Architecture and Identity (3^rd Ed.) Responses to Cultural and Technological Change

Expanding his collected essays on architectural theory and criticism, Chris Abel pursues his explorations across disciplinary and regional boundaries in search of a deeper understanding of architecture in the evolution of human culture and identity formation. From his earliest writings predicting the computer-based revolution in customized architectural production, through his novel studies on ?tacit knowing? in design or hybridization in regional and colonial architecture, to his radical theory of the ?extended self?, Abel has been a consistently fresh and provocative thinker, contesting both conventions and intellectual fashions.

This revised third edition includes a new introduction and six additional chapters by the author covering a broad range of related topics, up to recent concerns with genetic design methods and virtual selves. Together with the former essays, the book presents a unique global perspective on the changing cultural issues and technologies shaping human identities and the built environment in diverse parts of the world, both East and West.

Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Part 1: Science and Technology 1. Evolutionary planning 2. Ditching the dinosaur sanctuary 3. Empathy in science and design 4. Return to craft manufacture 5. Visible and invisible complexities 6. The virtual studio 7. Genetic designs: a memetic critique 8. Technically embodied selves Part 2: Critical Theory 9. Cultures as complex wholes: a developmental perspective 10. Architectural language games 11. Tacit knowing in learning to design 12. Metaphor in architectural creativity 13. The essential tension 14. Tradition, innovation and linked solutions Part 3: Regionalism and Globalization 15. Architecture as identity: the essence of architecture 16. Living in a hybrid world: built sources of Malaysian identity 17. Regional transformations 18. Localization versus globalization 19. Towards a global eco-culture 20. Asian urban futures: the view from the East 21. A fragile habitation: coming to terms with the Australian landscape 22. Reimagining the Vertical Garden City Postscript: Notes on a Field Theory of Identity Bibliography Index

Chris Abel is an award-winning author of numerous interdisciplinary publications on the built environment and identity formation and has taught at universities around the world, most recently at the University of Sydney and the University of Ulster, Belfast. He now lives in France, close to Paris. For more, see: www.chrisabel.com