Covering major theoretical and methodological developments over recent decades in areas like social institutions, settlement types, gender, status, and power, this book addresses the developing understanding of where and how people in the past created and used domestic space. It will be a useful synthesis for scholars and an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in archaeology and architecture.
Historical archaeology, one of the fastest growing of archaeology’s sub fields in North America, has developed more slowly in Central and p- ticularly South America. Happily, this circumstance is ending as a gr- ing number of recent projects are successfully integrating textual and material culture data in studies of the events and processes of the last 500 years. This interval and this region–often called Ibero-America–have been studied for a century or more by historians with traditional perspectives and emphases focusing on colonial elites and large-scale politico-economic events. Such inclinations fit well into world-system and other core-peri- ery models that have had a major impact on historical thought since the 1970s. Over the past 20 years or so, however, world-system models have come under fire from historians, anthropologists, and others, in part because the emphasis on global trends and the growth of capitalism - nies the importance of understanding variability in local histories and circumstances. Historians have increasingly turned their attention to lo cal, rural, and domestic contexts, thereby illuminating the great diversity of responses to colonial domination that were played out in the vast arena of the Americas. It is not coincidental that this is the intellectual climate in which historical archaeology is establishing itself in Central and South America.
This dissertation examines the evolution of Western and Modern architecture in Siam and Thailand. It illustrates how various architectural ideas have contributed to the physical design and spatial configuration of places associated with negotiation and allocation of political power, which are throne halls, parliaments, and government and civic structures since the 1850s.
A #1 best seller for years, Bill Hirsch's Designing Your Perfect House: Lessons from an Architect has been called an essential read for Homeowners as well as Professionals. Bill's flowing style of writing makes you feel like you are sitting with him having a chat about your project. The philosophy behind design decisions is explained with stories, photos, sketches, and checklists. The book is divided into Twelve Lessons, with an additional Bonus Lesson ," Building Green, Naturally". You will learn how to evaluate your needs and work towards creating a suitable design, perfect for you and your family. The experience of home design and construction should be controllable, gratifying and enjoyable. With the valuable advice that Designing Your Perfect House: Lessons from an Architect provides, it can be.
Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space investigates the relationship between the built environment and the organisation of space. The contributors are classical and prehistoric archaeologists, anthropologists and architects, who from their different backgrounds are able to provide some important and original insights into this relationship.
Energy performance feedback is an essential tool in addressing the current climate crisis. However, this is not simply another theoretical text about energy performance in buildings. This book is for anyone who wants to better understand how energy is used in buildings, and how to drive down operational energy use – whether you’re an architect, student, client, building services engineer, contractor, building operator or other stakeholder. Focusing on evidence from feedback on buildings in use, it explains what it takes to get them to perform as expected, as well as the reasons why they often fail. Energy, People, Buildings draws extensively on the findings of studies, UK government-funded building performance evaluations and on original research into seven case studies from across the UK and abroad that have achieved exemplary energy use through building performance feedback. Providing a clear roadmap to understanding aspects that impact building users’ comfort and satisfaction, it also outlines the factors behind energy use and how to track it across the life of a project to ensure that your building performs as intended. Case studies include: the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool; Rocky Mountain Institute Innovation Center, Colorado; and Carrowbreck Meadow, Norwich. Featured architects: AHMM, AHR, Architype, Hamson Barron Smith, Haworth Tompkins, Henning Larsen Architects and ZGF Architects.
Since antiquity, Roman architecture and planning have inspired architects and designers. In this volume, Diane Favro and Fikret Yegül offer a comprehensive history and analysis of the Roman built environment, emphasizing design and planning aspects of buildings and streetscapes. They explore the dynamic evolution and dissemination of architectural ideas, showing how local influences and technologies were incorporated across the vast Roman territory. They also consider how Roman construction and engineering expertise, as well as logistical proficiency, contributed to the making of bold and exceptional spaces and forms. Based on decades of first-hand examinations of ancient sites throughout the Roman world, from Britain to Syria, the authors give close accounts of many sites no longer extant or accessible. Written in a lively and accessible manner, Roman Architecture and Urbanism affirms the enduring attractions of Roman buildings and environments and their relevance to a global view of architecture. It will appeal to readers interested in the classical world and the history of architecture and urban design, as well as wide range of academic fields. With 835 illustrations including numerous new plans and drawings as well as digital renderings.
Bestselling author Alain de Botton considers how our private homes and public edifices influence how we feel, and how we could build dwellings in which we would stand a better chance of happiness. In this witty, erudite look at how we shape, and are shaped by, our surroundings, Alain de Botton applies Stendhal’s motto that “Beauty is the promise of happiness” to the spaces we inhabit daily. Why should we pay attention to what architecture has to say to us? de Botton asks provocatively. With his trademark lucidity and humour, de Botton traces how human needs and desires have been served by styles of architecture, from stately Classical to minimalist Modern, arguing that the stylistic choices of a society can represent both its cherished ideals and the qualities it desperately lacks. On an individual level, de Botton has deep sympathy for our need to see our selves reflected in our surroundings; he demonstrates with great wisdom how buildings — just like friends — can serve as guardians of our identity. Worrying about the shape of our sofa or the colour of our walls might seem self-indulgent, but de Botton considers the hopes and fears we have for our homes at a new level of depth and insight. When shopping for furniture or remodelling the kitchen, we don’t just consider functionality but also the major questions of aesthetics and the philosophy of art: What is beauty? Can beautiful surroundings make us good? Can beauty bring happiness? The buildings we find beautiful, de Botton concludes, are those that represent our ideas of a meaningful life. The Architecture of Happiness marks a return to what Alain does best — taking on a subject whose allure is at once tantalizing and a little forbidding and offering to readers a completely beguiling and original exploration of the subject. As he did with Proust, philosophy, and travel, now he does with architecture.
Unprecedented in its in-depth coverage, and with over 500 illustrations, photographs, and architectural drawings the multi-volume Companion to the History of Architecture offers an indispensable resource on architectural thought and practice ranging from the 15th century to the present day. AUTHORITATIVE: Brings together an international team of over one hundred eminent historians, academics and practising architects USER-FRIENDLY: Accessibly structured into volumes organized both chronologically and thematically, spanning the architecture of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment periods, through to the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries INCLUSIVE: Spans a broad and global range of issues, from the impact of war and religion on city architecture; its relationship with the public; and architecture and the sciences; to examples such as materials and Tectonic expression; Beaux-arts and the Gothic; and contemporary issues, such as contemporary architecture's critical review of its cultural production, ecology, technological saturation, and ontological engagement with a world now largely urbanized CUTTING-EDGE: Reviews the most recent developments in the field, including theory and practice from the past ten years, along with likely future developments in the history of architecture MULTI-FORMAT: Publishing simultaneously in print and online, providing an unparalleled reference work for students and scholars alike
When American architects, designers, and cultural institutions converted wartime strategies to new ends, the aggressive promotion of postwar domestic bliss became another kind of weapon. In the years immediately following World War II, America embraced modern architecture—not as something imported from Europe, but as an entirely new mode of operation, with original and captivating designs made in the USA. In Domesticity at War, Beatriz Colomina shows how postwar American architecture adapted the techniques and materials that were developed for military applications to domestic use. Just as manufacturers were turning wartime industry to peacetime productivity—going from missiles to washing machines—American architects and cultural institutions were, in Buckminster Fuller's words, turning "weaponry into livingry."This new form of domesticity itself turned out to be a powerful weapon. Images of American domestic bliss—suburban homes, manicured lawns, kitchen accessories—went around the world as an effective propaganda campaign. Cold War anxieties were masked by endlessly repeated images of a picture-perfect domestic environment. Even the popular conception of the architect became domesticated, changing from that of an austere modernist to a plaid-shirt wearing homebody. Colomina examines, with interlocking case studies and an army of images, the embattled and obsessive domesticity of postwar America. She reports on, among other things, MOMA's exhibition of a Dymaxion Deployment Unit (DDU), a corrugated steel house suitable for use as a bomb shelter, barracks, or housing; Charles and Ray Eames's vigorous domestic life and their idea of architecture as a flexible stage for the theatrical spectacle of everyday life; and the American lawn as patriotic site and inalienable right.Domesticity at War itself has a distinctive architecture. Housed within the case are two units: one book of text, and one book of illustrations—most of them in color, including advertisements, newspaper and magazine articles, architectural photographs, and more.
