Forty Ways to Think About Architecture - Architectural History and Theory Today

How do we think about architecture historically and theoretically? Forty Ways to Think about Architecture provides an introduction to some of the wide-ranging ways in which architectural history and theory are being approached today.
 
The inspiration for this project is the work of Adrian Forty, Professor of Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), who has been internationally renowned as the UK's leading academic in the discipline for 40 years. Forty's many publications, notably Objects of Desire (1986), Words and Buildings (2000) and Concrete and Culture (2012), have been crucial to opening up new approaches to architectural history and theory and have helped to establish entirely new areas of study. His teaching at The Bartlett has enthused a new generation about the exciting possibilities of architectural history and theory as a field.
 
This collection takes in a total of 40 essays covering key subjects, ranging from memory and heritage to everyday life, building materials and city spaces. As well as critical theory, philosophy, literature and experimental design, it refers to more immediate and topical issues in the built environment, such as globalisation, localism, regeneration and ecologies. Concise and engaging entries reflect on architecture from a range of perspectives.
 
Contributors include eminent historians and theorists from elsewhere - such as Jean-Louis Cohen, Briony Fer, Hilde Heynen, Mary McLeod, Griselda Pollock, Penny Sparke and Anthony Vidler - as well as Forty's colleagues from the Bartlett School of Architecture including Iain Borden, Murray Fraser, Peter Hall, Barbara Penner, Jane Rendell and Andrew Saint. Forty Ways to Think about Architecture also features contributions from distinguished architects, such as Tony Fretton, Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth, and well-known critics and architectural writers, such as Tom Dyckhoff, William Menking and Thomas Weaver. Many of the contributors are former students of Adrian Forty.
 
Through these diverse essays, readers are encouraged to think about how architectural history and theory relates to their own research and design practices, thus using the work of Adrian Forty as a catalyst for fresh and innovative thinking about architecture as a subject.

List of contents

Acknowledgements
 
Introduction
 
Adrian Forty, Future Imperfect: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, delivered at UCL in December 2000
 
1. Andrew Saint, How To Write About Buildings?
 
2. Anne Hultzsch, Pevsner vs Colomina: Word and Image on the Page
 
3. Anthony Vidler, Smooth and Rough: Tactile Brutalism
 
4. Barbara Penner, Homely Affinities
 
Acknowledgements
 
Introduction
 
Adrian Forty, Future Imperfect: Inaugural Professorial Lecture, delivered at UCL in December 2000
 
1. Andrew Saint, How To Write About Buildings?
 
2. Anne Hultzsch, Pevsner vs Colomina: Word and Image on the Page
 
3. Anthony Vidler, Smooth and Rough: Tactile Brutalism
 
4. Barbara Penner, Homely Affinities
 
5. Ben Campkin, On Regeneration
 
6. Brian Stater, Fresh Reactions to St Paul's Cathedral
 
7. Briony Fer, Photographs and Buildings (mainly)
 
8. David Dunster, Stirling's Voice: A Detailed Suggestion
 
9. Davide Deriu, Carte Blanche?
 
10. Eleanor Young, Buildings: A Reader's Guide
 
11. Griselda Pollock, The City and the Event: Disturbing, Forgetting and Escaping Memory
 
12. Hilde Heynen, The Most Modern Material Of Them All ...
 
13. Iain Borden, 'Things that People Cannot Anticipate': Skateboarding at the Southbank Centre
 
14. Irena ?antovská Murray, 'Truth, Love, Life': Building with Language in Prague Castle under Masaryk
 
15. Jan Birksted, Le Corbusier: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
 
16. Jane Rendell, During Breakfast
 
17. Jean-Louis Cohen, [American] Objects of [Soviet] Desire
 
18. Jeremy Melvin, Words and Buildings
 
19. Jeremy Till, Slow Hard Look
 
20. Joe Kerr, Topography, Biography and Architecture
 
21. John Macarthur, Of Character and Concrete: The Historian's Material
 
22. Jonathan Charley, Spectres of Marx in City X
 
23. Jonathan Hill, History by Design
 
24. Kester Rattenbury, Angel Place: A Way In to Dickens's London
 
25. Laurent Stalder , On 'Sachlichkeit': Some Additional Remarks on an Anglo-German Encounter
 
26. Mark Swenarton, Double Vision
 
27. Mary McLeod, Modernism
 
28. Michael Edwards , Yes, And We Have No Dentists
 
29. Murray Fraser, Reyner Banham's Hat
 
30. Peg Rawes, Situated Architectural Historical Ecologies
 
31. Penny Sparke, Objects
 
32. Sir Peter Hall, Richard Llewelyn Davies, 1912-1981: A Lost Vision for The Bartlett
 
33. Sarah Wigglesworth, Things Ungrand
 
34. Tania Sengupta, The Everyday Lives of 'Minor' Spaces in Officers' Bungalows of Colonial Bengal
 
35. Thomas Weaver, Memoirs of Adrian
 
36. Tom Dyckhoff, All That Glitters
 
37. Tony Fretton, A Response to Words and Buildings
 
38. Victoria Perry, Material Culture: 'Manchester of the East', Le Corbusier, Eames and Indian Jeans
 
39. William Menking, Mr Mumford's Neighbourhood
 
40. Yat Ming Loo, Banyan Tree and Migrant Cities: Some Provisional Thoughts for a Strategic Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism
 
Author Biographies

About the author

Iain Borden is Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where he is also Director of Architectural History & Theory and the Vice-Dean of Communications for the wider Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment.
Murray Fraser is Professor of Architecture and Global Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where he acts as the Vice-Dean of Research for the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment.
Barbara Penner is Senior Lecturer in Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where she is Programme Director for both the PhD Architectural History & Theory and BSc Architectural and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Summary

How do we think about architecture historically and theoretically? This book provides an introduction to some of the wide-ranging ways in which architectural history and theory are being approached today. It takes in a total of 40 essays covering key subjects, ranging from memory and heritage to everyday life, building materials and city spaces.

Product details

• Authors: I Borden, Iai Borden, Iain Borden, Iain (The Barlett Borden, Iain Fraser Borden, Iain Penner Borden, Borden Iain, Murra Fraser, Murray Fraser, Professor Murray Fraser, Barbara Penner, Penner Barbara
• Assisted by: Iain Borden (Editor), Murray Fraser (Editor), Barbara Penner (Editor)
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 04.07.2014
• EAN: 9781118822616
• ISBN: 978-1-118-82261-6
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Architecture; Architektur, Architecture, Architectural Theory, Architektur / Theorie