Terra-Sorta-Firma

Reclaiming the Littoral Gradient Fadi Masoud For centuries, cities have grown and expanded onto previously saturated grounds;"reclaiming" land from estuaries, marshes, mangroves, and seabeds. While these artificial coastlines are sites of tremendous real estate, civic, and infrastructural investments, they are also the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Terra-Sorta-Firma documents the global extent of reclaimed coastal lands, and provides a framework for comparison across varying geographies, cultures, and histories. It renders visible the ubiquity and precarity of urban coastal reclamation in an age of increased environmental and economic indeterminacy. The five parts of the book question urbanism's political, economic, and physical binary relationship to wet and dry grounds in search of a new understanding of land in a state of permanent flux. This book challenges designers, developers, policymakers, engineers, and urbanists to reconsider the design and construction of land itself, and to re-imagine this most fundamental of all infrastructures along a gradient of inundation. Foreword by Brent D. Ryan With Contributions of Vince Beiser (Wired / NYTimes / The World in A Grain of Sand); Nadine Sterk and Lonny van Ryswyck (Atelier NL); Xiaoxuan Lu (University of Hong Kong) ; Adam Grydehøj ( Island Dynamics); Ben Mendelson (University of Pennsylvania); Kian Goh (UCLA); Luna Khirfan (University of Waterloo); Michael T. Wilson (RAND) EBOOK EDITION

The Threefold Logic of Advanced Architecture

Conformative, Distributive and Expansive Protocols for an Informational Practice: 1990-2020 Manuel Gausa, Jordi Vivaldi This work proposes a threefold cultural narrative whose interactive and informational logic differs from that of modernity and postmodernity. It positions three different ethos by critically approaching the architectural side of a cultural mutation that has been affecting the Western experimental areas of knowledge and practice since the end of the last century. A transformative process constituted by a constellation of transdisciplinary manifestations, accelerations, turns, shortcuts and clusterizations that by no means can be read under one single epistemological umbrella. In this sense, rather than approaching the practice of architecture focusing on its disciplinary inner specificity, this book approaches the research of experimental architecture focusing on its extra-disciplinary entanglements. It argues that a vast multiplicity of fields of knowledge participates in a cultural endeavour modulated through three protocols -forms of action- that singularize three decades: Conformative Protocols (1990-2000), Distributive Protocols (2000-2010) and Expansive Protocols (2010-2020). These three periods shouldn'nt be read as three hermetic and concatenated monades, but as three different modulations of the same narrative, that is, as three overlapping and coexisting systems whose peaks of intensity occur in three different decades. However, the main purpose of this book is not limited to unveiling the ethos of these three conjugations. It also aims at using this framework as a "time-field" , a narrative map that moves from the classificatory to the cartographical in order to vectorize the last 30 years of experimental architecture. In this sense, this book argues that this threefold set of protocols represents the progressive attempt to constitute critical interiorities "looking for" and "produced through" interactions that are increasingly more intimate and whose agents are increasingly more diverse. A tendency oriented towards the consolidation of an "intimacy between strangers" that highly resonates with the cultural and technological landscape in which experimental architecture operates. EBOOK EDITION

African Fabbers Atlas

Manual of Synthetic Vernacular Architecture Paolo Cascone Based on almost ten years of applied research of Paolo Cascone and his CODESIGNLAB practice in Africa, the book investigates the potential role of indigenous and spontaneous architecture in the contemporary debate on sustainability in architectural design. 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? These questions are discussed through a number of paradigmatic projects and conversations between the author and a panel of experts from different backgrounds in order to shape an interdisciplinary approach that bridges different knowledges. 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 architectures: self-similarity and diversified typologies, material optimisation and circular economy, self-sufficiency and responsive dwellings. Each principle is confronted also with the work of pioneers such as Hassan Fathy, Fabrizio Carola etc. with the aim of sharing and evolving such tremendous heritage by introducing the case studies realized in the frame of the [AF] African Fabbers project over the last decade. The [AF] project has been developed in the last decade as a research platform and an itinerant school for training programmes and community-oriented initiatives that bridges digital and traditional manufacturing for sustainable living. This approach responds to the lack of schools of architecture in the region, despite the economic growth of these countries and their need for social housing and basic infrastructures. For this reason, the book aims at declining such on-site experience and its theoretical background into a decolonised approach to architectural education. This drives to the conclusion that we should probably start to take into serious consideration African solutions for global problems. With Contributions ofÂ Chirstian Benimana -MASS (Architect / Rwanda) ; Cheick Diallo (Designer /Mali) ; Ron Eglash (Professor of ethnomathematics -University of Michigan /USA) ; Ugo La Pietra (Designer / Italy) ; Vincent Kitio (UN-Habitat /Kenya) ; Françoise N'Thepe (Architect / France – Cameroon) ; Giancarlo Mazzanti -El Equipo Mazzanti (Architect /Adjunct Associate Professor - Columbia University / Colombia) ; Ronald Rael - Rael San Fratello (Architect /Professor - Berkeley College of Environmental Design / USA) ; Massimo Moretti (founder of WASP / Italy) , AbdouMaliq Simone (Professor of sociology –University of Sheffield / UK)

Unless

The Seagram Building Construction Ecology Kiel Moe This book presents a terrestrial description of the Seagram Building. It aims to describe how humans and nature interact with the thin crust of the planet. Architecture reorganizes nature and society in particular ways that today demand overt attention and new methods of description. The immense material, energy and labor involved in building require a fresh interpretation that better situates the ecological and social potential of design. Architecture and society would benefit from alternative descriptions of building and architecture as terrestrial activities that help imagine how to maximize the impact of architecture on its environment. I argue that the enhancement of a particular building should be inextricable from the enhancement of its world-system and construction ecology. A "beautiful" building engendered through the vulgarity of uneven exchanges and processes of underdevelopment is no longer a tenable conceit in such a framework. Design can and should evince the inherent solidarity and reciprocity of people, places and politics involved in building architecture. The environmental and social conditions of this century suggest a much more recursive description of architecture and the terrestrial processes that converge through building. To this end, the book mixes construction ecology, material geography, and world-systems analysis through architecture to help articulate all the terrestrial activities that engender building generally and, more specifically, through the example of a most modern of modern architectures: the Seagram Building. The book evokes a broad range of evidence to help explicate the terrestrial activity of this architecture to make design far less abstract and much more literal. Unless architects begin to describe buildings as terrestrial events and artifacts, architects will —to our collective and professional peril— continue to operate outside the key environmental dynamics and key political processes of this century. EBOOK EDITION

Ness Collection

NESS is a printed magazine on architecture, life, and urban culture which intends to address diverse ways of thinking about the built environment and singular phenomena while expanding and transforming contemporary dialogues. TITLES INCLUDED 9781732010604 NESS. On Architecture, Life, and Urban Culture 1 - Issue 1/ Between Cozy History & Homey Technics 9781732010628 NESS. On Architecture, Life, and Urban Culture 2 - Issue 2/ Mad World Pictures 9781732010611Â NESS.docs - Issue 1/ Hashim Sarkis Studios 1998-2017 9781732010635 NESS.docs- Issue 2/ Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas NESS Issue 1 on Between Cozy History & Homey Technics warms up with a selection of the nine installations that rocked 2017 and further browses through the work of Eleni Petaloti & Leonidas Trampoukis, whose sibling practices —LOT and objects of common interest— shift from one scale to another with subtle sophistication. Plus, Berlin-based architect Lena Wimmer presents her utmost experimental projects. Next, NESS headed to Detroit and dedicates a 38-page survey to draw a portrait of the city through their own curious and questioning lenses. The editors went to the Planning and Development Department and talked to authorities, designers, architects, community representatives, and developers shaping the former Motor-City. NESS Issue 2 focuses on planetary representations: Mad World Pictures. Picking up on the question "What are the limits to the possible?" posed by Jean-Luc Nancy, The Dossier places the issue of planetary representations at center: Richard Saul Wurman recounts maps as a tool for understanding; Alexandra Arènes and Bruno Latour develop new cartographies of The Earth; Giuliana Bruno defines 'tender mapping; the exhibition Walls of Air drafts the immaterial barriers of Brazil's architecture and territory; and Fake Industries speculate on the sudden invention of the Indo-Pacific Region. Also, Uriel Fogué, Parasite Lab, María Jérez, Jesse LeCavalier, and Sophia Al Maria dared to play with an exquisite corpse via email. NESS.docs Issue 1 on Hashim Sarkis Studios has two parts: Projects and Dialogues. The first section includes enticing visual documentation on HSS's projects (Balloon Landing Park, Housing for the Fishermen, Daily Mosque, Town Hall & Park, Float Pavilion, Watermelon Landscape, and Courtowers) complemented by critical remarks by Nader Tehrani and Sarkis. In the Dialogues section issues an interview to Sarkis by editors, Florencia Rodriguez and José Mayoral, a conversation between Angelo Bucci and Sarkis, and a discussion between Stan Allen, Kenneth Frampton, and Sarkis. NESS.docs Issue 2 explores the potentials for landscape as a medium for urban intervention in the specific contexts of Latin-American cities. More than twenty Latin American practices are shown and grouped in five different themes: Biological Environments, Resilient Grounds, Performative Systems, Revealed Protocols, and Assembled Natures. Finally, a conversation between Charles Waldheim, Florencia Rodriguez, and Luis Callejas deepens the discussion of our academic curricula, drawing as representation, political spaces, and the general sensitivity around landscape.

Association/11

Jacob Taylor Soley, Jingxin Yang ASSOCIATION/11 is a student-designed and edited publication that gathers work from students, faculty, staff, and alumni across Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning [AAP] in a single volume. 15 Years. 724 Projects. 11 Volumes. Since 2005, we the students of Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art & Planning have brought to you ASSOCIATION — the culmination of the voice of the student body. Once again, with the release of this publication, we invite you to view the work of the multi-talented, individual, and endlessly brilliant students, faculty, and alumni of this college. In 11, we observe the idea of parallel. We are all familiar with parallel lines: two or more lines in a plane that do not intersect or touch each other at any point. Parallel subjects can also be equidistant, similar, analogous, or also interdependent in tendency or development. For us at ASSOCIATION, parallel is meant to represent the three parallel pillars of Cornell AAP — Architecture, Art, and Planning — in equally important and considered ways. Not only does organizing projects in this way allow each project to be understood individually on its own, but it also allows one to draw parallels between the work, or as we like to call them, associations. Each project has been carefully categorized and interwoven, allowing you, the reader, to find projects by subject, by color, and of course, by association. With contributions of : Aaron Schwarz, Adriana Contarino, Aiza Ahmed, Akshai Wilkinson, Alberto Ferrer, Alberto de Salvatierra, Alec James Martinez, Alexander Htet Aung Kyaw, Alireza Shojakhani, Anders Izumi Evenson, Andrew Lucia, Anna Callahan, Anna Makido, Anushi Garg, Armando Rigau, Arthur Yang, Barbara Page, Bill Zhang, Brian Havener, Bushra Aumir, Cagla Sokullu, Cait McCarthy, Caroline O'Donnell, Charisse Foo, Ching-Lun "Don" Chen, Christina Zau, Cornell Robotic Construction Laboratory, Daniel J. Kaplan, Daniel Toretsky, DavidRosenwasser, Deborah Addison Coburn, Design Connect, Dylan Stevenson, Elias Bennett, Elyse Belarge, Erica Alonzo, Erin Pellegrino, Evan McDowell, FXCollaborative, Francesco Isidori, Gabriel Ramos, Gary Esposito, George Hascup, HANNAH Design Office, Hannah Plummer, Hok, Hou de Sousa, Hyung Joon Kim, Ian Pica Limbaseanu, Ihwa Choi, Iroha Ito, Isabella Hübsch, James Joseph Macmillen, Jamie Mitchell, Jeanette Petti, Jeff Drexel, Jeongyun Yoo, Jeremy Bilotti, Ji Eun Lee, Jiacheng Xu, Jihany Hassun, Jing Wang, Jingjing Liu, Jingxin Yang, Johanna Grazel, Jordan Young, Josh Owen, Josh de Sousa, José Ibarra, Justin Foo Zhi Kai, Kari Spiegelhalter, Katie MacDonald, Kevin Kim, Krizia Calmet, Kwesi Kwapong, Kyle Schumann, Labics, Laura Stargala, Lera Covington, Leslie Lok, Louis Chua, Lucito,Madeleine Eggers, Magdalena Zink, Maitai Kunawong, Manying Chen, Maria Claudia Clemente, Martin Miller, Nancy Hou, Nandini Bagla Chirimar, Noah Liao, OMG: O'Donnell Miller Group, Oonagh Davis, Patrick Kastner, Paul Heydweiller, Paul Woolford, Peter Kelly Jenkins, Peter Romano, Plan A, Poyen Hsieh, Rawinthira Narksusook, Rohan Joseph Cherayil, Ryan Glick, SCF Arquitectos, Sabrina Haertig, Sage Taber, Sam Jury, Samuel Price, Sasa Zivkovic, Sasson Rafailov, Seo Yun Bang, Shruti Shah, Silvana Herrera, Sydney Harmon, Tess Ruswick, Thomas Pera, Thomas Rushton, Tianqi Cui, Tim Dehm, Timothy Liddell, Timur Dogan, Umberto Bellardi Ricci, Wendell Castle,Wendy Lin, William Qian, Xiangxiang Wang, Xiaohang Yan, Xinyu Guan, Yanyang Hou, Yasmeen Abedifard, Yuheng Zhu

AA Files 77

Maria Sheherazade Giudici AA Files is the Architectural Association's journal of record and offers a platform for exchange connecting the research produced by the AA community to a larger architectural debate globally. Organised in a series of thematic sections that emerged from the AA Files Issue 76 Glossary, each 'file' contains two or more contributions that explore a common keyword constructing a dialogue between a heterogeneous set of authors with the aim to reframe architecture as a critical point of entry through which the most urgent social and environmental questions of today can be addressed. In Issue 77, the themes are Body, Care, Economy, Environment, Labour, Project and Resistance. A special feature 'file' on Home gathers ten perspectives on domestic living during lockdown from Mexico City to Teheran, while ARÓ (Allies Against Discrimination and Disparity) writes on four keywords that have beed added to our AA Files Glossary: Afrofuturism, Exile, Third Space and Transience. With contributions by ARÓ, Panos Dragonas and Lydia Kallipoliti, Cooking Sections, Andrea Bagnato, Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, Leonard Ma, Brittany Utting and Daniel Jacobs, James Westcott and Federico Martelli, Ludovico Centis and Ed Ruscha, Georgios Eftaxiopoulos, Elena Palacios Carral, Neeraj Bhatia, Pietro Bonomi and Nicoló Ornaghi, Christophe van Gerrewey, Hugh Strange, Alejandra Celedón Forster, Hamed Khosravi, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Alessandro Bava, Fernanda Canales, Brendon Carlin, Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli, Dan Handel, Harriet Harriss, Peer Illner, Kaveh Rashidzadeh, Charles Rice, Francesca Romana Dell'Aglio, Gabrielle Eglen, Jeremy Lecomte, Oli Surel and Max Turnheim.

Traversées (FR ED.)

Dominique Coulon & Associés Dominique Coulon

The writing of Dominique Coulon & Associés, nominated twice for the Mies van der Rohe award, reflects the agency's work in connection with different contextual postures and the construction of complex spatial relationships. In circumstances that are often difficult, buildings add value to their locations, transforming them. This book explores the public dimension of architecture taking a new look at the eclectic work of Dominique Coulon; his production of public buildings illustrates the complexity of his architectural approach. Dominique Coulon plays with context, light, and materiality to produce public places that are detailed and welcoming. The areas he proposes affect and accompany the body. His architecture is part of a dynamic relationship, mobilising the senses to propose a specific universe, which may be cheerful, or dramatic. These spaces serve the public dimension of his architecture.

Winners of Architizer 2021 A Firm Awards - The World's Best Architecture Firms Visit urbanNext for exclusive on-line content about this book Buy English Edition

Blueprint for a Hack

Leveraging Informal Building Practices Vikram Bhatt, David Harlander, Susane Havelka Over five days, some 60 residents of a northern village teamed with designers from southern Quebec to conceive and build an outdoor community pavilion that activates a central recreational area. "Blueprint for a Hack" aims to reimagine community spaces. Faced with extreme housing shortages, physical isolation, and a challenging climate, outdoor public spaces in northern communities remain largely undesigned and underused. These "in-between" spaces are strewn with stuff: plywood crates, tires, sea-cans, palettes, diesel fuel drums, etc. Most housing and civic buildings in the communities emerge from and stand like physical markers of Euro-Canadian values. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada has begun a discourse on design in northern Canadian communities, but discussions continue to dwell on housing and civic buildings. A strong need exists to open conversations about design and the public realm in northern villages, which this project tries to address, creating a unique experience in which northern and southern groups could apply a "hacking mindset" to reimagine community spaces. "Hacks" respond to institutionalized inadequacy and are found in every culture. They have shown that the reuse and recycling of discarded materials and existing technologies can radically transform everyday life. Hence, hacking is relevant to designing in northern villages where the DIY up-cycling culture is widely practiced. The book celebrates this innovative achievement and showcases its relevance to open shared conversations about the built environment and the need to build on local capabilities, reduce waste and rethink consumption patterns. EBOOK EDITION

Tales from the Dark Side-Col. (6 Vol.)

Unknown Fields is a nomadic design studio that ventures out on expeditions into the shadows cast by the contemporary city, to uncover the industrial ecologies and precarious wilderness its technology and culture set in motion. Tales from the Dark Side of the City is a book series that forms an atlas to the territories and stories of a city that stretches across the entire planet, a city that sits between documentary and fiction, a city of dislocated sites, of drone footage and hidden-camera investigations, of interviews and speculative narratives, of toxic objects and distributed matter from distant grounds. They are a collection of tales from the constellation of elsewheres that are conjured into being by the city's wants and needs, fears and dreams. The series includes stories developed from expeditions through Bolivia and the Atacama Desert, the Western Australian Outback, the South China Sea and Inner Mongolia, the gemfields of Madagascar, Far North Alaska and the black sites of the United States. TITLES INCLUDED 9781907896897 HIGH STRANGE - Roswell to Area 51 9781907896859 NEVER NEVER LANDS - Western Australian Outback 9781907896880 SHOWING IN THE SUPERCOMPUTER - Far North Alaska 9781907896842 THE BREASTMILK OF THE VOLCANO - Bolivia and the Atacama Desert 9781907896873 TREASURED ISLANDS - Madagascar 9781907896866 A WORLD ADRIFT - South China Sea and Inner Mongolia Expedition

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