Multiplicity

On Constraint and Agency in Contemporary Architecture

Pari Riahi, Laure Katsaros, Michael T. Davis

• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781625347992
  9781625348005
• eBook ISBN:
  9781685750732
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

Today, the field of architecture faces a reckoning. While there is no longer consensus on what defines an architectural work, theorists, historians, and practitioners are grappling with urgent issues—among them the impact of climate change, the dynamics of power and race in relation with the built environment, and the technological, practical, and ethical dimensions of architecture. As established practices, academic objectives, and professional expectations come under scrutiny, architecture is in search of new definitions, identities, and voices.

Inspired by Italo Calvino's memos about literature in the twenty-first century, this volume—the second in a series— situates architecture within a broad framework, exploring its complex interactions with environmental, cultural, political, social, artistic, and technological forces. The editors' objective is to spur conversation across the boundaries that divide architecture's theorists and historians from practitioners. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Sanford Kwinter, Aleksandra Jaeschke, Jennifer Mack, Rahul Mehrotra, Charles Waldheim, Kristi Cheramie, Jesse Reiser, Julian Harake, Jenny E. Sabin, Charles Davis, Esra Akcan, and David Karmon.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Preamble
• Introduction
• Part 1: Overlapping Spheres: Environmental Humanities and the Built Environment
• Part 2: Projecting Visions: The New, the Preserved, and the Adapted Urban(s)
• Part 3: Novel Methodologies: Theories for an Expanded Practice
• Part 4: Affirming Forces: Race, Ethnicity, and Power
• Selected Readings
• Contributors
• Index
• Back Cover