Utopian Adventure: The Corviale Void
Utopian Adventure: The Corviale Void

Author: Victoria Watson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-02-17

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1317002946

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This book is about contemporary issues in architecture and urbanism, taking the form of a project for The Corviale Void, a one kilometre long strip of urban space, immured in the notorious Corviale housing development in the Southwestern sector of Rome. Corviale is a bizarre object, single-minded in its idea, the history of Corviale can be traced to debates in Italian architecture culture of the 1960’s, including Aldo Rossi’s objection to urbanisation, as articulated in his books and projects. On the one hand the project for the Corviale Void begins with one of the original theorists of modern urbanisation and architecture, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, looking into his fascination with the insides of walls. On the other hand the project begins with a new material form, The Air Grid. Like the forms appearing in Piranesi’s etchings, Air Grid is made from a kind of hatching, but Air Grid is hatched out of colour vectors, literally drawn into the air. The human eye is easily mesmerised by the Air Grid, scanning back and forth it reads the colour form as animated, in some sense alive. At the same time as the Italian architects were engaged in those activities that would eventually give birth to the Corviale Void, the painter Yves Klein, was creating The Architecture of the Air. Klein’s work is of special interest to the project of the Corviale Void because of the important role of colour in the development of his thinking about architecture. By attending to Klein’s parallel inquiry Air Grid is brought into dialogue with the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, who was one of the first thinkers to develop a physiological theory of colour. The important thing about Schopenhauer’s thinking is the careful way he looked at physiological phenomena, regarding them as directly informed by metaphysical powers; for Schopenhauer Architecture too is a physiological matter and hence metaphysical. The concluding proposal for the Corviale Void presents a metaphysical archite

Utopian Adventure
Utopian Adventure

Author: Victoria Watson

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1409409910

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This unique book is about contemporary issues in architecture and urbanism, taking the form of a project for The Corviale Void, a one kilometre long strip of urban space, immured in the notorious Corviale housing development in Rome. It begins with one of the original theorists of modern urbanisation and architecture, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, looking into his fascination with the insides of walls, and on the other hand explores a new material form, The Air Grid, which like the forms appearing in Piranesi's etchings, is made from a kind of hatching, but it is hatched out of colour vectors, literally drawn into the air.

Marcel Duchamp and the Architecture of Desire
Marcel Duchamp and the Architecture of Desire

Author: Penelope Haralambidou

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-02

Total Pages: 1154

ISBN-13: 1351919997

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While much has been written on Marcel Duchamp - one of the twentieth century's most beguiling artists - the subject of his flirtation with architecture seems to have been largely overlooked. Yet, in the carefully arranged plans and sections organising the blueprint of desire in the Large Glass, his numerous pieces replicating architectural fragments, and his involvement in designing exhibitions, Duchamp's fascination with architectural design is clearly evident. As his unconventional architectural influences - Niceron, Lequeu and Kiesler - and diverse legacy - Tschumi, OMA, Webb, Diller + Scofidio and Nicholson - indicate, Duchamp was not as much interested in 'built' architecture as he was in the architecture of desire, re-constructing the imagination through drawing and testing the boundaries between reality and its aesthetic and philosophical possibilities. Marcel Duchamp and the Architecture of Desire examines the link between architectural thinking and Duchamp's work. By employing design, drawing and making - the tools of the architect - Haralambidou performs an architectural analysis of Duchamp’s final enigmatic work Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas... demonstrating an innovative research methodology able to grasp meaning beyond textual analysis. This novel reading of his ideas and methods adds to, but also challenges, other art-historical interpretations. Through three main themes - allegory, visuality and desire - the book defines and theorises an alternative drawing practice positioned between art and architecture that predates and includes Duchamp.

Spaces of Tolerance
Spaces of Tolerance

Author: Igea Troiani

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-03-29

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 100036948X

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Spaces of Tolerance addresses the topic of tolerance in architectural production. Through examining the boundaries of where discourses, practices and designs are considered publishable (suitable to be made public) or not, the book exposes criteria and cultures which censor architecture so as to offer ways that architecture can be more inclusive and diverse for society at large. The contributors to the book discuss: disciplinary tolerances and constraints related to architecture and its interdisciplinary exchanges and modes of working; physical, spatial, temporal and digital tolerance in material assemblages and production between drawing and building; and social, cultural and political tolerance and threats contingent on geography and history. This timely book aims to look at extremities, margins and marginality to explore acceptable levels – and their fluctuations – in deviation and divergence. Chapters in the book involve ungendering, unacculturating (in disciplinary terms) and diversifying the architectural practitioner, writer, editor, reviewer, and reader, and retooling the instruments and tactics of architectural practice and theory. They argue that tolerance in interdisciplinary research in architecture can cultivate more diverse and productive conversations. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Architecture and Culture.

After Belonging
After Belonging

Author: Samir Pandya

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-26

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1000830675

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This book breaks new ground in demystifying the relationship between architecture, nationhood, and other forms of collective identity. It attempts to extricate the oppressive ideology of national identity entrenched within the very idea of architecture. Authors investigate themes such as cosmopolitanism, diaspora, geopolitics, globalisation, hybridity, and race. Certain chapters expose highly regulated environments which support cultural hegemony, such as the context of a hostel for ‘coloured colonial seamen’ in London, the illusionary rhetoric of ‘authenticity’ used to legitimise architectural conservation, and the role of the mosque as mediator between a post-war, multi-racial Britain, and ideas of nationhood. Others engage subjects at the urban scale, including the phenomena of universities transcending their nation-building roots to become agents of cosmopolitan urbanism, and how the discursive context of a high-profile yet unrealised modernist office-block in the City of London sustained a culture of British faux-nationalism. Remaining chapters adopt a postcolonial lens, with one examining how particular works of literary fiction reimagine notions of ‘place’ within an emerging intercultural nation, and another exploring the tense relationship between identitarian form and affective atmospheres to suggest the possibility of anti-essentialist experiences of architecture. Together, these perspectives propose an alternative vision of the City, where neither state-sponsored identity politics nor right-wing populism determine the cultural context within which architects design for our collective urban experience. This book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of Architecture, Anthropology, History, Human Geography, Politics, Sociology, and Urban Studies. The chapters in this book, except for chapter 1, were first published in the journal National Identities.

Heterotopia and the City
Heterotopia and the City

Author: Michiel Dehaene

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-05-15

Total Pages: 572

ISBN-13: 1134100132

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Heterotopia, literally meaning ‘other place’, is a rich concept in urban design that describes a space that is on the margins of ordered or civil society, and one that possesses multiple, fragmented or even incompatible meanings. The term has had an impact on architectural and urban theory since it was coined by Foucault in the late 1960s but it has remained a source of confusion and debate since. Heterotopia and the City seeks to clarify this concept and investigates the heterotopias which exist throughout our contemporary world: in museums, theme parks, malls, holiday resorts, gated communities, wellness hotels and festival markets. With theoretical contributions on the concept of heterotopia, including a new translation of Foucault’s influential 1967 text, Of Other Space and essays by well-known scholars, the book comprises a series of critical case studies, from Beaubourg to Bilbao, which probe a range of (post)urban transformations and which redirect the debate on the privatization of public space. Wastelands and terrains vagues are studied in detail in a section on urban activism and transgression and the reader gets a glimpse of the extremes of our dualized, postcivil condition through case studies on Jakarta, Dubai, and Kinshasa. Heterotopia and the City provides a collective effort to reposition heterotopia as a crucial concept for contemporary urban theory. The book will be of interest to all those wishing to understand the city in the emerging postcivil society and post-historical era. Planners, architects, cultural theorists, urbanists and academics will find this a valuable contribution to current critical argument.

Sprawltown
Sprawltown

Author: Richard Ingersoll

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2012-03-20

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1616890207

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Sprawl. The word calls to mind a host of troublesome issues such as city flight, runaway suburban development, and the conversion of farmland to soulless housing developments. In Sprawltown, architectural historian Richard Ingersoll makes the surprising claim that sprawl is an inevitable reality of modern life that should be addressed more thoughtfully and recognized as its own new form of urbanism rather than simply being criticized and condemned. In five thought-provoking chapters, covering topics such as tourism, film, and the automobile, Ingersoll takes the position that any solution to the problems of sprawl—including pressing issues like resource use and energy waste—must take into consideration its undeniable success as a social milieu. No screed against the suburb, this book offers a more sophisticated and nuanced view of the way we think about its rapid development and growth.

Viral Hate
Viral Hate

Author: Abraham H. Foxman

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2013-06-04

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1137356227

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Emboldened by anonymity, individuals and organizations from both left and right are freely spewing hateful vitriol on the Internet without worrying about repercussions.Lies, bullying, conspiracy theories, bigoted and racist rants, and calls for violence targeting the most vulnerable circulate openly on the web.And thanks to the guarantees of the First Amendment and the borderless nature of the Internet,governing bodies are largely helpless to control this massive assault on human dignity and safety. Abe Foxman and Christopher Wolf expose the threat that this unregulated flow of bigotry poses to the world.They explore how social media companies like Facebook and YouTube, as well as search engine giant Google, are struggling to reconcile the demands of business with freedom of speech and the disturbing threat posed by today's purveyors of hate. And they explain the best tools available to citizens, parents, educators, law enforcement officers, and policy makers toprotect thetwin values of transparency and responsibility. As Foxman and Wolf show, only an aroused and engaged citizenry can stop the hate contagion before it spirals out of control - with potentially disastrous results.

Hatching
Hatching

Author: Victoria Watson

Publisher:

Published: 2018-12-23

Total Pages: 80

ISBN-13: 9780992876883

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Hatching: Piranesi & Tafuri presents an interpretation and a critical design proposal, it was inspired by Manfredo Tafuri's essay The Wicked Architect: G.B. Piranesi, Heterotopia and the Voyage. Tafuri's essay was published as the introductory chapter to his book The Sphere and the Labyrinth, Avant-Gardes and Architecture from Piranesi to the 1970s. The book is organised as a kind of journey that travels between Tafuri's writing about Piranesi and the design of a one kilometre long housing block, known as Corviale that was built in the 1970s on the southwestern periphery of Rome. Hatching: Piranesi & Tafuri is a re-working of an earlier publication of the same title, published in 2015 by the Big Air World. It is a supplement to Utopian Adventure: The Corviale Void, which was published in 2012 and suported by a scholarship from the British School at Rome, awarded to the author in 2010.

Haunting
Haunting

Author: Victoria Watson

Publisher:

Published: 2018-11-17

Total Pages: 58

ISBN-13: 9780992876876

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Haunting: Whitehead & Mies is about an architectural design research project based on a study of Mies van der Rohe's self-proclaimed interest in the thought of the British mathematician and philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead. The research question asks: what was 'this thing' Mies believed he had begun to share with Whitehead in 1926? The answer is sought where Mies said he set it down, i.e., in his buildings and it is given in the discursive essay and architectural proposition set out in this book. Haunting: Whitehead & Mies is a re-working of an earlier publication of the same title, published in 2015 by the Big Air World. It is a supplement to /Atmosphere/: The Origin of AIR Grid, which was published in 2018 and was in turn based on the authors original doctoral thesis of 2004.