Writing and Seeing Architecture

Writing and Seeing Architecture

Author: Christian de Portzamparc

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 0816645671

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The creative forms of literature and architecture appear to be distinct, one constructing a world on the page, the other producing the world in which we live. It is a conscious act to read literature, but the effects of architecture can pass by unnoticed. Yet, despite such obvious differences, writers and architects share a dynamic with their readers and visitors that is unpredictably similar. Writing and Seeing Architecture unveils a candid conversation between Christian de Portzamparc, celebrated French architect, and influential theorist Philippe Sollers that challenges us to see the analogous nature of writing and architecture. Their fascinating discussion offers a renewal of visionary architectural thinking by invoking past literary ideals that sought to liberate society through the reinvention of writing itself. Urging that new rules be set for each creation rather than resorting to limitations of the capitalist society, the authors' daring confrontation of the interactions between writing and designing a space forcefully demonstrates the importance of intellectuals and practitioners intervening in the public sphere. Christian de Portzamparc is an architect whose designs include the French Embassy in Germany, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the LVMH Tower in New York City. He was winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1994. Philippe Sollers is a novelist and critic whose journal Tel Quel (1960-1982) published Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Bernard-Henri Lévy. He is the author of many books, including The Park and Une Vie Divine. Catherine Tihanyi's translations include One Must Also Be Hungarian by Adam Biro and The Story of Lynx by Claude Lévi-Strauss. Deborah Hauptmann is associate professor of architecture theory at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.


Book Synopsis Writing and Seeing Architecture by : Christian de Portzamparc

Download or read book Writing and Seeing Architecture written by Christian de Portzamparc and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The creative forms of literature and architecture appear to be distinct, one constructing a world on the page, the other producing the world in which we live. It is a conscious act to read literature, but the effects of architecture can pass by unnoticed. Yet, despite such obvious differences, writers and architects share a dynamic with their readers and visitors that is unpredictably similar. Writing and Seeing Architecture unveils a candid conversation between Christian de Portzamparc, celebrated French architect, and influential theorist Philippe Sollers that challenges us to see the analogous nature of writing and architecture. Their fascinating discussion offers a renewal of visionary architectural thinking by invoking past literary ideals that sought to liberate society through the reinvention of writing itself. Urging that new rules be set for each creation rather than resorting to limitations of the capitalist society, the authors' daring confrontation of the interactions between writing and designing a space forcefully demonstrates the importance of intellectuals and practitioners intervening in the public sphere. Christian de Portzamparc is an architect whose designs include the French Embassy in Germany, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the LVMH Tower in New York City. He was winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1994. Philippe Sollers is a novelist and critic whose journal Tel Quel (1960-1982) published Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Bernard-Henri Lévy. He is the author of many books, including The Park and Une Vie Divine. Catherine Tihanyi's translations include One Must Also Be Hungarian by Adam Biro and The Story of Lynx by Claude Lévi-Strauss. Deborah Hauptmann is associate professor of architecture theory at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.

Writing About Architecture

Writing About Architecture

Author: Alexandra Lange

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2012-02-29

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1616890533

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Extraordinary architecture addresses so much more than mere practical considerations. It inspires and provokes while creating a seamless experience of the physical world for its users. It is the rare writer that can frame the discussion of a building in a way that allows the reader to see it with new eyes. Writing About Architecture is a handbook on writing effectively and critically about buildings and cities. Each chapter opens with a reprint of a significant essay written by a renowned architecture critic, followed by a close reading and discussion of the writer's strategies. Lange offers her own analysis using contemporary examples as well as a checklist of questions at the end of each chapter to help guide the writer. This important addition to the Architecture Briefs series is based on the author's design writing courses at New York University and the School of Visual Arts. Lange also writes a popular online column for Design Observer and has written for Dwell, Metropolis, New York magazine, and The New York Times. Writing About Architecture includes analysis of critical writings by Ada Louise Huxtable, Lewis Mumford, Herbert Muschamp, Michael Sorkin, Charles Moore, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Jane Jacobs. Architects covered include Marcel Breuer, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Field Operations, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Frederick Law Olmsted, SOM, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright.


Book Synopsis Writing About Architecture by : Alexandra Lange

Download or read book Writing About Architecture written by Alexandra Lange and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extraordinary architecture addresses so much more than mere practical considerations. It inspires and provokes while creating a seamless experience of the physical world for its users. It is the rare writer that can frame the discussion of a building in a way that allows the reader to see it with new eyes. Writing About Architecture is a handbook on writing effectively and critically about buildings and cities. Each chapter opens with a reprint of a significant essay written by a renowned architecture critic, followed by a close reading and discussion of the writer's strategies. Lange offers her own analysis using contemporary examples as well as a checklist of questions at the end of each chapter to help guide the writer. This important addition to the Architecture Briefs series is based on the author's design writing courses at New York University and the School of Visual Arts. Lange also writes a popular online column for Design Observer and has written for Dwell, Metropolis, New York magazine, and The New York Times. Writing About Architecture includes analysis of critical writings by Ada Louise Huxtable, Lewis Mumford, Herbert Muschamp, Michael Sorkin, Charles Moore, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Jane Jacobs. Architects covered include Marcel Breuer, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Field Operations, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Frederick Law Olmsted, SOM, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Writing Architecture

Writing Architecture

Author: Carter Wiseman

Publisher: Trinity University Press

Published: 2014-07-21

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1595341501

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For ages, architects have been criticized for speaking an insular language, known to some as "archispeak." Writing Architecture considers the process, methods, and value of architecture writing based on Carter Wiseman’s 30 years of personal experience in writing, editing, and teaching in young architects how to write. This book creatively tackles a problematic issue that Wiseman considers to be a crucial characteristic of successful architecture writing: clarity of thinking and expression. He argues that because we live our lives within the built environment, architecture is the most comprehensive and complex of all art forms. Even brilliantly inspired and complex architectural structures would only amount to misunderstood abstractions without the support and reinforcement of the clear explanation. Written as a primer for both college level students and practitioners, Writing Architecture acknowledges and explores the boundaries between different techniques of architecture writing from myriad perspectives and purposes. A poetic description of the beauty and impact of a bridge will not illuminate the mechanical knowledge housed in the structure, but at the same time, dense architectural theory will not encourage individuals experiencing and supporting the bridge to perceive significance and usefulness in the design. Using excerpts and from writers in different genres and from different historical periods, Wiseman offers a unique and authoritative perspective on comprehensible writing skills needed for success.


Book Synopsis Writing Architecture by : Carter Wiseman

Download or read book Writing Architecture written by Carter Wiseman and published by Trinity University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-21 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For ages, architects have been criticized for speaking an insular language, known to some as "archispeak." Writing Architecture considers the process, methods, and value of architecture writing based on Carter Wiseman’s 30 years of personal experience in writing, editing, and teaching in young architects how to write. This book creatively tackles a problematic issue that Wiseman considers to be a crucial characteristic of successful architecture writing: clarity of thinking and expression. He argues that because we live our lives within the built environment, architecture is the most comprehensive and complex of all art forms. Even brilliantly inspired and complex architectural structures would only amount to misunderstood abstractions without the support and reinforcement of the clear explanation. Written as a primer for both college level students and practitioners, Writing Architecture acknowledges and explores the boundaries between different techniques of architecture writing from myriad perspectives and purposes. A poetic description of the beauty and impact of a bridge will not illuminate the mechanical knowledge housed in the structure, but at the same time, dense architectural theory will not encourage individuals experiencing and supporting the bridge to perceive significance and usefulness in the design. Using excerpts and from writers in different genres and from different historical periods, Wiseman offers a unique and authoritative perspective on comprehensible writing skills needed for success.

Architecture from the Outside

Architecture from the Outside

Author: Elizabeth Grosz

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2001-06-22

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780262265362

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Essays at the intersection of philosophy and architecture explore how we understand and inhabit space. To be outside allows one a fresh perspective on the inside. In these essays, philosopher Elizabeth Grosz explores the ways in which two disciplines that are fundamentally outside each another—architecture and philosophy—can meet in a third space to interact free of their internal constraints. "Outside" also refers to those whose voices are not usually heard in architectural discourse but who inhabit its space—the destitute, the homeless, the sick, and the dying, as well as women and minorities. Grosz asks how we can understand space differently in order to structure and inhabit our living arrangements accordingly. Two themes run throughout the book: temporal flow and sexual specificity. Grosz argues that time, change, and emergence, traditionally viewed as outside the concerns of space, must become more integral to the processes of design and construction. She also argues against architecture's historical indifference to sexual specificity, asking what the existence of (at least) two sexes has to do with how we understand and experience space. Drawing on the work of such philosophers as Henri Bergson, Roger Caillois, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Luce Irigaray, and Jacques Lacan, Grosz raises abstract but nonformalistic questions about space, inhabitation, and building. All of the essays propose philosophical experiments to render space and building more mobile and dynamic.


Book Synopsis Architecture from the Outside by : Elizabeth Grosz

Download or read book Architecture from the Outside written by Elizabeth Grosz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001-06-22 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays at the intersection of philosophy and architecture explore how we understand and inhabit space. To be outside allows one a fresh perspective on the inside. In these essays, philosopher Elizabeth Grosz explores the ways in which two disciplines that are fundamentally outside each another—architecture and philosophy—can meet in a third space to interact free of their internal constraints. "Outside" also refers to those whose voices are not usually heard in architectural discourse but who inhabit its space—the destitute, the homeless, the sick, and the dying, as well as women and minorities. Grosz asks how we can understand space differently in order to structure and inhabit our living arrangements accordingly. Two themes run throughout the book: temporal flow and sexual specificity. Grosz argues that time, change, and emergence, traditionally viewed as outside the concerns of space, must become more integral to the processes of design and construction. She also argues against architecture's historical indifference to sexual specificity, asking what the existence of (at least) two sexes has to do with how we understand and experience space. Drawing on the work of such philosophers as Henri Bergson, Roger Caillois, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Luce Irigaray, and Jacques Lacan, Grosz raises abstract but nonformalistic questions about space, inhabitation, and building. All of the essays propose philosophical experiments to render space and building more mobile and dynamic.

How to Architect

How to Architect

Author: Doug Patt

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2012-02-17

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 0262516993

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The basics of the profession and practice of architecture, presented in illustrated A-Z form. The word "architect" is a noun, but Doug Patt uses it as a verb—coining a term and making a point about using parts of speech and parts of buildings in new ways. Changing the function of a word, or a room, can produce surprise and meaning. In How to Architect, Patt—an architect and the creator of a series of wildly popular online videos about architecture—presents the basics of architecture in A-Z form, starting with "A is for Asymmetry" (as seen in Chartres Cathedral and Frank Gehry), detouring through "N is for Narrative," and ending with "Z is for Zeal" (a quality that successful architects tend to have, even in fiction—see The Fountainhead's architect-hero Howard Roark.) How to Architect is a book to guide you on the road to architecture. If you are just starting on that journey or thinking about becoming an architect, it is a place to begin. If you are already an architect and want to remind yourself of what drew you to the profession, it is a book of affirmation. And if you are just curious about what goes into the design and construction of buildings, this book tells you how architects think. Patt introduces each entry with a hand-drawn letter, and accompanies the text with illustrations that illuminate the concept discussed: a fallen Humpty Dumpty illustrates the perils of fragile egos; photographs of an X-Acto knife and other hand tools remind us of architecture's nondigital origins. How to Architect offers encouragement to aspiring architects but also mounts a defense of architecture as a profession—by calling out a defiant verb: architect!


Book Synopsis How to Architect by : Doug Patt

Download or read book How to Architect written by Doug Patt and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-02-17 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The basics of the profession and practice of architecture, presented in illustrated A-Z form. The word "architect" is a noun, but Doug Patt uses it as a verb—coining a term and making a point about using parts of speech and parts of buildings in new ways. Changing the function of a word, or a room, can produce surprise and meaning. In How to Architect, Patt—an architect and the creator of a series of wildly popular online videos about architecture—presents the basics of architecture in A-Z form, starting with "A is for Asymmetry" (as seen in Chartres Cathedral and Frank Gehry), detouring through "N is for Narrative," and ending with "Z is for Zeal" (a quality that successful architects tend to have, even in fiction—see The Fountainhead's architect-hero Howard Roark.) How to Architect is a book to guide you on the road to architecture. If you are just starting on that journey or thinking about becoming an architect, it is a place to begin. If you are already an architect and want to remind yourself of what drew you to the profession, it is a book of affirmation. And if you are just curious about what goes into the design and construction of buildings, this book tells you how architects think. Patt introduces each entry with a hand-drawn letter, and accompanies the text with illustrations that illuminate the concept discussed: a fallen Humpty Dumpty illustrates the perils of fragile egos; photographs of an X-Acto knife and other hand tools remind us of architecture's nondigital origins. How to Architect offers encouragement to aspiring architects but also mounts a defense of architecture as a profession—by calling out a defiant verb: architect!

Drawing for Architecture

Drawing for Architecture

Author: Leon Krier

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2009-07-10

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0262512939

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Drawings, doodles, and ideograms argue with ferocity and wit for traditional urbanism and architecture. Architect Léon Krier's doodles, drawings, and ideograms make arguments in images, without the circumlocutions of prose. Drawn with wit and grace, these clever sketches do not try to please or flatter the architectural establishment. Rather, they make an impassioned argument against what Krier sees as the unquestioned doctrines and unacknowledged absurdities of contemporary architecture. Thus he shows us a building bearing a suspicious resemblance to Norman Foster's famous London “gherkin” as an example of “priapus hubris” (threatened by detumescence and “priapus nemesis”); he charts “Random Uniformity” (“fake simplicity”) and “Uniform Randomness” (“fake complexity”); he draws bloated “bulimic” and disproportionately scrawny “anorexic” columns flanking a graceful “classical” one; and he compares “private virtue” (modernist architects' homes and offices) to “public vice” (modernist architects' “creations”). Krier wants these witty images to be tools for re-founding traditional urbanism and architecture. He argues for mixed-use cities, of “architectural speech” rather than “architectural stutter,” and pointedly plots the man-vehicle-landneed ratio of “sub-urban man” versus that of a city dweller. In an age of energy crisis, he writes (and his drawings show), we “build in the wrong places, in the wrong patterns, materials, densities, and heights, and for the wrong number of dwellers”; a return to traditional architectures and building and settlement techniques can be the means of ecological reconstruction. Each of Krier's provocative and entertaining images is worth more than a thousand words of theoretical abstraction.


Book Synopsis Drawing for Architecture by : Leon Krier

Download or read book Drawing for Architecture written by Leon Krier and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009-07-10 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawings, doodles, and ideograms argue with ferocity and wit for traditional urbanism and architecture. Architect Léon Krier's doodles, drawings, and ideograms make arguments in images, without the circumlocutions of prose. Drawn with wit and grace, these clever sketches do not try to please or flatter the architectural establishment. Rather, they make an impassioned argument against what Krier sees as the unquestioned doctrines and unacknowledged absurdities of contemporary architecture. Thus he shows us a building bearing a suspicious resemblance to Norman Foster's famous London “gherkin” as an example of “priapus hubris” (threatened by detumescence and “priapus nemesis”); he charts “Random Uniformity” (“fake simplicity”) and “Uniform Randomness” (“fake complexity”); he draws bloated “bulimic” and disproportionately scrawny “anorexic” columns flanking a graceful “classical” one; and he compares “private virtue” (modernist architects' homes and offices) to “public vice” (modernist architects' “creations”). Krier wants these witty images to be tools for re-founding traditional urbanism and architecture. He argues for mixed-use cities, of “architectural speech” rather than “architectural stutter,” and pointedly plots the man-vehicle-landneed ratio of “sub-urban man” versus that of a city dweller. In an age of energy crisis, he writes (and his drawings show), we “build in the wrong places, in the wrong patterns, materials, densities, and heights, and for the wrong number of dwellers”; a return to traditional architectures and building and settlement techniques can be the means of ecological reconstruction. Each of Krier's provocative and entertaining images is worth more than a thousand words of theoretical abstraction.

Vitruvius

Vitruvius

Author: Indra Kagis McEwen

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2004-09-17

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 9780262633062

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A historical study of Vitruvius's De architectura, showing that his purpose in writing "the whole body of architecture" was shaped by the imperial Roman project of world domination. Vitruvius's De architectura is the only major work on architecture to survive from classical antiquity, and until the eighteenth century it was the text to which all other architectural treatises referred. While European classicists have focused on the factual truth of the text itself, English-speaking architects and architectural theorists have viewed it as a timeless source of valuable metaphors. Departing from both perspectives, Indra Kagis McEwen examines the work's meaning and significance in its own time. Vitruvius dedicated De architectura to his patron Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, whose rise to power inspired its composition near the end of the first century B.C. McEwen argues that the imperial project of world dominion shaped Vitruvius's purpose in writing what he calls "the whole body of architecture." Specifically, Vitruvius's aim was to present his discipline as the means for making the emperor's body congruent with the imagined body of the world he would rule. Each of the book's four chapters treats a different Vitruvian "body." Chapter 1, "The Angelic Body," deals with the book as a book, in terms of contemporary events and thought, particularly Stoicism and Stoic theories of language. Chapter 2, "The Herculean Body," addresses the book's and its author's relation to Augustus, whose double Vitruvius means the architect to be. Chapter 3, "The Body Beautiful," discusses the relation of proportion and geometry to architectural beauty and the role of beauty in forging the new world order. Finally, Chapter 4, "The Body of the King," explores the nature and unprecedented extent of Augustan building programs. Included is an examination of the famous statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, sculpted soon after the appearance of De architectura.


Book Synopsis Vitruvius by : Indra Kagis McEwen

Download or read book Vitruvius written by Indra Kagis McEwen and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2004-09-17 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A historical study of Vitruvius's De architectura, showing that his purpose in writing "the whole body of architecture" was shaped by the imperial Roman project of world domination. Vitruvius's De architectura is the only major work on architecture to survive from classical antiquity, and until the eighteenth century it was the text to which all other architectural treatises referred. While European classicists have focused on the factual truth of the text itself, English-speaking architects and architectural theorists have viewed it as a timeless source of valuable metaphors. Departing from both perspectives, Indra Kagis McEwen examines the work's meaning and significance in its own time. Vitruvius dedicated De architectura to his patron Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, whose rise to power inspired its composition near the end of the first century B.C. McEwen argues that the imperial project of world dominion shaped Vitruvius's purpose in writing what he calls "the whole body of architecture." Specifically, Vitruvius's aim was to present his discipline as the means for making the emperor's body congruent with the imagined body of the world he would rule. Each of the book's four chapters treats a different Vitruvian "body." Chapter 1, "The Angelic Body," deals with the book as a book, in terms of contemporary events and thought, particularly Stoicism and Stoic theories of language. Chapter 2, "The Herculean Body," addresses the book's and its author's relation to Augustus, whose double Vitruvius means the architect to be. Chapter 3, "The Body Beautiful," discusses the relation of proportion and geometry to architectural beauty and the role of beauty in forging the new world order. Finally, Chapter 4, "The Body of the King," explores the nature and unprecedented extent of Augustan building programs. Included is an examination of the famous statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, sculpted soon after the appearance of De architectura.

Architecture As Space

Architecture As Space

Author: Bruno Zevi

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 1993-08-21

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780306805370

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This classic work (first published in Italian in 1948, translated in 1957, and revised in 1974) examines the history of architecture in light of its essence as space, animating and illuminating architectural creations so that their beauty—or indifference—is exposed. Along with commercial and dwelling units, temples, palaces, and cathedrals, Zevi treats structures such as fountains, columns, and monuments, subjecting them all to aesthetic, cultural, and functional criteria and explaining them in easily understood terms. Beautifully illustrated with examples from the entire history of the art, this is one of the most stimulating and provocative books ever written on the history and purpose of architecture.


Book Synopsis Architecture As Space by : Bruno Zevi

Download or read book Architecture As Space written by Bruno Zevi and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 1993-08-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic work (first published in Italian in 1948, translated in 1957, and revised in 1974) examines the history of architecture in light of its essence as space, animating and illuminating architectural creations so that their beauty—or indifference—is exposed. Along with commercial and dwelling units, temples, palaces, and cathedrals, Zevi treats structures such as fountains, columns, and monuments, subjecting them all to aesthetic, cultural, and functional criteria and explaining them in easily understood terms. Beautifully illustrated with examples from the entire history of the art, this is one of the most stimulating and provocative books ever written on the history and purpose of architecture.

Differences

Differences

Author: Ignasi De Sola-Morales

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1997-01-07

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9780262540858

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Differences brings together ten essays written over the past decade by the distinguished Spanish architect and theorist Ignasi de Solà-Morales. Differences brings together ten essays written over the past decade by the distinguished Spanish architect and theorist Ignasi de Sola-Morales. Many of the essays have never previously been translated, and the author has provided a new introduction especially for this English edition. Contemplating the panorama of contemporary art and architecture, de Sola-Morales posits that there is no one way to describe today's practice; instead he concentrates on elucidating the present dynamic of contrast, diversity, and tension. In an unorthodox pairing, de Sola-Morales derives his inspiration from both phenomenology and Deleuzean poststructuralism. Combining these philosophical inheritances allows him to reinvoke the human subject without referring to classical humanism or announcing the death of the object. His retrospective review of the disciplines of art and architecture, particularly as they have developed since World War II, provokes him to design, draft, and ultimately build a description of Modernism¹s lineage of subjectivity. The result is a provocative construction of fluid "topographies" that articulate, rather than depict, the shaky ground on which our current artistic and architectural production rests. The essays: Sado-masochism: Criticism and Architectural Practice. Topographies of Contemporary Architecture. Mies van der Rohe and Minimalism. Architecture and Existentialism. Weak Architecture. From Autonomy to Untimeliness. Place: Permanence or Production. Difference and Limit: Individualism in Contemporary Architecture. High-Tech: Functionalism or Rhetoric. The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.


Book Synopsis Differences by : Ignasi De Sola-Morales

Download or read book Differences written by Ignasi De Sola-Morales and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1997-01-07 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Differences brings together ten essays written over the past decade by the distinguished Spanish architect and theorist Ignasi de Solà-Morales. Differences brings together ten essays written over the past decade by the distinguished Spanish architect and theorist Ignasi de Sola-Morales. Many of the essays have never previously been translated, and the author has provided a new introduction especially for this English edition. Contemplating the panorama of contemporary art and architecture, de Sola-Morales posits that there is no one way to describe today's practice; instead he concentrates on elucidating the present dynamic of contrast, diversity, and tension. In an unorthodox pairing, de Sola-Morales derives his inspiration from both phenomenology and Deleuzean poststructuralism. Combining these philosophical inheritances allows him to reinvoke the human subject without referring to classical humanism or announcing the death of the object. His retrospective review of the disciplines of art and architecture, particularly as they have developed since World War II, provokes him to design, draft, and ultimately build a description of Modernism¹s lineage of subjectivity. The result is a provocative construction of fluid "topographies" that articulate, rather than depict, the shaky ground on which our current artistic and architectural production rests. The essays: Sado-masochism: Criticism and Architectural Practice. Topographies of Contemporary Architecture. Mies van der Rohe and Minimalism. Architecture and Existentialism. Weak Architecture. From Autonomy to Untimeliness. Place: Permanence or Production. Difference and Limit: Individualism in Contemporary Architecture. High-Tech: Functionalism or Rhetoric. The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.

Writing Art and Architecture

Writing Art and Architecture

Author: Andrew Benjamin

Publisher: re.press

Published: 2010-10

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 0980668379

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In his new book, the eminent philosopher Andrew Benjamin turns his attention to architecture, design, sculpture, painting and writing. Drawing predominantly on a European tradition of modern philosophical criticism running from the German Romantics through Walter Benjamin and beyond, he offers a sequence of strong meditations on a diverse ensemble of works and themes: on the library and the house, on architectural theory, on Rachel Whiteread, Peter Eisenman, Anselm Kiefer, Peter Nielson, David Hawley, Terri Bird, Elizabeth Presa and others.In Benjamin¿s hands, criticism is bound up with judgment. Objects of criticism always become more than mere documents. These essays dissolve the prejudices that have determined our relation to aesthetic objects and to thought, releasing in their very care and attentiveness to the `objects themselves¿ the unexpected potentialities such objects harbour. In his sensitivity to what he calls `the particularity of material events¿, Benjamin¿s writing comes to exemplify new possibilities for the contemporary practice of criticism itself.These essays are a major contribution to critical thought about art and architecture today, and a genuine work of what Benjamin himself identifies as a `materialist aesthetics¿.


Book Synopsis Writing Art and Architecture by : Andrew Benjamin

Download or read book Writing Art and Architecture written by Andrew Benjamin and published by re.press. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his new book, the eminent philosopher Andrew Benjamin turns his attention to architecture, design, sculpture, painting and writing. Drawing predominantly on a European tradition of modern philosophical criticism running from the German Romantics through Walter Benjamin and beyond, he offers a sequence of strong meditations on a diverse ensemble of works and themes: on the library and the house, on architectural theory, on Rachel Whiteread, Peter Eisenman, Anselm Kiefer, Peter Nielson, David Hawley, Terri Bird, Elizabeth Presa and others.In Benjamin¿s hands, criticism is bound up with judgment. Objects of criticism always become more than mere documents. These essays dissolve the prejudices that have determined our relation to aesthetic objects and to thought, releasing in their very care and attentiveness to the `objects themselves¿ the unexpected potentialities such objects harbour. In his sensitivity to what he calls `the particularity of material events¿, Benjamin¿s writing comes to exemplify new possibilities for the contemporary practice of criticism itself.These essays are a major contribution to critical thought about art and architecture today, and a genuine work of what Benjamin himself identifies as a `materialist aesthetics¿.