Approaching Architecture

Reviews / Votes

"Approaching Architecture: Three Fields, One Discipline sets out to demonstrate that expanding the fields of practice, pedagogy, and research reveals the depth and value of architecture as a discipline. Equally impressive is the global representation throughout the book. It is a timely work and one that will certainly not be confined to those three fields.''

Marc J. Neveu, Faculty Head of Architecture, The Design School, Arizona State University

''Teaching, research, and practice in architecture are always unstable. They overlap, feeding each other, but are permanently out of sync - generating continuous movement between them in a restless circuit, a kind of spinning machine that produces what we call the architect. Approaching Architecture offers a kaleidoscopic set of insights into this relentless creative mechanism.''

Beatriz Colomina, Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture, Princeton University School of Architecture

''Approaching Architecture: Three Fields, One Discipline is an important contribution to discourse regarding the hyper-specialization and the continued siloization of architecture as research, teaching, and practice. Guitart has curated a thoughtful and engaging set of arguments, provocations and reflections that work collaboratively, curiously and critically to help reconsider the necessary entanglements of architecure's 'three fields.' Approaching Architecture is timely, relevant, and wonderfully global; relevant to researchers, teachers and students, and practitioners alike.''

Ozayr Saloojee, PhD., Associate Professor, Carleton University School of Architecture + Urbanism, Associate Editor of Design, Journal of Architectural Education

''The work of the architect is complex. As a discipline, architecture addresses multiple problematics. Expanding the approach towards architecture is key to thoughtful architectural design. The book Approaching Architecture: Three Fields, One Discipline seeks to engage the discipline more broadly and generously. This book is an opportunity to explore the role of the architect through three instrumental approaches to the discipline - research, pedagogy and practice. The book invites the reader to not only understand how the architect participates in these fields, but to also realize that their interconnection is inherent to the complexity of the discipline and necessary for the architect's curiosity. In this work, Miguel Guitart portrays the contemporary architect as an extension of the renaissance model, something that becomes particularly relevant as our world becomes more and more fragmented. Guitart's book, ambitious in its intellectual, disciplinary, and geographic scope, is a must-read for every student, scholar, and professional.''

Alberto Campo Baeza, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid

'The architectural profession is increasingly siloed, with research, education and practice often seen as separate entities. But this collection of essays is proof that the most fruitful works lie at the intersection of all three disciplines. With a foreword by Nader Tehrani, the anthology draws insights from 18 practitioners across the globe, including Japan's Kengo Kuma & Associates and South Africa's Heinrich Wolff. Each advocates for a multidisciplinary approach that rethinks what it means to study and practise architecture. As assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University Julia Jamrozik succinctly puts it in her chapter, "The objective of a studio should perhaps focus less on the design of space than on the design of the process of design." '

Aug 25, 2022. Three Books to Add to Your Reading List This Back to School Season. Azure Magazine. https://www.azuremagazine.com/article/architecture-education-books/

'One of the major problems that architects have to face today is the growing disconnection between the theoretical, pedagogical, and professional sides of the discipline. The problem has only intensified with the recurring economical and social crises, as the drastic decrease of opportunities for professional work has brought on a proliferation and inflation of ever more introverted academic bubbles. Professor Miguel Guitart addresses the matter in a defense of the rich complexity of architecture through fifteen essays by architects who have managed to fruitfully combine three complementary facets - research, teaching, practice - of a single discipline.' - Arquitectura Viva 250