This volume focuses on how powerful people of the ancient, historical, and contemporary periods in the Maya world used features such as walls, roads, rails, and symbolic boundaries to control those without power--and how the powerless pushed back.

Construction of Maya Spaces sheds new light on how Maya society may have shaped—and been shaped by—the constructed environment. Moving beyond the towering pyramids and temples often associated with Maya spaces, this volume focuses on how those in power used features such as walls, roads, rails, and symbolic boundaries to control those without power, and how the powerless pushed back. Through fifteen engaging chapters, contributors examine the construction of spatial features by ancient, historic, and contemporary Maya elite and nonelite peoples to understand how they used spaces differently. Through cutting-edge methodologies and case studies, chapters consider how and why Maya people connected and divided the spaces they used daily in their homes, in their public centers, in their sacred places such as caves, and across their regions to inform us about the mental constructs they used to create their lives and cultures of the past. Contributors Elias Alcocer Puerto Alejandra Alonso Olvera Traci Ardren Jaime J. Awe Alejandra Badillo Sánchez Nicolas C. Barth Grace Lloyd Bascopé Adolpho Iván Batún-Alpuche Elizabeth Beckner M. Kathryn Brown Bernadette Cap Miguel Covarrubias Reyna Juan Fernandez Diaz Alberto G. Flores Colin Thomas H. Guderjan C. Colleen Hanratty Héctor Hernández Álvarez Scott R. Hutson Joshua J. Kwoka Whitney Lytle Aline Magnoni Jennifer P. Mathews Stephanie J. Miller Shawn G. Morton Holley Moyes Shannon Plank Dominique Rissolo Patrick Rohrer Carmen Rojas Sandoval Justine M. Shaw J. Gregory Smith Travis W. Stanton Karl A. Taube Daniel Vallejo-Cáliz

Maya Imagery, Architecture, and Activity privileges art historical perspectives in addressing the ways the ancient Maya organized, manipulated, created, interacted with, and conceived of the world around them. The Maya provide a particularly strong example of the ways in which the built and imaged environment are intentionally oriented relative to political, religious, economic, and other spatial constructs. In examining space, the contributors of this volume demonstrate the core interrelationships inherent in a wide variety of places and spaces, both concrete and abstract. They explore the links between spatial order and cosmic order and the possibility that such connections have sociopolitical consequences. This book will prove useful not just to Mayanists but to art historians in other fields and scholars from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, geography, and landscape architecture.

A discussion of Maya buildings through the eyes of an architect.

Due to its comprehensive tool-set and great potential for 3D modeling, more and more architectural design and interior design firms are adapting Autodesk Maya and integrating it into their practice. There has been no book aimed at architects and designers who wish to harness the opportunities presented by this software, until now..... The book promotes parametric design. It integrates the theoretical research of computational design and Maya non-linear modeling techniques associated with simulation, animation, digital fabrication and form-finding within 2D & 3D design. Readers will learn: How to use Maya polygon and NURBS modeling tools to create non-linear procedural model. How to use Maya driver keys and relationship tools to generate parametrically negotiable solutions across various design professions. The design logic and generative processes, as well as the potential of parametric thinking as a resourceful tool for achieving diversity and complexity in form generation and fabrication. How to use Maya to prepare files for rapid prototyping and the integration of Maya into various fabrication techniques such as laser cutting, CNC milling, and 3D printing. How to create a digital simulation to simulate all aspects of surface properties and dynamic forces with Maya physics engine. How to use Maya skeleton system and animation tools to control complex architectural forms. How to create photo-realistic renderings with Maya lighting, material and texture mapping. Using several real projects as examples, the book will go through the entire rendering process step by step. How to combine Maya with various CAD/BIM tools to create an efficient design pipeline. How to use Maya MEL script to create customized tools and interface. The book includes case studies from Zaha Hadid Architects, Greg Lynn Form, Gage Clemenceau Architects, Tang & Yang Architects, as well as step by step exercises, demonstration projects and crucially a fantastic online resource which includes video tutorials, scripts, and Maya source files.

In this book, Alexander Parmington combines an examination of space, access control and sculptural themes and placement, to propose how images and texts controlled movement in Classic Maya cities. Using Palenque as a case study, this book analyzes specific building groups and sculptures to provide insight into the hierarchical distribution and use of ritual and administrative space in temple and palace architecture. Identifying which spaces were the more accessible and therefore more public, and which spaces were more segregated and consequently more private, Dr. Parmington demonstrates how sculptural, iconographic, and hieroglyphic content varies considerably when found in public/common or private/elite space. Drawing on specific examples from the Classic Maya and other early civilizations, he demonstrates that by examining the intent in the distribution of architecture and art, the variation and function of the artistic themes represented in sculpture and other monumental works of art can be better understood.

To understand these experiences, I set out a rationale on the relationship between the built environment and people. It is termed the archaeology of experience and it explicates how architecture acts as more than a backdrop to social engagements and directly affects behaviors. Experiencers are first treated as bodies, simply the array of their human senses. Once the built environment is perceived and understood, the experiencer reacts. These responses are considered to fall within one of three categories: conceptual, behavioral, and emotional.

The term otoot or dwelling' appears in many Mayan inscriptions placed on various buildings and built structures. Taking this as a starting point, Shannon Plank embarks on a quest to discern in what ways the Mayans used and conceive of lived space. Looking at four main sites in the Mayan Lowlands - Yaxchilan, Copan, Cichen Itza and Oxkintok - she studies the nature and context of the inscriptions, questions the function and role of the structures and tries to link the two together to reach an understanding both of the use of the term otoot and how it relates to the notion of space conceived by a Mayan elite.