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This text is an essay on the relationship between ways of thinking, the rich seams of contemporary thought and the forms of the house, of planning and living in it. The descriptive method is based on seven guided visits to a group of real or imaginary houses that make up a sufficiently extended panorama for understanding what the 20th century has bequeathed to us in the way of a heritage. In order to choose the houses to visit it was necessary to narrow things down, simplify them, by highlighting a series of archetypes defined by their most pronounced features. The reader, then, won't find any of the masterworks built by modern architects -neither the Villa Savoye, nor Fallingwater, nor the Villa Tugendhat-but mostly imaginary houses, houses constructed by manipulating different references. In short, this book invites the reader on a fantasy tour, one whose aim is not just to celebrate the diversity of the 20th-century house but also to stimulate the pleasure of thinking, planning and living intensely, to promote the appearance of a house that does not yet exist.
"This book presents unusual projects, techniques and places that seek to materialize a vision of the contemporary city with which to recycle established beliefs about architecture and the role of the architect. Madrid appears as a metaphor of the world. It is a privileged space in which to test new ways of understanding the limits between public and private, natural and artificial, identity and hybridization."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Essays on Thermodynamics, Architecture and Beauty, is a book that unfolds arguments and designs around the concept of "thermodynamic beauty". This new aesthetic category opens up new and unexpected directions to the architect's work, connecting architecture and thermodynamics without giving up the tectonic tradition. The compendium will be developed through the concepts of Somatisms, Monsters Assemblage, Verticalism and Thermodynamic Materialism, summarizing design strategies, and opening new territories at the scales of building, public space and landscape.
What is the actual difference between architectural and interior design? To answer the question, this book looks into the actions of interior disciplines, to understand what they do, not only what they are. In doing so, it studies them through intersection, to identify the essential principles that characterise this kind of design. From typology to topology, from context to palimpsest, from space to place, the result is a story – particularly focused on the Italian tradition – of the ideas and projects that defined a particular design sensibility that knows no limits of context or scale.
In The Pandemic Effect, 90 leading architects, designers, materials scientists, and health officials reflect on the influence of COVID-19 on buildings and cities—and propose solutions to safeguard the built environment from future pandemics, viruses, and contagious diseases on every scale, from surfaces to society. Safety and sustainability in buildings and cities have taken on new meaning during the COVID -19 pandemic. Buildings became magnifiers of contagion instead of shelters for protection. In this essential resource for both practitioners and students of architecture, interior design, and urban design, 90 of the world's leading experts investigate a variety of approaches to future-pr...
A sharp and lively text that covers issues in depth but not to the point that they become inaccessible to beginning students, An Introduction to Architectural Theory is the first narrative history of this period, charting the veritable revolution in architectural thinking that has taken place, as well as the implications of this intellectual upheaval. The first comprehensive and critical history of architectural theory over the last fifty years surveys the intellectual history of architecture since 1968, including criticisms of high modernism, the rise of postmodern and poststructural theory, critical regionalism and tectonics Offers a comprehensive overview of the significant changes that architectural thinking has undergone in the past fifteen years Includes an analysis of where architecture stands and where it will likely move in the coming years
An Exploration into Material, Physiological and Territorial Atmospheres. Energy and sustainability is a complex topic that needs to address simultaneously core disciplinary values and ideas that come from other fields of knowledge. The interconnection between the environment and its climate, its built structures and the human body requires overlying architecture with other disciplines such as meteorology, thermodynamics or physiology to engage them in a holistic way. The book is structured in three blocks—Territorial Atmospheres, Material Atmospheres and Physiological Atmospheres—which present three distinct and successive realms at which thermodynamic exchanges are taking place. Territo...
Existentialism; Urbanism; Aporia; Deontic; Tabula Rasa; Hyperspace; Heterotopia; Metareality; Structuralism... What does it all mean? The unique language used in architectural theory – both in speech and writing – can appear daunting and confusing, particularly to new architectural students. Decoding Theoryspeak provides an accessible guide to the specialized language of contemporary design for the next generation of thinkers, architects and design leaders. It includes: definitions of over 200 terms clear cross-references illustrations throughout. It is an essential pocket-sized resource for students and practitioners alike.