Materials and Meaning in Architecture

Materials and Meaning in Architecture PDF

Author: Nathaniel Coleman

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-02-20

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1474287735

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Interweaving architecture, philosophy and cultural history, Materials and Meaning in Architecture develops a rich and multi-dimensional exploration of materials and materiality, in an age when architectural practice seems otherwise preoccupied with image and visual representation. Arguing that architecture is primarily experienced by the whole body, rather than chiefly with the eyes, this broad-ranging study shows how the most engaging built works are as tactile as they are sensuous, communicating directly with the bodily senses, especially touch. It explores the theme of 'material imagination' and the power of establishing 'place identity' in an architect's work, to consider the enduring expressive possibilities of material use in architecture. The book's chapters can be dipped into, each individual chapter providing close readings of built works by selected modern masters (Scarpa, Zumthor, Williams and Tsien), insights into key texts and theories (Ruskin, Loos, Bachelard), or short cultural histories of materials (wood, brick, concrete, steel, and glass). And yet, taken together, the chapters build to a powerful book-length argument about how meaning accrues to materials through time, and about the need to reinsert the bodily experience of materiality into architectural design. It is thus also, in part, a manifesto: arguing for architecture to act as a bulwark against the tide of an increasingly depersonalised built environment. With insights for a wide range of readers, ranging from students through to researchers and professional designers, Materials and Meaning in Architecture will cause theorists to rethink their assumptions and designers to see new potential for their projects.

Materials and Meaning in Architecture

Materials and Meaning in Architecture PDF

Author: Nathaniel Coleman

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-02-20

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1474287727

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Interweaving architecture, philosophy and cultural history, Materials and Meaning in Architecture develops a rich and multi-dimensional exploration of materials and materiality, in an age when architectural practice seems otherwise preoccupied with image and visual representation. Arguing that architecture is primarily experienced by the whole body, rather than chiefly with the eyes, this broad-ranging study shows how the most engaging built works are as tactile as they are sensuous, communicating directly with the bodily senses, especially touch. It explores the theme of 'material imagination' and the power of establishing 'place identity' in an architect's work, to consider the enduring expressive possibilities of material use in architecture. The book's chapters can be dipped into, each individual chapter providing close readings of built works by selected modern masters (Scarpa, Zumthor, Williams and Tsien), insights into key texts and theories (Ruskin, Loos, Bachelard), or short cultural histories of materials (wood, brick, concrete, steel, and glass). And yet, taken together, the chapters build to a powerful book-length argument about how meaning accrues to materials through time, and about the need to reinsert the bodily experience of materiality into architectural design. It is thus also, in part, a manifesto: arguing for architecture to act as a bulwark against the tide of an increasingly depersonalised built environment. With insights for a wide range of readers, ranging from students through to researchers and professional designers, Materials and Meaning in Architecture will cause theorists to rethink their assumptions and designers to see new potential for their projects.

Materials and Meaning in Contemporary Japanese Architecture

Materials and Meaning in Contemporary Japanese Architecture PDF

Author: Dana Buntrock

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1134725019

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In this beautiful and perceptive book, Dana Buntrock examines, for the first time, how tradition is incorporated into contemporary Japanese architecture. Looking at the work of five architects – Fumihiko Maki, Terunobu Fujimori, Ryoji Suzuki, Kengo Kuma, and Jun Aoki – Buntrock reveals the aims influencing many wonderful works barely known in the West; the sensual side of Japanese architecture borne out of approaches often less concerned with professionalism than with people and place. The buildings described in this book illustrate an architecture that embraces uniqueness, expressing unusual stories in the rough outlines of rammed earth and rust, and demonstrating new paths opening up for architectural practice today. For some, these examples will offer new insight into expressions of tradition in Japanese architecture; for others, this book offers inspiration for their own efforts to assert the unique heritage of other regions around the world. Compelling, insightful and groundbreaking, this book is essential for everyone studying Japanese architecture and anyone trying to invoke narrative and tradition in contemporary design.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Meaning of Materials

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Meaning of Materials PDF

Author: Terry L. Patterson

Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13:

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In his richly illustrated Frank Lloyd Wright and the Meaning of Materials, Patterson takes an unprecedented look at more than 240 of Wright's buildings and projects - the justly celebrated triumphs as well as lesser-known, but no less telling, structures. In the book's core chapters, each devoted to a specific material, he objectively analyzes Wright's handling of wood, stone, brick, concrete block, metals, concrete, and glass. Methodically, he examines whether the form, workability, strength, and durability of each material - its essence - has been emphasized, subdued, or misrepresented in these tangible architectural "expressions". Throughout, Patterson uniquely juxtaposes the reality of Wright's "overall material sensitivity" with nearly 200 of Wright's own pronouncements on the subject. For the first time, architects, designers, and art historians see - in the truest sense - whether Wright's final achievements are consonant with his ambitious aims. Importantly, readers are encouraged to reach their own conclusions, which may differ from Patterson's own deeply felt judgments.

Material Imagination in Architecture

Material Imagination in Architecture PDF

Author: David Dernie

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-07-07

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1317450027

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Material Imagination in Architecture draws on history and the visual arts, and contemporary architecture to explore this popular theme in architectural practice and education. In the context of a discipline increasingly driven by digital production, this text explores architecture and making and the diverse influences on the material reality of architectural form: it argues that the crafts, fabrication and assemblage of its making remain vital elements of contemporary architectural language. This broad-ranging text bridges the gap between a technical or otherwise fragmentary knowledge of materials of the specialist, and the tacit or instinctive understanding of materials that the artist, sculptor or architect may have. It identifies key material themes pertinent to contemporary architectural debate and develops a discourse about future practice that is framed by environmental imperatives and grounded in a historical understanding of the meaning and use of materials. Material iconology in architecture is a well-established tradition and this book draws on that background to investigate the possibilities, and limits, of using materials in contemporary design to communicate the themes and contexts of an architectural project, a material’s relationship to context, and to the history of practices that belong to the traditions of making buildings. Each theme is explored in case studies from twelve countries around the world, including the UK, USA, Spain, Italy, Germany, Australia and China.

Material Transfers

Material Transfers PDF

Author: Francoise Bollack

Publisher: The Monacelli Press, LLC

Published: 2020-12-15

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1580935435

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A provocative examination of the connections between contemporary expression in architecture and traditional materials and forms. Architect, architectural historian, and preservationist Françoise Bollack presents eighteen projects that use traditional materials to build contemporary forms or use modern materials to build traditional forms, blurring the boundary between tradition and modernity in architecture. Bollack rejects the modernist taboo against imitation and precedent, tracing the history of adaptive and imitative design from the Renaissance to the Greek and Gothic revivals and to the nineteenth-century modular cast-iron facades that Philip Johnson considered "the basis for modern design." The book examines projects in the US, Europe, and Japan, encompassing a broad range of building types: residential, hospitality, commercial and retail, and cultural spaces. All share an intriguing, even radical, approach to reinterpreting traditional forms and materials. Humble thatch moves beyond the farmhouse roof to clad the walls of a Danish environmental center; a photographic image of a Parisian facade becomes a scrim on the facade of a new building; the ghost of an ancient Italian basilica is outlined in wire mesh. Among the featured architects are Kengo Kuma, architect of the Tokyo 2021 Olympic stadium; MVRDV, a highly regarded Dutch firm; Lacaton & Vassal and Chartier/Corbasson in France; Skene Catling de la Peña in the UK; Morris Adjmi in the USA; Max Dudler in Germany; Dortre Mandrup in Denmark; and Herzog & de Meuron in Switzerland.

Materials, Form and Architecture

Materials, Form and Architecture PDF

Author: Richard Weston

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0300095791

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"First published in Great Britain in 2003 by Laurence King Publishing Ltd, London."--T.p. verso.

Material Architecture

Material Architecture PDF

Author: John Fernandez

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-08-21

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 113514432X

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Composed of a series of essays, this book deals with the broad issues affecting the nature of architectural materials and provides a focused review of the state of the art materials. It also provides designers with the tools they need to evaluate and select from the thousands of different materials that are available to them. The book is organized into three sections; ‘Time’ looks at how the materials used in architectural design have changed over the years showing how we have come to use the materials we do in contemporary design. ‘Materials’ covers all five material families; metals, polymers, ceramics, composites and natural materials giving in depth information on their properties, behavior, origins and uses in design. It also introduces a review of the cutting edge research for each family. ‘Systems’ outlines the technical design-orientated research that uncovers how new architectural assemblies can be designed and engineered. All of this practical advice is given along with many real case examples illustrating how this knowledge and information has been, and can be, used in architectural design.

Material Precedent

Material Precedent PDF

Author: G. P. Borden

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2010-03-22

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 0470477296

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A comprehensive, richly illustrated catalog focusing on materials used in great twentieth-century architecture Viewed primarily in technical terms pertaining to construction, material has often been overlooked in the discourse on architectural design. Yet, it is material that breathes life into architecture by realizing concepts into meaningful physical forms. Whether it is wood, glass, steel, plastic, or concrete, material can be employed with unlimited flexibility and carries both visual and emotional characteristics through its expression. The first book of its kind to focus on materiality from a design perspective, Material Precedent is masterfully presented, with an impressive collection of crisp line drawings along with historical, material, tectonic, and typological analysis of twentieth-century buildings, providing readers with detailed instruction that traces the traditions and trends of material as the defining premise in the making of architecture. This unrivaled text: Is illustrated throughout with detailed line drawings Is perfect for use in a design studio or simply for understanding the role of materials in buildings, for a designer of any level Includes a companion Web site By cataloging and comparing the concepts behind modern building science using architectural precedent, Material Precedent examines structure, form, effect, detail, sustainability, and performance through material application to provide a comprehensive analysis of the materiality of architecture.

Exploring Materials

Exploring Materials PDF

Author: Inna Alesina

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

Published: 2010-03-24

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781568987682

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This book is an action-oriented, accessible guide to design thinking that addresses both the how and why of product design. It encourages designers to look beyond the abstraction of pure forms or the whimsy of virtual objects, and instead to make and test real objects in a studio environment.-back cover.