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The creation of new environments through the use of developments in Information Technology is significantly altering not only architecture itself but also the roles and tasks of the architects. Architecture can no longer be described in the terms we are familiar with since it no longer corresponds to the form of architecture as we know it: an inclusive and exclusive structure, clearly defined, with a single interior and a single exterior. For architects, the challenge of the future will increasingly lie in creatively coming to terms with hybrid environments, understanding and exploiting the design potential of digital spaces within the physical world, and redefining the role of architecture within a visually dominated culture. This volume presents a valuable and attractive contribution to the contemporary discussion on this subject.
'Lost Futures' casts a detailed look at the wide range of buildings constructed in Britain between 1945 and 1979. Although their bold architectural aspirations reflected the forward-looking social ethos of the postwar era, many of these structures have since been either demolished or altered beyond recognition. In this volume, photographs taken at the time of the buildings' completion are accompanied by expert research examining their design and creation, the ideals they embodied and the reasons for their eventual destruction. 'Lost Futures' covers many buildings, from housing to factories, commercial spaces to power stations, and presents the work of both iconic and lesser-known architects. The author charts the complex reasons that led to the loss of these postwar projects' ambitious futures, and assesses whether some might one day be restored. AUTHOR: British architecture historian and curator Owen Hopkins is the author of several popular architecture books, including 'Reading Architecture: A Visual Lexicon', 'Architectural Styles: A Visual Guide' and 'Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture'. His scholarly interests have ranged from Nicholas Hawksmoor's Baroque grandeur to Alison and Peter Smithson's Brutalism, taking in everything in between.
Wildwood is a small barrier island at the tip of southern New Jersey. Through a? combination of economics, geography, and chance, it contains a national treasure: the highest concentration of mid-twentieth-century modern hospitality architecture in the United States. The short three-month tourist season, combined with a working-class aesthetic, resulted in Wildwood's motels remaining essentially frozen in time for over four decades. In recent years, however, more than half ?have been demolished and the future of those that remain is in doubt. The images in this book are the result of a ten-year? project by Mark Havens to capture the essence? of these vanishing treasures. A number of the ?motels were photographed at the end of their last season, just prior to demolition; in fact they were disappearing so fast that at times Havens was shooting the front of a motel while workers were demolishing the back. Though the lights were still on and the pools still full, there would be no more guests, no more summers. The images are accompanied by essays from Joseph Giovanni and Jamer Hunt.
Offers an exploration of the wooden architectural tradition of the Dong minority peoples of the mountainous regions of SW China - one that has been highly influential on mainstream Chinese architectural tradition. This work discusses the historic development of Dong architectural techniques as affected by the social and physical environment. This is an exploration of the unique wooden architectural tradition of the Dong minority peoples of the mountainous regions of SW China - one that has been highly influential on mainstream Chinese architectural tradition, and
A timely and important search for architecture's missing women For a century and a half, women have been proving their passion and talent for building and, in recent decades, their enrollment in architecture schools has soared. Yet the number of women working as architects remains stubbornly low, and the higher one looks in the profession, the scarcer women become. Law and medicine, two equally demanding and traditionally male professions, have been much more successful in retaining and integrating women. So why do women still struggle to keep a toehold in architecture? Where Are the Women Architects? tells the story of women's stagnating numbers in a profession that remains a male citadel, and explores how a new generation of activists is fighting back, grabbing headlines, and building coalitions that promise to bring about change. Despina Stratigakos's provocative examination of the past, current, and potential future roles of women in the profession begins with the backstory, revealing how the field has dodged the question of women's absence since the nineteenth century. It then turns to the status of women in architecture today, and the serious, entrenched hurdles they face. But the story isn't without hope, and the book documents the rise of new advocates who are challenging the profession's boys' club, from its male-dominated elite prizes to the erasure of women architects from Wikipedia. These advocates include Stratigakos herself and here she also tells the story of her involvement in the controversial creation of Architect Barbie. Accessible, frank, and lively, Where Are the Women Architects? will be a revelation for readers far beyond the world of architecture.
Things fall apart. But in his innovative, wide-ranging, and well-illustrated book, Daniel Abramson investigates the American definition of what falling apart entails. We build new buildings partly in response to demand, but even more because we believe that existing buildings are slowly becoming obsolete and need to be replaced. Abramson shows that our idea of obsolescence is a product of our tax code, which was shaped by lobbying from building interests who benefit from the idea that buildings depreciate and need to be replaced. The belief in depreciation is not held worldwide which helps explain why preservation movements struggle more in America than elsewhere. Abramson s tour of our idea of obsolescence culminates in an assessment of recent tropes of sustainability, which struggle to cultivate the idea that the greenest building is the one that already exists."
Architecture and Adaptation discusses architectural projects that use computational technology to adapt to changing conditions and human needs. Topics include kinetic and transformable structures, digitally driven building parts, interactive installations, intelligent environments, early precedents and their historical context, socio-cultural aspects of adaptive architecture, the history and theory of artificial life, the theory of human-computer interaction, tangible computing, and the social studies of technology. Author Socrates Yiannoudes proposes tools and frameworks for researchers to evaluate examples and tendencies in adaptive architecture. Illustrated with more than 50 black and white images.
PAUL GOLDBERGER ON THE AGE OF ARCHITECTURE The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry, the CCTV Headquarters by Rem Koolhaas, the Getty Center by Richard Meier, the Times Building by Renzo Piano: Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Paul Goldberger’s tenure atThe New Yorkerhas documented a captivating era in the world of architecture, one in which larger-than-life buildings, urban schemes, historic preservation battles, and personalities have commanded an international stage. Goldberger’s keen observations and sharp wit make him one of the most insightful and passionate architectural voices of our time. In this collection of fifty-seven essays, the critic Tracy Kidder called “America’s foremost interpreter of public architecture” ranges from Havana to Beijing, from Chicago to Las Vegas, dissecting everything from skyscrapers by Norman Foster and museums by Tadao Ando to airports, monuments, suburban shopping malls, and white-brick apartment houses. This is a comprehensive account of the best—and the worst—of the “age of architecture.” On Norman Foster: Norman Foster is the Mozart of modernism. He is nimble and prolific, and his buildings are marked by lightness and grace. He works very hard, but his designs don’t show the effort. He brings an air of unnerving aplomb to everything he creates—from skyscrapers to airports, research laboratories to art galleries, chairs to doorknobs. His ability to produce surprising work that doesn’t feel labored must drive his competitors crazy. On the Westin Hotel: The forty-five-story Westin is the most garish tall building that has gone up in New York in as long as I can remember. It is fascinating, if only because it makes Times Square vulgar in a whole new way, extending up into the sky. It is not easy, these days, to go beyond the bounds of taste. If the architects, the Miami-based firm Arquitectonica, had been trying to allude to bad taste, one could perhaps respect what they came up with. But they simply wanted, like most architects today, to entertain us. On Mies van der Rohe: Mies’s buildings look like the simplest things you could imagine, yet they are among the richest works of architecture ever created. Modern architecture was supposed to remake the world, and Mies was at the center of the revolution, but he was also a counterrevolutionary who designed beautiful things. His spare, minimalist objects are exquisite. He is the only modernist who created a language that ranks with the architectural languages of the past, and while this has sometimes been troubling for his reputation . . . his architectural forms become more astonishing as time goes on.