The architecture of the jumping universe : a polemic: how complexity science is changing architecture and culture

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

The architecture of the jumping universe : a polemic: how complexity science is changing architecture and culture

Charles Jencks

Academy Edition , Distributed to the trade in the United States of America by National Book Network, Inc., 1997

Rev. ed

Available at  / 12 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Notes: p. 186-189

Previous ed.: 1995

Academy editions is a division of John Wiley & Sons

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780471977483

Description

Charles Jencks has the uncanny capacity to announce a new movement in architecture before it has begun. With Post-Modernism, he was looking to the past. Now, for the first time, with his new book on morphogenesis he is taking a look at the future. There is no question that his argument will have an important critical effect on architecture at the beginning of the new millennium. Peter Eisenman. Architect A new paradigm is sweeping through science, changing both our view of the universe and of mankind. Charles Jencks is one of a handful of thinkers with the courage to embrace the emerging paradigm and interpret it architecturally. This inspired synthesis of art, design, science and philosophy charts a bold new course not only for architecture, but for Post-Modern thought. Paul Davies, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Adelaide, author of The Cosmic Blueprint, Superforce, The Mind of God and other books on contemporary science. Who else could have written a book that opens up such cosmic perspectives and still make such neat, sharply focused comments on particular architects and particular styles of architecture? Who else could range with such zest, ease and elegance from Chaos to Bruce Goff, from Coleridge to Frank Gehry, from Complexity Theory to Green Buildings? The old question of in which style should we build can never be addressed in the same way again. Charles Jencks has brought purpose back into architecture. His teleology may transcend what architects are used to, but Jencks manages to make far more sense out of our contemporary architectural dilemmas than practically all the other books in the RIBA book shop. Francis Duffy, Chairman of DEGW International Ltd

Table of Contents

SIMPLICITY AND COMPLEXITY. Fiasco in Berlin. Shared Language and Cosmic Values. Complexity in Architecture and Urbanism. Complexity Science: The Heart of Post-Modernism. Demonizing Modernism. How Much Complexity? - A Cosmic Axiology. The Ideal Poet. IN WHICH LANGUAGE SHALL WE BUILD? Self-Similarity (Fractals) and Strange Attractors. Nonlinearity. An Architecture of Waves and Twists. Folding - Catastrophe and Continuity. Sudden Emergence - Phase Transitions. Organizational Depth. Superposition - Can One Build-in Time? Edge of Chaos and Purpose in the Universe. Ecological Challenge and Species Extinction. Green Architecture. Gaia - Is She Teleological? High-Tech Slides to Organi-Tech. COSMOGENIC ARCHITECTURE. The Surprising Universe and Cosmic Architecture. Cosmogenic Architecture. Another Aesthetic. The Spiritual in Architecture: Creativity in Action Cosmogenesis in Content. Recapturing the Bauhaus Spirit: Yalp. The Return to a Different Nature. Criteria for Architecture. POSTSCRIPT: Architecture Becomes Land-Form. Notes. Index.
Volume

ISBN 9781854904867

Description

In a revised and updated version of his besteller, Charles Jencks brings readers up to date on the progress of many of the projects discussed. He also includes a number of new projects by some of today's most prominent architects. Over time, and based on many discussions with others, Jencks has formed a new conclusion of how Chaos Theory and Complexity Science are affecting architecture and the environment. Illustrated.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

Page Top