Ricardo Bofill: Visions Of Architecture

Buildings don't just appear. While the aesthetics and theory of architecture have their glamour, architecture would not exist without the hands-on, nuts-and-bolts process of construction. Construction of Architecture gives architects, contractors, managers, trade workers, and anyone else involved in a building project a thorough overview of the process of taking or converting a fine design concept from a paper exercise to a finished, full-sized, occupiable and usable building. In an easy-to-read, conversational style, Ralph Liebing distills the often-complex procedures in the construction of architecture into clear, understandable phases. Connecting each phase to the next, he takes you step-by-step from project inception and documentation to code compliance to bidding and the contract through finalization of the project and occupancy of the completed building. This book is enhanced with features such as: Drawings and photographs of the building process. Samples of documents used in construction. A concise narrative of the construction of a typical commercial building, from start to finish. An Instructor Companion Site with an expanded glossary and additional resources. With this primer in hand, every aspiring building professional will have the solid foundation in the concepts and skills needed to bring any building project to fruition, from inception to occupancy.

Transgression suggests operating beyond accepted norms and radically reinterpreting practice by pushing at the boundaries of both what architecture is, and what it could or even should be. The current economic crisis and accompanying political/social unrest has exacerbated the difficulty into which architecture has long been sliding: challenged by other professions and a culture of conservatism, architecture is in danger of losing its prized status as one of the pre-eminent visual arts. Transgression opens up new possibilities for practice. It highlights the positive impact that working on the architectural periphery can make on the mainstream, as transgressive practices have the potential to reinvent and reposition the architectural profession: whether they are subverting notions of progress; questioning roles and mechanisms of production; aligning with political activism; pioneering urban interventions; advocating informal or incomplete development; actively destabilising environments or breaking barriers of taste. In this new dispersed and expanded field of operation, the balance of architectural endeavour is shifted from object to process, from service to speculation, and from formal to informal in a way that provides both critical and political impetus to proactively affect change. Contributors: Can Altay, Edward Denison and Guangyu Ren, Kim Dovey, Chris Jenks, David Littlefield, Silvia Loeffler, Alistair Parvin, Louis Rice, Patrik Schumacher and Robin Wilson Featured architects: atelier d’architecture autog?r?e, Lina Bo Bardi, Construire/La Machine, EXYZT, Didier Faustino/Bureau des M?sarchitectures, Lacaton & Vassal, N55, Catie Newell/*Alibi Studio, Wang Shu, Superflex and Bernard Tschumi

Despite the exaggerated news of the untimely 'death of the detail' by Greg Lynn, the architectural detail is now more lifelike and active than ever before. In this era of digital design and production technologies, new materials, parametrics, building information modeling (BIM), augmented realities and the nano-bio-information-computation consilience, the detail is now an increasingly vital force in architecture. Though such digitally designed and produced details are diminishing in size to the molecular and nano levels, they are increasingly becoming more complex, multi-functional, high performance and self-replicating. Far from being a non-essential and final finish, this new type of highly evolved high-tech detail is rapidly becoming the indispensable and critical core, the (sometimes iconic) DNA of an innovative new species of built environmental form that is spawning in scale and prominence, across product, interior, urban and landscape design. This issue of AD re-examines the history, theories and design of the world’s most significant spatial details, and explores their innovative potentials and possibilities for the future of architecture. Contributors include: Rachel Armstrong, Nic Clear, Edward Ford, Dennis Shelden, Skylar Tibbits. Featured architects: Ben van Berkel, Hernan Diaz Alonso, Peter Macapia, Carlo Ratti, Philippe Rahm, Patrik Schumacher, Neil Spiller.

Once condemned by Modernism and compared to a ‘crime’ by Adolf Loos, ornament has made a spectacular return in contemporary architecture. This is typified by the works of well-known architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Sauerbruch Hutton, Farshid Moussavi Architecture and OMA. There is no doubt that these new ornamental tendencies are inseparable from innovations in computer technology. The proliferation of developments in design software has enabled architects to experiment afresh with texture, colour, pattern and topology. Though inextricably linked with digital tools and culture, Antoine Picon argues that some significant traits in ornament persist from earlier Western architectural traditions. These he defines as the ‘subjective’ – the human interaction that ornament requires in both its production and its reception – and the political. Contrary to the message conveyed by the founding fathers of modern architecture, traditional ornament was not meant only for pleasure. It conveyed vital information about the designation of buildings as well as about the rank of their owners. As such, it participated in the expression of social values, hierarchies and order. By bringing previous traditions in ornament under scrutiny, Picon makes us question the political issues at stake in today’s ornamental revival. What does it tell us about present-day culture? Why are we presently so fearful of meaning in architecture? Could it be that by steering so vehemently away from symbolism, contemporary architecture is evading any explicit contribution to collective values?

In recent years, questions of space have gained renewed momentum in architecture and urban design, as adaptation, densification and sustainable regeneration have become an increasing priority. While most computing-based design tends to emphasise the formal aspects of architecture, overlooking space and its users, the ‘original’ computational design approaches first spearheaded in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s tended to be focused on behavioural and occupational patterns. Over the last decade, a new generation of design research has emerged that has started to implement and validate previous investigations into spatial computation, aiming to understand how to design spatial configurations based on user experiences. This revives an interest in the experiential that was first explored in the early 20th century by German and Nordic organic architects, who invented design methods that correlated cognitive responses of buildings' occupants to spatial structure. The current revival of human-centric design, however, represents the first design approach that synthesises spatial design and algorithmic techniques with organic design thinking, which could also be regarded as a return to the ‘first principles' of architectural design. Contributors include: Paul Coates, Christian Derix, Olafur Eliasson, Lucy Helme, Bill Hillier, ?smund Izaki, Prarthana Jagannath, Dan Montello, Juhani Pallasmaa, Philip Steadman and Guy Theraulaz. Featured Architects/Designers: Jussi ?ngeslev? (Art+Com), Stan Allen, Aedas|R&D, Markus Braach (Kaisersrot), Hermann Hertzberger, Kazuhiro Kojima (Cat), Pablo Miranda and Rafi Segal.

A unique graphical guide for using architectural terminology to jump-start the design process This design studio companion presents architectural terms with special emphasis on using these terms to generate design ideas. It highlights the architectural thinking behind the terminology and helps readers gain a thorough understanding of space and form. Featuring double-page spreads with over 190 illustrated entries, the book fully explores, analyzes, and cross-references key elements and techniques used in architecture and interior design. Each entry first defines the common meaning of the term, then goes on to discuss in detail its generative possibilities. Scenarios involving the use of a design principle, or the way it might be experienced, further aid students in developing strategies for their own design. In addition, Language of Space and Form: Divides entries into five categories for quick access to concepts, including process and generation, organization and ordering, operation and experience, objects and assemblies, and representation and communication Addresses studio practice from the ground up, encouraging readers to develop creativity and critical thinking as they develop a design process Offers supplemental online learning resources, including exercises that correspond to the book A must-have reference for professionals and students in architecture and interior design, Language of Space and Form is destined to become a classic introduction to design thinking.

A unique graphical guide for using architectural terminology to jump-start the design process This design studio companion presents architectural terms with special emphasis on using these terms to generate design ideas. It highlights the architectural thinking behind the terminology and helps readers gain a thorough understanding of space and form. Featuring double-page spreads with over 190 illustrated entries, the book fully explores, analyzes, and cross-references key elements and techniques used in architecture and interior design. Each entry first defines the common meaning of the term, then goes on to discuss in detail its generative possibilities. Scenarios involving the use of a design principle, or the way it might be experienced, further aid students in developing strategies for their own design. In addition, Language of Space and Form: Divides entries into five categories for quick access to concepts, including process and generation, organization and ordering, operation and experience, objects and assemblies, and representation and communication Addresses studio practice from the ground up, encouraging readers to develop creativity and critical thinking as they develop a design process Offers supplemental online learning resources, including exercises that correspond to the book A must-have reference for professionals and students in architecture and interior design, Language of Space and Form is destined to become a classic introduction to design thinking.

Organised into 9 parts that highlight a wide range of architectural motives, such as ‘Architecture as Theatre’, ‘Stretching the Vocabulary’ and ‘The City of Large and Small’, the workbook provides inspiring key themes for readers to take their cue from when initiating a design. Motives cover a wide-range of work that epitomise the theme. These include historical and Modernist examples, things observed in the street, work by current innovative architects and from Cook’s own rich archive, weaving together a rich and vibrant visual scrapbook of the everyday and the architectural, and past and present.

Performance ARCHITECTURE – The Art and Science of Improving Organizations is a hands-on guide to real world techniques for improving performance within the workplace. This important book explores the Human Performance Technology Landscape model that was presented in the bestselling book, the third edition of Handbook of Performance Technology. Framed by the Landscape model and supported by other proven models and tools, the book provides effective structures for anyone who needs to develop their performance improvement skills and knowledge and achieve results. A cutting-edge resource, this book draws on the experiences of the authors in combination with the work of notables in human performance technology, including Geary Rummler, Don Tosti, Judith Hale, Dale Brethower, Roger Kaufman, and many others. The authors identify and demonstrate how performance at three levels (worker: individual/team, work: process/practice, workplace: organization) impacts results in organizations. They also show how to scale performance improvement activities and apply them successfully to projects or initiatives of various sizes. «This is an excellent, practical guide to the field of Human Performance Technology, communicated in straightforward language. The authors have given a broad audience access to solid, research-based methods and tools for improving the performance of people at any and all levels of organizations.» —CARL BINDER, CPT, PhD, senior partner, Binder Riha Associates «Performance Architecture gives you concrete ideas about how to improve performance in the workplace. Adding it to your library is a must.» —JUDITH HALE, CPT, Ph.D., Hale Associates

We are in the second decade of the 21st century and, as with most things, the distinction between digital and analogue has become tired and inappropriate. This is also true in the world of architectural drawing, which paradoxically is enjoying a renaissance supported by the graphic dexterity of the computer. This new fecundity has produced a contemporary glut of stunning architectural drawings and representations that could rival the most recent outpouring of architectural vision in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Indeed, there is much to learn by comparing the then and the now. The contemporary drawing is often about its ability to describe the change, fluctuations and mutability of architecture in relation to the virtual/real 21st-century continuum of architectural space. Times have changed, and the status of the architectural drawing must change with them. This reassessment is well overdue, and this edition of AD will be the catalyst for such re-examination. Features the work of: Pascal Bronner, Bryan Cantley, Peter Cook, Perry Kulper, CJ Lim, Tom Noonan, Dan Slavinsky, Neil Spiller, Peter Wilson, Nancy Wolf, Lebbeus Woods and Mas Yendo. Contributors include: Nic Clear, Mark Garcia, Simon Herron and Mark Morris.