"Gives voice to more than fifty extraordinary people who are currently engaged with this transformation. These individuals form a diverse community that cuts across professional disciplines, cultural, linguistic and gergraphical boundaries. They share a belief that they can make a difference through their varied efforts to expand living architectural approaches that result in biophilic, restorative buildings and healthier and more resilient communities."

A bold and unprecedented look at a cutting-edge movement in architecture Toward a Living Architecture? is the first book-length critique of the emerging field of generative architecture and its nexus with computation, biology, and complexity. Starting from the assertion that we should take generative architects’ rhetoric of biology and sustainability seriously, Christina Cogdell examines their claims from the standpoints of the sciences they draw on—complex systems theory, evolutionary theory, genetics and epigenetics, and synthetic biology. She reveals significant disconnects while also pointing to approaches and projects with significant potential for further development. Arguing that architectural design today often only masquerades as sustainable, Cogdell demonstrates how the language of some cutting-edge practitioners and educators can mislead students and clients into thinking they are getting something biological when they are not. In a narrative that moves from the computational toward the biological and from current practice to visionary futures, Cogdell uses life-cycle analysis as a baseline for parsing the material, energetic, and pollution differences between different digital and biological design and construction approaches. Contrary to green-tech sustainability advocates, she questions whether quartzite-based silicon technologies and their reliance on rare earth metals as currently designed are sustainable for much longer, challenging common projections of a computationally designed and manufactured future. Moreover, in critiquing contemporary architecture and science from a historical vantage point, she reveals the similarities between eugenic design of the 1930s and the aims of some generative architects and engineering synthetic biologists today. Each chapter addresses a current architectural school or program while also exploring a distinct aspect of the corresponding scientific language, theory, or practice. No other book critiques generative architecture by evaluating its scientific rhetoric and disjunction from actual scientific theory and practice. Based on the author’s years of field research in architecture studios and biological labs, this rare, field-building book does no less than definitively, unsparingly explain the role of the natural sciences within contemporary architecture.

Extensively illustrated with photographs and drawings, "Living Architecture" highlights the most exciting green roof and living wall projects in Australia and New Zealand within an international context.

Soft Living Architecture explores the invention of new architectures based on living processes. It crafts a unique intersection between two fast-developing disciplines: biomimicry and biodesign in architecture, and bioinformatics and natural computing in the natural sciences. This is the first book to examine both the theory and methodology of architecture and design working directly with the natural world. It explores a range of approaches from the use of life-like systems in building design to the employment of actual growing and living cell and tissue cultures as architectural materials - creating architecture that can change, learn and grow with us. The use of 'living architecture' is cutting-edge and speculative, yet it is also inspiring a growing number of designers worldwide to adopt alternative perspectives on sustainability and environmental design. The book examines the ethical and theoretical issues arising alongside case-studies of experimental practice, to explore what we mean by 'natural' in the Anthropocene, and raise deep questions about the nature of design and the design of nature. This provocative and at times controversial book shows why it will become ever more necessary to embrace living processes in architecture if we are to thrive in a sustainable future.

Elegantly written and filled with lush, full-color photos, this is the first in-depth portrait of H.H. Richardson, the greatest American architect of the 19th century and a man whose magnetic, colorful personality was equal to his genius. 150 photos, 100 in full color.

It’s widely accepted that our environment is in crisis. Less widely recognized is that three quarters of environmental damage is due to cities – the places where most of us live. As this powerful new book elucidates, global sustainability is therefore directly dependent on urban design. In Living Architecture, Living Cities Christopher Day and Julie Gwilliam move beyond the current emphasis on technological change. They argue that eco-technology allows us to continue broadly as before and only defers the impending disaster. In reality, most negative environmental impacts are due to how we live and the things we buy. Such personal choices often result from dissatisfaction with our surroundings. As perceived environment has a direct effect on attitudes and motivations, improving this can achieve more sustainable lifestyles more effectively than drastic building change – with its notorious performance-gap limitations. As it’s in places that our inner feelings and material reality interact, perceived environment is place-based. Ultimately, however, as the root cause of unsustainability is attitude, real change requires moving from the current focus on buildings and technology to an emphasis on the non-material. Featuring over 400 high quality illustrations, this is essential reading for anyone who believes in the value and power of good design. Christopher Day’s philosophy will continue to inspire students with an interest in sustainable architecture, urban planning and related fields.

This book is intended to fill a knowledge gap in the study of contemporary high-rise living. While there has been much documentation on the engineering and technological aspects of tall buildings, relatively little has been written about the social and livability of high-rise. Much less is written about Asian cities even though Asia is the current hotbed of high-rise development. Even though traditional discourse of high-rise housing is not always positive, new forces are redefining its place in 21st century urbanity. Many cities around the world are reembracing high-rise in urban agenda under current narrative of sustainable development. High-rise is fast becoming a priority area in international research agenda. The quest is for livable and sustainable high-rise development. Against the background of current trends--globalization, urbanization, mixed-use development, and new-built taller buildings in inner city areas in both developed and developing countries, this book examines the software: design, economics, estate management, legal and property rights, physical environment, planning, community development, and social dimensions of high-rise living. Analysis is with the widely acclaimed successful high-rise public housing in Hong Kong and Singapore to understand the advantages and worries of high-rise living, and to distill the key points and lessons in the making of a ‘good’ highrise living environment. Hong Kong and Singapore have been constructing high-rise for more than four decades each. The majority of their population has moved to live in high-rise, selecting to live high-rise, and registering consistently high residential satisfaction. The height of apartment buildings in both cities continues to rise. The tallest is anticipated to be 70-storey. It is the contention of this book that contrary to earlier common negative discourses on public high-rise living, the high-rise environment may yet offer urban residents a satisfying dwelling experience. Leading housing academics, researchers and practitioners in the two cities have contributed to this book. This book presents a timely contribution to our understanding of a widening urban phenomenon that will affect a growing number of the world’s population.

Volume #32 of "The IT Revolution in Architecture", this book dedicated to François Roche and his group, raises questions of great importance for the development of architecture. What role can new material technologies have in a process in which the same materials have incorporated growing shares of active behaviors? For example, will they be self-cleaning, un-polluting, self-changing? To what extent will the various components of the buildings be increasingly "interconnected" and able to simulate processes typical of living systems, such as transpiration, dilation, growth, life, and death? Can we begin to speak of living "systems" in architecture? Antonino Di Raimo, PhD works with issues relating to IT and cognition, ecology, and the body. He serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Polis University, Tirana. Founder and editor of the book series before with Birkhäuser and Testo&Immagine and now with Edilstampa, is Antonino Saggio. www.arc1.Uniroma1.it/Saggio/IT/

Available online via SciVerse ScienceDirect, or in print for a limited time only, The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home, Seven Volume Set is the first international reference work for housing scholars and professionals, that uses studies in economics and finance, psychology, social policy, sociology, anthropology, geography, architecture, law, and other disciplines to create an international portrait of housing in all its facets: from meanings of home at the microscale, to impacts on macro-economy. This comprehensive work is edited by distinguished housing expert Susan J. Smith, together with Marja Elsinga, Ong Seow Eng, Lorna Fox O'Mahony and Susan Wachter, and a multi-disciplinary editorial team of 20 world-class scholars in all. Working at the cutting edge of their subject, liaising with an expert editorial advisory board, and engaging with policy-makers and professionals, the editors have worked for almost five years to secure the quality, reach, relevance and coherence of this work. A broad and inclusive table of contents signals (or tesitifes to) detailed investigation of historical and theoretical material as well as in-depth analysis of current issues. This seven-volume set contains over 500 entries, listed alphabetically, but grouped into seven thematic sections including methods and approaches; economics and finance; environments; home and homelessness; institutions; policy; and welfare and well-being. Housing professionals, both academics and practitioners, will find The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home useful for teaching, discovery, and research needs. International in scope, engaging with trends in every world region The editorial board and contributors are drawn from a wide constituency, collating expertise from academics, policy makers, professionals and practitioners, and from every key center for housing research Every entry stands alone on its merits and is accessed alphabetically, yet each is fully cross-referenced, and attached to one of seven thematic categories whose ‘wholes' far exceed the sum of their parts