A Theory for Practice: Architecture in Three Discourses - Hardcover

Hubbard, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262082357 ISBN 13: 9780262082358

Publisher: Mit Pr, 1995

Synopsis

To speak comprehensively about a building today requires that we think about the building in three different ways - as an instance of architectural order, as an embodiment of values about living, and as an instrument for bringing about results. With this insight, Bill Hubbard offers architects a useful new way of thinking about the work they do. He looks at all of the groups with an interest in a work of architecture - owners, inhabitants, customers, community groups, critics and historians, architecture schools—and presents a conceptual framework in which those disparate interests are not just given a place but are honored for providing different perspectives on the building.Recalling a time when a building could be encompassed by a single way of thinking, Hubbard reviews how political, economic, and philosophical movements have fostered new roles for buildings and provided new ways of thinking about them. How can these ways of thinking talk to each other, much less have a conversation that can produce a building? To find a language for such conversation is the task Hubbard takes on, through an exploration of the concept of a sense of place. In the book's closing chapters Hubbard describes the varieties of place that we can feel, and proposes a way to characterize such feelings and render them usable by designers. In so doing, he raises a fundamental question about the practice of architecture; he proposes that a theory for practice founded on the idea of creating a sense of place is not a radical departure for architects because the acts of creating place are the acts architects do, for themselves, in their daily lives.

About this title

About the Author

Bill Hubbard Jr. is an architect and writer who taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for several years.

Reviews

This book belongs to a small genre of publications focused on architectural practice, such as Robert Gutman's Architectural Practice: A Critical View (Princeton Univ. Pr., 1988) and Dana Cuff's Architecture?The Story of Practice (MIT Pr., 1991). Unlike those academic studies, however, Hubbard's book is charming and anecdotal, more journalistic than scholarly. His "theory for practice" consists of a three-way analysis of architecture focused on verifiable results, shared values, and design order. These correspond to the needs of the three primary actors in architectural design: users, clients, and designers. A practicing architect and MIT professor, Hubbard wants everyone to win but especially architects buffeted by spiraling technology, inscrutable theory, and increasing competition. Ultimately, however, despite its style and provocative analysis, this study has limited appeal to the general public. Recommended for academic special collections.?Peter Kaufman, Boston Architecture Ctr.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262082357
• ISBN 13: 9780262082358
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192