The second half of the 20th Century witnessed an outburst of theories and manifestoes that explored the possibilities of architecture: it's language, evolution and social relevance. The many 'crises in architecture' and emerging urban and ecological problems questioned the current orthodoxy: Modernism was criticised, questioned and overthrown, only to be extended, subverted and revivified. The result was a cascade of new theories, justifications and recipes for building. This anthology, first edited in 1997, brought together a coherent collection of texts that tracked these important shifts from all the major architectural thinkers and practitioners. In this new edition of the book, over twenty additional extracts are published that present an entirely new axis for architectural thinking. Whereas much of the 20th-Century thought was dominated by the 'perceived crisis' in Modernity, 'the new paradigm' or 'complexity paradigm' has been excited by the possibilities of Emergence in the Science of Complexity and Chaos theory. The reach of complexity is expressed through the primacy of Benoit Mandelbrot's theories on geometry, with an extract from his manifesto on fractals; and furthered through an outline of Emergence by Steven Johnson. It is also handled through texts that focus on the diagram and are demonstrated in its more applied form through passages dealing with the global city and culture. Essential for the student and practitioner alike, Theories and Manifestoes since its first edition has established itself as the touchstone book for architectural thought. It features seminal texts by Reyner Banham, Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Colin Rowe and Robert Venturi. This is now ejected with greater currency with extracts from: Cecil Balmond, Foreign Office Architects, Daniel Libeskind, MVRDV, Lars Spuybroek, UN Studio and West 8.

This essential compendium presents more than 150 key arguments by major architectural philosophers and gurus of today and outlines the numerous developments that have taken flace in this field since the 1950s. Each of the statements is acocmpanied by a short biography of the architect and an extract from their principal texts drawn from a variety of sources.

"Charles Jencks was the first to demonstrate that Modern architecture in the 1960s and 1970s had undergone a profound mutation into three major approaches - Post-Modernism, Late Modernism and New Modernism. He has shown how our pluralist age has oscillated between these and traditional approaches . In this title, the thinking and ideas that have informed, and continue to inform the architecture and urban design around us today, was presented as a compilation of writings by the most important architects, urbanists and theorists of the second half of the 20th century. The new edition brings thinking up to date with additional material that suggests the direction theory is taking into the 21st century." -- Web site.

In this manifesto, the author takes a leap of faith. It is a faith in Lost Causes. He asserts that today, architectonic reason has fallen into ruins. As soon as architecture leaves the limits set to it by architectonic reason, no other path is open to it but the path to aestheticism. This is the wrong path contemporary architecture has taken. In its reduction to a pure aesthetic object, architecture negatively affects the human sensorium. Capitalist consumer society creates desires by generating ‘surplus-enjoyment’ for capitalist profit and contemporary architecture has become an instrument in generating this ‘surplus-enjoyment’, with fatal consequences. This manifesto is thus both a critique and a work of theory. It is a siren, alarm, klaxon to the current status quo within architectural discourse and a timely response to the conditions of architecture today.

This essential compendium presents more than 150 key arguments by major architectural philosophers and gurus of today and outlines the numerous developments that have taken flace in this field since the 1950s. Each of the statements is acocmpanied by a short biography of the architect and an extract from their principal texts drawn from a variety of sources.

Pioneering manifesto by founder of "International School." Technical and aesthetic theories, views of industry, economics, relation of form to function, "mass-production split," and much more. Profusely illustrated.

Since its original publication in 1978, Delirious New York has attained mythic status. Back in print in a newly designed edition, this influential cultural, architectural, and social history of New York is even more popular, selling out its first printing on publication. Rem Koolhaas's celebration and analysis of New York depicts the city as a metaphor for the incredible variety of human behavior. At the end of the nineteenth century, population, information, and technology explosions made Manhattan a laboratory for the invention and testing of a metropolitan lifestyle -- "the culture of congestion" -- and its architecture. "Manhattan," he writes, "is the 20th century's Rosetta Stone . . . occupied by architectural mutations (Central Park, the Skyscraper), utopian fragments (Rockefeller Center, the U.N. Building), and irrational phenomena (Radio City Music Hall)." Koolhaas interprets and reinterprets the dynamic relationship between architecture and culture in a number of telling episodes of New York's history, including the imposition of the Manhattan grid, the creation of Coney Island, and the development of the skyscraper. Delirious New York is also packed with intriguing and fun facts and illustrated with witty watercolors and quirky archival drawings, photographs, postcards, and maps. The spirit of this visionary investigation of Manhattan equals the energy of the city itself.