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The Alphabet and the Algorithm (Writing Architecture) Paperback – Illustrated, February 4, 2011

by Mario Carpo (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 22 ratings
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Digital technologies have changed architecture--the way it is taught, practiced, managed, and regulated. But if the digital has created a "paradigm shift" for architecture, which paradigm is shifting? In The Alphabet and the Algorithm, Mario Carpo points to one key practice of modernity: the making of identical copies. Carpo highlights two examples of identicality crucial to the shaping of architectural modernity: in the fifteenth century, Leon Battista Alberti's invention of architectural design, according to which a building is an identical copy of the architect's design; and, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the mass production of identical copies from mechanical master models, matrixes, imprints, or molds. The modern power of the identical, Carpo argues, came to an end with the rise of digital technologies. Everything digital is variable. In architecture, this means the end of notational limitations, of mechanical standardization, and of the Albertian, authorial way of building by design. Charting the rise and fall of the paradigm of identicality, Carpo compares new forms of postindustrial digital craftsmanship to hand-making and the cultures and technologies of variations that existed before the coming of machine-made, identical copies. Carpo reviews the unfolding of digitally based design and construction from the early 1990s to the present, and suggests a new agenda for architecture in an age of variable objects and of generic and participatory authorship.
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  1. Part of series
    Writing Architecture
  2. Print length
    184 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    The MIT Press
  5. Publication date
    February 4, 2011
  6. Dimensions
    5.44 x 0.42 x 8 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0262515806
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0262515801
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ever wondered what became of architecture in its digital reincarnation? Mario Carpo vaults from Renaissance aspirations to current conditions at the pace of a breathless fable. Where will it lead us?" Kurt W. Forster , Yale School of Architecture

About the Author

Mario Carpo is Associate Professor of Architectural History in the French Schools of Architecture, Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History at the School of Architecture of Yale University.  He is the author of Architecture in the Age of Printing: Orality, Writing, Typography and Printed Images in the History of Architectural Theory (MIT Press, 2001), and other books.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The MIT Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 4, 2011
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Illustrated
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 184 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262515806
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262515801
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.44 x 0.42 x 8 inches
  • Part of series ‏ : ‎ Writing Architecture
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 22 ratings

About the author

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Mario Carpo

Mario Carpo

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Mario Carpo is an architectural historian and critic, currently the Reyner Banham Professor of Architectural History and Theory at the Bartlett, University College London and the Professor of Architectural Theory at the Institute of Architecture of the University of Applied Arts (die Angewandte) in Vienna. His research and publications focus on history of early modern architecture and on the theory and criticism of contemporary design and technology.

Personal website: https://mariocarpo.com/

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4.2 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • adoptme
    5.0 out of 5 stars Theoretical, yet comparable
    Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2011
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    for those who are looking for a primer or a graphic based algorithmic design book, this is not for those buyers. this book has a grounded theoretical approach onto how its read, and I found it effective for academic readers. its content goes through, in a thorough, manner different point of views of digital design and its precedents, and is an easy reason due to its short and concise manner. this book should be suggested for most academic syllabi for students to understand how algorithmic design comes into play within digital architectures.

    Overall: A-
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Mateus van Stralen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2015
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Excellent book to introduce students and architects do the conceptual changes brought by the digital revolution to architecture.
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  • Sabri Gokmen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Clean
    Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Excellent copy and shipped fast. This is one of the books that I have been waiting to read. clean book.
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  • wf
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2015
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    One of the best book I have ever read.
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  • Arastoo Khajehee
    3.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book, horrible delivery time
    Reviewed in Japan on December 1, 2022
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    If you want to read the book, I highly recommend it. It's will written by a distinguished historian in the Architectural discipline.
    The delivery time is exceptionally horrible. It arrived 1 month after when it was supposed to arrive.
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  • paul king
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 28, 2018
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    A great read
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  • Melis Ugurlu
    1.0 out of 5 stars Printed so badly can’t read!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Printed really badly! Text is upside down and the top of the pages are cropped too much/the printing has shifted to the top that you can’t read the sentences…
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    Melis Ugurlu
    1.0 out of 5 stars
    Printed so badly can’t read!

    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2021
    Printed really badly! Text is upside down and the top of the pages are cropped too much/the printing has shifted to the top that you can’t read the sentences…
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