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For a small country that generally keeps a low profile on the stage of world events, Denmark has played a disproportionately prominent role in the history of 20th Century architecture and design. Today in the early 21st Century, known for its anything-goes attitude towards design, Denmark also has its share of provocative architects surfing waves of fashionable trends,(...)
En levende tradition / A living tradition
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For a small country that generally keeps a low profile on the stage of world events, Denmark has played a disproportionately prominent role in the history of 20th Century architecture and design. Today in the early 21st Century, known for its anything-goes attitude towards design, Denmark also has its share of provocative architects surfing waves of fashionable trends, yet a few firms maintain a more grounded and centered approach to their work. Prominent among this group is KPF Architects (Kjelgaard, Pedersen & Fællestegnestuen), whose philosophy and work is a prime example of design rooted in a specific regional narrative while globally pursuing new ideas, new concepts and new materials that elevate their projects to the highest levels of architectural discourse, without sacrificing either usefulness or pleasure for the client. Even their most ordinary functional projects like banks, office buildings, and medical facilities embody a sensitivity that is uplifting. Kenneth Frampton states: One cannot help but be reminded of the tradition of Arne Jacobsen when looking at KPF Arkitekters work and thus of the commonsense functional, but ludic, character of the still vital Danish modern movement as it has consistently evolved over the past sixty years
Architecture Monographs
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More than ever, architectural design is seen as a means to promote commercial goals rather than as an end in itself. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, for example, simply cannot be considered apart from its intended role as a catalyst for the economic revitalization of Bilbao and its ability to attract tourist dollars, regardless of its architectural merits. A(...)
Architectural Theory
November 2005, Minneapolis, London
Commodification and spectacle in architecture
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More than ever, architectural design is seen as a means to promote commercial goals rather than as an end in itself. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, for example, simply cannot be considered apart from its intended role as a catalyst for the economic revitalization of Bilbao and its ability to attract tourist dollars, regardless of its architectural merits. A built environment intended to seduce consumers is more likely to offer instant gratification than to invite independent thought and reflection. But how harmful, if at all, is this unprecedented commercialization of architecture? Framed with an introduction by Kenneth Frampton, the contributions to "Commodification and spectacle in architecture" stake out a variety of positions in the debate over the extent to which it is possible—or desirable—to escape from, resist, or suggest plausible alternatives to the dominant culture of consumer capitalism. Rejecting any dreamy nostalgia for an idealized present or past in which design is completely divorced from commerce—and, in some cases, celebrating the pleasures of spectacle—the individual essays range from indictments of particular architects and critiques of the profession to broader concerns about what the phenomenon of commodification means for the practice of democracy and the health of society. Bringing together an impressive and varied group of critics and practitioners, "Commodification and spectacle in architecture" will help to sharpen the discussion of how design can respond to our hypercommodified culture.
Architectural Theory
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"Perspecta", the oldest and most respected student-edited architectural journal in the United States, marks its fiftieth anniversary with this selection of influential and provocative pieces published in its pages from the 1950s through the 1990s. The essays and portfolios in "[Re]Reading Perspecta" trace the development of architectural culture and discourse over the(...)
Architectural Theory
May 2004, Cambridge, Massachusetts
[Re] reading Perspecta : the first 50 years of the Yale Architectural Journal
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"Perspecta", the oldest and most respected student-edited architectural journal in the United States, marks its fiftieth anniversary with this selection of influential and provocative pieces published in its pages from the 1950s through the 1990s. The essays and portfolios in "[Re]Reading Perspecta" trace the development of architectural culture and discourse over the past fifty years and bear witness to the influential role played by "Perspecta" in a time of crucial debate about the function and future of architecture. This collection (with over 800 pages and 900 images) presents engaging and stimulating essays published in "Perspecta", written by such well-known historians, theorists, and architects as Vincent Scully, Colin Rowe, Roland Barthes, Karsten Harries, K. Michael Hays, Allan Greenberg, Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, John Hejduk, Francesco Dal Co, Bernard Tschumi, and Mark Wigley. "[Re]Reading Perspecta" also assembles the best examples of the richly-illustrated portfolios of projects published over the years, including work by Paul Rudolph, Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi, Eero Saarinen, Charles Moore, Philip Johnson, Peter Eisenman, John Hejduk, Steven Holl, Thomas Leeser, Hani Rashid, and others. The editors introduce each section with essays that offer historical context and critical commentary. "[Re]Reading Perspecta" also includes essays by Kenneth Frampton, K. Michael Hays, Joan Ockman, and Sandy Isenstadt on the history of "Perspecta" and its role in architectural discourse. This selection of the best of "Perspecta" covers a broad and lively spectrum of American architectural design, history, theory, and criticism.
Architectural Theory
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What would it mean today to think or to imagine, to design or to construct, in relation not to "things made" but to "things in the making"? This question, first posed by the philosopher William James, was the point of departure for "The Pragmatist Imagination". The volume brings together position statements, theoretical speculations, and critical commentary by 33 leading(...)
Contemporary Art Monographs
November 2001, New York
The pragmatist imagination : thinking about things in the making
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What would it mean today to think or to imagine, to design or to construct, in relation not to "things made" but to "things in the making"? This question, first posed by the philosopher William James, was the point of departure for "The Pragmatist Imagination". The volume brings together position statements, theoretical speculations, and critical commentary by 33 leading thinkers and makers from over a dozen disciplines. Based on the proceedings of an international workshop held at Columbia University under the auspices of the Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture in spring 2000, a preamble to the much-ballyhooed conference at the Museum of Modern Art in November, 2000, the contributions traverse a set of burning questions about the future, ranging from the relationship between art and experience to the impact of new technologies on human consciousness, from transformations in everyday life to problems of public space, and from the destiny of the nation-state to emergent forms of transnationalism. The authors include Stanley Aronowitz, Marshall Berman, Casey Nelson Blake, Sandra Buckley, Teresa Caldeira, Jean-Louis Cohen, Jonathan Crary, Rosalyn Deutsche, Kenneth Frampton, Gerald E. Frug, Peter Galison, Elizabeth Grosz, Andreas Huyssen, Isaac Joseph, David Lapoujade, Reinhold Martin, Brian Massumi, Mary McLeod, Paul Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky, Chantal Mouffe, Joan Ockman, John Rajchman, Martha Rosler, Hashim Sarkis, Saskia Sassen, Sandhya Shukla, Richard Shusterman, Abdoumaliq Simone, Anders Stephanson, Bernard Tschumi, Nadia Urbinati, Mabel Wilson, and Gwendolyn Wright. The book includes an introduction by John Rajchman and an afterword by Casey Nelson Blake.
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November 2001, New York
Contemporary Art Monographs
Judging architectural value
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When it comes to determining the relative quality of architecture, who is best equipped to make the distinctions? Is it the public who lives in and among the buildings? The people who commission and pay for the buildings? Art historians? Or architects themselves? These provocative essays take up the questions of what people value in architecture and how changing(...)
Architectural Theory
April 2007, Mineapolis London
Judging architectural value
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When it comes to determining the relative quality of architecture, who is best equipped to make the distinctions? Is it the public who lives in and among the buildings? The people who commission and pay for the buildings? Art historians? Or architects themselves? These provocative essays take up the questions of what people value in architecture and how changing values influence opinions about it. In the intriguing opening essay, Michael Benedikt makes an argument for the role of architects in the delineation of value in architecture. He discusses the differences between icon and canon, a theme threaded through many of the essays. In addition to unexpected analyses of buildings such as Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Paul Rudolph’s Art and Architecture Building at Yale University, and the work of Antoni Gaudí and Frank Gehry, the collection includes a clear-eyed look at the role of architecture in addressing social problems. Ultimately, these essays assert that judging architecture requires more than a refined sensibility. Buildings also need to be evaluated by their impact on the people living within and around them. Contributors: John Beardsley, Harvard Design School; Michael Benedikt, U of Texas, Austin; Tim Culvahouse, California College of the Arts; Lisa Finley, California College of the Arts; Kurt W. Forster, Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar, Germany; Kenneth Frampton, Columbia U; Diane Ghirardo, U of Southern California; Charles Jencks; David Leatherbarrow, U of Pennsylvania; Nancy Levinson; Hélène Lipstadt; Juhani Pallasmaa, Helsinki U of Technology; Timothy M. Rohan, U of Massachusetts, Amherst; Roger Scruton; Daniel Willis, Pennsylvania State U. William S. Saunders is editor of Harvard Design Magazine and assistant dean for external relations at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He is the author of Modern Architecture: Photographs by Ezra Stoller and editor of three other Harvard Design Magazine Readers. Michael Benedikt is Hal Box Chair in Urbanism and director of the Center for American Architecture and Design at the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin.
Architectural Theory