Architectural Exaptation

Download Architectural Exaptation full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Architectural Exaptation ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Architectural Exaptation

Author : Alessandro Melis
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 100385026X
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Architectural Exaptation by : Alessandro Melis

Download or read book Architectural Exaptation written by Alessandro Melis and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-03-29 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Architectural Exaptation: When Function Follows Form focuses on the significance and the originality of the study of exaptation. It presents exaptation as an opportunity to extend architectural design towards more sustainable approaches aimed at enforcing urban resilience. The use of exaptation’s definition in architecture supports the heuristic value of cross-disciplinary studies on biology and architecture, which seem even more relevant in times of global environmental crises. This book aims to make a critique of the pre-existing and extensive paternalistic literature. Exaptation will be described as a functional shift of a structure that already had a prior, but different, function. In architecture, a functional shift of a structure that already had a function may apply to forms of decorative elements embedded in architectural components, and to both change of function of tectonic elements and the change of use of an architectural space. The book is illustrated with examples from around the globe, including China, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, the USA and the UK, and looks at different civilizations and diverse historical periods, ranging from the urban to the architectural scale. Such examples highlight the potential and latent human creative capacity to change the use and functions, something that cities and buildings could consider when facing disturbances. Exaptation is shown as an alternative narrative to the simplifications of evolutionary puritanism. It also offers an innovative perspective and presents an opportunity to re-think the manner in which we design and redesign our cities. This book will be of interest to architecture, planning, urban design and biology researchers and students.

Transdisciplinarity

Author : Nima Rezaei
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030946517
Total Pages : 738 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (39 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Transdisciplinarity by : Nima Rezaei

Download or read book Transdisciplinarity written by Nima Rezaei and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-11-13 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This contributed volume book aims at discussing transdisciplinary approaches to address common problems. By working transdisciplinarily, researchers coming from different disciplines can work jointly using a shared conceptual framework bringing together disciplinary-specific theories and concepts. There are numerous barriers that can obstruct effective communication between different cultures, communities, religions and geographies. This book shows that through bringing together different disciplines, researchers not only can surpass these barriers but can effectively produce new venues of thought that can positively affect the development and evolution of research and education. The book discusses new and emerging applications of knowledge produced by transdisciplinary efforts and covers the interplay of many disciplines, including agriculture, economics, mathematics, engineering, industry, information technology, marketing, nanoscience, neuroscience, space exploration, human-animal relationships, among others. Consequently, it also covers the relationship between art and science, as one of the most remarkable transdisciplinary approaches that paves the way for new methods in engineering, design, architecture and many other fields.

Confabulations : Storytelling in Architecture

Author : Paul Emmons
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317162285
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (171 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Confabulations : Storytelling in Architecture by : Paul Emmons

Download or read book Confabulations : Storytelling in Architecture written by Paul Emmons and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-19 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confabulation is a drawing together through storytelling. Fundamental to our perception, memory, and thought is the way we join fractured experiences to construct a narrative. Confabulations: Storytelling in Architecture weaves together poetic ideas, objects, and events and returns you to everyday experiences of life through juxtapositions with dreams, fantasies, and hypotheticals. It follows the intellectual and creative framework of architectural cosmopoesis developed and practiced by the distinguished thinker, architect, and professor Dr. Marco Frascari, who thought deeply about the role of storytelling in architecture. Bringing together a collection of 24 essays from a diverse and respected group of scholars, this book presents the convergence of architecture and storytelling across a broad temporal, geographic, and cultural range. Beginning with an introduction framing the topic, the book is organized along a continuous thread structured around four key areas: architecture of stories, stories of architecture, stories of theory and practice of stories. Beautifully illustrated throughout and including a 64-page full colour section, Confabulations is an insightful investigation into architectural narratives.

Resilient Communities and the Peccioli Charter

Author : Maurizio Carta
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030858472
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Resilient Communities and the Peccioli Charter by : Maurizio Carta

Download or read book Resilient Communities and the Peccioli Charter written by Maurizio Carta and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-04-25 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores urban resilience through significant, original and rigorous academic research, utilising the experiences of town planners, architects and decision makers to create a charter on resilient communities. The second part of the book presents mini-essays discussing the strategic points of the paper, and enabling more casual readers with the ability to access information on urban resilience. The book then explores urban resilience through the work and understanding of the institutions responsible for regulating the professions of urban planner, educators, professionals, and those involved in communication. Providing numerous illustrations and examples, Resilient Communities and the Peccioli Charter will be of interest to researchers, postgraduates, architects, urban designers and planners alike.

Architecture and the Image at the Turn of the 21st Century

Author : Sanja Rodeš
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1040046916
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Architecture and the Image at the Turn of the 21st Century by : Sanja Rodeš

Download or read book Architecture and the Image at the Turn of the 21st Century written by Sanja Rodeš and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-28 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines architecture, image, and media relationships as productive for architecture and architectural discourses. By arguing that the relationships between architecture and media cannot be dismissed via linear criticism of architecture and media or image, these relations are instead seen as a part of a sphere (a mediasphere) of complex relationships. In lieu of anything like a consensus on the contemporary condition of architecture (referring to the late twentieth and the twenty-first centuries), the starting point of this book is that the relationships between architecture, media, and images continue to multiply, owing to continuous technological advancements. Contemporary architecture considered in this book is related to the selected circumstances of high visibility, where architectural images are propelled into visibility and conflated with non-architectural images. This takes architecture outside of architectural-only discourse and into the public realm. By granting higher visibility to both the architectural images and architecture in the public realm, architecture can also be influenced by the various perceptions of the general public and can enter public consciousness via non-architectural media. With increased visibility, architecture’s far-reaching presence calls for more structured analysis of its nature and potential. As the analysed architecture in this book is associated with the discourses outside of architecture (some of which relate to terrorism, natural disaster, and branding and consumption), the limits of contemporary architectural discipline are questioned and extended. This book is written for academics and students in architectural history, theory, and criticism, particularly those interested in visual and media studies.

Design Technology and Digital Production

Author : Gabriel Esquivel
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000886638
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (8 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Design Technology and Digital Production by : Gabriel Esquivel

Download or read book Design Technology and Digital Production written by Gabriel Esquivel and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a rigorous account of architecture’s theoretical and technological concerns over the last decade. The anthology presents projects and essays produced at the end of the first digital turn and the start of the second digital turn. This anthology engages and deploys a variety of discourses, topics, criteria, pedagogies, and technologies, including some of today’s most influential architects, practitioners, academics, and critics. It is an unflinchingly rigorous and unapologetic account of architecture’s disciplinary concerns in the last decade. This is a story that has not been told; in recent years everything has been refracted through the prism of the post-digital generation. Design Technology and Digital Production illustrates the shift to an architectural world where we can learn with and from each other, develop a community of new technologies and embrace a design ecology that is inclusive, open, and visionary. This collection fosters a sense of shared experience and common purpose, along with a collective responsibility for the well-being of the discipline of architecture as a whole.

Informality through Sustainability

Author : Antonino Di Raimo
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000335755
Total Pages : 561 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (3 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Informality through Sustainability by : Antonino Di Raimo

Download or read book Informality through Sustainability written by Antonino Di Raimo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-30 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Informality through Sustainability explores the phenomenon of informality within urban settlements and aims to unravel the subtle links between informal settlements and sustainability. Penetrating its global profile and considering urban informality through an understanding of local implications, the authors collectively reveal specific correlations between sites and their local inhabitants. The book opposes simplistic calls to legalise informal settlements or to view them as ‘problems’ to be solved. It comes at a time when common notions of ‘informality’ are being increasingly challenged. In 25 chapters, the book presents contributions from well-known scholars and practitioners whose theoretical or practical work addresses informality and sustainability at various levels, from city planning and urban design to public space and architectural education. Whilst previous studies on informal settlements have mainly focused on cases in developing countries, approaching the topic through social, cultural and material dimensions, the book explores the concept across a range of contexts, including former Communist countries and those in the so-called Global North. Contributions also explore understandings of informality at various scalar levels – region, precinct, neighbourhood and individual building. Thus, this work helps reposition informality as a relational concept at various scales of urbanisation. This book will be of great benefit to planners, architects, researchers and policymakers interested in the interplay between informality and sustainability.

The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods

Author : Hesam Kamalipour
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000917630
Total Pages : 775 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods by : Hesam Kamalipour

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods written by Hesam Kamalipour and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 775 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an evolving and contested field, urban design has been made, unmade, and remade at the intersections of multiple disciplines and professions. It is now a decisive moment for urban design to reflect on its rigour and relevance. This handbook is an attempt to seize this moment for urban design to further develop its theoretical and methodological knowledge base and engage with the question of "what urban design can be" with a primary focus on its research. This handbook includes contributions from both established and emerging scholars across the global North and global South to provide a more field-specific entry point by introducing a range of topics and lines of inquiry and discussing how they can be explored with a focus on the related research designs and methods. The specific aim, scope, and structure of this handbook are appealing to a range of audiences interested and/or involved in shaping places and public spaces. What makes this book quite distinctive from conventional handbooks on research methods is the way it has been structured in relation to some key research topics and questions in the field of urban design regarding the issues of agency, affordance, place, informality, and performance. In addition to the introduction chapter, this handbook includes 80 contributors and 52 chapters organised into five parts. The commissioned chapters showcase a wide range of topics, research designs, and methods with references to relevant scholarly works on the related topics and methods.

Artistic Migration

Author : Aline Coelho Sanches
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 0429632673
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (296 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Artistic Migration by : Aline Coelho Sanches

Download or read book Artistic Migration written by Aline Coelho Sanches and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-03-29 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artistic Migration: Reframing Post-War Italian Art, Architecture, and Design in Brazil investigates a selection of works by Italian artists and architects, and an art critic and dealer, who immigrated to Brazil after World War II, and were involved in the first activities and opportunities created by the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). Although foreigners, these experts, namely Bramante Buffoni, Roberto Sambonet, Lina Bo Bardi, Giancarlo Palanti, and Pietro Maria Bardi, were engaged in the construction of paths for Brazilian art, architecture, and design, in production marked by the intertwining of artistic disciplines. By examining the works produced between 1946 and 1991, and focusing on the relationship between art and architecture, with previously unexplored cases, the text investigates how these actors engaged in the dilemmas of Brazilian culture and became part of its invention. The intention is to understand the nature and meaning of this recognizable experience, the continuities of and ruptures from modern architectural, art and design ideals, pre-war experience, and immigration, illuminating a complex framework of relationships with local ideas. The approach and the extensive archival research in Italy and Brazil adopted for the book sheds new light on critically rethinking and reframing Italian and Brazilian cultural events, and will be of interest to architects, researchers, teachers, and students interested in the history of architecture, museums, design, and art.

Theorizing Built Form and Culture

Author : Kapila D. Silva
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1003856527
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Theorizing Built Form and Culture by : Kapila D. Silva

Download or read book Theorizing Built Form and Culture written by Kapila D. Silva and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-03-08 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of essays, Theorizing Built Form and Culture: The Legacy of Amos Rapoport – a felicitation volume to celebrate the significance of Professor Amos Rapoport's lifelong scholarship – scholars from around the world discuss the analytical relevance, expansion, and continuing application of these contributions in developing an advanced understanding of mutual relationships between people and built environments across cultures. Professor Amos Rapoport has espoused an intellectual and theoretical legacy on environmental design scholarship that explains how cultural factors play a significant role in the ways people create and use environments as well as the way environments, in turn, influence people’s behavior. This volume presents a hitherto-not-seen, unique, and singular work that simultaneously articulates a cohesive framework of Rapoport’s architectural theories and demonstrates how that theoretical approach be used in architectural inquiry, education, and practice across environmental scales, types, and cultural contexts. It also acknowledges, for the very first time, how this theoretical legacy has pioneered the decolonizing of the Eurocentric approaches to architectural inquiry and has thus privileged an inclusive, cross-cultural perspective that laid the groundwork to understand and analyze non-Western design traditions. The book thus reflects a wide range of cross-cultural and cross-contextual range to which Professor Rapoport’s theories apply, a general notion of theoretical validity he always advocated for in his own writings. The volume is a paramount source for scholars and students of architecture who are interested in understanding how culture mediates the creation, use, and preservation of the built environment.

Gated Luxury Condominiums in India

Author : Dhara Patel
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 104003781X
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Gated Luxury Condominiums in India by : Dhara Patel

Download or read book Gated Luxury Condominiums in India written by Dhara Patel and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-17 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gated Luxury Condominiums in India: A Socio-Spatial Arena for New Cosmopolitans critically examines gated luxury condominiums in contemporary India, exploring their role in shaping elite power and identity within the framework of neoliberalism. It delves into the spatial structure, perception and post-occupancy experience of these enclaves, offering valuable insights into India's urban development. This book convincingly elucidates the complex socio-spatial transformations underway in India, inviting readers to understand the depth and breadth of these changes, particularly within the rapidly expanding middle and upper-middle classes. It adopts a robust multi-disciplinary approach, combining methodologies such as spatial ethnography, threshold mapping, qualitative interviews and discourse analysis. Focused on the architectural typology of luxury condominiums, the study serves as a lens for broader social transformations grounded in case studies from Mumbai and Pune. Through a meticulous dissection of the lived experiences of various categories of users – owners, visitors and service staff – the book unveils the complex socio-spatial hierarchies perpetuated within these enclaves. Drawing on theories of cosmopolitanism and postcolonial critiques, the monograph makes a significant scholarly contribution to the disciplines of architecture and the built environment. It fills a gap in the existing literature on modern domesticity in India, offering original research that highlights how architecture is instrumental in socially divisive practices of elite formation. It will appeal to scholars, researchers and students across disciplines like architecture, landscape design, spatial sociology, urban studies and area studies, focusing on India and South Asia. It is particularly compelling for those interested in the sociocultural dynamics of the middle class, encompassing themes such as domesticity, material culture and spatial politics within the context of Indian condominiums.

Resilient and Sustainable Cities

Author : Zaheer Allam
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 0323986242
Total Pages : 676 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (239 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Resilient and Sustainable Cities by : Zaheer Allam

Download or read book Resilient and Sustainable Cities written by Zaheer Allam and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2022-12-06 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of Cities in driving global economies has been well covered, and their impact on the larger ecosystem is well documented. Resilient and Sustainable Cities: Research, Policy and Practice explores how cities can be transformed into sustainable fabrics, while leading to positive socio-economic change. The topics include urban policy and covers the challenges cities experienced during the pandemic and resulting urban responses from federal, state, and local levels. This includes a transdisciplinary perspective dwelling on the city narrative, including Resources, Economics, Politics, and others. Resilient and Sustainable Cities serves as a valuable resource for leaders and practitioners working in Urban Policy and academia, as well as students in urban planning, architecture, and policy undergraduate and graduate level programs. Explores the impacts of COVID-19 on cities and its socio-economic impacts Provides regenerative avenues for cities in a post-pandemic context Introduces the concept of the "15-Minute City" Underlines urban regenerative avenues, including financing needs, for cities in the global south

Art, Aesthetics, and the Brain

Author : Joseph P. Huston
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191648876
Total Pages : 544 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Art, Aesthetics, and the Brain by : Joseph P. Huston

Download or read book Art, Aesthetics, and the Brain written by Joseph P. Huston and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humans have engaged in artistic and aesthetic activities since the appearance of our species. Our ancestors have decorated their bodies, tools, and utensils for over 100,000 years. The expression of meaning using color, line, sound, rhythm, or movement, among other means, constitutes a fundamental aspect of our species' biological and cultural heritage. Art and aesthetics, therefore, contribute to our species identity and distinguish it from its living and extinct relatives. Science is faced with the challenge of explaining the natural foundations of such a unique trait, and the way cultural processes nurture it into magnificent expressions, historically and ethnically unique. How does the human brain bring about these sorts of behaviors? What neural processes underlie the appreciation of painting, music, and dance? How does training modulate these processes? How are they impaired by brain lesions and neurodegenerative diseases? How did such neural underpinnings evolve? Are humans the only species capable of aesthetic appreciation, or are other species endowed with the rudiments of this capacity? This volume brings together the work on such questions by leading experts in genetics, psychology, neuroimaging, neuropsychology, art history, and philosophy. It sets the stage for a cognitive neuroscience of art and aesthetics, understood in the broadest possible terms. With sections on visual art, dance, music, neuropsychology, and evolution, the breadth of this volume's scope reflects the richness and variety of topics and methods currently used today by scientists to understand the way our brain endows us with the faculty to produce and appreciate art and aesthetics.

Pervasive Information Architecture

Author : Andrea Resmini
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 9780123820952
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (29 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Pervasive Information Architecture by : Andrea Resmini

Download or read book Pervasive Information Architecture written by Andrea Resmini and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2011-03-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pervasive Information Architecture explains the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of pervasive information architecture (IA) through detailed examples and real-world stories. It offers insights about trade-offs that can be made and techniques for even the most unique design challenges. The book will help readers master agile information structures while meeting their unique needs on such devices as smart phones, GPS systems, and tablets. The book provides examples showing how to: model and shape information to adapt itself to users’ needs, goals, and seeking strategies; reduce disorientation and increase legibility and way-finding in digital and physical spaces; and alleviate the frustration associated with choosing from an ever-growing set of information, services, and goods. It also describes relevant connections between pieces of information, services and goods to help users achieve their goals. This book will be of value to practitioners, researchers, academics, andstudents in user experience design, usability, information architecture, interaction design, HCI, web interaction/interface designer, mobile application design/development, and information design. Architects and industrial designers moving into the digital realm will also find this book helpful. Master agile information structures while meeting the unique user needs on such devices as smart phones, GPS systems, and tablets Find out the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of pervasive information architecture (IA) through detailed examples and real-world stories Learn about trade-offs that can be made and techniques for even the most unique design challenges

Drosscape: Wasting Land Urban America

Author : Alan Berger
Publisher : Princeton Architectural Press
ISBN 13 : 9781568987132
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (871 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Drosscape: Wasting Land Urban America by : Alan Berger

Download or read book Drosscape: Wasting Land Urban America written by Alan Berger and published by Princeton Architectural Press. This book was released on 2007-05-03 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation Do you really know what's under that new house you just bought? How about what's underneath the neighbourhood playground? Was the big-box retailer down the street built atop a toxic site?These are just a few of the worrisome scenarios as our cities begin a stealthy relocation of industrial facilities from the inner city to the urban periphery. These are the places Alan Berger has coined "drosscapes," and this is his guide to the previously ignored field of waste landscapes.

Experimental Architecture

Author : Rachel Armstrong
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351272462
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (512 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Experimental Architecture by : Rachel Armstrong

Download or read book Experimental Architecture written by Rachel Armstrong and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ground-breaking book, the first to provide an overview of the theory and practice of experimental architecture, Rachel Armstrong explores how interdisciplinary, design-led research practices are beginning to redefine the possibilities of architecture as a profession. Drawing on experts from disciplines as varied as information technology, mathematics, poetry, graphic design, scenography, bacteriology, marine applied science and robotics, Professor Armstrong delineates original, cutting-edge architectural experiments through essays, quotes, poetry, equations and stories. Written by an acknowledged pioneer of architectural experiment, this visionary book is ideal for students and researchers wishing to engage in experimental, practice-based architectural and artistic research. It introduces radical new ideas about architecture and provides ideas and inspiration which students and researchers can apply in their own work and proposals, while practitioners can draw on it to transform their creative assumptions and develop thereby a distinctive "edge" to stand out in a highly competitive profession.

The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume II

Author : Patrik Schumacher
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119940478
Total Pages : 786 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (199 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume II by : Patrik Schumacher

Download or read book The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume II written by Patrik Schumacher and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 786 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second part of a major theoretical work by Patrik Schumacher, which outlines how the discipline of architecture should be understood as its own distinct system of communication. Autopoeisis comes from the Greek and means literally self-production; it was first adopted in biology in the 1970s to describe the essential characteristics of life as a circular self-organizing system and has since been transposed into a theory of social systems. This new approach offers architecture an arsenal of general comparative concepts. It allows architecture to be understood as a distinct discipline, which can be analyzed in elaborate detail while at the same time offering insightful comparisons with other subject areas, such as art, science and political discourse. On the basis of such comparisons the book insists on the necessity of disciplinary autonomy and argues for a sharp demarcation of design from both art and engineering. Schumacher accordingly argues controversially that design as a discipline has its own sui generis intelligence – with its own internal logic, reach and limitations. Whereas the first volume provides the theoretical groundwork for Schumacher’s ideas – focusing on architecture as an autopoeitic system, with its own theory, history, medium and its unique societal function – the second volume addresses the specific, contemporary challenges and tasks that architecture faces. It formulates these tasks, looking specifically at how architecture is seeking to organize and articulate the complexity of post-fordist network society. The volume explicitly addresses how current architecture can upgrade its design methodology in the face of an increasingly demanding task environment, characterized by both complexity and novelty. Architecture’s specific role within contemporary society is explained and its relationship to politics is clarified. Finally, the new, global style of Parametricism is introduced and theoretically grounded.