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Lines of Development

Cameron WuLines Of Development traces the history of ruled surface geometries and their relationship to architectural design and practice.

Analysis, Geometry, Architecture Cameron Wu Much attention has been paid to developable surfaces in building technology recently, especially in the area of digital geometric consultancy. The advent of complex forms in contemporary architecture has necessitated the use of developable surfaces to post-rationalize geometries of double curvature for economy and constructability. In lieu of such remedial measures, these forms might serve as the a priori buildings blocks of a new spatial and tectonic language. These surfaces require specific knowledge of their curvature and isometry for successful deployment. They offer productive resistance in terms of how they permute, generating geometric grammars and legible syntaxes—attributes necessary to bring their virtues into a discursive frame. Lines Of Development traces the history of ruled surface geometries and their relationship to architectural design and practice. Theoretical writings describe the intractable presence and mathematical significance of ruled surfaces throughout the history of architecture leading up to contemporary practice. A collection of

We Have Never Been Private

Ioanna PiniaraThis research challenges neoliberal housing privatization, arguing that the state consistently collaborated with the market to shape a pedagogy of domestic privacy.

The Housing Project in Neoliberal Europe Ioanna Piniara The publication puts forward the management of domestic space through the transformation of the concept of the private within the socio-economic regime known as neoliberalism. It proposes a critical reassessment of housing privatisation not merely as a policy introduced in the 1980s to promote new contractual relationships, but as a post-war urban strategy to establish a change of ethos, culture and organisation of housing. Against the neoliberal idea of the institutional autonomy of the private, the thesis argues that the state has constantly partnered the market (‘private sector’) in the promotion of a certain pedagogy of domestic privacy and, therefore, the private has hardly existed ‘as such’ in the neoliberal era. Methodologically, the thesis deploys a typological study to demystify this pedagogy through selected urban housing schemes in London, Berlin and Athens, marking a geographical and chronological vector of neoliberal advance: from anticipation to

deCoding Asian Urbanism

deCoding Asian Urbanism

Farooq Ameen (ed.)deCoding Asian Urbanism explores the current discourse on the planning of Asian cities, and highlights innovative urban interventions that address the challenges of the built environment in Asia.

Farooq Ameen (ed.) deCoding Asian Urbanism is a captivating exploration into innovative architecture and urban interventions reshaping the landscape of Asian cities. The book highlights projects that embrace the rapid growth, cultural richness, and intricate complexities of the contemporary Asian urban fabric. The magnitude and speed of 21st-century urbanization are extraordinary, with projections suggesting that Asia's urban development in the next two decades could surpass the total global urban growth of the past two centuries. As we stand on the brink of this urban revolution, deCoding Asian Urbanism brings together the minds of visionary architects, historians, sociologists, urban designers, and activists from around the world. Their essays offer unique insights into the diverse and multifaceted nature of Asian cities, each an intricate tapestry of history, culture, and aspiration. This enriching journey through the book is accompanied by a multitude of images, analytical diagrams, maps, and captivating photographs. You'll find yourself immersed in the

African Fabbers Atlas

Paolo CasconeHow to respond to climatic changes reconciling nature with tekné? What is the social role of technology? How architects would reconsider their practices supporting community-oriented projects?

Manual of Synthetic Vernacular Architecture Paolo Cascone How to respond to climatic changes reconciling nature with tekné? What is the social role of technology? How architects would reconsider their practices supporting community-oriented projects? The theoretical assumption for this investigation is based on the observation of cause-effect relations, between different urban and architectural configurations and their performances: social, environmental, structural etc. in both pre-colonial and informal cultures around Africa. The diachronic approach intends to generate, after many years of post-colonial studies, an operative agenda of possible strategies, which is in accordance with different conditions starting from the anthropological and the climatic ones. Such an agenda responds to a global cultural need for an ecological shift in the contemporary design and manufacturing processes, which should bridge high and low-tech cultures. Therefore, the book is conceived also as a sort of manual that is articulated around emergent principles inspired by traditional and informal African practices and

Sub-Urbanism and the Art of Memory

Sub-Urbanism and the Art of Memory

Sébastien MarotThis book is a re-edition of Sébastien Marot’s essay anthology originally published by the Architectural Association (AA) in 2003 featuring a new introduction by the author.

Sébastien Marot This book is a sub-urbanist manifesto. Its author, Sébastien Marot, challenges the dominant role of the programme in regulating the design project, and argues that instead attention should be redirected towards the site – the site read in depth, with an active regard for memory. Exploring this analysis, he considers in turn Frances Yates' book The Art of Memory, Sigmund Freud's analogy between the past of a city and the workings of memory, Robert Smithson's account of a tour of his suburban birthplace and Georges Descombes' design for a small park in the Geneva suburb where he spent his childhood. Marot’s conclusion brings these different strands together and highlights, in memory, a precept that is essential to the renewal of current architecture. This AA Documents publication is a re-edition of Sébastien Marot’s Sub-Urbanism and the Art of Memory, originally edited by Pamela Johnston and published by AA Publications in

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