Architecture Social

This lecture was held just over one hundred years ago, in the aftermath of the First World War and the ‘flu pandemic’ of 1917-1919 — a period of far-reaching constraints and widespread human suffering. The correspondence to our own times are hard to ignore. In these circumstances, it is all the more appropriate to bring this lecture to the fore.

‘I try to create links, to join the dots, to tell politics like a story, to make it real…’ Over a lifetime spent at the frontline of solidarity and resistance, Arundhati Roy’s words have lit a clear way through the darkness that surrounds us. Combining the skills of the architect she trained to be and the writer she became, she illuminates the hidden structures of modern empire like no one else, revealing their workings so that we can resist.

One of the great, but often unmentioned, causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kind of walls, chairs, buildings, and streets we’re surrounded by. And yet a concern for architecture and design is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. The Architecture of Happiness starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can be - and argues that it is architecture’s task to stand as an eloquent reminder of our full potential.

In this challenging interpretation of design education and its effect on design process and products, Argentinean scholar Alfonso Corona-Martinez emphasizes the distinction between an architectural project, created in the architect’s mind and materialized as a set of drawings on paper, and the realized three-dimensional building. Corona-Martinez demonstrates how representation plays a substantial role in determining both the notion and the character of architecture, and he traces this relationship from the Renaissance into the modern era.

Paula Deitz has delighted readers for more than 30 years with her vivid descriptions of both famous and hidden landscapes. Her writings allow readers and listeners to share in the experience of her extensive travels, from the waterways of Britain's Castle Howard to the Japanese gardens of Kyoto, and home again to New York City's Central Park.

The buildings designed in our lifetimes encapsulate the dreams and aspirations of our culture, while also revealing the sobering realities. Whether modest or monumental, they offer a living history of Britain, symbols of the forces that have shaped our modern landscape and icons in their own right. Iconicon is an enthralling journey around the Britain we have created since 1980: the horrors and delights, the triumphs and failures.

Dickson D. Despommier proposes a visionary yet achievable plan for creating a new, self-sustaining urban landscape. He argues that we can find solutions through the concept of biomimicry: emulating successful strategies found in nature. A better city is possible if we heed the lessons that forests and trees teach about how to store carbon, grow food, collect rainwater, and convert sunlight into energy.

My life has been in turmoil at times and joyous. We learn through repetition to accept the pain of life, grow from it and learn from it. Life experience is the main contributor you will learn from. If you sit in a dark room and never put yourself out there, then you can never feel the joy of life, the joy of success and the joy of what is around you. On my journey through life as a father, husband, grandfather, friend, and in my career, I've learned that by changing our habits and mindset, we can break free from mediocrity.

The Book of Tea (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō is a long essay which examines the role of chadō (Teaism) in the aesthetic and cultural aspects of Japanese life. The author explains Teaism as “a philosophy founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence”. Originally written in English for a western audience, the essay deals with the spiritual traditions of Zen and Taoism, as well as the secular side of tea in Japanese life.

What effect do the places where we live or work have on us? Historian Roberta Rio, who researches the history of buildings, apartments and properties for her clients, regularly comes across astonishing and recurrent patterns. In this book she reveals what the Etruscans, the Romans and Cathedral architects all knew about the effects of places, what we ourselves should know and how we can find it out. Rio offers us a refreshingly down-to-earth summary of the findings of her research, and makes it practicable for our own personal use.

This book is an architectural and social history of a unique 19th century mansion. It tells the story of Estemere’s owners and families and the various ways the house has been utilized from the time it was built. It has been the vacation home of a millionaire mine owner and operator, Eben Smith, and his family; hosted a summer school for a Kansas college; a camp for underprivileged girls; a weaving school for women during the New Deal; a tourist lodge; and several times a private residence. Townspeople, children, the socially prominent, business and religious leaders, laborers, students, ...

The year 2000. As Britain celebrates the new millennium, something fluorescent and futuristic is stirring in the crumbling council estates of inner city London. Making beats on stolen software, spitting lyrics on tower block rooftops and beaming out signals from pirate radio aerials, a group of teenagers raised on UK garage, American hip-hop and Jamaican reggae stumble upon a dazzling new genre. Against all odds, these young MCs will grow up to become some of the UK’s most famous musicians, scoring number one records and dominating British pop culture for years to come.

Skriven av Mikael Askergren för Art-land International, Köpenhamn, Danmark, Nummer 2: 1997. Har även publicerats i "Magasin för Modern Arkitektur", Stockholm, Sverige, Nummer 19: 1998.

Skriven av Mikael Askergren på svenska och översatt till engelska för bokprojektet "FutureDesignDays 2003; in Action" publicerad av Futurelab, Borås, Sweden, 2004.

Housing (low cost social housing as well as luxury dwellings) has been the major raison d'être of generations of European architects. American architects must be congratulated for making entirely different career choices: Housing is not architecture.

Conspiracy theories pop up surrounding every major national and global event-some are possible, some are not. TikTok influencer and psychology professor Casey Lytle will teach you how to be an intelligent consumer of 'alternative' theories. Lytle's trademark 'project management approach' will help you discern possible from impossible in the popular and controversial theories surrounding 10 national and global events.

Escrito por uma das maiores especialistas em inclusão escolar no Brasil, esta obra aborda o assunto de maneira clara e didática. Baseando-se na legislação sobre o tema, Maria Teresa Eglér Mantoan explica o que é educação inclusiva, discute os passos necessários para implantá-la e ressalta suas vantagens. Um audiolivro fundamental para educadores que desejam saltar da teoria para a prática.

Louise loves art more than anything. Imagine her delight when a new neighbor, Andie, moves in...and she loves art, too! It's the best day ever. But liking the same thing doesn't always mean you agree on it. Can they overcome their creative differences? Sometimes friendship, like art, can require collaboration.

For more than four decades after gaining independence, India, with its massive size and population, staggering poverty and slow rate of growth, was associated with the plodding, somnolent elephant, comfortably resting on its achievements of centuries gone by. Then, in the early 1990s, the elephant seemed to wake up from its slumber and slowly begin to change - until today, in the first decade of the 21st century, some have begun to see it morphing into a tiger. As India turns 60, Shashi Tharoor, novelist and essayist, reminds us of the paradox that is India.

In this extraordinarily inspiring and visionary audiobook, N. R. Narayana Murthy, who pioneered, designed, and executed the Global Delivery Model that has become the cornerstone of India’s success in information technology services outsourcing, shows us that a society working for the greatest welfare of the greatest number - samasta jananam sukhino bhavantu - must focus on two simple things: values and good leadership.