Cambridge Scholars Publishing Critical Practices in Architecture: The Unexamined (The Arts, Design and Culture in Cities)

This book embraces the idea that in today’s complex world, multiple, emerging perspectives are critical to the design fields, the environment, and society. It also brings authors into conversation to focus on the built environment from the perspective of critical practice. The authors take as a starting point Jane Rendell’s ground-breaking work, which defines critical spatial practice as “self-reflective modes of thought that seek to change the world.” In opposition to conventional conceptions of architectural education and work, this book reflects how socially engaged architects, landscape architects, designers, urbanists, and artists take up critical spatial practice. Bridging ideas from multiple countries and approaches to design scholarship, each chapter seeks to find places of convergence for the multiple strands that form around themes of practice, equality, methods, theory, ethics, pedagogy, and representation. Rendell’s foreword and postscript provide context for these themes and suggest a way forward in today’s challenging, changing times. About the Author Jonathan Bean is an interdisciplinary scholar and Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at The University of Arizona, USA. His current research focuses on the emergence of high-performance building. Co-editor of the book Taste, Markets, and Consumption: An Interdisciplinary Volume, he is recognized in the field of marketing for his pioneering work on taste regimes. Susannah Dickinson is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at The University of Arizona, USA. Her research connects multi-scalar complexity theory with digital design pedagogy. She has published in the International Journal of Architectural Research (IJAR) and the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC). Her design studio won the 2018 Architect Magazine Sloan Studio Prize. Aletheia Ida is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at The University of Arizona, USA, with a research emphasis on critical material practice. She has more than twenty publications including Metropolis “Source Materials,” Materials Research Society “Programmable Matter,” Cambridge University Press MRS Advances, and IGI Global Press “Energetic Forms of Matter.” She received the 2018 AIA Arizona Research Design Award.