Architecture

About: Architecture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25849 publications have been published within this topic receiving 225266 citations.

The Architecture of Happiness

Abstract: What makes a house beautiful? Is it serious to spend your time thinking about home decoration? Why do people disagree about taste? And can buildings make us happy? In "The Architecture of Happiness", Alain de Botton tackles a relationship central to our lives. Our buildings - and the objects we fill them with - affect us more profoundly than we might think. To take architecture seriously is to accept that we are, for better and for worse, different people in different places. De Botton suggests that it is architecture's task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be. Turning the spotlight from the humble terraced house to some of the world's most renowned buildings, de Botton considers how our private homes and public edifices - from those of Christopher Wren to those of Le Corbusier and Norman Foster - influence how we feel, as well as how we could learn to build in ways that would increase our chances of happiness. "The Architecture of Happiness" amounts to a beguiling tour through the philosophy and psychology of architecture.

Design in architecture : architecture and the human sciences / Geoffrey Broadbent

Abstract: Broadbent first investigates what an architect is as a person. Trying to understand how an architect thinks and what sets him apart from the other members of a building design team. To achieve this Broadbent makes a study of various psychological reports which have been generated about architects. Although it would seem that the reports are inconclusive about what characterizes an architect. In particular there would seem to be a great difference between the personality of average and outstanding architects. Characterizations have been made about personality types in general and they include, creative and non-creative, tolerant and prejudiced, introverted and extroverted. Many of these terms carry linguistic connotations which are perhaps misleading. One of the less emotionally loaded distinctions is between cyclothymes and schizothymes. Cyclothymes seem to be sensitive and sociable people with good verbal reasoning skills. By contrast the schizothymes dissociate intellectual and emotional aspects of life tending towards self-sufficiency, reserve and intolerance. Some outstanding designers have been characterized as the latter, whereas some studies would favour the former characteristics for average architects. Although there does not appear to be a clear definition of the character of an architect, some interesting distinctions between broad types of thinkers can be identified. One classification is between convergent and divergent thinkers. The difference between convergent and divergent thinkers re-occurs throughout the book. Convergent thinkers are generally associated with the sciences, and will work effectively towards one correct answer to a given problem. Divergent thinkers respond well to open-ended questions, taking pleasure from the task of proposing many alternatives to a given problem. Divergent thinkers seem to enjoy ambiguity in a problem and are happy to work in this situation, convergent thinkers prefer precise problem definitions avoiding "messy" situations. Convergent thinkers seek to find an abstract perfection, through precise logical arguments, something which divergent thinkers mistrust. Although all architects will fall somewhere between these two extremes, as with all the polarizations presented, there are examples of successful architects who show tendencies to either one of these types of thinking. It has been suggested that successful designing requires both types of thinking. The creative process described in simple terms relies upon the creation of a set of possible solutions and a critical selection process to choose the most suitable. Divergent thinking works best at producing alternatives, and convergent thinking works best at selecting the best solution from a given set. The divergent thinker works within a vague framework, while the convergent thinker works within the well-defined set of possibilities presented.

The Alphabet and the Algorithm

Abstract: Digital technologies have already changed architecturearchitectural form as well as the way architecture is designed and built. But if the digital is a revolution, which tradition is being revolutionized? If it is a "paradigm shift," which architectural paradigm is shifting? In The Alphabet and the Algorithm, Mario Carpo points to one key practice of modernity: the making of identical copies. Carpo highlights two instances of identicality crucial to the shaping of modern architecture: in the fifteenth century, Leon Battista Albertis invention of architectural designthe humanistic idea of building as the identical replication of an authors intentions; and, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the mass production of identical copies from mechanical master models, matrixes, imprints, or molds. The modern power of the identical, Carpo argues, has come to an end with the rise of digital technologies. All that is digital is variable. In architecture, this means the end of notational limitations, of mechanical standardization, and possibly of the Albertian, authorial way of building by design. Charting the rise and fall of the paradigm of identicality, Carpo compares new forms of postindustrial, digital craftsmanship to traditional hand-making, and to the cultures and technologies of variations that existed before the coming of machine-made, identical copies. Carpo reviews the unfolding of digitally based design and construction from the early 1990s to the present, and suggests a new agenda for architecture in an age of variable media, generic objects, and participatory authorship.

The Favored Circle: The Social Foundations of Architectural Distinction

Abstract: The popular view of architecture focuses on individual creative geniuses, those who have designed the most "significant" works. According to Garry Stevens, however, successful architects owe their success not so much to genius as to social background and a host of other factors that have very little to do with native talent. To concentrate only on the profession of architecture is to ignore the much larger field of architecture, which structures the entire social universe of the architect and of which architects are only one part. This book critically surveys that field, exposing many myths and debunking a number of heroes in the process.Using the conceptual apparatus of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, Stevens describes the field of architecture on two levels. First, he provides a detailed account of the field as it is at any given point in time, describing the different components and their relationships. Second, he analyzes the dynamics of the field through time, from the Renaissance to the present. He discusses the system of architectural education, as well as everyday aspects such as the competition for reputation. He concludes that throughout history, the most eminent architects have been connected to each other by master-pupil and collegiate relations. These networks, which still exist, provide a mechanism for architectural influence that runs parallel to that of the university-based schools.