Actions of Architecture : Architects and Creative Users

Jonathan Hill

ISBN 10: 0415290422 / ISBN 13: 9780415290425

Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd Mai 2003, 2003

About this Item

Neuware - Drawing on the work of a wide range of architects, artists and writers, this book considers the relations between the architect and the user, which it compares to the relations between the artist and viewer and the author and reader. The book's thesis is informed by the text 'The Death of the Author', in which Roland Barthes argues for a writer aware of the creativity of the reader. Actions of Architecture begins with a critique of strategies that define the user as passive and predictable, such as contemplation and functionalism. Subsequently it considers how an awareness of user creativity informs architecture, architects and concepts of authorship in architectural design. Identifying strategies that recognize user creativity, such as appropriation, collaboration, disjunction, DIY, montage, polyvalence and uselessness, Actions of Architecture states that the creative user should be the central concern of architectural design.

Seller Inventory # 9780415290425

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Actions of Architecture : Architects and Creative Users
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd Mai 2003
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415290422
• ISBN 13: 9780415290425
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 246W x 189H x 0D millimeters 246 millimeters width by 189 millimeters height by 0 millimeters depth
• Weight: 808 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Drawing on the work of a wide range of architects, artists and writers, this book considers the relations between the architect and the user, which it compares to the relations between the artist and viewer and the author and reader. The book's thesis is informed by the text 'The Death of the Author', in which Roland Barthes argues for a writer aware of the creativity of the reader.

Actions of Architecture begins with a critique of strategies that define the user as passive and predictable, such as contemplation and functionalism. Subsequently it considers how an awareness of user creativity informs architecture, architects and concepts of authorship in architectural design. Identifying strategies that recognize user creativity, such as appropriation, collaboration, disjunction, DIY, montage, polyvalence and uselessness, Actions of Architecture states that the creative user should be the central concern of architectural design.

About the Author

Jonathan Hill is Director of the MPhil/PhD by Architectural Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Galleries where he has had solo exhibitions include the Haus der Architektur, Graz, and Architektur-Galerie am Weissenhof, Stuttgart. Jonathan is author of The Illegal Architect and editor of Occupying Architecture: Between the Architect and the User and Architecture