Perspecta 33 Mining Autonomy": The Yale Architectural Journal" by Michael Osman;Matthew Ruedig AdamSeidel (9780262650618)
Michael Osman;Matthew Ruedig AdamSeidel
Release Date: 01 May 2002 Format: Paperback Pages: 120 Category: Architecture Publisher: Mit Press ISBN: 9780262650618 ISBN-10: 0262650614
Founded in 1950, "Perspecta" is the oldest and most distinguished of the student-edited American architectural journals. "Perspecta" 33 explores the concept of architectural autonomy and its relationship to the discipline's potential as a critical agent. The journal revisits the debate of the past thirty years over architectural autonomy--the belief that architecture is a self-contained field with its own legible, meaningful forms. It addresses the twentieth-century lineage of autonomy from its origins in the fine arts and art history to its architectural manifestation in the 1970s--a time when the functionalist, utilitarian nature of the modernist era led to a perceived dissolution of the discipline's professional boundaries. From this historical understanding, the journal investigates current practice, asking whether autonomy is still essential to the "critical project." "Perspecta" 33 notes a shift in critical attention from the center of the discipline to its periphery, where architecture is able to translate intelligence from other disciplines into its own conventions and language, as well as pass ideas and speculation into the world. New methods of architectural production (digital design, imaging, and fabrication), growing environmental concerns, and changing ideas about domesticity and urban space suggest alternative directions for criticality. The essays are organized in two parts: those that explicitly engage the history of architectural autonomy and those that offer alternatives or counterexamples. In addition to the articles, there is a portfolio of contemporary projects that draw their criticality from disciplines outside architecture. "Perspecta" 33 also includes a work by the artist Ann Hamilton. Articles are by Stanford Anderson, Carol Burns, Bernard Cache, Diane Ghirardo, Elizabeth Grosz, K. Michael Hays and Lauren Kogod, Neil Leach, Hashim Sarkis, Robert Somol, Michael Stanton, Anthony Vidler, Sara Whiting, and Christopher Wood. The editors of "Perspecta" 33 are graduates of The Yale School of Architecture and practicing architects.