Author Description

There Is Widespread Disagreement About What Quality In Architecture Is, And How It Can Be Measured And Achieved. Formerly Grounded In Values Of Craftsmanship - In The Skilled Making Of Things - 'quality' Is Now Associated With The Management Of Administrative Or Technical Processes. Whereas Its Appreciation Was Once Based In The Exercise Of Individual Judgement And Taste, Increasingly It Is Founded On Supposedly Objective Systems Of Evaluation. Practitioners Of Design Are Under Pressure To Quantify Quality, But It Is Questionable Whether It Is Possible Or Even Desirable To Do So. This Important And Highly Topical Issue Lies At The Heart Of This Book. It Considers How, In Architectural And Cultural Practices, 'quality' Is Defined, Evaluated, Managed And Constructed. It Is Organised Around Issues Of Appreciation, Production, Belief And Measure. With Contributions From Leading Architects And Architectural Critics, This Book Is Of Great Interest To Architects, Clients, Architectural Academics And Students, And Anyone Interested In What Architectural Quality Is, And How It May Be Achieved.--jacket. 1. Landscapes Of Experience / Adam Caruso, Adam Sharr And Allison Dutoit -- 2. 'even Pavements In Verona Are Marble': John Ruskin, Adrian Stokes And The Stones Of Verona / Stephen Kite -- 3. Taste / Flora Samuel -- 4. Designing In Quality / Juliet Odgers And Flora Samuel -- 5. Assessing Design Quality In Architectural Education / Helena Webster -- 6. Leslie Martin And The Science Of Architectural Form / Adam Sharr -- 7. Ugly Little Angels Revisited / Matthew A. Cohen -- 8. Passion And Control: Lewerentz And A Mortar Joint / Mhairi Mcvicar -- 9. Necessary Qualifications: Design Before, During And After Construction / David Leatherbarrow -- 10. Simplicity And Belief / Marc Treib -- 11. 'stirling's Worth': The Quality Of The Florey Building, Oxford / Igea Troiani -- 12. Water And The Historicity Of Perception: The New Royal Baths At Bath / Juliet Odgers -- 13. Qualia Of Architecture: On Sullivan, Szarkowski, Autobiographies And Ideas / Hugh Campbell -- 14. Architect's Signature As A Sign Of Quality / Paul Emmons -- 15. Quality Beyond Measure: Architecture In The Lacanian Account Of Culture / Catherine Belsey -- Afterword. Utter Qualia: Three Probe/poems / Theodore Landrum. Edited By Allison Dutoit, Juliet Odgers And Adam Sharr. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.