The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory

Professor C. Greig Crysler holds the Arcus Chair for Gender, Sexuality and the Built Environment and is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of California.  Professor Dr Stephen Cairns is Programme Leader of the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore.  Hilde Heynen is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Leuven in the Netherlands.

I have been impressed by the quality of this handbook. Rather than simply edit and repackage familiar (but rightly famous) critical essays from leaders in the field, this book looks freshly at the field(s), and has commissioned intelligent and well-written chapters that cut the jargon and elucidate the various topics in a straightforward but serious manner. The book arrived on my desk just as I was landed the task of running an M-Arch module in Architecture Culture, and I have no hesitation in recommending it as the set text. Indeed, I find a good number of the chapters (I′ve not read them all yet) complement well the lectures I have planned. Its price is reasonable given its encyclopaedic scope, and its production values are high. I particularly welcome the double-column layout - much easier to read!

• Introduction - 1: Architectural Theory in an Expanded Field - C. Greig Crysler, Stephen Cairns and Hilde HeynenIntroduction - 2: Reading the Handbook - C Greig Crysler, Stephen Cairns, Hilde HeynenPART ONE: POWER/DIFFERENCE/EMBODIMENTIntroduction: Shifting Paradigms and Concerns - Hilde Heynen and Gwendolyn WrightArchitecture, Capitalism and Criticality - Ole W FischerInterrogating Difference: Post-Colonial Perspectives in Architecture and Urbanism - Jyoti HosagraharTendencies and Trajectories: Feminist Approaches in Architecture - Jane RendellSection 1 BibliographyCitizenship - Ines WeizmanPART TWO: AESTHETICS/PLEASURE/EXCESSIntroduction: Architecture and Aesthetics - John Macarthur and Naomi SteadArchitectural Phenomenology and the Rise of the Postmodern - Jorge Otero-PailosFormalism and Forms of Practice - Sandra Kaji-O′GradyArt in (and of) Architecture: Autonomy and Medium - Bart VerschaffelSection 2 BibliographyConsumption - Ana Miljacki PART THREE: NATION/WORLD/SPECTACLEIntroduction: Enacting Modernity - AbdouMaliq SimoneRethinking the Nation - Abidin Kusno Entangled Modernities in Architecture - Duanfang LuNotes on the Society of the Brand - Shiloh Krupar and Stefan Al Section 3 BibliographyHeritage - Fernando DiezPART FOUR: HISTORY/MEMORY/TRADITION Introduction: Time′s Arrows: Spaces of the Past - C Greig CryslerPreservation and Modernity: Competing Perspectives, Contested Histories and the Question of Authenticity - Mrinalini RajagopalanCollective Memory Under Siege: The Case of ′Heritage Terrorism′ - M Christine BoyerConcepts of Vernacular Architecture - Robert Brown and Daniel MaudlinSection 4 BibliographyCulture - Paul WalkerPART FIVE: DESIGN/PRODUCTION/PRACTICEIntroduction: Architecture′s Double-Bind - Dana CuffPrometheus Unchained: The Multiple Itineraries of Contemporary Professional Freedom - Paolo TombesiManners of Working: Fabricating Representation in Digital Based Design - Christopher HightPlural Profession, Discrepant Practices - David SalomonSection 5 BibliographyFlows - Stephen CairnsPART SIX: SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/VIRTUALITY Introduction: Technology, Science and Virtuality - Arie Graafland and Heidi SohnVirtual Architecture, Actual Media - N. Katherine Hayles and Todd Gannon Technology, Virtuality, Materiality - Antoine PiconArchitecture, Technology and the Body: From the Pre-Human to the Post-Human - Jonathan HaleSection 6 BibliographyInfrastructure - Delia Duong Ba WendelPART SEVEN: NATURE/ECOLOGY/SUSTAINABILITYIntroduction: Whither ′Earthly′ Architectures: Constructing Sustainability - Simon GuyThe Ecology Question and Architecture - Richard IngersollBeyond Sustainability: Architecture in the Renewable City - Peter DroegeTropical Variants of Sustainable Architecture: A Post-Colonial Perspective - Jiat-Hwee ChangSection 7 BibliographyLandscape - Kelly ShannonPART EIGHT: CITY/METROPOLIS/TERRITORYIntroduction: Metropolis, Megalopolis and Meta-City - Brian McGrath and Grahame ShaneThe Contemporary European Urban Project: Archipelago City, Diffuse City and Reverse City. - Paola ViganòSlum as Theory: Mega-Cities and Urban Models - Vyjayanthi RaoCommon Lines of Flight towards the Open City - Deborah NatsiosSection 8 Bibliography Housing - Iain Low