Böcker i Architecture in Practice-serien

Publicity is essential for keeping any architectural practice afloat - whether ita s on a local or global level. Add to this the thornier problems of legal constraints regarding self--promotion and the varying publicity needs of large and small firms - and the problem of generating publicity is complicated, indeed.

The interface between CAD (computer-aided drawing tools) and CAM (computer-assisted manufacturing tools) has provided architects with an entirely new way of working. This book presents essays and case studies that explore and demonstrate the current state-of-the-art in CAD/CAM applications, as well as future trends.

In the late 1960s, the feminist scholar Kate Millet broadly defined »politics« as arrangements of power which enable individuals collectively to assert authority over others. Taking this definition, case studies by scholars from Europe, Israel and the United States explore the gendered professional in the 20th century as she navigated arrangements of power including organised religion, emancipation movements, cultural norms and shifting forms of government to practice architecture. Additional contributions reflect upon power structures in contemporary architectural education, practice and history to propose other means of architectural knowledge, representation and professional activity.

The planetary instantaneity that digital technologies have enabled is leading to an effacement of the divisions that separate the past from the future, ensuring that the present is ubiquitous. While contemporary architecture seems to have lost the capacity to conceive of the past as a transformative force, this book stresses the need to rethink today's complex temporal mechanisms through the notion of the untimely. This concept opens up a whole spectrum of possibilities to go beyond what seems predictable. The contributors to this book employ critical concepts and architectural design tools in order to offer experimental and speculative approaches for unknown futures of architecture.

Lara Schrijver examines the work of Oswald Mathias Ungers and Rem Koolhaas as intellectual legacy of the 1970s for architecture today. Particularly in the United States, this period focused on the autonomy of architecture as a correction to the social orientation of the 1960s. Yet, these two architects pioneered a more situated autonomy, initiating an intellectual discourse on architecture that was inherently design-based. Their work provides room for interpreting social conditions and disciplinary formal developments, thus constructing a `plausible' relationship between the two that allows the life within to flourish and adapt. In doing so, they provide a foundation for recalibrating architecture today.

This book examines the different roles of architects in rural post-disaster housing and their impact on the degree of success of the projects from villagers' perspective. It is based around the building process of three case studies affected by the tsunami of 2004 in rural South India. It identifies the critical parameters and skills required at project level during the course of the building process. The results from villages and interviews with experienced international and Indian architects, engineers and NGO representatives show that architects are often poorly equipped to work in this context. Gertrud Tauber concludes with a proposal for a course to help architects in the building of people-oriented housing in post-disaster environments.