Download or read book Architecture and Abstraction written by Pier Vittorio Aureli and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark study of abstraction in architectural history, theory, and practice that challenges our assumptions about the meaning of abstract forms. In this theoretical study of abstraction in architecture—the first of its kind—Pier Vittorio Aureli argues for a reconsideration of abstraction, its meanings, and its sources. Although architects have typically interpreted abstraction in formal terms—the purposeful reduction of the complexities of design to its essentials—Aureli shows that abstraction instead arises from the material conditions of building production. In a lively study informed by Walter Benjamin, Karl Marx, Alfred Sohn-Rethel, and other social theorists, this book presents abstraction in architecture not as an aesthetic tendency but as a movement that arises from modern divisions of labor and consequent social asymmetries. These divisions were anticipated by the architecture of antiquity, which established a distinction between manual and intellectual labor, and placed the former in service to the latter. Further abstractions arose as geometry, used for measuring territories, became the intermediary between land and money and eventually produced the logic of the grid. In our own time, architectural abstraction serves the logic of capitalism and embraces the premise that all things can be exchanged—even experience itself is a commodity. To resist this turn, Aureli seeks a critique of architecture that begins not by scaling philosophical heights, but by standing at the ground level of material practice.
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!
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.
Download or read book The Software Architect Elevator written by Gregor Hohpe and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2020-04-08 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Design Through Abstraction written by Milton Stricker and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only presentation not only of the basic elements of architectural design, but also understanding organic architectural principles and practice.
Download or read book Architecture and Abstraction written by Pier Vittorio Aureli and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark study of abstraction in architectural history, theory, and practice that challenges our assumptions about the meaning of abstract forms. In this theoretical study of abstraction in architecture—the first of its kind—Pier Vittorio Aureli argues for a reconsideration of abstraction, its meanings, and its sources. Although architects have typically interpreted abstraction in formal terms—the purposeful reduction of the complexities of design to its essentials—Aureli shows that abstraction instead arises from the material conditions of building production. In a lively study informed by Walter Benjamin, Karl Marx, Alfred Sohn-Rethel, and other social theorists, this book presents abstraction in architecture not as an aesthetic tendency but as a movement that arises from modern divisions of labor and consequent social asymmetries. These divisions were anticipated by the architecture of antiquity, which established a distinction between manual and intellectual labor, and placed the former in service to the latter. Further abstractions arose as geometry, used for measuring territories, became the intermediary between land and money and eventually produced the logic of the grid. In our own time, architectural abstraction serves the logic of capitalism and embraces the premise that all things can be exchanged—even experience itself is a commodity. To resist this turn, Aureli seeks a critique of architecture that begins not by scaling philosophical heights, but by standing at the ground level of material practice.
Download or read book Abstraction and Transcendence written by Pham Thanh Hien and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 1998 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis introduces Tadao Ando, a well-known Japanese architect, who is currently working on an emerging concept in the discourse of architecture, and is opening an approach of high sensibility (sensual, reflective, flexible, and complex, sensitively matching with every moment of life) and conceptualism (rational, logically approaching truth) that is widely considered one of the most important ways of thinking and designing architecture.In the introduction chapter, Tadao Ando's is introduced as a master of architecture and as a critic. Secondly, his goals, objectives, concepts and strategies are outlined. These aspects are grouped and developed into major themes. Those themes will later be interpreted in Chapter Four.In the second chapter of the thesis, the architecture of Tadao Ando is examined more closely, through critics' studies and his writings. This part aims to open further discussions on the most substantial and important grounds and sources of his architecture, which are interpreted in further detail in Chapter Four: the key themes of his works and theories.Being aware that Ando's architecture cannot be understood without grasping "Japaneseness", or the historical cultural and regional contexts of Japan, the third chapter will be devoted to briefly introducing the origins, philosophy, traditions, and culture of the country, as well as major points of new waves of Japanese architecture, both of which tangibly and intangibly serve as the foundation for Ando's architectural themes: nature, shintai, and geometry as both abstract construct and substance. This chapter is essential for understanding the foundation and context of Ando's thoughts that always determine his architecture.Chapter Four is the key part of the thesis. It focuses on two aspects: Ando's philosophically-based theoretical concepts, and his major themes which have been introduced in the previous sections. This chapter provides a general and coherent understanding of his work.The concluding chapter summarizes the crucial points from among Ando's visions, moving from origins and philosophical grounds through concepts, strategies and theories, to the unique solutions which he advances for problems of the age. Thematically, Tadao Ando's works may be shown to reveal: Dialogue with Nature and Tradition (cosmologies, culture); Shintai and Space (mutual independence and penetration); and Geometry (spatial compositions, minimalist form, material and texture). Among these three over riding themes, there are many interrelated sub-themes are also examined. Download 1st chapter & ByteSizeSystems Reader FREE - and buy ByteSize b-book for $5.00.
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.
Download or read book Architecture and Embodiment written by Harry Francis Mallgrave and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-26 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years we have seen a number of dramatic discoveries within the biological and related sciences. Traditional arguments such as "nature versus nurture" are rapidly disappearing because of the realization that just as we are affecting our environments, so too do these altered environments restructure our cognitive abilities and outlooks. If the biological and technological breakthroughs are promising benefits such as extended life expectancies, these same discoveries also have the potential to improve in significant ways the quality of our built environments. This poses a compelling challenge to conventional architectural theory... This is the first book to consider these new scientific and humanistic models in architectural terms. Constructed as a series of five essays around the themes of beauty, culture, emotion, the experience of architecture, and artistic play, this book draws upon a broad range of discussions taking place in philosophy, psychology, biology, neuroscience, and anthropology, and in doing so questions what implications these discussions hold for architectural design. Drawing upon a wealth of research, Mallgrave argues that we should turn our focus away from the objectification of architecture (treating design as the creation of objects) and redirect it back to those for whom we design: the people inhabiting our built environments.
Download or read book Architecture and Modernity written by Hilde Heynen and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000-02-28 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bridges the gap between the history and theory of twentieth-century architecture and cultural theories of modernity. In this exploration of the relationship between modernity, dwelling, and architecture, Hilde Heynen attempts to bridge the gap between the discourse of the modern movement and cultural theories of modernity. On one hand, she discusses architecture from the perspective of critical theory, and on the other, she modifies positions within critical theory by linking them with architecture. She assesses architecture as a cultural field that structures daily life and that embodies major contradictions inherent in modernity, arguing that architecture nonetheless has a certain capacity to adopt a critical stance vis-à-vis modernity. Besides presenting a theoretical discussion of the relation between architecture, modernity, and dwelling, the book provides architectural students with an introduction to the discourse of critical theory. The subchapters on Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, and the Venice School (Tafuri, Dal Co, Cacciari) can be studied independently for this purpose.
Download or read book Just Enough Software Architecture written by George Fairbanks and published by Marshall & Brainerd. This book was released on 2010-08-30 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a practical guide for software developers, and different than other software architecture books. Here's why: It teaches risk-driven architecting. There is no need for meticulous designs when risks are small, nor any excuse for sloppy designs when risks threaten your success. This book describes a way to do just enough architecture. It avoids the one-size-fits-all process tar pit with advice on how to tune your design effort based on the risks you face. It democratizes architecture. This book seeks to make architecture relevant to all software developers. Developers need to understand how to use constraints as guiderails that ensure desired outcomes, and how seemingly small changes can affect a system's properties. It cultivates declarative knowledge. There is a difference between being able to hit a ball and knowing why you are able to hit it, what psychologists refer to as procedural knowledge versus declarative knowledge. This book will make you more aware of what you have been doing and provide names for the concepts. It emphasizes the engineering. This book focuses on the technical parts of software development and what developers do to ensure the system works not job titles or processes. It shows you how to build models and analyze architectures so that you can make principled design tradeoffs. It describes the techniques software designers use to reason about medium to large sized problems and points out where you can learn specialized techniques in more detail. It provides practical advice. Software design decisions influence the architecture and vice versa. The approach in this book embraces drill-down/pop-up behavior by describing models that have various levels of abstraction, from architecture to data structure design.
Download or read book Architecture s Theory written by Catherine Ingraham and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-04-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of illuminating essays exploring what theory makes of architecture and what architecture makes of theory in philosophical and materialized contexts. From poststructuralism and deconstruction to current theories of technology and nature, critical theory has long been closely aligned with architecture. In turn, architecture as a thinking profession materializes theory in the form of built work that always carries symbolic loads. In this collection of essays, Catherine Ingraham studies the complex connectivity between architecture's discipline and practice and theories of philosophy, art, literature, history, and politics. She argues that there can be no architecture without theory. Whether considering architecture’s relationship to biomodernity or exploring the ways in which contemporary artists and designers engage in figural play, Ingraham offers provocative interpretations that enhance our understanding of both critical theory and architectural practice today. Along the way, she engages with a wide range of contemporary theorists, including Giorgio Agamben, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Graham Harman, and Timothy Morton, considering buildings around the world, including the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, the Viceroy’s House complex in New Delhi, Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam's Wolfsburg Science Center project in Germany, and the Superdome in New Orleans. Approaching its subject matter from multiple angles, Architecture’s Theory shows how architecture's theoretical and artifactual practices have a unique power to alter culture.
Download or read book Modern Architecture and Expressionism written by Dennis Sharp and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Architecture in Black written by Darell Wayne Fields and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-12 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on analysis of historical, philosophical, and semiotic texts, Architecture in Black presents a systematic examination of the theoretical relationship between architecture and blackness. Now updated, this original study draws on a wider range of case studies, highlighting the racial techniques that can legitimize modern historicity, philosophy and architectural theory. Arguing that architecture, as an aesthetic practice, and blackness, as a linguistic practice, operate within the same semiotic paradigm, Darell Fields employs a technique whereby works are related through the repetition and revision of their semiotic structures. Fields reconstructs the genealogy of a black racial subject, represented by the simultaneous reading of a range of canonical texts from Hegel to Saussure to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Combining an historical survey of racial discourse with new readings resulting from advanced semiotic techniques doubling as spatial arrangements, Architecture in Black is an important contribution to studies of the racial in Western thought and its impact on architecture, space and time.
Download or read book Rituals and Walls written by Pier Vittorio Aureli and published by AA Publications. This book was released on 2016 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The idea of sacred space has not been considered a relevant topic in recent architecture, a neglect even more pronounced in terms of debates about the city.The texts and projects in this book aim to redress this oversight, and re-open a contemporary understanding of its relevance. The book itself is the result of a year-long investigation developed in the AA's Diploma Unit 14. It consists of design proposals that range from a mult-ifaith school in Strasbourg to the reconstruction of a festival hall in the city of Xian, China; from a Jesuit monastery in Detroit to a women's Islamic centre in Paris. The book is complemented by essays by Pier Vittorio Aureli, Maria Shéhérazade Giudici and Hamed Khosravi." -- Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Anti architecture and Deconstruction written by Nikos Angelos Salingaros and published by UMBAU-VERLAG Harald Püschel. This book was released on 2004 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Architectures of Time written by Sanford Kwinter and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002-08-23 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of twentieth-century conceptions of time and their relation to artistic form. In Architectures of Time, Sanford Kwinter offers a critical guide to the modern history of time and to the interplay between the physical sciences and the arts. Tracing the transformation of twentieth-century epistemology to the rise of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, Kwinter explains how the demise of the concept of absolute time, and of the classical notion of space as a fixed background against which things occur, led to field theory and a physics of the "event." He suggests that the closed, controlled, and mechanical world of physics gave way to the approximate, active, and qualitative world of biology as a model of both scientific and metaphysical explanation. Kwinter examines theory of time and space in Einstein's theories of relativity and shows how these ideas were reflected in the writings of the sculptor Umberto Boccioni, the town planning schema of the Futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia, the philosophy of Henri Bergson, and the writings of Franz Kafka. He argues that the writings of Boccioni and the visionary architecture of Sant'Elia represent the earliest and most profound deployments of the concepts of field and event. In discussing Kafka's work, he moves away from the thermodynamic model in favor of the closely related one of Bergsonian duree, or virtuality. He argues that Kafka's work manifests a coherent cosmology that can be understood only in relation to the constant temporal flux that underlies it.
