Use Matters
An Alternative History of Architecture
1st Edition
Published on 18. September 2013
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-415-63732-9 (ISBN)
Description
From participatory architecture to interaction design, the question of how design accommodates use is driving inquiry in many creative fields. Expanding utility to embrace people's everyday experience brings new promises for the social role of design. But this is nothing new. As the essays assembled in this collection show, interest in the elusive realm of the user was an essential part of architecture and design throughout the twentieth century. Use Matters is the first to assemble this alternative history, from the bathroom to the city, from ergonomics to cybernetics, and from Algeria to East Germany. It argues that the user is not a universal but a historically constructed category of twentieth-century modernity that continues to inform architectural practice and thinking in often unacknowledged ways.
Reviews / Votes
"Use Matters critically interrogates the engagement of "user" in architectural design. It puts the user/occupant/inhabitant as the core of the value premise." - Leonard Bachman, Journal of Architectural Education, University of HoustonMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
118 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 32 s/w Zeichnungen
32 Line drawings, black and white; 118 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 246 mm
Width: 174 mm
Weight
690 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-415-63732-9 (9780415637329)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2013
1st Edition
Routledge
€69.99
Available for download
E-Book
10/2013
1st Edition
Routledge
€69.99
Available for download
Book
09/2013
1st Edition
Routledge
€69.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Kenny Cupers is Assistant Professor of Architectural History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Content
Introduction Part 1: Subjectivity and Knowledge 1. Isotype and Modern Architecture in Red Vienna 2. Architectural Handbooks and the User Experience 3. Laboratory Modules and the Subjectivity of the Knowledge Worker 4. Architects, Users, and the Social Sciences in Postwar America 5. Spatial Experience and the Instruments of Architectural Theory Part 2: Collectivity, Welfare, Consumption 6. The Shantytown of Algiers and the Colonization of Everyday Life 7. New Swedes in the New Town 8. Henri Lefebvre, For and Against the "User" 9. Designed-in Safety: Ergonomics in the Bathroom 10. Intelligentsia Design and the Postmodern Plattenbau 11. WiMBY!'s New Collectives Part 3: Participation 12. Landscape and Participation in 1960s New York 13. Ergonomics of Democracy 14. Counter-projects and the Postmodern User 15. The paradox of Social Architectures