Title & Author:

Building sites : architecture, labour, and production studies / edited by Matt Davies, Will Thomson, Katie Lloyd Thomas, and João Marcos de Almeida Lopes.

Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2026.
©2026

Description:

xiii, 361 pages : illustrations, facsimiles ; 26 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The building site and the city / Pedro Arantes and Mariana Fix -- Life-worlds/Death-worlds in the temple building industry of western India / Megha Chand Inglis -- Fire-regimes of Grenfell / Liam Ross.
List of Contributors -- Introduction: Setting an Agenda Introduction: Building a Field of Production Studies / Matt Davies, Will Thomson, Katie Lloyd Thomas and João Marcos de Almeida Lopes -- Translation as Production / Silke Kapp -- Challenging Design Ideology: Reframing Architectural Production and the Design--Labour Relation / Will Thomson -- Paths to Production Studies: Ferro and His Interlocutors -- The Building Site and the City: Radical Criticism and Emancipation in Sérgio Ferro and David Harvey / Pedro Fiori Arantes and Mariana Fix -- Sérgio Ferro, William Morris and a New Field: Architecture, Cultural Studies, and Production Studies / Nick Beech -- Towards Emancipatory Practices -- Unionization as a Political Issue: The Debate in the Architects' Union of São Paulo (1972-1981) / Ana Paula Koury -- A Work Encampment Project (1981), by Rodrigo Brotero Lefèvre / Ana C. Buim -- Masters of Detachment: Lingering on the Self-management Building Site / Tijana Stevanović -- The Industrial Workers of the World in the American Building Industry, 1905-1937 / Alexander Wood -- From the Building Site -- Absent Voices, Absent Lives: Articulating Building Workers in Architectural Production / Christine Wall -- Timber Houses and Favela Carpenters in the Brazilian Nordeste: An Architectural History of Production / José Tavares Correia de Lira -- The Construction of Alienated Labour and the Alienation of Construction Labour: Mexico, 16th Century / José Thiesen -- Life-Worlds / Death-Worlds in the Temple Building Industry of Western India / Megha Chand Inglis -- Labour, Material, Technology New Sites of Labour: Women and Building Products in the Interwar Period in the UK / Katie Lloyd Thomas -- A Feminist Reading of the Construction Site: Learning with Women Builders in Mata dos Crioulos / Mariana Moura -- The Material as a Source for the History of Architecture / Raíssa Pereira Cintra de Oliveira -- Production and Pedagogies Construction Technology for Building Autonomy / João Marcos de Almeida Lopes -- Weaving Sérgio Ferro's Web: Production Pedagogies in São Paulo (1963-1972) / João Bittar Fiammenghi -- The Useful Student: Perpetuating 'Separated Design' in Handbooks for Architecture Students / Miriam Delaney -- From Artist-Architect to Salaried Architect: The Examination of Professional Practice in West Berlin, 1967-1977 / Tilo Amhoff -- Politics and the Political Economy of Production -- Fire Regimes of Grenfell: On Construction and Combustion / Liam Ross -- Remembering Production: Favela Museums, Building, and the Production of Space / Matt Davies and Renata Summa -- Considering Art's 'Building Site' for Production Studies: The Case of Art Fabrication / Danielle Child -- Afterword / Peggy Deamer -- Index

Summary:

"Building Sites addresses the urgent need to advance the critical understanding of relations between architectural design and the labour of building. Whilst recognising that in many parts of the world building takes place through self-organised processes and traditional skills, the book questions a central and problematic omission in architectural discourse, education and practice - the production of buildings, and the erasure of construction labour entailed by that omission. Through its engagement with the ground-breaking work of the architect and theorist Sérgio Ferro, who developed a history of architecture 'seen from the building site', the book sets out a programme for a new field of Production Studies for architecture and other disciplines. First, the field requires careful research into the production of the built environment - at the construction site, in the factory, in the design office and beyond. This volume explores historical and contemporary cases from Brazil, the UK, Yugoslavia, Germany, India, Mexico and the USA. Second, the book asks why the disciplinary silencing of production prevails. In Ferro's view the tendency of architectural discourse to ignore issues of labour and processes of construction is no mere oversight but rather a structural necessity for maintaining the profession's capacity to act 'on' and 'over' the building site, a necessity arising organically from the development of capitalism. Turning also to Morris, Harvey, Chakrabarty and Malm, the collection provides the first sustained English-language engagement with Ferro's theories and critiques. Chapters on radical pedagogies, unions and political alliances and alternative forms of building take the third step - to respond to contemporary crises Production Studies must mobilise its understanding to seek alternatives and work towards change"-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9781032791524 (hardcover)
1032791527 (hardcover)
9781032788845 (paperback)
1032788844 (paperback)
(electronic book)
9781003490777
(ePub ebook)
9781040640197
(PDF ebook)
9781040512913

Subject:

Architectural design Philosophy.
Work Philosophy.
Building sites.
Design architectural Philosophie.
Travail Philosophie.
Chantiers de construction.
building sites.

Form/genre:

Illustrated works.
Ouvrages illustrés.

Added entries:

Davies, Matt, 1960- editor.
Thomson, Will (Anthropologist), editor.
Lloyd Thomas, Katie, editor.
Lopes, João Marcos (Architect), editor.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 325448
Call No.: 325448
Copy: 1
Status: Available