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Book Architecture and Spectacle  A Critique

Download or read book Architecture and Spectacle A Critique written by Gevork Hartoonian and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on six leading contemporary architects: Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Bernard Tschumi, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas and Steven Holl, this book puts forward a unique and insightful analysis of "neo-avant-garde" architecture. It discusses the spectacle and excess which permeates contemporary architecture in reference to the present aesthetic tendency for image making, but does so by applying the tectonic of theatricality discussed by the 19th-century German architect Gottfried Semper. In doing so, it breaks new ground by opening up a dialogue between the study of the past and the design of the present. The work of each discussed architect is seen as addressing a historiographical problem. To this end, and this is the second important aspect of this book, the chosen buildings are discussed in terms of the thematic of the culture of building (the tectonic of column and wall for example) rather the formal, and this through a discussion that is informed by the latest available theories. Having set the aesthetic implication of the processes of the digitalization of architecture, the book's conclusion highlights "strategies" by which architecture might postpone the full consequences of digitalization, and thus the becoming of architecture as ornament on its own right.

Book The Age of Spectacle

Download or read book The Age of Spectacle written by Tom Dyckhoff and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-04-20 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A great storyteller . . . you would be hard pushed to find a more knowledgeable or entertaining [guide]' Icon 'Such an interesting book . . . I cannot recommend it enough.' Lauren Laverne In Dubai, a luxury apartment block is built in the shape of a giant iPod. In China, President Xi Jinping denounces the trend of constructing ‘bizarre’ new buildings in wacky shapes and colours. In Cincinnati, celebrity architect Zaha Hadid is paid millions to design a single ‘iconic’ structure – with the hope of single-handedly transforming the region’s ailing fortunes. These incidents are all part of the same story: the rise of the age of spectacle. Over the last fifty years, there has been a revolution in how our cities operate. In The Age of Spectacle, Tom Dyckhoff tells the story of how architecture became obsessed with the flashy, the monumental and the ostentatious – and how we all have to live with the consequences. Exploring cityscapes from New York to Beijing, and from Bilbao to Portsmouth, Dyckhoff shows that we are not just witnessing a new kind of building: we are living through a fundamental transformation in how our urban spaces work. The corporate explosion of the last few decades has fundamentally shifted the relationship between architects, politicians and cities’ inhabitants, fostering innovative new kinds of engineering and design, but also facilitating ill-conceived vanity projects and commercial power-grabs. Timely, passionate and bursting with new ideas, The Age of Spectacle is both an examination of how twenty-first century cities work, and a manifesto for a radically new kind of urbanism. Our cities, Dyckhoff shows, can thrive in the age of spectacle – but only if they engage us not just with dazzling structures, but by responding to the needs of the people who inhabit them. 'Engaging . . . The “iconic” building is the most obvious architectural phenomenon of our age yet, somehow, no one has quite done what Tom Dyckhoff does with The Age of Spectacle, which is to tell its story clearly and plainly.' Rowan Moore, Observer 'First class. Finally, a book that nails the iconic movement – Tom Dyckhoff’s The Age of Spectacle is the book that I wish I had written.' Simon Jenkins 'Unusually accessible [and] well argued.' Evening Standard

Book Architecture Between Spectacle and Use

Download or read book Architecture Between Spectacle and Use written by Anthony Vidler and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the state of contemporary architecture worldwide and the ways in which it is caught between the art of display and the accommodation of use.

Book Architecture and Science Fiction Film

Download or read book Architecture and Science Fiction Film written by David T. Fortin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The home is one of our most enduring human paradoxes and is brought to light tellingly in science-fiction (SF) writing and film. However, while similarities and crossovers between architecture and SF have proliferated throughout the past century, the home is often overshadowed by the spectacle of 'otherness'. The study of the familiar (home) within the alien (SF) creates a unique cultural lens through which to reflect on our current architectural condition. SF has always been linked with alienation; however, the conditions of such alienation, and hence notions of home, have evidently changed. There is often a perceived comprehension of the familiar that atrophies the inquisitive and interpretive processes commonly activated when confronting the unfamiliar. Thus, by utilizing the estranging qualities of SF to look at a concept inherently linked to its perceived opposite - the home - a unique critical analysis with particular relevance for contemporary architecture is made possible.

Book Commodification And Spectacle in Architecture

Download or read book Commodification And Spectacle in Architecture written by William S. Saunders and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than ever, architectural design is seen as a means to promote commercial goals rather than as an end in itself. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, for example, simply cannot be considered apart from its intended role as a catalyst for the economic revitalization of Bilbao and its ability to attract tourist dollars, regardless of its architectural merits. A built environment intended to seduce consumers is more likely to offer instant gratification than to invite independent thought and reflection. But how harmful, if at all, is this unprecedented commercialization of architecture? Framed with a provocative introduction by Kenneth Frampton, the contributions to Commodification and Spectacle in Architecture stake out a variety of positions in the debate over the extent to which it is possible—or desirable—to escape from, resist, or suggest plausible alternatives to the dominant culture of consumer capitalism. Rejecting any dreamy nostalgia for an idealized present or past in which design is completely divorced from commerce—and, in some cases, celebrating the pleasures of spectacle—the individual essays range from indictments of particular architects and critiques of the profession to broader concerns about what the phenomenon of commodification means for the practice of democracy and the health of society. Bringing together an impressive and varied group of critics and practitioners, Commodification and Spectacle in Architecture will help to sharpen the discussion of how design can respond to our hypercommodified culture. Contributors: Michael Benedikt, Luis Fernández-Galiano, Thomas Frank, Kevin Ervin Kelley, Daniel Naegele, Rick Poynor, Michael Sorkin, Wouter Vanstiphout. William S. Saunders is editor of Harvard Design Magazine and assistant dean for external relations at the Harvard Design School. He is the author of Modern Architecture: Photographs by Ezra Stoller. Kenneth Frampton is Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and author of many books, including Labour, Work, and Architecture.

Book The Glass State

    Book Details:
  • Author : Annette Fierro
  • Publisher : MIT Press
  • Release : 2003
  • ISBN : 9780262062336
  • Pages : 356 pages

Download or read book The Glass State written by Annette Fierro and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Gothic to the contemporary, glass has transformed the structural, formal and philosophical principles of artchitecture. In The Glass State, Annette Fierro views the many meanings of transparency in architecture. Specifically, she analyzes the transparent monumental buildings that were built in Paris between 1981 and 1988 as part of Francois Mitterand's program of Grands Projets. The Grands Projets provide a rare opportunity to study a finite set of buidings constructed of similar materials, in the same time period, in a specific urban landscape, and with related ideological missions.

Book Terror and Wonder

    Book Details:
  • Author : Blair Kamin
  • Publisher : University of Chicago Press
  • Release : 2011-11
  • ISBN : 0226423123
  • Pages : 316 pages

Download or read book Terror and Wonder written by Blair Kamin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-11 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects the best of Kamin's writings for the Chicago Tribune from the past decade.

Book Architecture for Community and Spectacle

Download or read book Architecture for Community and Spectacle written by William Bradford Keller and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Architecture as a Global System

Download or read book Architecture as a Global System written by Peter Raisbeck and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-08 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a clear-sighted analysis which suggests that architectural design may yet shape and order the future of cities. A clear argument that emerges is that to retain their future agency, architects must understand the contours and ecologies of practice that constitute the global system of architectural production.

Book Whose City Is That  Culture  Design  Spectacle and Capital in Istanbul

Download or read book Whose City Is That Culture Design Spectacle and Capital in Istanbul written by Dilek Özhan Koçak and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-26 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whose City is That? shows that Istanbul is produced not only by strong and systematic efforts, corporate influences and/or marketing activities, but also by individual contributions and coincidences. As such, the primary purpose of this book is to find the answer of to whom Istanbul does belong, presenting the reader with the richness of human experience and the practice of everyday life. The chapters in this book are therefore focused on the physical and economic dimensions, as well as the imaginary, fictional and hyper-real dimensions, expressing the concern of bringing the real and imaginary borders of the city together. The book provides an understanding that for each inhabitant there is another city, another Istanbul. Each person living in the city creates or lives in another city which is made of their own personal and particular experiences. In addition, the Istanbul the authors understand and describe turns into something different moment by moment, which cannot be defined or identified because of its very nature as a megacity. However, its flow is not aimless and non-directional, and each sign is not causeless or dateless. In this context, in order to make the possibilities of the city visible, the contributors to this volume ask: “Istanbul, whose city is it?” The title of the book enables different academics to ask the same question using different methodologies and subjects. The question “Whose City is That?” and the necessity of studying Istanbul using multidisciplinary perspectives brought many researchers from different fields together, because the city is larger than one approach and the constraints of one “unique” field. Gathering researchers and academics from various disciplines, such as communication studies, cultural studies, cinema/media studies, literature, the fine arts, city and regional planning, political science, social and economic geography, anthropology, and architecture enables each to think about the city alone and together, so as to create new forms of thought and discourse about Istanbul.

Book Society Of The Spectacle

Download or read book Society Of The Spectacle written by Guy Debord and published by Bread and Circuses Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Das Kapital of the 20th century,Society of the Spectacle is an essential text, and the main theoretical work of the Situationists. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960's, in particular the May 1968 uprisings in France, up to the present day, with global capitalism seemingly staggering around in it’s Zombie end-phase, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism, and everyday life in the late 20th century. This ‘Red and Black’ translation from 1977 is Introduced by Notting Hill armchair insurrectionary Tom Vague with a galloping time line and pop-situ verve, and given a more analytical over view by young upstart thinker Sam Cooper.

Book Living the Moment

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michael Albers
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2011
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : pages

Download or read book Living the Moment written by Michael Albers and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Global Perspectives on Critical Architecture

Download or read book Global Perspectives on Critical Architecture written by Dr Gevork Hartoonian and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-10-28 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judging from the debates taking place in both education and practice, it appears that architecture is deeply in crisis. New design and production techniques, together with the globalization of capital and even skilled-labour, have reduced architecture to a commodified object, its aesthetic qualities tapping into the current pervasive desire for the spectacular. These developments have changed the architect’s role in the design and production processes of architecture. Bringing together essays and interviews from leading scholars such as Kenneth Frampton, Peggy Deamer, Bernard Tschumi, Donald Kunze and Marco Biraghi, this volume investigates and critically addresses various dimensions of the present crisis of architecture.

Book The Renaissance Perfected

    Book Details:
  • Author : D. Medina Lasansky
  • Publisher : Penn State Press
  • Release : 2004
  • ISBN : 9780271023663
  • Pages : 432 pages

Download or read book The Renaissance Perfected written by D. Medina Lasansky and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mussolini&’s bold claims upon the monuments and rhetoric of ancient Rome have been the subject of a number of recent books. D. Medina Lasansky shows us a much less familiar side of the cultural politics of Italian Fascism, tracing its wide-ranging efforts to adapt the nation&’s medieval and Renaissance heritage to satisfy the regime&’s programs of national regeneration. Anyone acquainted with the beauties of Tuscany will be surprised to learn that architects, planners, and administrators working within Fascist programs fabricated much of what today&’s tourists admire as authentic. Public squares, town halls, palaces, gardens, and civic rituals (including the famed Palio of Siena) were all &“restored&” to suit a vision of the past shaped by Fascist notions of virile power, social order, and national achievement in the arts. Ultimately, Lasansky forces readers to question long-standing assumptions about the Renaissance even as she expands the parameters of what constitutes Fascist culture. The arguments in The Renaissance Perfected are based in fresh archival evidence and a rich collection of illustrations, many reproduced for the first time, ranging from photographs and architectural drawings to tourist posters and film stills. Lasansky&’s groundbreaking book will be essential reading for students of medieval, Renaissance, and twentieth-century Italy as well as all those concerned with visual culture, architectural preservation, heritage studies, and tourism studies.

Book Runway

    Book Details:
  • Author : Alix Browne
  • Publisher : Rizzoli Publications
  • Release : 2016-10-18
  • ISBN : 0847848752
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book Runway written by Alix Browne and published by Rizzoli Publications. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning work on contemporary fashion spectacles, showcasing the most innovative, creative, and artistic high-fashion runway shows of the last twenty years. In recent years, as fashion shows have become a part of our collective imagination and an important part of contemporary culture, blockbuster productions have redefined the runway show as a form of entertainment and creativity on par with the clothes themselves. This book focuses on designers for whom fashion and the mode of presenting it have held equal significance: Alexander McQueen, Martin Margiela, Hussein Chalayan, Viktor & Rolf, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, Raf Simons, Thom Browne, and Imitation of Christ, among them. From the performance art spectacles of the first Alexander McQueen collections in the mid-1990s and the high-art concept shows of Hussein Chalayan in the late 1990s to the lavish beauty of Chanel haute couture in 2012, author Alix Browne explores the highest pinnacles of fashion today. Runway gives the reader full access to the theatrical and creative aspects of the production, in both intimate, little-seen runway shows from the pre-Internet era—many of the photographs here have never been published before—as well as major productions with elaborate sets and full-blown narrative. A thrilling, immersive, and inspiring look into the wide-ranging creativity of contemporary fashion, Runway is the most thorough book available on the subject. Featuring the most innovative fashion designers of the last twenty years, this book is a must for lovers of fashion and culture.

Book A History of Russian Exposition and Festival Architecture

Download or read book A History of Russian Exposition and Festival Architecture written by Alla Aronova and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-03 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of thirteen vignettes addresses several important episodes in the history of Russian temporary architecture and public art, from the royal festivals during the times of Peter the Great up to the recent venues including the Sochi Winter Olympics. The forms and the circumstances of their design were drastically different; however, the projects discussed in the book share a common feature: they have been instrumental in the construction of Russia’s national identity, with its perception of the West - simultaneously, a foe and a paragon - looming high over this process. The book offers a history of multidirectional relationships between diplomacy, propaganda, and architecture.

Book The Organizational Complex

Download or read book The Organizational Complex written by Reinhold Martin and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2005-09-23 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A historical and theoretical analysis of corporate architecture in the United States after the Second World War. The Organizational Complex is a historical and theoretical analysis of corporate architecture in the United States after the Second World War. Its title refers to the aesthetic and technological extension of the military-industrial complex, in which architecture, computers, and corporations formed a network of objects, images, and discourses that realigned social relations and transformed the postwar landscape. In-depth case studies of architect Eero Saarinen's work for General Motors, IBM, and Bell Laboratories and analyses of office buildings designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill trace the emergence of a systems-based model of organization in architecture, in which the modular curtain wall acts as both an organizational device and a carrier of the corporate image. Such an image—of the corporation as a flexible, integrated system—is seen to correspond with a "humanization" of corporate life, as corporations decentralize both spatially and administratively. Parallel analyses follow the assimilation of cybernetics into aesthetics in the writings of artist and visual theorist Gyorgy Kepes, as art merges with techno-science in the service of a dynamic new "pattern-seeing." Image and system thus converge in the organizational complex, while top-down power dissolves into networked, pattern-based control. Architecture, as one among many media technologies, supplies the patterns—images of organic integration designed to regulate new and unstable human-machine assemblages.