Architecture and urbanism seem to be weak disciplines, constantly struggling for a better understanding of their nature and disciplinary borders. The huge amount of metaphors appearing in the discourse of both not only reference to their creative nature but also indicate their weakness and the missing piece strengthening their own understanding: a definition of space for architecture and of city for urbanism. But using metaphors in this field implies a problem - though metaphors achieve to bring opposites together, there remains the question how literal they can actually become in order to...

This book examines the different roles of architects in rural post-disaster housing and their impact on the degree of success of the projects from villagers' perspective. It is based around the building process of three case studies affected by the tsunami of 2004 in rural South India. It identifies the critical parameters and skills required at project level during the course of the building process. The results from villages and interviews with experienced international and Indian architects, engineers and NGO representatives show that architects are often poorly equipped to work in this...

In a positive departure from modernism, the work of the art critic and urbanist Ludwig Hilberseimer offers schemata towards the design for the city itself: its mereological composition. The resonance of parts unfolds to an alternative of a purely contrasting equation of form and content. It reminds us, that when the ground (logos) of the city is defined by its parts (meros), its architecture, the city in turn always also is part of the architecture as its desire. The Mereological City introduces a mereological methodology and contributes to an ongoing discussion...

Um 1900 entwickelte die Heimatschutzbewegung aus dem Volkstumsdiskurs heraus eine identitätspolitische Spielart der Moderne, die eine eigene Architekturprogrammatik einschloss. Rainer Schmitz untersucht deren Entstehung und Konzeption durch Akteure des 1904 gegründeten »Bundes Heimatschutz« wie Ernst Rudorff, Paul Schultze-Naumburg oder Otto March. Im Fokus seiner Sondierungen steht die Übersetzung gesellschaftlicher Konstrukte und Phänomene wie der »sozialen Frage«, Heimat, Volkstum oder Antisemitismus in den Baudiskurs sowie deren Architektonisierung in Projekten wie den...

Under the premise that architecture makes life 'better', architecture is often presented as the 'solution' to social problems, made 'green' when promising sustainable futures, or fetishised as a cultural object for the creation of urban identities. Yet, what is it exactly that links architecture so closely to the pursuit of a good life? How is this link interrelated with crisis and crisis thinking? To what extent do belief systems in architecture influence its capacity to deal with crises? Carolina Crijns not only explores the transformative potential in radically rethinking architecture's...

Von Quartieren kann und muss Wandel ausgehen, denn hier lässt sich das System Stadt von seiner kleinsten Einheit heraus transformieren. Die Autor*innen nehmen die Bedürfnisse des Menschen zum Ausgangspunkt und fragen danach, wie Wohnen, Freiraum, Bildung, Pflege, Mobilität und Versorgung auf Quartiersebene bestmöglich erfüllt werden können. Das Ergebnis ist eine Planungshilfe für Neubauquartiere bis hin zu Quartieren, die eingeschlafen sind und einen sanften Generationenwechsel benötigen. Ein umfangreiches Repertoire an Instrumenten bietet die Möglichkeit, Angebote und Services den...

In der Debatte um die Demokratisierung von Bildungseinrichtungen änderte sich der Blick auf Schulgebäude und ihre Nutzung seit den 1960er Jahren grundlegend und es rückte eine weitere Funktion in den Vordergrund: die Rolle von Schularchitektur als Imageträger. Eva Zepp rekonstruiert den Diskurs um ein höheres Maß an Mitbestimmung bei der Planung von Schulbauten und deren mediale Repräsentationen. Anhand von Dokumenten aus Forschungsarchiven, Berichten und Bildstrecken in Architekturzeitschriften sowie zwei prominent diskutierten Schulbauten analysiert sie die Rollen und Praktiken von...

Focusing on a private collection of 60 postcards of modern architecture in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Agra, the contributors to this volume explore the many dimensions of modern architecture in India from the 1890s to the 1970s and share their own perspective on these objects. Experts on architectural history and visual studies, as well as postcard collectors provide new insights into a territory and its architectural heritage which is still largely unknown in Europe, and reflect on the postcard as a medium for historical research.

For at least two decades, major cities in Turkey have been subjected to endless waves of urban development that has left scores of building demolitions in its wake. The construction waste produced is immense but its removal or abatement is completely ignored by the state. Who will deal with all this waste? Enter the reclaimers (çkmacs), an informal network of building salvagers, who have stepped in to create a new form of assemblage that fills this gap. Erdogan Onur Ceritoglu makes an in-depth ethnographic study of the under-the-radar livelihood of the reclaimers long-term. He also focuses...