CASE BOOKS

During the second half of the twentieth century, highly specialized subdisciplines and professions emerged within architecture. The subsequent autonomy of such fields as design, theory, programming , building technology, media studies, urban sociology, and environmental studies, among others, was deemed necessary in light of the growing complexity of architecture’s built, cultural, and professional terms. Within our contemporary context, however, the autonomy of the subdisciplines has become increasingly specious. The very isolation of such subdiscplinary spheres once a virtue, has begun to limit our ability to affect change. Against this balkanization, new cultural and socioeconomic conditions are urgently demanding that architecture assert a synthetic outlook.

CASE embraces synthesis by slicing across architecture’s different spheres of knowledge. It invites experts from different domains to reflect collectively on individual projects. Each book in the series focuses on a specific case study—building, landscape, and/or urban development—by compressing multiple perspectives into single, intense volumes. Accordingly, each case is selected for its multifaceted qualities and its relevance to contemporary disciplinary and professional debates.

CASE proffers an intradisciplinary platform for studying and practicing architecture. It exposes the catalytic ties between architecture’s forms and procedures, and ultimately it expands the scope of theoretical inquiry to shape a more synthetic ambition for architecture.