ABSTRACT

Bringing together texts and work by theorists and practitioners who are making material central to their work, this book reflects the diverse areas of inquiry which are expanding current material discourse. Focusing on the cultural, political, economic, technological and intellectual forces which shape material practices in architecture, the contributors draw on disciplines ranging from philosophy, history and pedagogy to art practice and digital and low-tech fabrication.

By paying critical attention to material, a wide range of issues emerge which are otherwise excluded from architectural discourse, issues that shape and determine the buildings we make, the processes we use and the ways we understand them.

Beautifully illustrated and designed, this book is a unique collection which will be of great interest to architectural practitioners and theorists who want to consider the wider implications of material practice, and to students who are developing their own approach to making buildings.

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

Architecture and Material Practice

chapter |16 pages

Plans To Matter

Towards a History of Material Possibility

chapter |12 pages

Gordon Matta-Clark

Matter, Materiality, Entropy, Alchemy

chapter |12 pages

Plenums

Re-Thinking Matter, Geometry and Subjectivity

chapter |12 pages

Marx Matters, or

Aesthetics, Technology, and The Spirit of Matter

chapter |12 pages

Pumping Up

Digital Steroids and the Design Studio

chapter |10 pages

A Philosophy of Engagement

Developing a Strategic Ability through Direct Engagement with Material, Process and Collective Action

chapter |14 pages

Workshops

chapter |12 pages

Surface Structures in the Digital Age

Studies in Ferrocement

chapter |12 pages

Out of Control

The Media of Architecture, Cybernetics and Design

chapter |12 pages

The Methodology of Construction

The Gentleman's Tailor and the Home Sewer

chapter |14 pages

Re-Fabrications

chapter |10 pages

Between Birds' Nests and Manor Houses

Edwardian Cape Town and the Political Nature of Building Materials