Stephen Cairns - Böcker

Part memento mori for architecture, and part invocation to reimagine the design values that lay at the heart of its creative purpose.Buildings, although inanimate, are often assumed to have "life." And the architect, through the act of design, is assumed to be their conceiver and creator. But what of the "death" of buildings? What of the decay, deterioration, and destruction to which they are inevitably subject? And what might such endings mean for architecture's sense of itself? In Buildings Must Die, Stephen Cairns and Jane Jacobs look awry at core architectural concerns. They examine spalling concrete and creeping rust, contemplate ruins old and new, and pick through the rubble of earthquake-shattered churches, imploded housing projects, and demolished Brutalist office buildings. Their investigation of the death of buildings reorders architectural notions of creativity, reshapes architecture's preoccupation with good form, loosens its vanities of durability, and expands its sense of value. It does so not to kill off architecture as we know it, but to rethink its agency and its capacity to make worlds differently. Cairns and Jacobs offer an original contemplation of architecture that draws on theories of waste and value. Their richly illustrated case studies of building "deaths" include the planned and the unintended, the lamented and the celebrated. They take us from Moline to Christchurch, from London to Bangkok, from Tokyo to Paris. And they feature the work of such architects as Eero Saarinen, Carlo Scarpa, Cedric Price, Arata Isozaki, Rem Koolhaas and François Roche.Buildings Must Die is both a memento mori for architecture and a call to to reimagine the design values that lay at the heart of its creative purpose.

To dwell in these globalizing times requires us to negotiate increasingly palpable flows - of capital, ideas, images, goods, technology, and people. Such flows seem to pressurize, breach and sometimes even disaggregate the places we always imagined to be distinctive and stable. This book is focussed on the interaction of two elements within this contemporary situation. The first is the very idea of a place we imagine to be distinctive and stable. This idea is explored through architecture, the institution that in the West has claimed the responsibility for imagining and producing places along these lines. The second element is a particular kind of global flow, namely the human flows of immigrants, refugees, exiles, guestworkers and other migrant groups. This book carefully inspects the intersections between architectures of place and flows of migrancy. It does so without seeking to defend the idea of place, nor lament its passing. Rather this book is an exploration of the often complex and unorthodox modes of dwelling that are emerging precisely from within the ruins of the idea of place. This exploration is informed by critical analyses of architecture and urbanism, and their representation in media such as film.The book is animated empirically by a set of overlapping and intersecting trajectories that shift from Hong Kong to Canada, Australia and Germany; from Southern Europe to Australia; from Britain to India, Canada and New Zealand; from Southeast Asia, to the Pacific Islands, to New Zealand; and from Latin America and East Asia to the United States. But each geographical context discussed represents only one point within a wider pattern of movement that implicates other localities, and so signals the very undoing of a unified geographical logic.

To dwell in these globalizing times requires us to negotiate increasingly palpable flows - of capital, ideas, images, goods, technology, and people. Such flows seem to pressurize, breach and sometimes even disaggregate the places we always imagined to be distinctive and stable. This book is focussed on the interaction of two elements within this contemporary situation. The first is the very idea of a place we imagine to be distinctive and stable. This idea is explored through architecture, the institution that in the West has claimed the responsibility for imagining and producing places along these lines. The second element is a particular kind of global flow, namely the human flows of immigrants, refugees, exiles, guestworkers and other migrant groups. This book carefully inspects the intersections between architectures of place and flows of migrancy. It does so without seeking to defend the idea of place, nor lament its passing. Rather this book is an exploration of the often complex and unorthodox modes of dwelling that are emerging precisely from within the ruins of the idea of place. This exploration is informed by critical analyses of architecture and urbanism, and their representation in media such as film.The book is animated empirically by a set of overlapping and intersecting trajectories that shift from Hong Kong to Canada, Australia and Germany; from Southern Europe to Australia; from Britain to India, Canada and New Zealand; from Southeast Asia, to the Pacific Islands, to New Zealand; and from Latin America and East Asia to the United States. But each geographical context discussed represents only one point within a wider pattern of movement that implicates other localities, and so signals the very undoing of a unified geographical logic.

There are more coral species in deep, cold-waters than in tropical coral reefs. This broad-ranging treatment is the first to synthesise current understanding of all types of cold-water coral, covering their ecology, biology, palaeontology and geology. Beginning with a history of research in the field, the authors describe the approaches needed to study corals in the deep sea. They consider coral habitats created by stony scleractinian as well as octocoral species. The importance of corals as long-lived geological structures and palaeoclimate archives is discussed, in addition to ways in which they can be conserved. Topic boxes explain unfamiliar concepts, and case studies summarise significant studies, coral habitats or particular conservation measures. Written for professionals and students of marine science, this text is enhanced by an extensive glossary, online resources, and a unique collection of colour photographs and illustrations of corals and the habitats they form.

There are more coral species in deep, cold-waters than in tropical coral reefs. This broad-ranging treatment is the first to synthesise current understanding of all types of cold-water coral, covering their ecology, biology, palaeontology and geology. Beginning with a history of research in the field, the authors describe the approaches needed to study corals in the deep sea. They consider coral habitats created by stony scleractinian as well as octocoral species. The importance of corals as long-lived geological structures and palaeoclimate archives is discussed, in addition to ways in which they can be conserved. Topic boxes explain unfamiliar concepts, and case studies summarise significant studies, coral habitats or particular conservation measures. Written for professionals and students of marine science, this text is enhanced by an extensive glossary, online resources, and a unique collection of colour photographs and illustrations of corals and the habitats they form.

"Offers an intense scholarly experience in its comprehensiveness, its variety of voices and its formal organization... the editors took a risk, experimented and have delivered a much-needed resource that upends the status-quo."- Architectural Histories, journal of the European Architectural History Network "Architectural theory interweaves interdisciplinary understandings with different practices, intentions and ways of knowing. This handbook provides a lucid and comprehensive introduction to this challenging and shifting terrain, and will be of great interest to students, academics and practitioners alike."- Professor Iain Borden, UCL Bartlett School of Architecture"In this collection, architectural theory expands outward to interact with adjacent discourses such as sustainability, conservation, spatial practices, virtual technologies, and more. We have in The Handbook of Architectural Theory an example of the extreme generosity of architectural theory. It is a volume that designers and scholars of many stripes will welcome."- K. Michael Hays, Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory, Harvard UniversityThe SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory documents and builds upon the most innovative developments in architectural theory over the last two decades. Bringing into dialogue a range of geographically, institutionally and historically competing positions, it examines and explores parallel debates in related fields. The book is divided into eight sections:Power/Difference/EmbodimentAesthetics/Pleasure/ExcessNation/World/SpectacleHistory/Memory/TraditionDesign/Production/PracticeScience/Technology/VirtualityNature/Ecology/SustainabilityCity/Metropolis/Territory.Creating openings for future lines of inquiry and establishing the basis for new directions for education, research and practice, the book is organized around specific case studies to provide a critical, interpretive and speculative enquiry into the relevant debates in architectural theory.

"Offers an intense scholarly experience in its comprehensiveness, its variety of voices and its formal organization... the editors took a risk, experimented and have delivered a much-needed resource that upends the status-quo."- Architectural Histories, journal of the European Architectural History Network "Architectural theory interweaves interdisciplinary understandings with different practices, intentions and ways of knowing. This handbook provides a lucid and comprehensive introduction to this challenging and shifting terrain, and will be of great interest to students, academics and practitioners alike."- Professor Iain Borden, UCL Bartlett School of Architecture"In this collection, architectural theory expands outward to interact with adjacent discourses such as sustainability, conservation, spatial practices, virtual technologies, and more. We have in The Handbook of Architectural Theory an example of the extreme generosity of architectural theory. It is a volume that designers and scholars of many stripes will welcome."- K. Michael Hays, Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory, Harvard UniversityThe SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory documents and builds upon the most innovative developments in architectural theory over the last two decades. Bringing into dialogue a range of geographically, institutionally and historically competing positions, it examines and explores parallel debates in related fields. The book is divided into eight sections:Power/Difference/EmbodimentAesthetics/Pleasure/ExcessNation/World/SpectacleHistory/Memory/TraditionDesign/Production/PracticeScience/Technology/VirtualityNature/Ecology/SustainabilityCity/Metropolis/Territory.Creating openings for future lines of inquiry and establishing the basis for new directions for education, research and practice, the book is organized around specific case studies to provide a critical, interpretive and speculative enquiry into the relevant debates in architectural theory.

This book, the rst in a planned series, reports on the Future Cities Laboratory and its ambitious mission to shape sustainable future cities through science, by design, in place. It offers a global perspective on cities from the vantage point of Asia, where the laboratory is based. This view has particular signi cance today as the fortunes of Asia, the world's most populous and rapidly urbanising continent, will also delineate the prospects of the planet.The series as a whole will assemble the necessary indicia-indications, clues, evidence-on how cities grow and ourish, produce and innovate, consume and waste, threaten and destroy, to form practical strategies for future city making. The rst volume in the series focuses on the challenges that future cities pose to sustainability. The second will concentrate on the innovative approaches necessary for addressing those challenges. The third will present concrete scenarios and action plans that emerge from such approaches.

This second volume in the Future Cities Laboratory Indicia series focuses on the tools, methods, and approaches needed for urban research. In short, following Marshall McLuhan’s famous provocation, the editors focus less on the message and more on the medium of research. This involves retreating from research contents—the topics, themes, questions, hypotheses, insights, ideas, concepts, and thoughts—for the moment to consider the materials, methods, tools, techniques, and approaches that support them.This change in perspective reveals a rich array of research approaches that include: the visual documentation of complex stakeholder interests, political and economic circumstances in built form and design vision; two- and three-dimensional mapping of vegetation, temperature and humidity, in conjunction with point cloud terrestrial and airborne laser-scanning technology; gathering data from sensors and geospatial data; emergence of “solution spaces”and multi-dimensional complexity science; subject oriented approaches to behavioural and cognitive decision making in city navigation; and approaches to emergent phenomena such as extended urbanisation that are not always visible to existing analytical or documentary lenses.