For nearly fifty years “the building” has primarily been viewed as a means rather than an end within architectural history and theory. This volume presents an alternative to that trend by reconceiving it as a central discursive category in its own right. Contributors—including architects and academics from world-renowned institutions—offer insightful discussions of key architectural structures conceived in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A. over the last three decades. In doing so they propel architectural thinking’s importance as a domain of knowledge. Further, in exploring those structures through a number of questions both intra- and meta-disciplinary, this book suggests ways in which buildings can trigger conceptual frameworks whose influence extends well beyond architecture. A balanced text-to-image ratio caters to readers in both practice and academia.
José Aragüez is a New York-based architect and writer. He is Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Columbia, and is currently completing a PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture at Princeton. Aragüez holds a Diploma in Architecture and Urbanism from the University of Granada, Spain (Honorable Mention, University Graduation Extraordinary Prize, and 1st National Prize in Architecture), and, from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, an MSc AAD (Honor Prize for Excellence in Design) and a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Architectural Research. He has presented his work internationally across Europe, North America, and in the Middle East, and has taught at Cornell, Princeton, and the University of Granada, Spain in addition to Columbia. His first book, an edited volume titled The Building (Lars Müller Pub.), was published in November 2016.
K. Michael Hays is Eliot Noyes Professor of Architecture Theory at Harvard Graduate School of Design. His publications include Modernism and the Post humanist Subject (MIT Press, 1992), Architecture’s Desire(MIT Press, 2009), and Architecture Theory since 1968(MIT Press, 1998).
Bryan E. Norwoodis a PhD candidate in the history and theory of architecture at Harvard University. His dissertation, entitled “The Architect’s Knowledge: Imagining the Profession’s Historical Body, 1797–1933,” investigates the conceptual and historiographical developments that accompanied the formation of university-based professional architectural education in the United States. His work has appeared in Log, Philosophical Forum, Harvard Design Magazine, Culture Machine, and MONU, as well as collected volumes on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Amanda Reeser Lawrence is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture at Northeastern University. She holds a PhD from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, an MArch from Columbia University, and a BA Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University. Her book James Stirling: Revisionary Modernist (Yale University Press, 2013) was funded by the Graham Foundation and the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art. Her work has also been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, and the American Institute of Architects. Her essays have appeared in Log, Architectural Theory Review, OASE, Journal of Architectural Education, and Future Anterior. A licensed architect, Lawrence is founding co-editor of the award-winning journal Praxis.