Le Corbusier’s Practical Aesthetic of the City

Le Corbusier’s Practical Aesthetic of the City
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 603
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781317107132
ISBN-13 : 1317107136
Rating : 4/5 (32 Downloads)

Synopsis Le Corbusier’s Practical Aesthetic of the City by : Christoph Schnoor

Set within an insightful analysis, this book describes the genesis, ideas and ideologies which influenced La Construction des Villes by Le Corbusier. This volume makes the important theoretical work available for the first time in English, offering an interpretation as to how much and in what way his ‘essai’ may have influenced his later work. Dealing with questions of aesthetic urbanism, La Construction des Villes shows Le Corbusier’s intellectual influences in the field of urbanism. Discontent that the script was not sufficiently avant-garde, he abandoned it soon after it was written in the early 20th century. It was only in the late 1970s that American historian H. Allen Brooks discovered 250 pages of the forgotten manuscript in Switzerland. The author of this book, Christoph Schnoor, later discovered another 350 handwritten pages of the original manuscript, consisting of extracts, chapters, and bibliographic notes. This splendid find enabled the re-establishment of the manuscript as Le Corbusier had abandoned it, unfinished, in the spring of 1911. This volume offers an unbiased extension of our knowledge of Le Corbusier and his work. In addition, it reminds us of the urban design innovations of the very early 20th century which can still serve as valuable lessons for a new understanding of contemporary urban design.

Hybrid Modernity

Hybrid Modernity
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 222
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781317119289
ISBN-13 : 1317119282
Rating : 4/5 (89 Downloads)

Synopsis Hybrid Modernity by : Mary Padua

This book provides a detailed historical and design analysis of the development of parks and modern landscape architecture in late 20th century China. It questions whether the fusion of international influences with the local Chinese design vocabulary in late 20th century China has created a distinctive and novel approach to the design of public parks. Hybrid Modernity proposes a new theory for examining the design of public parks built in post-Mao China since the reforms and sets the various processes for China’s late 20th century socio-cultural context. Drawing on modernization theory, research on China’s modernity, local and global cultural trends, it illustrates through a range of case studies ways hybrid modernity defines a new design genre and language for the spatial forms of parks that emerged in China’s secondary cities. Featured case studies include the Living Water Park in Chengdu, Sichuan province, Zhongshan Shipyard Park in Guangdong Province, Jinji Lake Landscape Master Plan in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and the West Lake Southern Scenic Area Master Plan in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. This book argues that these forms represent a new stage in China’s history of landscape architecture. The work reveals that as a new profession, landscape architecture has greatly contributed to China’s massive urban experiment. This book is an ideal read for students enrolled in landscape architecture, architecture, fine arts and urban planning programs who are engaged in learning the arts and international design education.

Something Completely Different

Something Completely Different
Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
Total Pages : 327
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780262547512
ISBN-13 : 0262547511
Rating : 4/5 (12 Downloads)

Synopsis Something Completely Different by : Christophe Van Gerrewey

How architecture in Belgium, from its very beginnings, has epitomized modernity and singularity. Since the foundation of the country in 1830, architecture in Belgium has been an expression of the key issues of modern Western societies. In Something Completely Different, Christophe Van Gerrewey uses this small European country as a case study to describe, interpret, and criticize more universal spatial problems and behaviors. In seven wide-ranging essays, he looks at the activities of architects from the past two centuries to better understand political evolutions, social gaps, aesthetic considerations, housing and planning, transport and infrastructure, order and chaos, and culture and ecology. The result is a literary text full of surprises and discoveries, showing both the shortcomings and the merits of what architects do. Written as a kind of anti-guidebook, Something Completely Different appropriates certain clichés about Belgium (Baudelaire famously called Belgian monuments “counterfeits of France”), eschews the pragmatism of most guidebooks in favor of meditative, essayistic prose, and finally, cunningly, reveals that all along the subject has not been Belgium at all, but rather the nature of architecture.

New Building in Old Cities

New Building in Old Cities
Author :
Publisher : Getty Publications
Total Pages : 410
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781606068762
ISBN-13 : 1606068768
Rating : 4/5 (62 Downloads)

Synopsis New Building in Old Cities by : Gustavo Giovannoni

The highly influential writings by an important early advocate for the conservation of historic cities are made available for the first time in English. The Italian architect, historian, and restorer Gustavo Giovannoni (1873–1947) was a key figure in the fields of architecture, urbanism, and conservation during the first half of the twentieth century. A traditionalist largely neglected by the proponents of modernist architecture following World War II, he remains little known internationally. His writings, however, until now unavailable in English, represent a significant step toward the full appreciation of the historic city and are directly relevant today to the protection of urban historic resources worldwide. This abundantly illustrated critical anthology is a representative sample of Giovannoni’s seminal texts related to the appreciation, understanding, and planning of historic cities. The thirty readings, which appear with their original illustrations, are grouped into six parts organized around key concepts in Giovannoni’s conservation theory—urban building, respect for the setting or context, a thinning out of the urban fabric, conservation and restoration treatments, the grafting of the new upon the old, and reconstruction. Each part is preceded by an introduction, and each reading is prefaced by succinct remarks explaining the rationale for its selection and the principal matters covered. Six plate sections further illustrate the readings’ main concepts and themes.

Historical Dictionary of Architecture

Historical Dictionary of Architecture
Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages : 464
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781442263093
ISBN-13 : 1442263091
Rating : 4/5 (93 Downloads)

Synopsis Historical Dictionary of Architecture by : Allison Lee Palmer

This dictionary provides a historical overview of the major architectural developments and styles, building materials and types, major structures and locations, sites and architects. Historical eras like ancient Egyptian architecture and the Renaissance in Europe and movements such as Art Deco are covered. Materials discussed range from concrete, stone, glass and wood, while types of structures include architectural inventions such as the arch and dome to building types from monasteries and mosques to museums and skyscrapers. Major structures highlighted in this volume include not only great achievements such as Hagia Sophia and the Eiffel Tower, but also important sites such as the Great Zimbabwe and Angkor Wat, found on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. General geographical areas are also covered, such as African and Russian architecture. Noted architects include theorists from the ancient Chinese engineer Yu Hao Roman engineer Vitruvius to many current architects such as Zaha Hadid and Santiago Calatrava, with a focus on architects who have enjoyed lasting fame through history or have won international prizes such as the Pritzker Architecture Prize. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Architecture contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on architects, famous structures, types of materials, and the different architectural styles. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about architecture.

Art in the City, the City in Art

Art in the City, the City in Art
Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
Total Pages : 266
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789819960422
ISBN-13 : 9819960428
Rating : 4/5 (22 Downloads)

Synopsis Art in the City, the City in Art by : Elisha Masemann

Professionals and Urban Form

Professionals and Urban Form
Author :
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Total Pages : 384
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780791496879
ISBN-13 : 0791496872
Rating : 4/5 (79 Downloads)

Synopsis Professionals and Urban Form by : Judith R. Blau

Professionals and Urban Form departs from the usual way of studying the city to examine the chief professions responsible for designing urban places—planning and architecture. Not often treated together, they are here combined to highlight common problems and lines of convergence between the two. The architects, planners, and social scientists who contributed to this book concern themselves with the interconnection between knowledge and practice in planning and architecture, paying particular attention to the issues of whether design knowledge and theory can or should be distinct from social science knowledge, and the effects of professionalization and institutionalization on the structuring of inquiry and theory. The main sections of the book deal with the history of the design professions; epistemological foundations; professions and practice; and controversies in practice. Many issues of contemporary interest to planners are dealt with, including the debates over normative, advocacy, and communicative planning; Marxist perspectives; supply and demand in the job market for architects; and the overarching epistemological question of the relationship between social science research and design practice.

Curating Art

Curating Art
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 585
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781317416654
ISBN-13 : 1317416651
Rating : 4/5 (54 Downloads)

Synopsis Curating Art by : Janet Marstine

Curating Art provides insight into some of the most socially and politically impactful curating of historical and contemporary art since the late 1990s. It offers up a museological framework for understanding watershed developments of curating in art museums. Representing the plurality of theory and practice around the expanded field of relational curating, the book focuses on curating that prioritises the quality of relationships between people and objects, between institutions and people and among people. It has wide international breadth, with particularly strong representation in East and Southeast Asia, including four papers never before translated into English. This Asian cluster illuminates the globalisation of the field and challenges dichotomies of East and West while acknowledging distinctions within specific, but often transnational, cultural spheres. The compelling philosophical perspectives and case studies included within Curating Art will be of interest to students and researchers studying curating, exhibition development and art museums. The book will also inspire current and emerging curators to pose challenging but important questions about their own practice and the relationships that this work sustains.

Political Street Art

Political Street Art
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 171
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781317527282
ISBN-13 : 1317527283
Rating : 4/5 (82 Downloads)

Synopsis Political Street Art by : Holly Eva Ryan

Recent global events, including the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings, Occupy movements and anti-austerity protests across Europe have renewed scholarly and public interest in collective action, protest strategies and activist subcultures. We know that social movements do not just contest and politicise culture, they create it too. However, scholars working within international politics and social movement studies have been relatively inattentive to the manifold political mediations of graffiti, muralism, street performance and other street art forms. Against this backdrop, this book explores the evolving political role of street art in Latin America during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It examines the use, appropriation and reconfiguration of public spaces and political opportunities through street art forms, drawing on empirical work undertaken in Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. Bringing together a range of insights from social movement studies, aesthetics and anthropology, the book highlights some of the difficulties in theorising and understanding the complex interplay between art and political practice. It seeks to explore 'what art can do' in protest, and in so doing, aims to provide a useful point of reference for students and scholars interested in political communication, culture and resistance. It will be of interest to students and scholars working in politics, international relations, political and cultural geography, Latin American studies, art, sociology and anthropology.