The Architecture Of Pleasure

This engaging study discusses ways in which architectural forms emulate some archetypal settings that humans have found appealing--and useful for survival--from ancient times to the present. 119 photos. 6 line figures.

The Pursuit of Pleasure presents the figures of the rambler and the cyprian, the Eighteenth Century precursors to the Parisian flGneur and prostitute. The urban spaces traced by these figures were the clubs, sporting venues, operas, assembly rooms, streets and arcades of central London.Drawing on critical theory, geography and philosophy, The Pursuit of Pleasure extends and critiques the discipline of architectural history from a feminist perspective. The gendering of public space is considered to be a complex and shifting series of moves and looks between men and women, constructed and represented through spatial and social relations of consumption, display and exchange.Illustrated with contemporary prints and drawings, The Pursuit of Pleasure is an extraordinarily rich analysis of the gendered issues of public space at the birth of the modern metropolis.

Authoritative and readable, this excellent text, illustrated by a unique pictorial record of period architecture, surveys and examines how and why the architecture of pleasure related to the stylistic and ideological concerns of modernism in 1930s Britain. Responding to the current interest in modernism and packed with a substantial archive of high quality photographs and other documentation, it relates the professional, entrepreneurial and institutional infrastructures affecting the pleasure industry’s architectural development and appearance in 1930s. A broad range of building through which the general public first experienced Modernism are covered, including: commercial – holiday camps, cinemas and greyhound racing stadia municipal and governmental projects – zoos, seaside pavilions, concert halls, and imperial and international exhibitions. Arguing that the responses to modernism through the architecture of pleasure were conditioned by wider debates about the role of design in relation to high and mass culture, this book is an ideal resource for all those interested in architectural history and design in Britain between the wars.

Rockwell Group turns dreams into space. From steel and stone, color and light, Rockwell Group creates environments that are at once destinations and a means of transport: to new worlds, new experiences. Rockwell Group has crafted a vital form of vernacular architecture and design, one that crackles with the kinetic energy of the avant-garde, the shimmer of Hollywood, the sensual mystery of a far-off, yet somehow familiar, place. With projects such as the Kodak Theatre, a masterful pairing of technology and spectacle worthy of the Academy Awards; the Mohegan Sun casino, a dazzling scenescape of myth and wonder; and the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, where learning and discovery help advance the healing process; Rockwell Group has garnered accolades for a signature design strategy that seduces, entertains, informs, and inspires. "Pleasure" is the first book to examine the theaters, hotels, stadiums, restaurants, casinos, and other spaces across the country that have positioned Rockwell Group as one of America's most influential, acclaimed, and popular firms. Including essays by Kurt Andersen, Paola Antonelli, Arnold Aronson, Raul A. Barreneche, Michael Bierut, Paul Goldberger, Gael Greene, Reed Kroloff, Todd Oldham, Chee Pearlman, Irwin Redlener, M.D., George C. Wolfe, Richard Saul Wurman Featured projects include: Nobu, Vong, Ruby Foo's, Michael Jordan's The Steak House N.Y.C., Animator's Palate, Chambers, W New York and W Union Square, Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Jersey Gardens, Cirque du Soleil, Kodak Theatre, Coca-Cola Skyfield, Mohegan Sun Casino & Resort

This engaging study discusses ways in which architectural forms emulate some archetypal settings that humans have found appealing--and useful for survival--from ancient times to the present. 119 photos. 6 line figures.

The amusement parks which first appeared in England at the turn of the twentieth century represent a startlingly novel and complex phenomenon, combining fantasy architecture, new technology, ersatz danger, spectacle and consumption in a new mass experience. Though drawing on a diverse range of existing leisure practices, the particular entertainment formula they offered marked a radical departure in terms of visual, experiential and cultural meanings. The huge, socially mixed crowds that flocked to the new parks did so purely in the pursuit of pleasure, which the amusement parks commodified in exhilarating new guises. Between 1906 and 1939, nearly 40 major amusement parks operated across Britain. By the outbreak of the Second World War, millions of people visited these sites each year. The amusement park had become a defining element in the architectural psychological pleasurescape of Britain. This book considers the relationship between popular modernity, pleasure and the amusement park landscape in Britain from 1900-1939. It argues that the amusement parks were understood as a new and distinct expression of modern times which redefined the concept of public pleasure for mass audiences. Focusing on three sites - Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Dreamland in Margate and Southend's Kursaal - the book contextualises their development with references to the wider amusement park world. The meanings of these sites are explored through a detailed examination of the spatial and architectural form taken by rides and other buildings. The rollercoaster - a defining symbol of the amusement park - is given particular focus, as is the extent to which discourses of class, gender and national identity were expressed through the design of these parks.

What would happen if pleasure were made the organizing principle for social relations and sexual pleasure ruled over all? Radical French libertines experimented clandestinely with this idea during the Enlightenment. In explicit novels, dialogues, poems, and engravings, they wrenched pleasure free from religion and morality, from politics, aesthetics, anatomy, and finally reason itself, and imagined how such a world would be desirable, legitimate, rapturous—and potentially horrific. Laying out the logic and willful illogic of radical libertinage, this book ties the Enlightenment engagement with sexual license to the expansion of print, empiricism, the revival of skepticism, the fashionable arts and lifestyles of the Ancien Régime, and the rise and decline of absolutism. It examines the consequences of imagining sexual pleasure as sovereign power and a law unto itself across a range of topics, including sodomy, the science of sexual difference, political philosophy, aesthetics, and race. It also analyzes the roots of radical claims for pleasure in earlier licentious satire and their echoes in appeals for sexual liberation in the 1960s and beyond.

Marco Frascari believed that architects should design thoughtful buildings capable of inspiring their inhabitants to have pleasurable and happy lives. A visionary Italian architect, academic and theorist, Frascari is best-known for his extraordinary texts, which explore the intellectual, theoretical and practical substance of the architectural discipline. As a student in Venice during the late 1960s, Frascari was taught and mentored by Carlo Scarpa. Later he moved to North America with his family, where he became a fulltime academic. Throughout his academic career, he continued to work on numerous architectural projects, including exhibitions, competition entries, and designs for approximately 35 buildings, a small number of which were built. As a means of (re)constructing the theatre of imaginative theory within which these buildings were created, Sam Ridgway draws on a wide selection of Frascari’s texts, including his richly poetic book Monsters of Architecture, to explore the themes of representation, demonstration, and anthropomorphism. Three of Frascari’s delightful buildings are then brought to light and interpreted, revealing a sophisticated and interwoven relationship between texts and buildings.