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Descartes believed that his analytic model applied to all fields of research and that all branches of science lead to truth. His many analogies with literature and art notwithstanding, Descartes offers an entry into knowledge that fails nevertheless to take into account how in the seventeenth century Dutch painters such as Vermeer similarly order a view of the world by(...)
Tables of knowledge : Descartes in Vermeer's studio
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Descartes believed that his analytic model applied to all fields of research and that all branches of science lead to truth. His many analogies with literature and art notwithstanding, Descartes offers an entry into knowledge that fails nevertheless to take into account how in the seventeenth century Dutch painters such as Vermeer similarly order a view of the world by concentrating on the properties of individual objects. Descartes's celebrated scientific method offers a protocol for conducting experiments; Harriet Stone argues that this method can also serve as a guide for classifying the findings obtained from experiments. Tables of Knowledge shows that Dutch genre paintings and still lifes enact in visual form a process of recording information similar to that of science, with intriguing results. Stone investigates such diverse topics as seventeenth-century advances in optics and the attendant explosion of data about the natural world; the proliferation of material goods in prosperous Dutch homes; and the compelling realism of Golden Age paintings. Vermeer and his contemporaries, she contends, transform a potentially threatening consumerism into the viewer's aesthetic pleasure. The artists' depictions of rooms where framed images and maps adorn walls and where fruit, shimmering glassware, gold pieces, and other precious items are set out on tables constitute an inventory of middle-class life. Appealing to both the eye and the mind, Dutch paintings convey meaning by accentuating the luxury of objects displayed in all their specificity. While not without its voyeuristic, sensual, and even lascivious overtones, art offered the Dutch, who labored under the moral austerity of the Protestant Church, a way of bearing witness to ordinary experience that was unmistakably satisfying and surprisingly Cartesian.
Architectural Theory
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Landscape ecology focuses on spatial heterogeneity, or the idea that where things are and where they are in relation to other things can have important consequences for a wide range of phenomena. Landscape ecology integrates humans with natural ecosystems and brings a spatial perspective to such fields as natural resource management, conservation, and urban planning.(...)
Landscape Theory
September 2006, New York / Chichester
Foundation papers in landscape ecology
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Landscape ecology focuses on spatial heterogeneity, or the idea that where things are and where they are in relation to other things can have important consequences for a wide range of phenomena. Landscape ecology integrates humans with natural ecosystems and brings a spatial perspective to such fields as natural resource management, conservation, and urban planning. The thirty-seven papers included in this volume present the origins and development of landscape ecology and encompass a variety of perspectives, approaches, and geographies. The editors begin with articles that illuminate the discipline's diverse scientific foundations, such as L. S. Berg's keystone paper outlining a geoecological analysis based on soil science, physical geography, and geology. Next they include selections exemplifying landscape ecologists' growing awareness of spatial pattern, the different ways they incorporated scale into their work, the progression of landscape ecology from a qualitative to a quantitative discipline, and how concepts from landscape ecology have come to permeate ecological research and influence land-use policy, conservation practices, landscape architecture, and geography. Together these articles provide a solid introduction to what is now widely recognized as an important area of research and application that encourages new ways of thinking about natural and human-dominated ecosystems.
Landscape Theory
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A collection of essays by art historians, anthropologists and commentators on contemporary visual culture on the theme of "Location". This publication explores the theme of "Location", including transatlantic exchanges and global connections, and the nature of hospitality that arises in acknowledging migration and diaspora. It also questions how important location is(...)
Art Theory
April 2007, Malden, Oxford, Victoria
Location
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A collection of essays by art historians, anthropologists and commentators on contemporary visual culture on the theme of "Location". This publication explores the theme of "Location", including transatlantic exchanges and global connections, and the nature of hospitality that arises in acknowledging migration and diaspora. It also questions how important location is in producing, understanding and curating art. The contributors consider such topics as site-specificity, examinations of the trans-national/trans-cultural, how images/visual forms migrate, and the repositioning of ownership.
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April 2007, Malden, Oxford, Victoria
Art Theory
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In this new book, Salvatore Settis traces the ways in which we have related to our "classical" past, starting with post-modern American skyscrapers and working his way back through our cultural history to the attitudes of the Greeks and Romans themselves. Settis argues that this obsession with cultural decay, ruins and a "classical" past is specifically European and the(...)
Architectural Theory
August 2006, Cambridge, Malden (MA)
The future of the 'Classical'
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In this new book, Salvatore Settis traces the ways in which we have related to our "classical" past, starting with post-modern American skyscrapers and working his way back through our cultural history to the attitudes of the Greeks and Romans themselves. Settis argues that this obsession with cultural decay, ruins and a "classical" past is specifically European and the product of a collective cultural trauma following the collapse of the Roman Empire. He demonstrates how the idea of the "classical" has changed over the centuries through an unrelenting decay of "classicism" and its equally unrelenting rebirth in an altered form. In the Modern Era this emulation of the "ancients" by the "moderns" was accompanied by new trends: the increasing belief that the former had now been surpassed by the latter, and an increasing preference for the Greek over the Roman. These conflicting interpretations were as much about the future as they were about the past. No civilization can invent itself if it does not have other societies in other times and other places to act as benchmarks. Settis argues that we will be better equipped to mould new generations for the future once we understand that the "classical" is not a dead culture we inherited and for which we can take no credit, but something startling that has to be re-created every day and is a powerful spur to understanding the "other".
Architectural Theory
The tenants of East Harlem
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Rich with the textures and rhythms of street life, "The tenants of East Harlem" is an unconventional biography of a neighborhood told through the life stories of seven residents whose experiences there span nearly a century. Modeled on the ethnic distinctions that divide the community, the book portrays the old guard of East Harlem: Pete, one of the last Italian(...)
Urban Theory
August 2006, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
The tenants of East Harlem
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Rich with the textures and rhythms of street life, "The tenants of East Harlem" is an unconventional biography of a neighborhood told through the life stories of seven residents whose experiences there span nearly a century. Modeled on the ethnic distinctions that divide the community, the book portrays the old guard of East Harlem: Pete, one of the last Italian holdouts; José, a Puerto Rican; and Lucille, an African American. Side by side with these representatives of a century of ethnic succession are the newcomers: Maria, an undocumented Mexican; Mohamed, a West African entrepreneur; Si Zhi, a Chinese immigrant and landlord; and, finally, the author himself, a reluctant beneficiary of urban renewal. Russell Leigh Sharman weaves these oral histories together with fine-grained ethnographic observations and urban history to examine the ways that immigration, housing, ethnic change, gentrification, race, class, and gender have affected the neighborhood over time. Providing access to the nuances of inner-city life, "The tenants of East Harlem" shows how roots sink so quickly in a community that has always hosted the transient, how new immigrants are challenging the claims of the old, and how that cycle is threatened as never before by the specter of gentrification.
Urban Theory
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Los Angeles's history is a story of conflicting visions. Most historians, journalists, and filmmakers have focused on L.A. as a bastion of corporate greed, business boosterism, political corruption, cheap labor, exploited immigrants, and unregulated sprawl. "The next Los Angeles" tells a different story: that of the reformers and radicals who have struggled for(...)
Urban Theory
August 2006, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
The next Los Angeles : the struggle for a livable city, updated with a new preface
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Los Angeles's history is a story of conflicting visions. Most historians, journalists, and filmmakers have focused on L.A. as a bastion of corporate greed, business boosterism, political corruption, cheap labor, exploited immigrants, and unregulated sprawl. "The next Los Angeles" tells a different story: that of the reformers and radicals who have struggled for alternative visions of social and economic justice. The authors chronicle efforts of progressive social movements that worked throughout the twentieth century to create a more livable, just, and democratic Los Angeles. These movements-what the authors call Progressive L.A.-have produced a new kind of labor movement, community-oriented environmentalism, and multi-ethnic coalition politics. This book shows how reformers have fought to transform a city characterized by huge economic disparities, concrete-encased rivers, and an endless landscape of subdivisions, freeways, and malls into a progressive model for regions around the country. "The next Los Angeles" includes a decade-by-decade historical snapshot of the city's progressive social movements and an in-depth exploration of key trends that are remaking L.A. at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It examines L.A.'s changing political landscape, including grassroots initiatives to construct a new agenda for social transformation.
Urban Theory
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L'idéologie mondialiste voudrait que, tôt ou tard, nul n'échappe à habiter de la même manière, à satisfaire des besoins identiques et à construire des villes similaires. Or, sous réserve d'y prêter quelque attention, les vécus et représentations s'avèrent bien plus complexes. Mieux ils résistent à l'homogénéisation rampante. C 'est «un changement d'échelle qui rend,(...)
Architectural Theory
December 2006, Paris
Chez nous : territoires et identités dans les mondes contemporains
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L'idéologie mondialiste voudrait que, tôt ou tard, nul n'échappe à habiter de la même manière, à satisfaire des besoins identiques et à construire des villes similaires. Or, sous réserve d'y prêter quelque attention, les vécus et représentations s'avèrent bien plus complexes. Mieux ils résistent à l'homogénéisation rampante. C 'est «un changement d'échelle qui rend, précise Marc Augé, très difficile l'analyse, l'interprétation de l'histoire et même le comportement». Ainsi s'explique le dilemme contemporain : des territoires différents préfigurent-ils des identités distinctes, et réciproquement des identités distinctes appellent-elles des territoires spécifiques ? Interrogeant le monde ou des contrées imaginaires, dans une approche volontairement interdisciplinaire, architectes, anthropologues, géographes, urbanistes, sociologues et politologues ont réfléchi aux relations entre identités et territoires, en scrutant leurs effets sur l'architecture et l'urbanisme, sur la notion de frontières matérielles et symboliques ou, plus généralement, sur la conception d'un «chez nous» se déclinant à plusieurs échelles sociales et géographiques. Malgré certains constats d'uniformisation, ou d'ethnicisation, ces travaux laissent émerger une intelligence humaine, assez rusée pour fuir les extrêmes et penser le «chez nous» de manière plurielle, flexible et contextuelle.
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December 2006, Paris
Architectural Theory
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From the Introduction: "The Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design has been awarded every other year since 1986. Its objective is to recognize the remarkable value of urban design projects around the globe. This time, the prize goes to the City of Aleppo, for the rehabilitation of its historic town. The project has been carried out by the Old City Department of the(...)
Aleppo : rehabilitation of the Old City
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From the Introduction: "The Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design has been awarded every other year since 1986. Its objective is to recognize the remarkable value of urban design projects around the globe. This time, the prize goes to the City of Aleppo, for the rehabilitation of its historic town. The project has been carried out by the Old City Department of the City of Aleppo, in collaboration with GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) and the efforts of many individual citizens. This recent experience in central Aleppo shows us how urban rehabilitation in a historic setting can transmit a vital new meaning when the main focus of the project is restoring urban fabric rather than rebuilding monuments; key to improving current conditions is understanding that the city's physical layout synthesizes its evolution. Furthermore, the effort demonstrates that the city's inhabitants can be the protagonists of such improvements."
Urban Theory
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La dernière pierre
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Un homme atteint un village de haute montagne, à Bali, là où ne parviennent jamais les étrangers. Il est là pour y apporter la dernière pierre de la collection de son père disparu et y découvrir l'énigme de sa naissance. Un récit singulier et envoûtant, hanté par la musique des pierres, la présence des morts, la quête d'une origine à assigner à chaque être et à chaque(...)
La dernière pierre
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Un homme atteint un village de haute montagne, à Bali, là où ne parviennent jamais les étrangers. Il est là pour y apporter la dernière pierre de la collection de son père disparu et y découvrir l'énigme de sa naissance. Un récit singulier et envoûtant, hanté par la musique des pierres, la présence des morts, la quête d'une origine à assigner à chaque être et à chaque chose, la recherche du sens et le vertige de la perte. Gilles Clément, paysagiste, initiateur du concept de jardin planétaire et d'écologie humaniste, et de tiers paysage.
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October 1999, Paris
Landscape Theory
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The average lifespan of a house is somewhere around 100 years. During that time it will see many mutations in household make-up and the associated spatial rituals. So designers are faced with the task of giving form to something that is constantly subject to change. Many studies into flexibility focus on the changeable, on movable partitions and variation in the internal(...)
Frame and generic space : a study into the changeable dwelling proceeding from the permanent
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The average lifespan of a house is somewhere around 100 years. During that time it will see many mutations in household make-up and the associated spatial rituals. So designers are faced with the task of giving form to something that is constantly subject to change. Many studies into flexibility focus on the changeable, on movable partitions and variation in the internal layout. The present study takes not the changeable but the permanent as its departure-point. The permanent, meaning the more durable component of the house or building, constitutes the frame within which change can take place. The frame defines the generic space, the space in which change can occur. Design by Piet Gerards.
Architectural Theory