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Short essays by respected architects and theorists around the question: What is an architect in today's society?
Take a theoretical approach to architecture with The Autopoiesis of Architecture, which presents the topic as a discipline with its own unique logic. Architecture's conception of itself is addressed as well as its development within wider contemporary society. Author Patrik Schumacher offers innovative treatment that enriches architectural theory with a coordinated arsenal of concepts facilitating both detailed analysis and insightful comparisons with other domains, such as art, science and politics. He explores how the various modes of communication comprising architecture depend upon each other, combine, and form a unique subsystem of society that co-evolves with other important autopoieti...
"New York Times" bestselling author Feehan and award-winning author Sizemore craft two passionate paranormal holiday novellas for this two-in-one collection. Original.
Engineering the Revolution documents the forging of a new relationship between technology and politics in Revolutionary France, and the inauguration of a distinctively modern form of the “technological life.” Here, Ken Alder rewrites the history of the eighteenth century as the total history of one particular artifact—the gun—by offering a novel and historical account of how material artifacts emerge as the outcome of political struggle. By expanding the “political” to include conflict over material objects, this volume rethinks the nature of engineering rationality, the origins of mass production, the rise of meritocracy, and our interpretation of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.
Gunpowder studies are still in their infancy despite the long-standing civil and military importance of this explosive since its discovery in China in the mid-ninth century AD. In this second volume by contributors who meet regularly at symposia of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), the research is again rooted in the investigation of the technology of explosives manufacture, but the fact that the chapters range in scope from the Old World to the New, from sources of raw materials in south-east Asia to the complications of manufacture in the West, shows that the story is more than the simple one of how an intriguing product was made. This volume is the first...
Gabor Agoston's book contributes to an emerging strand of military history, that examines organised violence as a challenge to early modern states, their societies and economies. His is the first to examine the weapons technology and armaments industries of the Ottoman Empire, the only Islamic empire that threatened Europe on its own territory in the age of the Gunpowder Revolution. Based on extensive research in the Turkish archives, the book affords much insight regarding the early success and subsequent failure of an Islamic empire against European adversaries. It demonstrates Ottoman flexibility and the existence of an early modern arms market and information exchange across the cultural divide, as well as Ottoman self-sufficiency in weapons and arms production well into the eighteenth century. Challenging the sweeping statements of Eurocentric and Orientalist scholarship, the book disputes the notion of Islamic conservatism, the Ottomans' supposed technological inferiority and the alleged insufficiencies in production capacity. This is a provocative, intelligent and penetrating analysis, which successfully contends traditional perceptions of Ottoman and Islamic history.
God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Bible and the church are being tested. God has decided to speak out after many years of silence. There has been a conscious shift in the energies of our planet, which is allowing the stranglehold of religion to weaken. This has started a movement of a new belief by God. God is no longer prepared to put up with the avarice and greed, which has caused religion to use the word of God to manipulate people for power and control. God is no longer prepared to allow mankind total free-will, to continue to self-destruct and move further away from the spirituality that we were given. The day of reckoning is approaching; accelerated by mankind's material greed. There is definately life after death; but only for those who believe. This book is set to 'Rock the Casbah' with the shocking truth about the power and control of religion and the Holy Bible.
Parametricism is an avant-garde architecture and design movement that has been growing and maturing over the last 15 years, emerging as a remarkable global force. The tendency started in architecture but now encompasses all design disciplines, from urban design to fashion. In architecture, the style has an international following and is currently progressing beyond its experimental roots to make an impact on a broader scale, with practices like Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) winning and completing large-scale architectural projects worldwide. Parametricism implies that all elements and aspects of an architectural composition or product are parametrically malleable; and the style owes its origin...
Ambiguous Spaces, the newest installment in the Pamphlet Architecture series and a return to Pamphlet's own progressive roots, features the architectural fictions "The Pregnant Island" and "Nuclear Breeding." These two projects develop alternative urban concepts that address the challenges presented by the specific situations and social dynamicsdescribed in controversial locations such as the Brazilian Tucurui Dam, the Three Gorges Dam in China, and former English nuclear test sites. Using narrative techniques, fictional programs, ambiguous spaces, and building devices, AmbiguousSpaces explores people, communities, and even entire cities oppressed by a lack of freedom.
Reality Bytes is a collection of essays by Bart Lootsma, written in the years from 1998 to 2009. "Byte" is a unit of digital information used in information technology and most commonly consists of eight bits. Reality Bytes is also the title of an essay by Bart Lootsma, in which he investigates the relationship between society and architects and town planners. Bart Lootsma, Professor of Architecture as well as architectural historian, critic and curator, is one of the most multi-faceted figures amongst contemporary architectural theorists. He has produced numerous publications, including "Superdutch", an appraisal of contemporary architecture in the Netherlands published in 2000. In Reality Bytes he has now for the first time compiled hitherto (mostly) unpublished texts on architectural theory, on Second Modernism, on populism and architecture, on landscape architecture and on the changing role of architects in society.