Economy and Architecture addresses a timely, critical, and much-debated topic in both its historical and contemporary dimensions. From the Apple Store in New York City, to the street markets of the Pan American Highway; from commercial Dubai to the public schools of Australia, this book takes a critical look at contemporary architecture from across the globe, whilst extending its range back in history as far as the Homeric epics of ancient Greece. The book addresses the challenges of practicing architecture within the strictures of contemporary economies, grounded on the fundamental definition of ‘economy’ as the well managed household – derived from the Greek oikonomia – oikos (house) and nemein (manage). The diverse enquiries of the study are structured around the following key questions: How do we define our economies? How are the values of architecture negotiated among the various actors involved? How do we manage the production of a good architecture within any particular system? How does political economy frame and influence architecture? The majority of examples are taken from current or recent architectural practice; historical examples, which include John Evelyn’s villa, Blenheim Palace, John Ruskin’s Venice, and early twentieth century Paris, place the debates within an extended critical perspective.

Today, with the advent of digital media technologies and the ability to conceptualize, express and produce complex forms using digital means, the question of the status of the architectural form is once again under consideration. Indeed, the computer liberated architecture from the tyranny of the right angle and enabled the design and production of non-standard buildings, based on irregular geometry. Yet, the questions concerning the method of form expression in contemporary architecture, and its meaning, remain very much open. Performalism takes up this discussion, defines it and presents changes in form conception in architecture, followed by their repercussions. The book is supported by a wealth of case studies from some of the top firms across the globe and contributed to by some of the top names in this field. With a unique and insightful emphasis on professional practice this is essential reading for all architects, aspiring and practicing.

This book highlights computationally enabled and digitally fabricated strategies used in the design of a series of full-size wooden structures. It introduces theoretical foundations and then focuses on the possibilities that have emerged as a result of the material-aware processes. The case studies expound wood as one of the most suitable materials to experience the seamless framework introduced with the digital design-to-construction chain. Two main aspects of the pavilions constructed, developed in various international academic groups, are considered. On one hand the case studies explore tolerances of raw and engineered material intertwined with machine processing; they also address material enhancement through strip applications in timber construction. In addition, the structures are examined in the light of an extensible designing path, which acts as an interoperable procedure, bridging the virtual and the real.

Emergence - the process by which new and coherent structures, patterns and properties ‘emerge’ from within complex systems Traditional architecture starts from the premise that architectural structures are singular and fixed, and however well integrated are separate from their environment and context. Emergence requires that the opposite is true – that those structures are complex energy and material systems that have a lifespan, exist as part of an environment of other active systems, and develop in an evolutionary way. This book, based on the authors’ internationally renowned Emergent Technologies and Design course at the Architectural Association in London, introduces a new approach to the practice of architecture. The authors use essays and projects to demonstrate the interrelationship of concepts such as emergence and self-organisation with the latest technologies in design, manufacturing and construction. With projects from their course, and critiques and commentary from some of the world’s leading design theorists and practitioners, the authors of Emergent Technologies and Design have introduced a radical new way of understanding the way in which architecture is conceived, designed and produced.

The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Architectural History offers a comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge report on recent developments in architectural production and research. Divided into three parts – Practices, Interrogations, and Innovations – this book charts diversity, criticality, and creativity in architectural interventions to meet challenges and enact changes in different parts of the world through featured exemplars and fresh theoretical orientations. The collection features 29 chapters written by leading architectural scholars and highlights the reciprocity between the historical and the contemporary, research and practice, and disciplinary and professional knowledge. Providing an essential map for navigating the complex currents of contemporary architecture, the Companion will interest students, academics, and practitioners who wish to bolster their understanding of built environments.

D_Tex is proposed as a hub around which it is possible to look at textiles in their different forms, in order to better understand, study, adapt and project them for the future. It is intended to build a flow of ideas and concepts so that participants can arrive at new ideas and concepts and work them in their own way, adapting them to their objectives and research. D_Tex is intended as a space for sharing and building knowledge around textile material in order to propose new understandings and explorations. Present in all areas of knowledge, the textile material bets on renewed social readings and its evolutions to constantly reinvent itself and enable innovative cultural and aesthetic dimensions and unexpected applications to solve questions and promote new knowledge. D_Tex proposes to promote discussion and knowledge in the different areas where textiles, with all their characteristics, can ensure an important contribution, combining material and immaterial knowledge, innovative and traditional techniques, technological and innovative materials and methods, but also new organization and service models, different concepts and views on teaching. With the renewed idea of the intrinsic interdisciplinarity of design and sharing with different areas that support each other, the research and practice of textiles was proposed by the D_TEX Textile Design Conference 2019, held June 19-21, 2019 at the Lisbon School of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, Portugal under the theme "In Touch" where, as broadly understood as possible, different areas of textiles were regarded as needing to keep in touch with each other and end users in order to promote and share the best they can offer for the welfare of their users and consumers.

these days a computer is as much a part of every household's standard equipment as a refrigerator, and yet the explosion of computer technology in the last several decades has transformed the daily life of every member of society far more than even utopians would ever have allowed themselves to dream. No wonder, then, that from design to production, architecture too is becoming more and more subject to digital influences. The range of those influences stretches from the classical computer programs used in design and presentation to media-supported design processes all the way to computerized production techniques, to say nothing of industrialized bricklayer "robots." From measurement to planning and production, architecture is the product of a closely coordinated digital process chain. What influence do digital design digital design and production methods have on contemporary architecture? How are these methods changing architecture and the way it ist created? Where does the potential of digital media for architecture lie? What are the areas in which every individual firm can begin to use them? What are the advantages of working electronically? How and at what cost can these methods be integrated into the day-to-day work of the professional architect? This publication offers answers to these and many other questions on all aspects of the digital design and construction process.