How does a profession that prides itself on standing for the common good and working through action –not mere analysis or gesturing- demonstrate its effectiveness in a city devastated by intractable political, economic, financial, health, and social crises? In this essay, I dive into the current context of planning in Beirut (Lebanon) where I have been deeply engaged for decades. Recognizing that planning is deeply embedded in the making of the ongoing overlapping crises in the country, I propose three pathways for thinking about a possible positive role for planning in these circumstances: (i) to (re)construct a source of legitimacy for planning by reconsidering who has custody over the planning process and how the legitimacy of planning is secured; (ii) to accept a "tactical" practice in which grand schemes are replaced with tentative, experimental, and incremental micro-interventions that may succeed or not in reaching an integrated vision and, (iii) to activate the performative dimension of planning, its ability to imagine shared spaces and allow for transgressing contemporary limited realities.
"This new, expanded edition of Architecture, Power, and National Identity examines how architecture and urban design have been manipulated in the service of politics. Focusing on the design of parliamentary complexes in capital cities across the world, it shows how these places reveal the struggles for power and identity in multicultural nation-states. Building on the prize-winning first edition, Yale updates the text and illustrations to account for recent sociopolitical changes, includes discussion of several newly built places, and assesses the enhanced concerns for security that have preoccupied regimes in politically volatile countries. The book is truly global in scope, looking at capital cities in North America and Europe, as well as in India, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. Ultimately, Yale presents an engaging, incisive combination of history, politics, and architecture to chart the evolution of state power and national identity, updated for the twenty-first century. Lawrence Vale is the Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT"--Jacket
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model on the role that information systems (IS) architecture planning plays in enhancing IS outsourcing's impact on IS performance and to empirically test the model.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were gathered and structural equation modeling technique is used to test hypotheses.FindingsThe empirical test clearly demonstrates the important role that IS architecture planning plays in enhancing IS outsourcing's impact on IS performance. In other words, it shows that IS architecture planning provides a blueprint for establishing necessary technical and administrative platforms, based on which IS outsourcing can be effectively implemented to positively impact IS performance. Consequently, the key proposition in the conceptual model of the study has been empirically validated.Research limitations/implicationsThe relatively low response rate requires future studies to re‐validate the model to test the robustness of the findings. The fact that 75 percent of respondents are IS managers/directors may produce inflated responses on IS performance and future studies with more balanced IS and business managers' participation can help to further verify the model. Future research can also investigate how web compliant‐based technologies such as SOA and XML can enable high levels of modularity to improve IS outsourcing effectiveness for better IS performance. As to control variables, the extent of IS outsourcing and the level of IS architecture maturity may be incorporated in a refined model to better test the role IS architecture planning plays in enhancing IS outsourcing's impact on IS performance. IS outsourcing effectiveness may be added to the model as a bridge linking IS outsourcing competences to IS performance. A longitudinal study can be conducted to analyze the dynamics of how IS architecture planning can impact IS outsourcing informed buying and help one to understand the portfolio of outsourcing control mechanisms in a multiple outsourcing projects setting.Practical implicationsThe empirical support of the key proposition that IS architecture planning enhances IS outsourcing's impact on IS performance makes it very clear that IS management should make due efforts to improve their understandings of various IS components, associated business processes, and their interactive relationships for better IS outsourcing management. Further, the identification of the antecedents of IS architecture planning will enlighten practitioners about how to improve their IS architecture planning competence.Originality/valueThe paper builds on previous research to provide further empirical evidence on the role that IS architecture planning plays in enhancing IS outsourcing's impact on IS performance.
Over the course of the nineteenth century, drastic social and political changes, technological innovations, and exposure to non-Western cultures affected Germany's built environment in profound ways. The economic challenges of Germany's colonial project forced architects designing for the colonies to abandon a centuries-long, highly ornamental architectural style in favor of structural technologies and building materials that catered to the local contexts of its remote colonies, such as prefabricated systems. As German architects gathered information about the regions under their influence in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific—during expeditions, at international exhibitions, and from colonial entrepreneurs and officials—they published their findings in books and articles and organized lectures and exhibits that stimulated progressive architectural thinking and shaped the emerging modern language of architecture within Germany itself. Offering in-depth interpretations across the fields of architectural history and postcolonial studies, Itohan Osayimwese considers the effects of colonialism, travel, and globalization on the development of modern architecture in Germany from the 1850s until the 1930s. Since architectural developments in nineteenth-century Germany are typically understood as crucial to the evolution of architecture worldwide in the twentieth century, this book globalizes the history of modern architecture at its founding moment.
Architecture Depends presents an original thesis that brings social theory, including that of Zygmunt Bauman and Bruno Latour, to bear on architectural theory and practice. Drawing on theories of critical pedagogy, contingency, and reflective practice, it presents a new paradigm for architectural thinking, recognised by the 2009 RIBA President's Award for Research (prize for outstanding university-based research). Reviews include Blueprint, Architects' Journal; the Times Higher Education Book of the Week; features on Nightwaves (BBC R3), Thinking Allowed (BBC R4). Publisher's text about the volume: Architecture depends — on what? On people, time, politics, ethics, mess: the real world. Architecture, Jeremy Till argues with conviction in this engaging, sometimes pugnacious book, cannot help itself; it is dependent for its very existence on things outside itself. Despite the claims of autonomy, purity, and control that architects like to make about their practice, architecture is buffeted by uncertainty and contingency. Circumstances invariably intervene to upset the architect's best-laid plans—at every stage in the process, from design through construction to occupancy. Architects, however, tend to deny this, fearing contingency and preferring to pursue perfection. With Architecture Depends, architect and critic Jeremy Till offers a proposal for rescuing architects from themselves: a way to bridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it to be. Mixing anecdote, design, social theory, and personal experience, Till's writing is always accessible, moving freely between high and low registers, much like his suggestions for architecture itself. The everyday world is a disordered mess, from which architecture has retreated — and this retreat, says Till, is deluded. Architecture must engage with the inescapable reality of the world; in that engagement is the potential for a reformulation of architectural practice. Contingency should be understood as an opportunity rather than a threat. Elvis Costello said that his songs have to work when played through the cheapest transistor radio; for Till, architecture has to work (socially, spatially) by coping with the flux and vagaries of everyday life. Architecture, he proposes, must move from a reliance on the impulsive imagination of the lone genius to a confidence in the collaborative ethical imagination, from clinging to notions of total control to an intentional acceptance of letting go.
Chan Siu Kuen Peg. ; "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 1999-2000, design report." ; PROBLEMS IDENTIFICATION ; Present & Past Habitat ; Living Elements ; Living Lives ; Collective Memories ; social Changes ; Change of Development Trend --- p.35 ; Living & Senses ; Merleau-Ponty - 'Touch' ; Juhani Pallasmaa - 'Eye' ; Lisa Heschong - 'Gesture' ; Lisa Heschong - 'Gesture' ; Herzog De Meuron - Materials ; Kanzuyo Sejima - isolation --- p.43 ; Local Residential Street Lives ; Street Elements- Richness ; Street Setting - Human --- p.46 ; Cityscape ; Identity ; Tourism --- p.49 ; PROGRAMMING ; Project Brief ; Synopsis ; Building Types ; Clients ; Project Potential ; Economic Concerns ; Users --- p.54 ; Site Analysis ; Site ; History ; Site Context ; Building Age ; Land Uses ; Density ; Building Height ; Govt. Development Phases ; Proposed Building Site ; Site Constraints ; Site Selection Intent --- p.74
Open Design refers to a stakeholder-oriented approach in Architecture, Urban Planning, and Project Management, as developed by the Chair of Computer Aided Design and Planning of Delft University of Technology. This edition collects the following three volumes on Open Design: 1) Open Design, a Collaborative Approach to Architecture, offering concepts and methods to combine technical and social optimization into one integrated design process; 2) Open Design and Construct Management, Managing Complex Construction Projects through Synthesis of Stakeholder Interests, offering a new approach to mana.
