Community Architecture (Routledge Revivals): How People Are Creating Their Own Environment - Hardcover

Wates, Nick; Knevitt, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415708532 ISBN 13: 9780415708531

Publisher: Routledge, 2013

Synopsis

First published in 1987, this title was one of the first to explore the emerging popular movement of Community Architecture, championed by Prince Charles, which gained momentum throughout Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. The conceptual framework rests fundamentally on the principle that the built environment is most effective when those who live in a particular area are actively engaged with its creation and daily administration. A work that has influenced policy makers and planning legislation, Community Architecture remains one of the key reference works for student architects and planners.

About this title

Review:

"...indispensable to all concerned with the disastrous state of our built environment. A pioneering and definitive work...." - Vivian Linacre, Environment Now, April 1988.

"...written with such tenacity of purpose that arguments for and against seem as irrelevant as King Canute attempting to push back the waves." - Jim Antoniou, Building Design, 29 January 1988.

"...absolutely essential reading.... The book succeeds in demonstrating the many things which can be achieved by, and through, the changed relationship between designer and client which is at the heart of successful progress." - Jeff Bishop, Bulletin of Environmental Education, November 1987.

"...an antidote to apathy... that can have the dangerous effect of not just making you sit back and ponder on the ills of the world, but of stimulating you enough to want to get stuck in to try and tackle them." - Kelvin McDonald, Planning, 27 November 1987.

"...an invaluable experience for community workers and architects dealing with urbanisation in Taiwan.... The best reference work available." - Ruimao Huang, Lecturer at Tankang University, China Times, 18 November 1993.

"...a Bible to (Prince) Charles." - Anthony Holden, Charles: A Biography, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1988

Nominated as the best book of 1987 by Frank McDonald, Irish Sunday Tribune, and one of the ten best books of 1993 by the China Times.

From the Back Cover:

Community architecture has emerged as a powerful force for
change in the way people all over the world are creating their own homes,
neighbourhoods and cities.

The basic principle is simple: the built environment works better if the
people who use it are directly and actively involved in its creation and
management. The movement embraces planning, development, landscape, art
and design as well as architecture and other forms of technical aid. It
has brought together an extraordinary alliance of community groups,
professionals, churchleaders and politicians of all parties - and caused
major ructions in the professions as a result.

Charles Knevitt and Nick Wates wrote and broadcast on the development of
the Community Architecture movement for over ten years before writing this
book - the first on the subject. It explains how and why Community
Architecture works and reveals the full story of the quiet revolution which
provides hope for communities everywhere.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0415708532
• ISBN 13: 9780415708531
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 209