Ugly Useless Unstable Architectures

Ugly, Useless, Unstable Architectures traces productive intersections between architecture and the discourses of Post-Structuralism and New Materialism. It investigates how their unique ‘ontological regimes’ can be mobilised to supersede the classical framework that still informs both the production and the evaluation of architecture. Throughout its three main chapters, this enquiry challenges one of the most prevalent tropes of architectural assessment: Beauty, Utility and Stability. Author Miguel Paredes Maldonado critically unpacks the spatial and operational qualities of these three idealised concepts, before setting out an alternative framework of spatial practice that draws from Gilles Deleuze’s post-structuralist take on the production of the real and Manuel DeLanda’s model-based branch of New Materialism. This book reads and situates a series of spatial works through the lens of this critical methodology to contest the conceptual aspects traditionally underpinning architectural ‘value’. It posits that architecture can operate as a continuous, generative spectrum encompassing a broad range of potential configurations. Written for academics and students in architectural theory, design and contemporary philosophical thought alike, this book should appeal to a wide audience.

This edited collection explores disease transmission and the ways that the designed environment has promoted or limited its spread. It discusses the many design factors that can be used for infection and disease control through lenses of history, public health, building technology, design, and education. This book calls on designers to consider the role of the built environment as the primary source of bacterial, viral, and fungal transfers through fomites, ventilation systems, and overcrowding and spatial organization. Through 19 original contributions, it provides an array of perspectives to understand how the designed environment may offer a reprieve from disease. The authors build a historical foundation of infection and disease, using examples ranging from lazarettos to leprosy centers to show how the ability to control infection and disease has long been a concern for humanity. The book goes on to discuss disease propagation, putting forth a variety of ideas to control the transmission of pathogens, including environmental design strategies, pedestrian dynamics, and open space. Its final chapters serve as a prospective way forward, focusing on COVID-19 and the built environment in a post-pandemic world. Written for students and academics of architecture, design, and urban planning, this book ignites creative action on the ways to design our built environment differently and more holistically. Please note that research on COVID-19 has exponentially grown since this volume was written in October 2020. References cited reflect the evolving nature of research studies at that time.

The Multi-Skilled Designer presents and analyzes different approaches to contemporary architectural design and interprets them through the theory of multiple intelligences. The book establishes a systematic framework that uses the lens of cognitive psychology and developments in psychometric and brain research to analyze the unique cognitive thought processes of architectural designers and compiles design projects that could serve as a pedagogical companion for the reader. The book is aimed at design practitioners and students interested in examining their own thinking styles as well as those involved in design cognition research.

With the continued growth of PhD programs in architecture and the simultaneous broadening of approaches, InterVIEWS: Insights and Introspection on Doctoral Research in Architecture begins a timely survey into contemporary research at academic institutions internationally, in the context of the expanding landscape of architectural inquiry. The eighteen interviews with scholars who direct or contributed to doctoral research programs in areas of architecture history and theory, theory and criticism, design research, urban studies, cross-disciplinary research, and practice-based research expose a plurality of positions articulating a range of research tactics. Renowned scholars narrated the stories, the experiences, and the research that shaped and are shaping doctoral education worldwide, providing an invaluable knowledge resource from which readers may find inspiration for their work. InterVIEWS acknowledges the diversity in approaches to research to evidence meaningful differences and the range of contributions in academic institutions. The relevance of this self-reflection becomes apparent in the exposition of vibrant and at times divergent viewpoints that offer a thought-provoking opportunity to consider the openness and breadth of a field that is unrelenting in redefining its boundaries along with the probing questions.

The Architect as Magician explores the connection between magic and architecture. There is a belief that a greater understanding of the meaning of magic provides insights about architecture and architects’ design processes. Architects influence the effects of nature through the making of their buildings. In an analogous condition, magicians perform rituals in an attempt to influence the forces of nature. This book argues that architects could gain much by incorporating ideas from magic into their design process. The book demonstrates through historical and current examples the important influence magic has had on the practice of architecture. The authors explain how magic helps us to understand the way we infuse architecture with meaning and how magic affects and inspires architectural creation. Aimed at architects, students, scholars and researchers, The Architect as Magician helps readers discover the ambiguous and spiritual elements in their design process.

Ethical Design Intelligence: The Virtuous Designer explores the deep significance of philosophy and ethics to the practice of design. It offers designers from disciplines such as architecture, urban design, planning, landscape, interior, and industrial design an alternative ethical framework in which to expand their thinking about their practice. Arguing that design today is primarily an agency driven by the momentum of globalization, embedded in economy, materialism, and utility, the book reconceptualizes the notion of virtue in design practice. Across chapters covering topics such as virtuous character, creative agency, and unsustainable practices, the book scrutinizes design through a philosophical lens. d’Anjou dissects articulations from different philosophical thinkers from antiquity to contemporary time to reveal that ethics is fundamental to everything affected by design. Countering well-established modes of postmodern relativism in design, which has led to “defuturing” and “unsustainability,” ethical realism is presented as an alternative solution. This book is written for designers, educators, researchers, and students.

This book provides a compelling and insightful portrait of ten female architects, artists, and designers who explored unique approaches to teaching, practice, and research in the postindustrial city of Detroit. These women explored the phenomenon of a new “ecological urbanism” through their own work in art, architecture, design, planning, landscape architecture, and installation as well as the work of their students. Teaching and Designing in Detroit provides an eighteen-year snapshot of this work, how it affected the women’s practice, how they influenced student relationships to design and community development, and how their visions are now being carried out in Detroit. This book is organized into sections that group stories according to their focus on practice, pedagogy, and community engagement. Included in the book is a foreword by Leslie Kanes Weisman, the only female architecture professor at the University of Detroit Mercy in the 1970s, and an afterword by Sharon Egretta Sutton reflecting on how working and practicing in Detroit foreshadowed the future vision now being carried out in the rebounding city of Detroit. An intriguing read for students and professionals, this book will illustrate how these lessons learned can be applied by universities and communities in other postindustrial cities.

From the bestselling author of Ecohouse, this fully revised edition of Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change provides unique insights into how we can protect our buildings, cities, infra-structures and lifestyles against risks associated with extreme weather and related social, economic and energy events. Three new chapters present evidence of escalating rates of environmental change. The authors explore the growing urgency for mitigation and adaptation responses that deal with the resulting challenges. Theoretical information sits alongside practical design guidelines, so architects, designers and planners can not only see clearly what problems they face, but also find the solutions they need, in order to respond to power and water supply needs. Considers use of materials, structures, site issues and planning in order to provide design solutions. Examines recent climate events in the US and UK and looks at how architecture was successful or not in preventing building damage. Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change is an essential source, not just for architects, engineers and planners facing the challenges of designing our building for a changing climate, but also for everyone involved in their production and use.