Generosity and Architecture

This book proposes that architecture can function as a true embodiment of generosity and examines how generosity in architecture operates within, and questions, current and historical socio-economic and political systems. As such, it interrogates ways in which architecture aspires for something more, whether within economic austerities or within historic contexts of a discipline that has often been preoccupied with cost and quantitative measurement.

The texts presented in this book critically examine the theme of generosity and architecture from a variety of perspectives, addressing the theoretical, the historical, and the everyday processes of architectural practice, procurement, and policy in a global context. The book is a richly collaborative text which explores how architecture – in its processes of ordering and shaping space – can represent and embody generosity in all its multi-faceted potential.

Mhairi McVicar is a Professor at the Welsh School of Architecture and Academic Lead of Cardiff University’s Community Gateway, a partnership platform which has developed collaborative work with individuals and groups in Grangetown, Cardiff, since 2012. Mhairi’s published and current research examines the role of the architect in pursuing quality and equity in the built environment, with interest in how procedures of architectural education and practice can support trust and long-term collaboration.

Stephen Kite is an Emeritus Professor at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Wales, UK. His research explores the history and theory of architecture and its wider links to visual culture. His many publications include the monographs: Shadow Makers: A Cultural History of Shadows in Architecture (2017) and Building Ruskin's Italy: Watching Architecture (2012). Forthcoming, from his more recent research is: Shaping the Surface: Materiality and the History of British Architecture 1840-2000 (2022).

Charles Drożyński is a Senior Lecturer of Architecture at the University of the West of England, UK. His research interests include the intersections of architecture and post-linguistic schools of thought; in particular, these put forward by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, with a focus on the significance of subversion as well as new or unconventional ideas in spatial design.