The Architect as Worker; Immaterial Labor, the Creative Class, and the Politics of Design

Deamer, Peggy

ISBN 10: 1472570499 / ISBN 13: 9781472570499

Published by Bloomsbury Academic, 2015

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 113100

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Architect as Worker; Immaterial Labor, the Creative Class, and the Politics of Design
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1472570499
• ISBN 13: 9781472570499
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Directly confronting the nature of contemporary architectural work, this book is the first to address a void at the heart of architectural discourse and thinking. For too long, architects have avoided questioning how the central aspects of architectural “practice” (professionalism, profit, technology, design, craft, and building) combine to characterize the work performed in the architectural office. Nor has there been a deeper evaluation of the unspoken and historically-determined myths that assign cultural, symbolic, and economic value to architectural labor.

The Architect as Worker presents a range of essays exploring the issues central to architectural labor. These include questions about the nature of design work; immaterial and creative labor and how it gets categorized, spatialized, and monetized within architecture; the connection between parametrics and BIM and labor; theories of architectural work; architectural design as a cultural and economic condition; entrepreneurialism; and the possibility of ethical and rewarding architectural practice.

The book is a call-to-arms, and its ultimate goal is to change the practice of architecture. It will strike a chord with architects, who will recognize the struggle of their profession; with students trying to understand the connections between work, value, and creative pleasure; and with academics and cultural theorists seeking to understand what grounds the discipline.

About the Author

Peggy Deamer is Professor of Architecture and Assistant Dean at Yale University, USA, and a visiting scholar at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.