Many buildings punish and restrict us because almost none of them adapt well. In real use, buildings need to adapt because their uses are constantly changing. All buildings are predictions, and yet more high-style buildings are designed not to change, not to accommodate new use. A good portion of this book is a natural history of how buildings change with time, what things work to make buildings that adapt gracefully, what building layouts allow easy redefinition of space and building code considerations that permit remodelling. This practical book aims to integrate all different aspects of fragmented design and construction process, so buildings can be seen as embodying a functional and aesthetic and capacious vision, not conflicts, compromises and conveniences of clients, architects, engineers, contractors-all working in their own interest.
By:
Stewart Brand
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 214mm,
Width: 273mm,
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 828g
ISBN: 9780140139969
ISBN 10: 0140139966
Publication Date: 01 October 1995
Audience:
General/trade
,
Professional and scholarly
,
ELT Advanced
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
"Acknowledgments Cover Story 1. Flow 2. Shearing Layers 3. ""Nobody Cares What You Do In There"": The Low Road 4. Houseproud: The High Road 5. Magazine Architecture: No Road 6. Unreal Estate 7. Preservation: A Quiet, Populist, Conservative, Victorious Revolution 8. The Romance of Maintenance 9. Vernacular: How Buildings Learn from Each Other 10. Function Melts Form: Satisficing Home and Office 11. The Scenario-buffered Building 12. Built for Change APPENDIX: The Study of Buildings in Time Recommended Bibliography: Books for Time-kindly Buildings Index"
Reviews for How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built
"""It's about time somebody wrote this book. This quirky, thoughtful volume, bursting with curiosity and intelligence, may make our everyday world more visible to more Americans. Architecture is too important to be left to architects alone."" Mixed Media""A stunning exploration of the design of design
How Buildings Learn will irrevocably alter yor sense of place, space, and the artifacts that shape them."" Michael Shrage, Wired ""Penetratingly original."" Philip Morrison, Scientific American ""An extremely attractive volume that will forever alter the way we respond to the buildings around us. We may also hope it will alter the way architects design buildings."" Harold Gilliam, San Francisco Chronicle ""A fascinating and indefinable book
How Buildings Learn is a hymn to entropy, a witty, heterodox book dedicated to kicking the stuffing out of the proposition that architecture is permanent and that buildings cannot adapt."" Stephen Bayley, The Times (London) ""The book's diagnosis is clear and to the poiny, and its illustrations of how buildings change are both fascinating and instructive. This is, in short, one of the rare books that every architect should read."" Thomas Fisher, editor, Progressive Architecture ""A book of good sound-bites and laser-sharp insight
No architecture students should complete their preliminary studies without reading it from cover to cover."" Patric Hannay, The Architects' Journal"