Architecture
ARCHITECTURE
BUILDING SIGHTS: BOEING 747
By Norman Foster
Lord Foster, renowned airport designer and pilot, argues that the Boeing 747 is, in fact, a work of architecture rather than just design. Read more
SKYSCRAPERS FROM A TO Z
By Michael Sorkin
"Where else but the United States could the skyscraper happen? ... The tower speaks by conferring address." Read more
THE BAREST FORM IN WHICH ARCHITECTURE CAN EXIST
By Pier Vittorio Aureli
An examination of Ludwig Hilberseimer's entry to the 1922 competition to design the Chicago Tribune Tower. Read more
M'ART
By Mart Stam
Stam argues against the traditional archetypes of the city. 'Even our transformers look like stone-block architecture and our urinals like little temples'. Read more
CHERNOBYL: ATOMIC CITY
By Will Wiles
An abandoned city taken over by nature, Pripyat, evacuated after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, is as haunting as it is fascinating. Read more
GLASS ARCHITECTURE
By Paul Scheerbart
A vision from 1914: the cityscapes of the future as coloured crystals of architecture, a stained glass world of transparency and light. Read more
INEVITABLE ARCHITECTURE
By Lebbeus Woods
Here Woods writes about his uneasiness with the seeming lack of an acknowledgment of the inevitability of entropy in architecture. Read more
NAKATOMI SPACE
By Geoff Manaugh
The phrase 'Nakatomi space' refers to the film Die Hard to cover the parallel service architecture within contemporary space, an alternative layer of the interior. Read more
JUNKSPACE
By Rem Koolhaas
In 'Junkspace' Rem Koolhaas sums up more eloquently than anyone ever has the condition of contemporary architecture. It is a jeremiad about architecture's supplication before shopping and engineering and an underlining of the profession's complicity in its own spiralling irrelevance. Read more
THE LIMITS OF MEMORY:
FOR A CRITICAL ARCHITECTURE
By Claude Parent
Claude Parent writes of the problems of memory and history in architecture as a constriction on imagination. Here are the origins for his 'Oblique Architecture' - a powerful influence on Brutalism and Deconstruction and an enduring cry for revolutionary change. Read more
THE NEVERS WORK SITE
By Claude Parent
"There are two ages for encountering an architecture. The age of the moment: the work site. The age of duration: use." Read more
THE TALL OFFICE BUILDING
ARTISTICALLY CONSIDERED
By Louis Sullivan
The essay that gave us the phrase 'form ever follows function', it sets out to impart graciousness to tall buildings. Graciousness is in short supply so Read on
ORNAMENT IN ARCHITECTURE
By Louis Sullivan
Ornament must be inherent in the structure of modernity. Only America can develop architecture with rationalism and ornament. Read more
TWO UNPUBLISHED NOTES ON
ARCHITECTURE
By Guy Debord
The problem of architecture is not that of being seen from without or that of living within. It is in the dialectical relation interior-exterior. Read more
AUTOSTRADE
By Sue Barr
Sue Barr looks at the extraordinary architecture and engineering of Italian motorways and the striking juxtapositions they make with the city. See more
THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF MANUAL WORK & HANDICRAFT
By Josef Albers
An understanding of manual processes in making products is beneficial, and so it should be for architecture, argued Albers in 1944. Read more
MANTOWNHUMAN
By Alastair Donald, Richard J Williams, Karl Sharro, Debby Kupers, Alan Farlie, Austin Williams
Anti-ecological and non-localist, ManTowNHuman is a critical riposte to the concerns of Post Modernism and the green consensus. Read more
CAFÉS
By Hermann Czech
Hermann Czech's attitude to architecture is one of pleasure in use rather than impression through spectacle. Read more
THE TEN BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE:
EDUCATION
By Vitruvius
Written over 2000 years ago, Vitruvius' text is still an extraordinary font of wisdom. This section is on how an architect should be educated. Read more
MOULD MANIFESTO
By Friedensreich Hundertwasser
In this 1958 Manifesto Hundertwasser urged citizens to take back control of the buildings they live in. Read more
ON EDGE: BORDER ANXIETIES
IN POSTWAR BRITAIN
By Katherine Shonfield
In this essay written in 1999, Shonfield dissects the complexities of arbitrarily-imposed border conditions. A prescient piece. Read more
THERE IS NO CRITICISM
By Manfredo Tafuri
In this intriguing talk, the great Italian architectural historian decries contemporary criticism and states that everything is history. Read more
SEASIDE SHELTERS
By Will Scott
Will Scott's photos beautifully capture the isolation, architectural variety and continuing usefulness of this archetype of the British holiday. See more
ON ARCHITECTURE: AN EXCERPT
FROM A LETTER TO SIR JOHN SOANE
By Joseph Gandy
This brief extract from a letter from Joseph Gandy to Sir John Soane in 1816 contains an intriguing summation of the artifice of architecture. Read more
FEMINIST ARCHITECTURE:
FROM A TO Z
By Jane Rendell
Jane Rendell outlines everything from critical spatial practice to the influence of Zaha Hadid on ideas for new ways of understanding architecture. Read more
FREESPACE MANIFESTO
By Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara
'FREESPACE describes a generosity of spirit and a sense of humanity at the core of architecture's agenda, focusing on the space itself.' Read more
DISTINCTION, NOTORIETY
AND INDIVIDUALITY
By C.F.A. Voysey
Voysey's warnings against the pursuit of popularity rather than distinction sounds very contemporary, despite his pompous style. Read more
ROOM AT THE TOP? SEXISM
AND THE STAR SYSTEM IN ARCHITECTURE
By Denise Scott Brown
'To the extent that gurus are unavoidable and sexism is rampant in the architecture profession, my personal problem of submersion through the star system is insoluble.' Read more
DESIGN FOR LIVING
By Norman Foster
The design process is a valuable commodity which should not be used as a mere gesture, argues Foster in this essay from the late 1960s. Read more
BRADBURY BUILDING
By Edwin Heathcote
From Double Indemnity to Blade Runner, LA's Bradbury Building forms the quintessential film noir backdrop. So what's happening now in this architectural cipher for death? Read more
MANIFESTO
By Bruce Mau
"...it is time we stopped talking about architecture. We should be thinking about educating, training and celebrating developers." Read more
FAME + FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
By Howard Martin
The self-proclaimed 'Greatest Architect in the World' remains a fascinating model of self-belief, arrogance and brilliance. Read more
THE TEN BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE:
THE SITE OF A CITY
By Vitruvius
Written over 2000 years ago, Vitruvius' text is still an extraordinary font of wisdom. This section is on how to choose a site for a city. Read more
MANIFESTO OF FUTURIST ARCHITECTURE
By Antonio Sant'Elia
In this vision of the future, cities would last less than a human life and each generation would rebuild in the image of their own desire. Read more
TIME MACHINE:
BUDAPEST STAIRCASES
By Balint Alovits
These photos of spiralling Budapest stairs give an impression of infinity and highlight the architectural thought applied to functional space. See more
PORTRAIT OF ALEJANDRO DE LA SOTA
BY ONE OF HIS SONS
By José de la Sota Ríus
This essay is not so much about architecture as about the life of an architect and how architecture is a kind of vocation. Read more
TEAM 10 PRIMER
By Alison and Peter Smithson
This extract from the Team 10 Primer sets out how cities and communities can be made more comprehensible. Read more
ARCHITECTURAL CURVILINEARITY
By Greg Lynn
Lynn explores Deleuze's concept of 'Le Pli' and its applications to an architecture of folding, curvilinearity and smoothness. Read more
THE LAST SUPPER
By Adolfo Natalini
'The time is over when utensils generated ideas, or when ideas generated utensils. Now ideas are utensils.' Read more
TWO HUNDRED FIFTY THINGS
AN ARCHITECT SHOULD KNOW
By Michael Sorkin
Wise and witty, this list of things an architect should know ranges from the feel of cool marble under bare feet to the the golden ratio. Read more
MANIFESTO OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS
By William Morris
This 1877 text remains the foundation document of conservation and one of the most important and influential manifestos of the modern age. Read more