Architecture In The Age Of Printing

A history of the influence of communication technologies on Western architectural theory. The discipline of architecture depends on the transmission in space and time of accumulated experiences, concepts, rules, and models. From the invention of the alphabet to the development of ASCII code for electronic communication, the process of recording and transmitting this body of knowledge has reflected the dominant information technologies of each period. In this book Mario Carpo discusses the communications media used by Western architects, from classical antiquity to modern classicism, showing how each medium related to specific forms of architectural thinking. Carpo highlights the significance of the invention of movable type and mechanically reproduced images. He argues that Renaissance architectural theory, particularly the system of the five architectural orders, was consciously developed in response to the formats and potential of the new printed media. Carpo contrasts architecture in the age of printing with what preceded it: Vitruvian theory and the manuscript format, oral transmission in the Middle Ages, and the fifteenth-century transition from script to print. He also suggests that the basic principles of "typographic" architecture thrived in the Western world as long as print remained our main information technology. The shift from printed to digital representations, he points out, will again alter the course of architecture.

The Printed and the Built explores the intricate relationship between architecture and printed media in the fast-changing nineteenth century. Publication history is a rapidly expanding scholarly field which has profoundly influenced architectural history in recent years. Yet, while groundbreaking work has been done on architecture and printing in the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the twentieth century, the nineteenth century has received little attention. This is the omission that The Printed and the Built seeks to address, thus filling a significant gap in the understanding of architecture's cultural history. Lavishly illustrated with colourful and eclectic visual material, from panoramas to printed ephemera, adverts, penny magazines, early photography, and even crime reportage, The Printed and the Built consists of five in-depth thematic essays accompanied by 25 short pieces, each examining a particular printed form. Altogether, they illustrate how new genres communicated architecture to a mass audience, setting the stage for the modern architectural era.

Architecture in the Digital Age addresses contemporary architectural practice in which digital technologies are radically changing how buildings are conceived, designed and produced. It discusses the digitally-driven changes, their origins, and their effects by grounding them in actual practices already taking place, while simultaneously speculating about their wider implications for the future. The book offers a diverse set of ideas as to what is relevant today and what will be relevant tomorrow for emerging architectural practices of the digital age.

Although 3D printing promises a revolution in many industries, primarily industrial manufacturing, nowhere are the possibilities greater than in the field of product design and modular architecture. Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, of the cutting-edge San Francisco–based design firm Emerging Objects, have developed remarkable techniques for "printing" from a wide variety of powders, including sawdust, clay, cement, rubber, concrete, salt, and even coffee grounds, opening an entire realm of material, phenomenological, and ecological possibilities to designers. In addition to case studies and illustrations of their own work, Rael and San Fratello offer guidance for sourcing alternative materials, specific recipes for mixing compounds, and step-by-step instructions for conducting bench tests and setting parameters for material testing, to help readers to understand the process of developing powder-based materials and their unique qualities.

Here, the author assesses our modern book culture by focusing on five key elements including the explosion of retail bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders, and the formation of the Oprah Book Club.

The first guidebook devoted exclusively to New York City’s Art Deco treasures. Winner of a 2017–2018 New York City Book Award presented by the New York Society Library Of all the world’s great cities, perhaps none is so defined by its Art Deco architecture as New York. Lively and informative, New York Art Deco leads readers step-by-step past the monuments of the 1920s and ’30s that recast New York as the world’s modern metropolis. Anthony W. Robins, New York’s best-known Art Deco guide, includes an introductory essay describing the Art Deco phenomenon, followed by eleven walking tour itineraries in Manhattan—each accompanied by a map designed by legendary New York cartographer John Tauranac—and a survey of Deco sites across the four other boroughs. Also included is a photo gallery of sixteen color plates by nationally acclaimed Art Deco photographer Randy Juster. In New York Art Deco, Robins has distilled thirty years’ worth of experience into a guidebook for all to enjoy at their own pace. A native New Yorker and twenty-year veteran of the New York City Landmarks Commission, Anthony W. Robins is the author of books on Grand Central Terminal, the World Trade Center, and the art and architecture of the New York subway system. A popular leader of walking tours all over New York City, he is best known for Art Deco, and organized the city’s first regularly scheduled series of Art Deco tours, sponsored by the Art Deco Society of New York. He is the recipient of the 2017 Guiding Spirit Award from the Guides Association of New York City.

Now almost 20 years old, the digital turn in architecture has already gone through several stages and phases. Architectural Design (AD) has captured them all – from folding to cyberspace, nonlinearity and hypersurfaces, from versioning to scripting, emergence, information modelling and parametricism. It has recorded and interpreted the spirit of the times with vivid documentary precision, fostering and often anticipating crucial architectural and theoretical developments. This anthology of AD’s most salient articles is chronologically and thematically arranged to provide a complete historical timeline of the recent rise to pre-eminence of computer-based design and production. Mario Carpo provides an astute overview of the recent history of digital design in his comprehensive introductory essay and in his leaders to each original text. A much needed pedagogical and research tool for students and scholars, this synopsis also relates the present state of digitality in architecture to the history and theory of its recent development and trends, and raises issues of crucial importance for the contemporary practice of the design professions. A comprehensive anthology on digital architecture edited by one of its most eminent scholars in this field, Mario Carpo. Includes seminal texts by Bernard Cache, Peter Eisenman, John Frazer, Charles Jencks, Greg Lynn, Achim Menges and Patrik Schumacher. Features key works by FOA, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Ali Rahim, Lars Spuybroek/NOX, Kas Oosterhuis and SHoP.