Truth and Lies in Architecture

Truth and Lies in Architecture PDF Author: Richard Francis-Jones
Publisher: Oro Editions
ISBN: 9781954081659
Category : Architectural practice
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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

Truth, Errors, and Lies

Truth, Errors, and Lies PDF Author: Grzegorz W. Kołodko
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231150695
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 474

Book Description
Grzegorz W. Kolodko, one of the world's leading authorities on economics and development policy and a key architect of Poland's successful economic reforms, applies his far-reaching knowledge to the past and future of the world economy, introducing a framework for understanding our global situation that transcends any single discipline or paradigm. Deploying a novel mix of scientific evaluation and personal observation, Kolodko begins with a brief discussion of misinformation and its perpetuation in economics and politics. He criticizes the simplification of complex economic and social issues and investigates the link between developments in the global economy and cultural change, scientific discoveries, and political fluctuations. Underscoring the necessity of conceptual and theoretical innovation in understanding our global economic situation, Kolodko offers a provocative study of globalization and the possibility of coming out ahead in an era of worldwide interdependence. Deeply critical of neoliberalism, which sought to transfer economic control exclusively to the private sector, Kolodko explores the virtues of social-economic development and the new rules of the economic game. He concludes with a look at our near and distant future, questioning whether we have a say in its making.

Architecture Depends

Architecture Depends PDF Author: Jeremy Till
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262518783
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Book Description
Polemics and reflections on how to bridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it to be. Architecture depends—on what? On people, time, politics, ethics, mess: the real world. Architecture, Jeremy Till argues with conviction in this engaging, sometimes pugnacious book, cannot help itself; it is dependent for its very existence on things outside itself. Despite the claims of autonomy, purity, and control that architects like to make about their practice, architecture is buffeted by uncertainty and contingency. Circumstances invariably intervene to upset the architect's best-laid plans—at every stage in the process, from design through construction to occupancy. Architects, however, tend to deny this, fearing contingency and preferring to pursue perfection. With Architecture Depends, architect and critic Jeremy Till offers a proposal for rescuing architects from themselves: a way to bridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it to be. Mixing anecdote, design, social theory, and personal experience, Till's writing is always accessible, moving freely between high and low registers, much like his suggestions for architecture itself.

Monumental Lies

Monumental Lies PDF Author: Robert Bevan
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1839761903
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
How statues, heritage and the built environment have become the battleground for the culture wars The past is weaponised in culture wars and cynically edited by those who wish to impose their ideology upon the physical spaces around us. Holocaust deniers use details of the ruins of the gas chambers Auschwitz to promote their lies: ‘No Holes; No Holocaust’. Yet long-standing concepts such as ‘authenticity’in heritage are undermined and trivialised by gatekeepers such as UNESCO. At the same, time, opposition to this manipulation is being undermined by cultural ideas that prioritise memory and impressions over history and facts. In Monumental Lies, Robert Bevan argues that monuments, architecture and cities are material evidence of history. They are the physical trace of past events, of previous ways of thinking and of politics, economics and values that percolate through to today. When our cities are reshaped as fantasies about the past, when monuments tell lies about who deserves honour or are destroyed and the struggle for justice forgotten, the historical record is being manipulated. When decisions are based on misinformed assumptions about how the built environment influences our behaviour or we are told, falsely, that certain architectural styles are alien to our cities, or when space pretends to be public but is private, or that physical separation is natural, we are being manipulated. There is a growing threat to the material evidence of the truth about history. We are in serious trouble if we can no longer trust the tangible world around us to tell us the truth. Monumental Lies explores the threats to our understanding of the built environment and how it impacts on our lives, as well as offers solutions to how to combat the ideological manipulations.

Twenty Over Eighty

Twenty Over Eighty PDF Author: Aileen Kwun
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1616895748
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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

The Software Architect Elevator

The Software Architect Elevator PDF Author: Gregor Hohpe
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1492077496
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Book Description
As the digital economy changes the rules of the game for enterprises, the role of software and IT architects is also transforming. Rather than focus on technical decisions alone, architects and senior technologists need to combine organizational and technical knowledge to effect change in their company’s structure and processes. To accomplish that, they need to connect the IT engine room to the penthouse, where the business strategy is defined. In this guide, author Gregor Hohpe shares real-world advice and hard-learned lessons from actual IT transformations. His anecdotes help architects, senior developers, and other IT professionals prepare for a more complex but rewarding role in the enterprise. This book is ideal for: Software architects and senior developers looking to shape the company’s technology direction or assist in an organizational transformation Enterprise architects and senior technologists searching for practical advice on how to navigate technical and organizational topics CTOs and senior technical architects who are devising an IT strategy that impacts the way the organization works IT managers who want to learn what’s worked and what hasn’t in large-scale transformation

Haute Couture Architecture

Haute Couture Architecture PDF Author: Anneke van Waesberghe
Publisher: Oro Editions
ISBN: 9781954081628
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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

Making Dystopia

Making Dystopia PDF Author: James Stevens Curl
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191068160
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 592

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