ECO-TEC: Architecture of the In-Between - Book 3 (Storefront Books) [Paperback]

Amerigo Marras (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Series: Storefront Books | Publication Date: February 1, 1999

ECO-TEC: Architecture of the In-Between proposes a fusion between ecology and technology that goes beyond accepted theories of sustainability and suggests a new role for architecture. It serves to reassess our collective ecological and technological illiteracy by placing a priority on learning from as well as for nature. This collection of essays stems from a series of international multidisciplinary forums and workshops sponsored by StoreFront for Art and Architecture. It brings together biologists, physicists, geoloogists, artists, architects, and social critics in order to generate site-specific projects and writings. Topics under consideration range from the role of nanotechnology in architecture to the renovation of an abandoned asbestos factory. Essays in the collection include "The Object of Ecosophy" by Felix Guattari, "The Nonlinear Development of Cities" by Manuel DeLanda, "Smog Monster: Environmental Notes from the Pac-Rim" by Neil Denari, "Recycling Recycling" by Mark Wigley, and "Topography of an Island City" by Jean Gardner.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Amerigo Marras is an architect and curator who has organized various cultural events since 1972. He holds degrees from the University of Rome and the University of Toronto, and has studied with Marshall McLuhan and worked with Joseph Beuys.

Product Details

• Paperback: 142 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568981597
• ISBN-13: 978-1568981598
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,280,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy of the Architecture for the new Millennium, May 3, 2000

By 

Massimo Consoli, writer (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ECO-TEC: Architecture of the In-Between - Book 3 (Storefront Books) (Paperback)

"Eco-Tec: Architecture of the in-Between" is an unusual book in the category of ecological concern. It does surprise and enlighten aspects of ecological perspectives that would have become far too stereotypical. The book is a collection of diverse texts by philosophers, artists, architects, botanists and climatologists,all giving us their latests research and thoughts concerning particular angles of our environment. Take Felix Guattari's last published essay before his death in 1992, it sounds like his testament and it creates a new word with an upmost importance: ecophilosophy, an ethics of socio-ecology that wants to go to new roots and new beginnings.

Manuel De Landa's difficult elaboration of a concrete, multilevel, quasi

geological history of cities and their development, is in its effort an absolutely unique perspective on how cities grow and function; If De Landa is aware of Deleuze-Guattari or Jane Jacobs on his study of the culture of cities, he hypothesies a whole new paradigm from which to study and observe the never ending evolution of urban culture. He proposes original concepts of cities as 'heat islands' or "self organizing winds".

Criticism of the whole idea of 'ecology' and indeed of 'recycling', even

if such a concept never entered the discussion of te other authors and one presume of the discussion of the original conferences from which the

book is built from, Mark Wigley digs older histories of 'ecology' within

architectural discourse of the xx century, and he resurrects the controversial work by John McHale, author of "The Future of the Future" and "The Ecological Context". McHale, Wigley writes, was fascinated by prosthetic attachments, as recours to defects. Thus his vision is an amplification of the human organism via a discourse whre the ecologist does not talk about "plant life, food chains, mineral resouces, atmospheric condition", but it is artificial ecology that achieves center stage position. Even 'language" is assumed by McHale as a the first prosthesis.

No less critical is Mark Dery's essay on the "persistence of industrial memory" and our incapacity of thinking a truly post mechanical paradigm.

Echoing McLuhan's 'rear view mirror' assumption for any culture in prognosticating the future, Dery pokes irreverently at every aspect of contemporary culture and its eccesses. He sees the parallel between the disappearance of an industrial, mechanical world with the challenge of men's masculinity. The soft information economy replaces the hard penetrating devices of the industrial era. Dery is very clever in weaving Freudianism and McLuhanism in a cyberdance of ideas.

The counterpoint to those views are found through the equally stimulating work by internationally wel known artist Mel Chin. His notoriety rose with his projects on detoxification of heavy metals from experimental lands in America and Europe with the use of appropriate plants capable of absorbing these dangerous levels of toxicity. His overall multimedia approaches always touch sociological as well as natural ecology in forms and shapes that remain surprising and critical.

One can add the importance of James Wines, who writes in the book that "As the world enters the new era of the age of information and ecology, ECO-TEC offers a forum on relevant issues facing the next decade. It was

in this same spirit over sixty years ago that another theoretical discouse defined the principles of modern design, beginning with an eventful symposium known as the 'Athens Charter'". The presence of Neil Denari is also pivotal in the understanding of the unique and sometimes strange combination of partecipants and authors, who give in the end an exceptional outlook of the isses on ecology and technology and let us fill the hope that innovative, yet significant, new fresh approaches to issues are here on hand.

Review by Massimo Consoli