Architecture Depends - Hardcover

Jeremy Till

4.2

200 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262012537 ISBN 13: 9780262012539

Publisher: MIT Press, 2009

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Polemics and reflections on how to bridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it to be. Architecture depends-on what? On people, time, politics, ethics, mess: the real world. Architecture, Jeremy Till argues with conviction in this engaging, sometimes pugnacious book, cannot help itself; it is dependent for its very existence on things outside itself. Despite the claims of autonomy, purity, and control that architects like to make about their practice, architecture is buffeted by uncertainty and contingency. Circumstances invariably intervene to upset the architect's best-laid plans-at every stage in the process, from design through construction to occupancy. Architects, however, tend to deny this, fearing contingency and preferring to pursue perfection. With Architecture Depends, architect and critic Jeremy Till offers a proposal for rescuing architects from themselves: a way to bridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it to be. Mixing anecdote, design, social theory, and personal experience, Till's writing is always accessible, moving freely between high and low registers, much like his suggestions for architecture itself.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Boldly and elegantly, Architecture Depends asserts that architecture is absolutely dependent upon the 'contingent', difficult and perverse factors that architects have long tried to ignore in an effort to be pure, self-important and professional...What Till's book achieves is to set out with great clarity the territory in which the debate around future action must take place.

--Robert Mull , Architects' Journal--Reviews

Architecture Depends is an attempt to save the profession from itself and a manifesto for an architecture that acknowledges its relationship with the world and its duty to others...This is a brave, enjoyable, affirming and important book and I actually felt sad to have finished it.

--Flora Samuel, Times Higher Education (Book of the Week)--Reviews

The book performs a wonderful contextualizing function, making architectural intervention, from idea to event, depend on the wide range of human habits and spheres of influence that we normally sum up as 'the world'.

--Lucas Freeman, Scapegoat--Reviews

Thought-provoking and important...Architecture Depends raises the question of the relationship of architecture and life to a new level.

--Anni Vartola, Arkkitehti (Finland)--Reviews

Till's book is about the world he knows and how one conveys ideas behind architecture. It is a superbly written, frequently fascinating set of arguments that will support architects who wish to use the messy stuff of life for their own advantage.

--Tim Abrahams , Blueprint--Reviews

Synopsis:

Architecture depends - on what? On people, time, politics, ethics, mess: the real world. Architecture, Jeremy Till argues with conviction in this engaging, sometimes pugnacious book, is dependent on things outside itself. Despite the claims of architects to autonomy, purity, and control, architecture is buffeted by uncertainty and contingency. Circumstances invariably intervene to upset the architect's best-laid plans - at every stage in the process, from design through construction to occupancy. Architects, however, tend to deny this, fearing contingency and preferring to pursue perfection. With "Architecture Depends", architect and critic Jeremy Till offers a proposal for rescuing architects from themselves: a way to bridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it to be. Mixing anecdote, design, social theory, and raw opinion, Till's writing is always accessible, moving freely between high and low registers, much like his suggestions for architecture itself. The everyday world is a disordered mess, from which architecture has retreated - and this retreat, says Till, is deluded.

Architecture must engage with the inescapable reality of the world; in that engagement is the potential for a reformulation of architectural practice. Contingency should be understood as an opportunity rather than a threat. Elvis Costello said that his songs have to work when played through the cheapest transistor radio; for Till, architecture has to work (socially, spatially) by coping with the flux and vagaries of everyday life. Architecture, he proposes, must move from a reliance on the impulsive imagination of the lone genius to a confidence in the collaborative ethical imagination, from clinging to notions of total control to an intentional acceptance of letting go. This title covers polemics and reflections on how to bridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it to be.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.