Contemporary Techniques in Architecture (Architectural Design) [Paperback]

Ali Rahim (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470843209 | ISBN-13: 978-0470843208 | Publication Date: April 17, 2002 | Edition: 1

Contemporary Techniques in Architecture addresses the translation of techniques in design methodology to their architectural realisation, at the scale of space, material programme and construction. It challenges technique-driven experimental architects at the next intellectually rigorous level - that of exploring concepts and translating them into their material counterparts. How do you think through the building of avant-garde forms? The title includes the work of high-profile philosophers, architects and engineers, such as Manuel Delanda who wrote 1000 Years of Non-Linear History; Greg Lynn and Foreign Office Architects; and Cecil Balmond of Ove Arup, who worked with Daniel Libeskind on his proposal for the Spiral Building for the V&A Museum in London, as well as with Philip Johnson and Studio Baad on the Chavasse Park Project featured here.
Intellectually stimulating and visually engaging, with its inclusion of spectacular writing, designs, manufactured prototypes and full-scale buildings, Contemporary Techniques in Architecture takes architectural publishing's treatment of the digital to a new level, looking at its potential in a realised form as well as a creative medium.
Johan Bettum
Scott Cohen
Foreign Office Architects
Kolatan MacDonald Studio
Greg Lynn
Objectile
OCEAN North
Ali Rahim
Servo

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This publication addresses the most far-reaching and innovative developments in digital practice to have taken place in the last five years. It demonstrates how experimental architects are being challenged at a new rigorous intellectual level and are going beyond the strictures of the conceptual into the realm of the material. As digital techniques are starting to be successfully assimilated and translated into design methodology, they are also, for the first time being seen through to architectural realisation. This is illustrated here at the scale of space, material programme and construction.

The title includes the work of high-profile philosophers, architects and engineers, such as Manuel Delanda who wrote 1000 Years of Non-Linear History; Greg Lynn; Foreign Office Architects; and Cecil Balmond of Ove Arup, who has worked with Daniel Libeskind on his proposal for the Spiral Building, London, as well as with Philip Johnson and Studio Baad on the Chavasse Park Project featured here. Cintemorary Techniques in Archtiecture takes architectural publishing's treatment of the digital to a new level, looking at its potential in a realised form as well as a creative medium.

Johan Bettum
Scott Cohen
Foreign Office Architects
Kolatan MacDonald Studio
Greg Lynn
Objectile
OCEAN North
Ali Rahim
Servo

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Academy Press; 1 edition (April 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470843209
• ISBN-13: 978-0470843208
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,513,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous and important, but points off for theoryspeak, May 10, 2002

By 

Adam Greenfield "Clean living under difficult... (Helsinki, Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Contemporary Techniques in Architecture (Architectural Design) (Paperback)

What I really appreciate about Rahim's volume is the nuts-and-bolts (or NURBS-and-splines) seriousness with which it approaches the real-world challenges of digital architecture. This means that it gives as much attention to the optimal design of some frankly squamous-lookin' load-bearing and stress-distributing structures as it does to the (largely post-Deleuzian) theory underlying this work.

Up until now, most of the reference materials commonly available on the topic have contented themselves with providing pretty pictures of next-generation architectural blobjects - all skin and no interior - so I'm grateful that someone is finally wrestling with (some of) the practicalities. (And if you just have to talk High Theory, there's no better guide than the brilliant, insightful, and reasonably accessible Manuel deLanda.)

I just wish Rahim could have done it without resorting to (or permitting the other authors in this volume to indulge in) the usual jargon-choked theoryspeak. I mean, come on: "dynamic structuration of mobile relations"? This material is sufficiently important that there shouldn't be any need to pump it up with jargon to make it impressive.

Worth buying, worth working with, but not for the faint of heart. (And damn, are some of these things pretty.)

1.0 out of 5 stars Booooo, January 5, 2012

By 

Maciej Zawidzki (Kyoto, JP) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Contemporary Techniques in Architecture (Architectural Design) (Paperback)

Very little substance. Maybe one chapter...Big words but lacks of merit...Unfortunately most of the contemporary architecture is as shallow as the content of this book...