AUTOPOIESIS OF ARCHITECTURE - NEW FRAMEWORK FOR ARCHITECTURE

Informationen zum Autor Patrik Schumacher gehört international zu den führenden Architekten und Hochschulprofessoren. Er ist Partner und Direktor im Architekturbüro Zaha Hadid Architects, Co-Direktor des renommierten Design Research Laboratory der Architectural Association in London und Professor am Institut für Experimentelle Architektur der Universität Innsbruck. Klappentext By presenting architecture as a discipline with its own unique logic, The Autopoiesis of Architecture provides a wholly new theoretical approach to architecture. The impact of this is far reaching. Architecture's conception of itself is addressed but also that of its development within wider contemporary society. Schumacher's innovative treatment of the subject enriches architectural theory with a coordinated arsenal of concepts that facilitates both detailed analysis and insightful comparisons with other domains, such as art, science and politics. The 'Autopoiesis' of the title refers to self-production: the term having first been introduced in biology to describe the essential characteristic of life as a circular organization that reproduces all its specific components out of its own life process. Once transposed into the theory of social systems, autopoiesis came to be understood as a system of communication capable of producing all its specific communication structures within their own internal process. It is this autopoietic system of communication that is being applied here to an architectural context. Architecture comprises various modes of communication, including drawings, texts and built works. These communications depend upon each other and combine to reproduce architecture as a specialized system of communication. The book explores how this system of communication forms a unique subsystem of society that co-evolves with other important autopoietic subsystems like art, science, politics and the economy.The first of two volumes that together present a comprehensive account of architecture's autopoiesis, The Autopoiesis of Architecture: A New Framework for Architecture introduces the theoretical framework and traces the historical process of architecture's differentiation within its societal environment: its elevation above the craft of building, its emancipation from religion and politics, as well as its separation from art and science. On this basis Schumacher insists on the necessity of maintaining disciplinary autonomy and argues for its distinct demarcation in relation to art and engineering. Architecture's theory dependency is emphasized and its internal separation into the avant-garde and the mainstream is explained. Styles are theorized as design research programmes that constitute architectural history as a progression of cycles of innovation that upgrade architecture to adapt to the ongoing evolution of society. This initial volume ends with the clarification of architecture's underlying societal function and raison d'être. The second volume completes the analysis of the discourse and further proposes a new agenda for contemporary architecture in response to the challenges and opportunities that confront architectural design within the context of current societal and technological developments. Zusammenfassung Take a theoretical approach to architecture with The Autopoiesis of Architecture, which presents the topic as a discipline with its own unique logic. Architecture's conception of itself is addressed as well as its development within wider contemporary society. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface.0 Introduction: Architecture as Autopoietic System.0.1 Architecture as a System of Communications.0.2 A Unified Theory of Architecture.0.3 Functional vs Causal Explanations.0.4 The Quest for Comprehensiveness.0.5 The Premises Imported from Social Systems Theory.0.6 Architecture's Place within Society.1 Architectural Theory.1.1 The Unity of Architecture.1.1.1 Architectural System-forma...

List of contents

Preface.
 
0 Introduction: Architecture as Autopoietic System.
 
0.1 Architecture as a System of Communications.
 
0.2 A Unified Theory of Architecture.
 
0.3 Functional vs Causal Explanations.
 
0.4 The Quest for Comprehensiveness.
 
0.5 The Premises Imported from Social Systems Theory.
 
0.6 Architecture's Place within Society.
 
1 Architectural Theory.
 
1.1 The Unity of Architecture.
 
1.1.1 Architectural System-formation and Self-regulation.
 
1.2 The Evolution of Architecture.
 
1.2.1 Architectural Theory as Mechanism of Selection.
 
1.3 The Necessity of Theory.
 
1.3.1 The Function of Architectural Theory.
 
1.3.2 Types of Theories.
 
1.3.3 The Necessity to Reflect Architecture's Societal raison d'etre.
 
1.3.4 Super-theories.
 
1.3.5 The Theory of Architectural Autopoiesis as Domain-specific Super-theory.
 
1.3.6 From Deconstruction to the Programme of Critical Theory.
 
2 The Historical Emergence of Architecture.
 
2.1 The Emergence of Architecture as Self-referential System.
 
2.1.1 Inside-descriptions vs Outside-descriptions.
 
2.1.2 Function Systems.
 
2.1.3 The Historical Crystallization of Architecture.
 
2.2 Foundation and Refoundation of Architecture.
 
2.2.1 Autonomization: The Origin of the Discipline in the Italian Renaissance.
 
2.2.2 The Refoundation of the Discipline as Modern Architecture.
 
2.2.3 The Exclusive Competency and Universal Scope of Modern Architecture.
 
2.2.4 The Liberation from Traditional Formal Constraints.
 
2.2.5 The Switch from Edifice to Space.
 
2.3 Avant-garde vs Mainstream.
 
2.3.1 A Prerequisite for Evolution.
 
2.3.2 The Autonomy of the Avant-garde.
 
2.3.3 Communications between Avant-garde and Mainstream.
 
2.3.4 The Reciprocal Dependency between Avant-garde and Mainstream.
 
2.3.5 The Time Structure of the Avant-garde Process: Cumulative vs Revolutionary Periods.
 
2.3.6 Concrete Exemplars vs Abstract Principles.
 
2.3.7 Revolution and Philosophy.
 
2.3.8 Latent Utopias vs the Utopian Ambitions of the Historical Avant-garde.
 
2.3.9 Retroactive Manifestos.
 
2.4 Architectural Research.
 
2.4.1 Architectural Research as Avant-garde Design Research.
 
2.4.2 Architecture Schools as Laboratories.
 
2.5 The Necessity of Demarcation.
 
2.5.1 The Differentiation of Art and Architecture.
 
2.5.2 The Differentiation of Science and Architecture.
 
2.5.3 The Differentiation of Architecture and Engineering.
 
2.5.4 The Rationality of Demarcation.
 
2.5.5 The Specificity of Architecture within the Design Disciplines.
 
3 Architecture as Autopoietic System - Operations, Structures and Processes.
 
3.1 Architectural Autopoiesis within Functionally Differentiated Society.
 
3.1.1 Niklas Luhmann's Theory of Modern Society.
 
3.1.2 Third Order Observation.
 
3.1.3 Codes and Media.
 
3.1.4 The Concept of Social Autopoiesis.
 
3.2 The Autonomy of Architecture.
 
3.2.1 Openness through Closure.
 
3.2.2 Irritations.
 
3.2.3 Communication Structures.
 
3.3 The Elemental Operation of Architecture.
 
3.3.1 Design Decisions.
 
3.3.2 Network-dependency of Elemental Operations.
 
3.3.3 Design Decisions and External Demands.
 
3.4 The Lead-distinction within Architecture and the Design Disciplines.
 
3.4.1 The Primacy of Distinctions.
 
3.4.2 Form vs Function as the Lead-distinction within th

Product details

• Authors: Patrik Schumacher, Patrik (Partner of Zaha Hadid Architec Schumacher, Patrik S. Schumacher, Ps Schumacher, Schumacher Patrik, SCHUMACHER PATRIK S
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.11.2010
• EAN: 9780470772997
• ISBN: 978-0-470-77299-7
• No. of pages: 478
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Architecture; Architektur, Bauwerk, Architecture, Allg. Architektur