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Bruno Latour is one of the leading figures in Social Sciences today, but his contributions are also widely recognised in the arts. His theories 'flourished' in the 1980s in the aftermath of the structuralism wave and generated new concepts and methodologies for the understanding of the social. In the past decade, Latour and his Actor-Network Theory (ANT) have gained popularity among researchers in the field of architecture.

Latour for Architects is the first introduction to the key concepts and ideas of Bruno Latour that are relevant to architects. First, the book discusses critically how specific methods and insights from his philosophy can inspire new thinking in architecture and design pedagogy. Second, it explores examples from architectural practice and urban design, and reviews recent attempts to extend the methods of ANT into the fields of architectural and urban studies. Third, the book advocates an ANT-inspired approach to architecture, and examines how its methodological insights can trace new research avenues in the field, reflecting meticulously on its epistemological offerings.

Drawing on many lively examples from the world of architectural practice, the book makes a compelling argument about the agency of architectural design and the role architects can play in re-ordering the world we live in. Following Latour's philosophy offers a new way to handle all the objects of human and nonhuman collective life, to re-examine the role of matter in design practice, and to redefine the forms of social, political and ethical associations that bind us together in cities.

Providing a concise and accessible introduction to the work of the celebrated twentieth century German philosopher, Hans-Georg Gadamer, this book focuses on the aspects of Gadamer's philosophy that have been the most influential among architects, educators in architecture, and architectural theorists. Gadamer's philosophy of art gives a special place to the activity of "play" as it occurs in artistic creation. His reflections on meaning and symbolism in art draw upon his teacher, Martin Heidegger, while moving Heidegger's thought in new directions. His theory of interpretation, or "philosophic

chapter Introduction: Why Kant now? -- chapter 1 Placing Kant: the city of Königsberg/ Kaliningrad -- chapter 2 Kant, the critical project and architecture -- chapter 3 The precarious situation of architecture and its relation to beauty -- chapter 4 From the sublime to the cosmopolitical -- chapter 5 Building cosmopolitically? 'Fluid geography' and 'total thinking'.

chapter 1 Introduction -- chapter 2 Situating Irigaray -- chapter 3 Doubles and Multiples -- chapter 4 Passages and Flows -- chapter 5 Touching and Sensing -- chapter 6 Diagonals, Horizontals and Asymmetry -- chapter 7 Bridges, Envelopes and Horizons -- chapter 8 Voices, Politics and Poetics.

Chapter 1 Introduction -- Outline of the book -- Chapter 2 Signs -- The tree and the weathervane -- Peirce's theory of signs -- Icons in architecture -- Chapter 3 Sign-Vehicles -- Icon -- Index -- Symbol -- Ten classes of signs -- First, Second, Third -- Breaking the rules -- The number three -- Chapter 4 Indexical architecture -- A return to the physical -- Signs and facts -- Translating indexical signs to symbols -- Diagrammatic proof -- Chapter 5 Abduction in architecture -- Abduction in the smart city -- Forensic architecture -- Indefinite inference -- Design as abduction -- Abduction versus interpretation -- Chapter 6 Nature semiotics -- Nature's signs -- Pansemiotics -- Geosemiotics -- The posthuman and speculative realism -- Chapter 7 Pragmatism -- Pragmatism and positivism -- Verification -- The power of practice -- Radicalising Peirce

"Software Cost Reduction" ist ein 1978 von David Parnas entwickelter Ansatz, um Spezifikationen für Steuergeräte formal prüfbar und gleichzeitig kompakt zu formulieren. Nach diversen Einsätzen im Umfeld des US-Militärs ist der Ansatz inzwischen weitgehend in Vergessenheit geraten. Diese Arbeit greift die SCR-Spezifikationssprache auf und passt sie für den Einsatz mit dem modernen UML-Werkzeug Enterprise Architect an. Neben dem Sprachprofil werden hierzu ein Compiler und Codegeneratoren für C# und ANSI-C entwickelt. ; "Software Cost Reduction" is a method developed by David Parnas in 1978 to develop both formal and compact specifications for software systems. After several uses in the general vicinity of the US military, this approach has become mostly forgotten. This thesis picks up the SCR specification language again and adapts it for use with the modern UML modelling tool Enterprise Architect. Along with the UML language profile, a compiler and code generators for C# and ANSI C are being developed.

Governance for Architects is the text of a guest lecture given January 18th 2002 at the Fontys Academy of Architecture and Urbanism in Tilburg. The lecture was programmed in a wider discussion on network society and spatial design. Referring to government building commissions in three phases of history, the lecture shows the development of politics and administration, and their influence upon architecture and urbanism.

"In his best-selling autobiography, Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and chief architect of Nazi Germany, repeatedly insisted he knew nothing of the genocidal crimes of Hitler's Third Reich. In this revealing new biography, author Martin Kitchen disputes Speer's lifelong assertions of ignorance and innocence, portraying a far darker figure who was deeply implicated in the appalling crimes committed by the regime he served so well. Kitchen reconstructs Speer's life with what we now know, including information from valuable new sources that have come to light only in recent years, challenging the portrait presented by earlier biographers and by Speer himself of a cultured technocrat devoted to his country while completely uninvolved in Nazi politics and crimes. The result is the first truly serious accounting of the man, his beliefs, and his actions during one of the darkest epochs in modern history, not only countering Speer's claims of non-culpability but also disputing the commonly held misconception that it was his unique genius alone that kept the German military armed and fighting long after its defeat was inevitable"--