New Babylonians: Contemporary Visions of a Situationist City
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    New Babylonians: Contemporary Visions of a Situationist City

    Manufacturer: Academy Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    1. The Situationist City The Situationist City
    2. Situationist International Anthology Situationist International Anthology
    3. Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents (October Books) Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents (October Books)
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    5. Poetics in Architecture (Architectural Design) Poetics in Architecture (Architectural Design)

    ASIN: 0471499099

    Book Description

    The Situationists, who first appeared on the architectural scene in the 1960s, regarded cities as the ultimate opportunity for creative self-expression. While there are many publications about the history of the Situationist International, New Babylonians offers unique coverage of how their tactics are currently employed in architectural and urban strategies. It features renowned architects and educators who were first generation Situationists and also highlights some of the most exciting international practitioners involved in urban design today.
    Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage Of A Nation
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Thorough and fascinating
    • Excellent Book
    • A strong in-depth history of Chinese home architecture
    Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage Of A Nation
    Ronald G. Knapp , and Jonathan Spence
    Manufacturer: Tuttle Publishing
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    1. Yin Yu Tang: The Architecture and Daily Life of a Chinese House Yin Yu Tang: The Architecture and Daily Life of a Chinese House
    2. The Chinese Garden: History, Art and Architecture, Third Edition The Chinese Garden: History, Art and Architecture, Third Edition
    3. Chinese Architecture: A Pictorial History (Dover Books on Architecture) Chinese Architecture: A Pictorial History (Dover Books on Architecture)
    4. China Style China Style
    5. Gardens in China Gardens in China

    ASIN: 0804835373

    Book Description

    Winner of ForeWord Magazine's Architecture "Book of the Year" Award!
    Exquisite examples of traditional dwellings are scattered throughout modern-day China. Chinese Houses focuses on 20 well-preserved traditional homes, presenting examples from a range of rural and metropolitan areas throughout China.
    The photographs of each are accompanied by extensive background information and historical content. An introductory essay examines the different types of Chinese homes and provides an overview of the rich regional variety of Chinese dwelling forms. It also provides insights into little-known design concepts that emphasize the
    flexibility, adaptability, and versatility of traditional building forms and the work of traditional craftsmen.
    Richly illustrated with photographs, woodblock prints, historic images, and line drawings, Chinese Houses portrays an architectural tradition of amazing range and resilience.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Thorough and fascinating.......2007-07-19

    The amount of detail and research that's in this book is astounding. This is not another coffee table picture book. Its filled with beautiful pictures, and an equal amount of readable, scholarly writing about a culture thats slowly getting lost to the west.

    Get it!

    5 out of 5 stars Excellent Book.......2007-06-11

    This book exceeded my expectations. It has informative text and abundant photographs including many vintage images. For anyone interested in Chinese architecture, this is the book for you.

    5 out of 5 stars A strong in-depth history of Chinese home architecture .......2005-10-12

    China has seen many social, political and economic changes over the centuries, yet surprisingly, has managed to preserve excellent examples of changing architectural home styles throughout these years, as Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage Of A Nation presents. Packed with color photos of both interior and exterior décor, Chinese Houses also presents an in-depth survey of the rituals, culture, ornamentation influences, and floor plans of homes across China, from urban to rural dwellings. If it's a strong in-depth history of Chinese home architecture which is desired, look no further than the gorgeous Chinese Houses: it's much more than the coffee table picturebook it appears a first glance.
    The Cultivated Wilderness: Or, What is Landscape? (Graham Foundation / MIT Press Series in Contemporary Architectural Discourse)
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • among the most exciting books on the subject I have read
    The Cultivated Wilderness: Or, What is Landscape? (Graham Foundation / MIT Press Series in Contemporary Architectural Discourse)
    Paul Shepheard
    Manufacturer: The MIT Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    5. Artificial Love: A Story of Machines and Architecture Artificial Love: A Story of Machines and Architecture

    ASIN: 0262691949

    Book Description

    Paul Shepheard's previous book, What is Architecture?, was about making real, material things in the world -- landscapes, buildings, and machines. The Cultivated Wilderness is about those landscapes, and about the strategies that govern what we've done in shaping them.

    In the author's words, this book is about "seeing things that are too big to see." His emphasis on strategy makes landscape fundamental -- he says that every architectural move is set in a landscape. Norman England, for example, was constructed as a network of strong points, in a strategy of occupation. The eighteenth-century grid cities of the New World reflect a strategy of reason. Our current strategy is the economic exploitation of the Earth, an intricately woven blanket of commerce that covers up a multitude of other possibilities, many other ways to treat the surface of the globe -- some of which are the landscapes revealed in this book.

    In a series of first-person narratives, reminiscent of his last book, the author pairs six landscapes, in order of descending scale from global to local, from the seven wonders of the ancient world to the condensed destruction of World War I's Western Front. In an engaging style, Shepheard takes the reader on an odyssey through these landscapes, meeting people and seeing places. He states that now, at the end of a century in which the appropriate landscape was sought but never found, the strategy of turning the land to profit is under review -- and offers this book as his contribution to that review.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars among the most exciting books on the subject I have read.......1998-01-22

    Shepheard's book is among the most exciting I have read in a very long time--even though I still don't quite know what it is. Is it what, as a university press publication, one might suppose it to be, a work of "scholarship"? is it instead, as, having read it, I now almost think, a very nearly poetic meditation on the interactions between human beings and their environment? I can say neither with certainty. What it is, "certainly," is a set of essays that consider, among other things, what "wilderness" might mean to the human beings who interact with, live in, or stamp their presence over it; the seven wonders of the ancient world; the human presence in Antactica; Scotland; Flevoland and the Dutch polders; the relationship between London and its surroundings; and--in its last chapter--the western front. Each essay is characterized first and foremost by the author's idiosyncratic and playful voice. He writes like a cranky and opinionated human being speaking to other human beings, not like an academic ghost-in-the-book-as-machine addressing some equally dessicated conception of an academic reader. The essays are shot through with conversations (invented? recorded?), little dramas, vignettes, and a basketful of other irrelevancies--although they never turn out to be as irrelevant as you suppose. Each is also characterized by flashes of insight that strike you like lightbulbs going off at unpredictable intervals, page after page. Many years ago, an English professor named Robert Stevick wrote an essay attempting to define the "form" of a genre called "the anatomy." It had, back then, recently been made "famous" all over again by a Canadian name of Frye. Stevick's examples, as I recall, included not only melancholick Burton, more or less obviously, but also Swift's Tale of a Tub, Tristram Shandy, Sartor Resartus, Moby Dick, A la recherche du temps perdus, and Ulysses. At an MLA meeting in the late 1970s, I proposed that Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time would be better understood in reference to this genre than if it were read (as it usually is) against the standards of realistic fiction; I still believe this argument is worth making in a more formal way than I did then, as an aside in a different argument, or here, as an assertion. Whatever else it may be, Shepheard's Cultivated Wilderness is the most recent major contribution to the anatomy genre I have come across. I also think it is simply brilliant. My pleasure in the book sent me looking, the day I finished it, for Shepheard's first book, What is Architecture? An Essay on Landscapes, Buildings, and Machines (MIT Press, 1994; paperback $9.95). I took me twenty-four hours to find a copy, which proved a bit frustrating. When I finally got my mitts on it, this earlier book also won me over. Art is everywhere [Shepheard writes]. As life has become detached from the wilderness, the human world is everywhere. I see music as a throbbing accompaniment to every moment of contemporary life, a sort of continuous current of emotion, that incorporates what poetry used to be. I see drama as a hugely expanded art that includes films and novels, which even has a new name, literature, and sucks in clothes and manners to itself as well. Architecture? Would we not all agree that architecture is much more than tombs and palaces and temples now? (p. 36) Do "we" all agree? Well, maybe yes . . . and maybe no. Page after page is filled with stuff that gets the ol' mental juices going, exciting agreement, provoking argument and disagreement, and inciting the reader to thought. If there is more to ask of a book, I am not sure what it is.
    Architectural Ornament: Banishment and Return
    Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    • Provocative & sensible
    • Misguided Delusional Writer
    Architectural Ornament: Banishment and Return
    Brent C. Brolin
    Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    1. The Nature of Ornament: Rhythm and Metamorphosis in Architecture (Norton Books for Architects & Designers) The Nature of Ornament: Rhythm and Metamorphosis in Architecture (Norton Books for Architects & Designers)
    2. Ornament: A Modern Perspective (Samuel and Althea Stroum Book) Ornament: A Modern Perspective (Samuel and Althea Stroum Book)
    3. The Language of Ornament (World of Art) The Language of Ornament (World of Art)
    4. The Function of Ornament The Function of Ornament
    5. The Grammar of Ornament The Grammar of Ornament

    ASIN: 0393730468

    Book Description

    Embellishment is a basic human desire. Why was it banished from modern architecture? Architectural Ornament reveals the fascinating interplay of art, society, politics, and commerce from antiquity through modernism and explains ornament's near demise and recent revival. It is a stunningly documented argument against artistic chauvinism and a lively survey of modern architecture.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Provocative & sensible.......2002-10-05

    The first reviewer has snippily dismissed Brolin as "delusional," apparently assuming that a one-sentence, ad-hominem swipe qualifies as an intellectually honest review. I'd love that reviewer to return to his or her pulpit and cite us chapter & verse. Maybe then we'd all have a chance to see just who is being delusional here. I confess that I haven't yet read Brolin's book, but I have just read a meaty excerpt from it, published in the magazine "Old-House Interiors" (Nov. 2002 issue). I found Brolin highly informed and wonderfully articulate, and I thought he made terrific sense. So, apparently, did the magazine's editor, who chose the excerpt for her lead article. And so, surely, did the tough-minded editorial staff at W.W. Norton, who published the book in 2002.

    1 out of 5 stars Misguided Delusional Writer.......2002-08-02

    For any educated thinker who may be contemplating the buying of this book; DON'T waste your money or your time.
    First House: The Grid, the Figure and the Void (Architectural Monographs (Cloth))
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Brilliant and Unsurpassed
    • At Last !!
    First House: The Grid, the Figure and the Void (Architectural Monographs (Cloth))
    Christian Bjone
    Manufacturer: Academy Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    Similar Items:
    1. The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes, and Others The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes, and Others
    2. Sarasota Modern Sarasota Modern
    3. Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses

    ASIN: 0470845384

    Book Description

    First House: the grid, the figure and the void presents a range of innovative first houses designed by a group of famous Harvard graduates from the 1930s - many of which have never been published before. These include such influential figures as Edward Larrabee Barnes, Ulrich Franzen, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, I M Pei and Paul Rudolph.

    This examination shows both what these soon-to-be-famous American architects were taught by their émigré Bauhaus instructors Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, and the development of their personal artistic vision.

    Each building is accompanied by a rich collection of background period information. Artworks by American painters such as Calder, Pollock, Motherwell and Kline are incorporated as both emblems of their time and sources of design inspiration. The furniture designed and used in many of the buildings is also illustrated and ranges from the well-known work of Eames to the forgotten steel wire chairs of Landrum.

    The book concludes with a review of the personalities involved in publishing these modern houses: the photographer Ezra Stoller, writer Peter Blake and historian Vincent Scully. These men also tried their hand at self-designed 'First Houses' for their own families.

    This book provides an extensively researched text with previously unpublished discoveries that are tied together in a uniquely personal and emotional narrative that opens a clear view upon the designers and their time.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Brilliant and Unsurpassed.......2003-03-11

    As an architectural historian, I have read a number of books that approach this subject, but none so comprehensively and with such a thoughtful analysis. Clear and concise writing with intriguing visual comparisons and beautiful illustrations and drawings. I recommend this book by the brilliant author/architect to anyone interested in 20th-century American architecture.

    5 out of 5 stars At Last !!.......2002-12-08

    This book reviews the box type architecture of the '40s, but with a twist, with details. This author features the first homes' interior gems. Yes, paintings, furniture and from old photographs, first time owners are rediscovered. Philip Johnson (also wrote at the end), I M Pei, Noyes, etc. its like the first album for a superband or superstar. Mr Bjone as an architect himself does an excellent job in this endeavor. Refreshing, the new cool.
    Modern Architectural Theory: A Historical Survey, 16731968
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • The New Gold Standard
    Modern Architectural Theory: A Historical Survey, 16731968
    Harry Mallgrave
    Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    1. Architectural Theory: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870 Architectural Theory: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870
    2. Theories and Manifestoes of Contemporary Architecture Theories and Manifestoes of Contemporary Architecture
    3. Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan

    ASIN: 0521793068

    Book Description

    Harry Mallgrave's comprehensive survey of architectural theory, primarily in Europe and the United States, contextualizes architectural discourse within its social and political atmosphere over three centuries of development. He explores the philosophical and conceptual evolution of its ideas, the relation of theory to the practice of building, and, most importantly, the words of the architects themselves as they contentiously shaped their particular niche of Western civilization over time.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars The New Gold Standard.......2006-08-30

    Mallgrave has integrated and consolidated an enormous body of literature, thought and imagery on the emergence of "modern" architectural theory.

    If you want to know WHY our cities and buildings look the way they do, it is because architects explored their intentions in theoretical exercises. Mallgrave offers the most compelling depiction of the changing fortunes of these intentions in this magisterial survey.

    The scope and sweep of his effort is breathtaking, and the story is FINALLY being told without the pedantic hectoring of advocate-historians like Pevsner and Geidion and their minions.

    Mallgrave's insight and wit are in evidence upon each an every page. This is an epochal study and worthy of a major academic award.

    Mallgrave has written the first comprehensive treatment on a subject that has been explored without much nuance for nearly a century and a half. He deserves our unending gratitude.
    Pictures and Passions:  A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • Very Entertaining and informative
    • The First Complete History of Gay and Lesbian Visual Expression in All Media
    • BEYOND PERICLES, PEDERASTY AND POTTERY
    Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts
    James M. Saslow
    Manufacturer: Viking Adult
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    3. Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence (Studies in the History of Sexuality) Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence (Studies in the History of Sexuality)
    4. Gay Life & Culture: A World History Gay Life & Culture: A World History
    5. Homosexuality and Civilization Homosexuality and Civilization

    ASIN: 0670859532

    Book Description

    The first complete history of gay and lesbian visual expression in all media, from the dawn of time to the present day--massive, fascinating, beautiful

    As spectacular in its appearance as in its depth and range-- encompassing works of all genres in all ages on gay themes, by gay artists, or for gay patrons--Pictures and Passions supersedes more narrowly focused studies. Following an Introduction that discusses the sexual and artistic practices of prehistoric and early societies, Pictures and Passions examines the classical world's visual celebration of homoerotic love and how its status among the Greeks permeated later civilizations as an emblem of lost Arcadian ideals. The pictorial denigration and satire of the Middle Ages give way to the dawning tolerance of male beauty and affection in the Renaissance, then to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century economic and social transitions that stimulated the emergence of modern homosexual identity and cultural institutions, and finally to the flowering of modern homosexual art.

    Throughout, gay and lesbian art and experience are seen in a broad context that includes non-Western cultures (with an entire chapter on Asia and Islam); traditional media such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and graphics; and modern commercial and mass media such as magazines, photography, and advertising. Pictures and Passions is a groundbreaking work of nuanced scholarship in a lucid and engaging idiom that will appeal to general readers, students, artists, and sophisticated gift givers.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Very Entertaining and informative.......2006-10-09


    I bought this primarily for the historical aspect and also as it was recommended by the artist Tee Corinne in her book `Intimacies'.

    From the book description - This history of homoerotic art spans three millennia and explores traditions in Western, Middle-Eastern, and Asian cultures. In addition to celebrating glorious paintings and photographs, art professor Saslow illustrates the ways in which degrading images of gay men and lesbians have been used to infiltrate societies with negative assumptions of homosexuality. A groundbreaking work of nuanced scholarship encompassing all genres in all ages on gay themes. 145 illustrations, 32 in color.

    Table of Contents
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction: From Stone Age to Stonewall 1
    Ch. 1 The Classical World: Greece and Rome 13
    Ch. 2 The Middle Ages: Dogma Versus Desire 55
    Ch. 3 From Renaissance to Reform: Europe and the Globe, 1400-1700 79
    Ch. 4 Asia and Islam: Ancient Cultures, Modern Conflicts 125
    Ch. 5 From Winckelmann to Wilde: The Birth of Modernity, 1700-1900 151
    Ch. 6 Modernism, Multiplicity, and the Movement: 1900-1969 207
    Ch. 7 Post-Stonewall, Post-Modern 259
    Further Reading 311
    Illustration Credits 319
    Index 327

    5 out of 5 stars The First Complete History of Gay and Lesbian Visual Expression in All Media.......2006-01-04

    "The first complete history of gay and lesbian visual expression in all media, from the dawn of time to the present day--massive, fascinating, beautiful. ¶ As spectacular in its appearance as in its depth and range--encompassing works of all genres in all ages on gay themes, by gay artists, or for gay patrons--Pictures and Passions supersedes more narrowly focused studies. Following an Introduction that discusses the sexual and artistic practices of prehistoric and early societies, Pictures and Passions examines the classical world`s visual celebration of homoerotic love and how its status among the Greeks permeated later civilizations as an emblem of lost Arcadian ideals. The pictorial denigration and satire of the Middle Ages give way to the dawning tolerance of male beauty and affection in the Renaissance, then to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century economic and social transitions that stimulated the emergence of modern homosexual identity and cultural institutions, and finally to the flowering of modern homosexual art. ¶ Throughout, gay and lesbian art and experience are seen in a broad context that includes non-Western cultures (with an entire chapter on Asia and Islam); traditional media such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and graphics; and modern commercial and mass media such as magazines, photography, and advertising. Pictures and Passions is a groundbreaking work of nuance scholarship in a lucid and engaging idiom that will appeal to general readers, students, artists, and sophisticated gift givers. ¶ Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Photo/Visual Arts"--© zebraz

    4 out of 5 stars BEYOND PERICLES, PEDERASTY AND POTTERY.......2000-01-25

    In the relatively small area of gay studies devoted to the visual arts, "Pictures and Passions" is a standout. Just about everything that has gay or lesbian thematic relevance is in here, from cave drawings to Renaissance sculpture to Japanese pornographic "pillow books" to the cover of DIVA magazine.

    I really consider this to be an intellectual and social history as much as a history-of-art text. Author James Saslow insists that we know enough about the cultural background of each place and time so that we can place the import of the homosexual art in its proper context. For example, anyone who expects ancient Athens to be San Francisco with togas is going to be disappointed--"homosexuality was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere" in the author's famous line; it was culturally pervasive but did not give rise to anything like our 20th century gay life.

    In Europe, different centuries have different signatures; at some times male homosexuality and lesbianism could be openly alluded to in art and at other times, only symbolically, as through religious allegory (St. Sebastian was a favorite). At no time--not even when persecution of homosexuals was at its peak--did I feel that Saslow was scraping the bottom of the barrel for gay subject matter. There was always something interesting going on. Non-European subject matter receives treatment too.

    The last thirty years, the so-called "post-Stonewall" era, have been a boon for gay and lesbian art in America, and the last fifty pages of this book dwells on that. I for one wish Saslow had been a little more selective about this period--there is some great stuff chronicled here, but also some fairly trashy pop art that it is safe to say won't last.

    Since "Pictures and Passions" is a history of thought book as much as a history-of-art book, if any aspect of the field suffers, it is artistic technique. This is not a book to learn about the rise of perspective, or what impressionism is, or why abstract art rose to prominence. For that, the reader would have to consult one of the standard texts on the subject or a beginner's work like "Art for Dummies." I can easily see this book being used in a Gay Studies course in college, or to add diversity to a standard art course. I think it will find a good audience among art lovers, and hopefully not just gay men and lesbians. The book itself is an attractive presentation, copiously illustrated, and includes color panels. Saslow's prose is acadmic but no more than it has to be.
    Rethinking Architecture: Reader in Cultural Theory
    Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    • solid choice of readings
    • Mis-reading architecture
    • Mis-reading architecture
    • Rethinking Compilations
    Rethinking Architecture: Reader in Cultural Theory
    Neil Leach
    Manufacturer: Routledge
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    2. Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995 Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995
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    4. Towards a New Architecture Towards a New Architecture
    5. The Architecture of the City (Oppositions Books) The Architecture of the City (Oppositions Books)

    ASIN: 0415128269

    Book Description

    Rethinking Architecture offers a refreshing take on the statement of architecture -- what we mean by what we build. Brought together for the first time, this collection of core writings on architecture by many of the key philosophers and cultural theorists of the twentieth century reconsiders many of the accepted tenets of architectural theory from a broader cultural perspective. Rethinking Architecture represents a careful selection of the very best theoretical writings on the ideas which have shaped our cities and our experiences around architecture. Neil Leach lays out five sections composing the predominant schools of twentieth century thought. Sectional introductions link important ideas and themes, and surveys of the lives and works of each theorist preface their writings.

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars solid choice of readings.......2006-10-04

    Contrary to the opinion of the fellow who gave this book 1 star, this book has an excellent selection of essays from many key 20th century thinkers (including three essays and 1 extract from Heidegger, which should be enough to undermine the critic's credibility). For the most part, they are presented unedited in full. Many of the selections are must-reads for people who wish to understand particular periods in the history of modern architecture, and it is nice to have them all together under a single cover.

    1 out of 5 stars Mis-reading architecture.......2001-04-17

    I read this book and was instantly struck by the mis-representation and editing of the theories of some of the centuries most important thinkers. The discourse is limited to a one-dimensional view of architectural theory that seems to dismiss the most potent ideas of critical theory and radical critique. The book is structured around themed chapters containing several extracts with a logic of "this is a critique of this" in a rather naive way. The author's ommission of Heidegger's thinking is bizarre and his critique of Loos misses out the crucial influence of the intellectual milieu of early 20th century Vienna (Kraus, Wittgenstein etc.). Some interesting lesser known figures are brought to light (Kracauer for example)and there is some fantastic material here extracted from larger works, but be warned! this is a book with its own agenda.

    1 out of 5 stars Mis-reading architecture.......2001-04-17

    I read this book and was instantly struck by the mis-representation and editing of the theories of some of the centuries most important thinkers. The discourse is limited to a one-dimensional view of architectural theory that seems to dismiss the most potent ideas of critical theory and radical critique. The book is structured around themed chapters containing several extracts with a logic of "this is a critique of this" in a rather naive way. The author's ommission of Heidegger's thinking is bizarre and his critique of Loos misses out the crucial influence of the intellectual milieu of early 20th century Vienna (Kraus, Wittgenstein etc.). Some interesting lesser known figures are brought to light (Kracauer for example)and there is some fantastic material here extracted from larger works, but be warned! this is a book with its own agenda.

    5 out of 5 stars Rethinking Compilations.......2001-01-29

    This book is a compilation of essays on architecture from a very distinctive and unique point of view, which shows people involved with architecture or its related fields the perspective of recognised sociologists, communicators, semiologists et cetera, and which constitutes a very valuable tool for a deeper understanding of our everyday proceedings in such a globalizing practice as the art of designing works of art where we can dwell.
    Surface Architecture
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • Not a picture book.
    • The conflict between tradition and modernity!
    Surface Architecture
    David Leatherbarrow , and Mohsen Mostafavi
    Manufacturer: The MIT Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    1. Immaterial/Ultramaterial: Architecture, Design, and Materials (Millennium Matters) Immaterial/Ultramaterial: Architecture, Design, and Materials (Millennium Matters)
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    ASIN: 0262621940

    Book Description

    Visually, many contemporary buildings either reflect their systems of production or recollect earlier styles and motifs. This division between production and representation is in some ways an extension of that between modernity and tradition. In this book David Leatherbarrow and Mohsen Mostafavi explore ways that design can take advantage of production methods such that architecture is neither independent of nor dominated by technology.

    Leatherbarrow and Mostafavi begin with the theoretical and practical isolation of the building surface as the subject of architectural design. The autonomy of the surface, the "free facade," presumes a distinction between the structural and nonstructural elements of the building, between the frame and the cladding. Once the skin of the building became independent of its structure, it could just as well hang like a curtain, or like clothing. The focus of the relationship between structure and skin is the architectural surface.

    In tracing the handling of this surface, the authors examine both contemporary buildings and those of the recent past. Architects discussed include Albert Kahn, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Alison and Peter Smithson, Alejandro de la Sota, Robert Venturi, Jacques Herzog, and Pierre de Meuron.

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars Not a picture book........2007-07-13

    I am finishing my thesis at a recognized architecture school on the west coast. This book is a great read. Very insightful and contemporary critique of the role of the facade with relation to fabrication. I admittedly have not finished the text but I have enjoyed what I have read thus far. Enjoy.

    5 out of 5 stars The conflict between tradition and modernity!.......2004-04-16

    The conflict between tradition and modernity is a
    force in contemporary architecture even in 21th century!

    Let me ask what is the way of the future of architecture? If we accept architecture as a social and cultural art, beside its technological effacts, (and we know that the culture and society have got their own new definitions in 21th century regarding the new situation of the relationship between human and technology...)we are going to chang the relationship between humans and machines (look at the really similar atmophere in the early 20th century, specially structuralism)...

    Actually, there is no much moral codes here! As Cordeiro says, we are going to live a really new terminology, Genetic engineering. Cyborgs. Artificial intelligence. Consciousness uploading. Singularity, Posthumanism etc. Even as Mark Amerika (in the AVANT-POP MANIFESTO) says: "Now that Postmodernism is dead and we're in the process of finally burying it, something else is starting to take hold in the cultural imagination and I propose that we call this new phenomenon Avant-Pop" ...

    Yes, Avant-Pop and Posthuman (or whatever you call it), and specially the new Electronic Age and the new Cultural Imagination, these are the paradigms of the future and going to define everything including the basement of the architectural design, production and culture in a transdisciplinary way of thinking...

    Maybe its the most question of our age which Mostafavi asks: "'How can design utilise the opportunities of current industrial production so that the practice of architectural representation is neither independent of nor subjugated to the domination of technology?"
    The Tragic in Architecture (Architectural Design)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      The Tragic in Architecture (Architectural Design)

      Manufacturer: Academy Press
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      ASIN: 0471892742

      Book Description

      Is modern architecture no longer equipped to deal with the 'great themes' in architecture? By focusing on the tragic genre, this title asks some of the most far-reaching questions about the meaning of contemporary architecture. Has a modern delight in functionalism and repression of figuration put paid to the expression of human themes and narrative content? When put to the test, what has been the approach of contemporary architects who have been called upon to tackle the most abject horrors of our age such as the Holocaust?
      By holding the classical form of the tragic up for scrutiny, the texts in this title explore the ways that architects have also been seeking to deal with the incomplete, the fragmented and partial, the historicisation of nature and the appearance of the popular culture. There are substantial essays on the theme by Robert Maxwell, John Outram, David Hamilton Eddy and Richard Patterson. Buildings are also analysed, which express some of the great human themes or tragedies in our time. These include, among others, Foster's Berlin Reichstag, Libeskind's Jewish Museum and Chipperfield's designs for the San Michele Cemetery in Venice.

      Architects
      David Chipperfield
      Peter Eisenman
      Foster and Partners
      James Ingo Freed
      Daniel Libeskind
      John Outram

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