Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Plates bright and vivid. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Contemporary practice and theory remind me of the pop song “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover”: they do anything but confront a situation head-on. When architects meet to discuss their art they pose issue after issue in a restless search to avoid addressing the simple but profound cir- cumstances of architecture. These “issues” include literary theory and social science cyberspace and many more. But what of architecture itself? For me architecture is enough-difficult but full of possibilities. For me archi- tecture is an expression of the real world-the built world in the service of individuals and institutions. It is the art of construction not deconstruction; of representation not communication. It is the solidity of the here-and-now. Put another way architecture is the stage on which humanity plays out its ever-changing drama. It is the stage not the drama; the setting not the performer. It is not inhabited sculpture or drawings or performance to name but a few of the things it is often confused with especially by architects seeking to “push” their art. Architecture need only be itself to interest me; indeed it need only be true to itself to be true. To ask it to be other things to blend it with writing or painting or dance or whatever is to diminish its power and shirk its responsibilities. Archi- tecture is interesting and valuable enough for what it is and for the process of its making from the first conversations with the client through the thinking and research that takes place in the studio to the actual real- ization on a site. These are what architecture is and the glory of what architecture is. As we build each building we add to architecture-or try to. As we shape each design modifying what went before adding what meets a particular need-one that was discovered not willed- architecture is enriched and our own contribution is made. (MP)