Architecturally Speaking

Architecturally Speaking is an international collection of essays by leading architects, artists and theorists of locality and space. Together these essays build to reflect not only what it might mean to 'speak architecturally' but also the innate relations between the artist's and architect's work, how they are distinct, and in inspiring ways, how they might relate through questions of built form. This book will appeal to urbanists, geographers, artists, architects, cultural historians and theorists.

Knowledge Engineering and Computer Modelling in CAD covers the proceedings of CAD86, The Seventh International Conference on the Computer as a Design Tool. The book presents 49 papers that are organized into 14 parts according to their respective themes. The main themes of the conference are modeling and expert systems. Materials covering database, control, and geometric modeling are also presented. The coverage of the text includes expert systems in process planning; selections and evaluation of cost-effective CAD systems; and designing complex artifacts with the assistance of a microcomputer-based system. The book will be of great use to researchers and practitioners whose work involves the utilization of CAD.

This monograph brings three branches of philosophy together: epistemology, ethics and aesthetics. It assesses the built environment as a case study from a phenomenological perspective. Under the notion of phenomenology, this study understands the built environment as the hermeneutical phenomenon of being in the life-world that is experienced by people within the socio-cultural and historical context of habitation. Hermeneutically, the built environment as a phenomenon is contextually interwoven with other phenomena within the socio-cultural, historical, and environmental network. Phenomenologically speaking, the task of the study is to excavate, listen to, unfold, divulge, and reconstruct the socio-culturally, environmentally, and historically constructed relationship between people and their built environment that build, develop, and elaborate the system of knowledge, ethics, and aesthetics. By and large, its nature and findings are theoretical and interdisciplinary, so it will be of interest not only for philosophers, but also to scholars studying urban development and anthropology.

These studies in early church history cover various aspects of the church life of early Christians. They focus on the second century. What did the second century Christian leaders say about faith, baptism, infant baptism, worship services, the Lord's Supper, prayer, singing, church organization, mercy and the role of women? New Testament texts bearing on the topic are listed at the beginning of each chapter. We are talking about the same community of people, the same church, as existed in the New Testament. Such writings have an important bearing on the interpretation of the Scriptures.

The book is an interdisciplinary study on the relationship between Muslims and their mosques in Indonesia and Malaysia. It presents selected historic mosques that demonstrate local interpretations and sociocultural assimilation, as well as a geographical syncretism, of Islam in local societies. The book unveils the contestations, synchronizations, assimilations, and integrations of local and foreign elements into the contextual architecture and sociologically institutionalized system that is the mosque: the Islamic place of worship. The author excavates the mosque’s historical origins and traces the iconic elements, features, and designs from their earliest historical settings and contexts. He then identifies, analyzes, and theorizes the outcomes of the interaction between Islam and local traditions through Malaysian and Indonesian case studies. The book proposes that Islam, at its philosophical level, can be culturally acceptable anywhere because it contains universal virtues of humanity for equality, fraternity, and social justice. The book unfolds how a dialectical contestation and acculturation of Dutch colonialism, Middle Eastern elements of culture, and local customs and traditions, might then come into dialogue, peacefully. Finally, the book considers the relationship between Malay and Indonesian architecture within their respective political cultures, shedding light on Islam and its practice within rich multicultural contexts. Relevant to students and researchers in Islamic studies, architecture, and Southeast Asian studies more broadly, the book uncovers the issues, constraints, and opportunities relating to the meaning of mosques for Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia.