technological progress in energy and health management within the urban environment. This book also addresses the socioeconomic consequences of urbanization, encompassing issues such as the cost of housing and the availability of high-quality education and health care. This analysis explores the impact of urban hubs on promoting economic expansion and innovation, emphasizing the necessity for policies that balance economic progress and social fairness. This book is essential for politicians, urban planners, researchers, and everyone with an interest in the future of our cities. It presents a persuasive concept of developing urban settings that are financially prosperous, technologically sophisticated, environmentally sustainable, and socially inclusive. The tactics and concepts provided are crucial in constructing cities that can effectively address the intricate requirements of the 21st century and beyond. Participate in reimagining the potential of urban spaces and molding a future where cities thrive as vibrant centers for everyone.

Welcome to Your World

Welcome to Your World

Author: Sarah Williams Goldhagen

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks

Published: 2020-02-24

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9780062996046

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One of the nation's chief architecture critics reveals how the environments we build profoundly shape our feelings, memories, and well-being, and argues that we must harness this knowledge to construct a world better suited to human experience. Taking us on a fascinating journey through some of the world's best and worst landscapes, buildings, and cityscapes, Sarah Williams Goldhagen draws from recent research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology to demonstrate how people's experiences of the places they build are central to their well-being, their physical health, their communal and social lives, and even their very sense of themselves. From this foundation, Goldhagen presents a powerful case that societies must use this knowledge to rethink what and how they build: the world needs better-designed, healthier environments that address the complex range of human individual and social needs. By 2050 America's population is projected to increase by nearly seventy million people. This will necessitate a vast amount of new construction--almost all in urban areas--that will dramatically transform our existing landscapes, infrastructure, and urban areas. Going forward, we must do everything we can to prevent the construction of exhausting, overstimulating environments and enervating, understimulating ones. Buildings, landscapes, and cities must both contain and spark associations of natural light, greenery, and other ways of being in landscapes that humans have evolved to need and expect. Fancy exteriors and dramatic forms are never enough, and may not even be necessary; authentic textures and surfaces, and careful, well-executed construction details are just as important. Erudite, wise, lucidly written, and beautifully illustrated with more than one hundred color photographs, Welcome to Your World is a vital, eye-opening guide to the spaces we inhabit, physically and mentally, and a clarion call to design for human experience.


Book Synopsis Welcome to Your World by : Sarah Williams Goldhagen

Download or read book Welcome to Your World written by Sarah Williams Goldhagen and published by Harper Paperbacks. This book was released on 2020-02-24 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the nation's chief architecture critics reveals how the environments we build profoundly shape our feelings, memories, and well-being, and argues that we must harness this knowledge to construct a world better suited to human experience. Taking us on a fascinating journey through some of the world's best and worst landscapes, buildings, and cityscapes, Sarah Williams Goldhagen draws from recent research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology to demonstrate how people's experiences of the places they build are central to their well-being, their physical health, their communal and social lives, and even their very sense of themselves. From this foundation, Goldhagen presents a powerful case that societies must use this knowledge to rethink what and how they build: the world needs better-designed, healthier environments that address the complex range of human individual and social needs. By 2050 America's population is projected to increase by nearly seventy million people. This will necessitate a vast amount of new construction--almost all in urban areas--that will dramatically transform our existing landscapes, infrastructure, and urban areas. Going forward, we must do everything we can to prevent the construction of exhausting, overstimulating environments and enervating, understimulating ones. Buildings, landscapes, and cities must both contain and spark associations of natural light, greenery, and other ways of being in landscapes that humans have evolved to need and expect. Fancy exteriors and dramatic forms are never enough, and may not even be necessary; authentic textures and surfaces, and careful, well-executed construction details are just as important. Erudite, wise, lucidly written, and beautifully illustrated with more than one hundred color photographs, Welcome to Your World is a vital, eye-opening guide to the spaces we inhabit, physically and mentally, and a clarion call to design for human experience.

Man Between Earth and Sky

Man Between Earth and Sky

Author: Louis O. Roberts

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13:

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"This book embodies one person's life of creativity and the pursuit of a vision -- in this case an architectural vision. Years of teaching have allowed the author to observe that we all have the power to be creative. He lays out the experiential process of being creative, from early influences, through the evolutionary development of ideas and forms, and, finally, to the reality of multiple expressions."--Provided by publisher.


Book Synopsis Man Between Earth and Sky by : Louis O. Roberts

Download or read book Man Between Earth and Sky written by Louis O. Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book embodies one person's life of creativity and the pursuit of a vision -- in this case an architectural vision. Years of teaching have allowed the author to observe that we all have the power to be creative. He lays out the experiential process of being creative, from early influences, through the evolutionary development of ideas and forms, and, finally, to the reality of multiple expressions."--Provided by publisher.

Exercises in Architecture

Exercises in Architecture

Author: Simon Unwin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-06-17

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 1136486623

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Architecture is a doing word. You can learn a great deal about the workings of architecture through analysing examples but a fuller understanding of its powers and potential comes through practice, by trying to do it... This book offers student architects a series of exercises that will develop their capacity for doing architecture. Exercises in Architecture builds on and supplements the methodology for architectural analysis presented in the author’s previous book Analysing Architecture (third edition, Routledge, 2009) and demonstrated in his Twenty Buildings Every Architect Should Understand (Routledge, 2010). The three books taken together deal with the three aspects of learning: description, analysis of examples, and practice. The book offers twelve exercises, each divided into a short series of tasks aimed at developing a particular theme or area of architectural capacity. The exercises deal with themes such as place-making, learning through drawing, framing, light, , uses of geometry, stage setting, eliciting emotional responses, the genetics of detail and so forth.


Book Synopsis Exercises in Architecture by : Simon Unwin

Download or read book Exercises in Architecture written by Simon Unwin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Architecture is a doing word. You can learn a great deal about the workings of architecture through analysing examples but a fuller understanding of its powers and potential comes through practice, by trying to do it... This book offers student architects a series of exercises that will develop their capacity for doing architecture. Exercises in Architecture builds on and supplements the methodology for architectural analysis presented in the author’s previous book Analysing Architecture (third edition, Routledge, 2009) and demonstrated in his Twenty Buildings Every Architect Should Understand (Routledge, 2010). The three books taken together deal with the three aspects of learning: description, analysis of examples, and practice. The book offers twelve exercises, each divided into a short series of tasks aimed at developing a particular theme or area of architectural capacity. The exercises deal with themes such as place-making, learning through drawing, framing, light, , uses of geometry, stage setting, eliciting emotional responses, the genetics of detail and so forth.

Architecture from the Inside Out

Architecture from the Inside Out

Author: Karen A. Franck

Publisher: Academy Press

Published: 2007-06-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780470057834

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Introducing a basis for design that transcends fixed notions of style and emerging technologies, this book emphasizes feeling, moving and the experiential. Since the book's initial publication in 2000, architects and writers have been drawn to a more sensory approach to architecture. But there is still a need to encourage and to illustrate the pursuit of design, not as a project, imposing preconceived ideas upon a situation, but as a process evolving from the inside - from movement, sensation, surroundings and a dialogue between architect and client. The authors describe such an approach that places human life, experience and materiality at the centre of design and that seeks out opportunities for discovery, growth and transformation. Karen A. Franck is an environmental psychologist who has taught for many years in the New Jersey School of Architecture. R. Bianca Lepori is a practicing architect in Italy with many years of experience in designing houses and maternity health care facilities. Praise for the first edition: Franck and Lepori believe [architecture] should be more alive and take its character from the human body. When similarly designed from the inside out, rather than being austere and devoid of sensibilities, buildings would offer spatial sensations that connect with people. Beverly Russell, Executive Director, Archeworks The authors use...contemporary lenses as phenomenology and feminism to guide us on our journey through buildings. They trace the haptic qualities of architecture back through the design process with both daring and documentation. Deborah Gans, Architect and Associate Professor, Pratt Institute This book should be required reading for all architectural and design students as well as for all those individuals who are responsible for making decisions that influence our built environment. Wayne Ruga, Founder, Symposium on Healthcare Design and the Center for Health Design.


Book Synopsis Architecture from the Inside Out by : Karen A. Franck

Download or read book Architecture from the Inside Out written by Karen A. Franck and published by Academy Press. This book was released on 2007-06-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing a basis for design that transcends fixed notions of style and emerging technologies, this book emphasizes feeling, moving and the experiential. Since the book's initial publication in 2000, architects and writers have been drawn to a more sensory approach to architecture. But there is still a need to encourage and to illustrate the pursuit of design, not as a project, imposing preconceived ideas upon a situation, but as a process evolving from the inside - from movement, sensation, surroundings and a dialogue between architect and client. The authors describe such an approach that places human life, experience and materiality at the centre of design and that seeks out opportunities for discovery, growth and transformation. Karen A. Franck is an environmental psychologist who has taught for many years in the New Jersey School of Architecture. R. Bianca Lepori is a practicing architect in Italy with many years of experience in designing houses and maternity health care facilities. Praise for the first edition: Franck and Lepori believe [architecture] should be more alive and take its character from the human body. When similarly designed from the inside out, rather than being austere and devoid of sensibilities, buildings would offer spatial sensations that connect with people. Beverly Russell, Executive Director, Archeworks The authors use...contemporary lenses as phenomenology and feminism to guide us on our journey through buildings. They trace the haptic qualities of architecture back through the design process with both daring and documentation. Deborah Gans, Architect and Associate Professor, Pratt Institute This book should be required reading for all architectural and design students as well as for all those individuals who are responsible for making decisions that influence our built environment. Wayne Ruga, Founder, Symposium on Healthcare Design and the Center for Health Design.

The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture

The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture

Author: Pier Vittorio Aureli

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2011-02-11

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 0262515792

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Architectural form reconsidered in light of a unitary conception of architecture and the city. In The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, Pier Vittorio Aureli proposes that a sharpened formal consciousness in architecture is a precondition for political, cultural, and social engagement with the city. Aureli uses the term absolute not in the conventional sense of “pure,” but to denote something that is resolutely itself after being separated from its other. In the pursuit of the possibility of an absolute architecture, the other is the space of the city, its extensive organization, and its government. Politics is agonism through separation and confrontation; the very condition of architectural form is to separate and be separated. Through its act of separation and being separated, architecture reveals at once the essence of the city and the essence of itself as political form: the city as the composition of (separate) parts. Aureli revisits the work of four architects whose projects were advanced through the making of architectural form but whose concern was the city at large: Andrea Palladio, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Étienne Louis-Boullée, and Oswald Mathias Ungers. The work of these architects, Aureli argues, addressed the transformations of the modern city and its urban implications through the elaboration of specific and strategic architectural forms. Their projects for the city do not take the form of an overall plan but are expressed as an “archipelago” of site-specific interventions.


Book Synopsis The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture by : Pier Vittorio Aureli

Download or read book The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture written by Pier Vittorio Aureli and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-02-11 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Architectural form reconsidered in light of a unitary conception of architecture and the city. In The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture, Pier Vittorio Aureli proposes that a sharpened formal consciousness in architecture is a precondition for political, cultural, and social engagement with the city. Aureli uses the term absolute not in the conventional sense of “pure,” but to denote something that is resolutely itself after being separated from its other. In the pursuit of the possibility of an absolute architecture, the other is the space of the city, its extensive organization, and its government. Politics is agonism through separation and confrontation; the very condition of architectural form is to separate and be separated. Through its act of separation and being separated, architecture reveals at once the essence of the city and the essence of itself as political form: the city as the composition of (separate) parts. Aureli revisits the work of four architects whose projects were advanced through the making of architectural form but whose concern was the city at large: Andrea Palladio, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Étienne Louis-Boullée, and Oswald Mathias Ungers. The work of these architects, Aureli argues, addressed the transformations of the modern city and its urban implications through the elaboration of specific and strategic architectural forms. Their projects for the city do not take the form of an overall plan but are expressed as an “archipelago” of site-specific interventions.