In light of the increasing globalisation of architecture and the effect which the recent pandemic has had upon the discipline, remote practice has become a timely and relevant topic of architectural discourse.
This book brings together leading architectural thinkers, including Joan Ockman, Paul Emmons, Naomi Stead, Philip Ursprung and Jane Rendell to discuss how architecture is created and discussed at a distance.
As advancements in transportation and technology continue to close the gap between architect, client, builder and site, critique and place, this book considers how architects, designers, theorists, and critics design, describe and critique future and past constructions in absentia. This book engages with remote practice, providing students, academics and professionals with the understanding and tools they need to rethink the role of the distant and disconnected in making, thinking and writing architecture — a skill which is becoming increasingly important in contemporary education and practice.
Bringing together a collection of 16 essays and creative works from a diverse and respected group of scholars and designers, this book reflects upon the challenges and opportunities which remote practices occasion in architecture. Part One: Practice and Pedagogy investigates how a range of technological and economic advancements continue to redefine notions of connectedness in the practice of architecture at a distance and explores what it means to teach and study architecture at a distance from peer and place. Part Two: Critique and Performativity consists of a wide range of questions that unpack notions about situatedness, subjectivity, the body in space, and what occurs when disparate things are suddenly made proximate. The essays and creative works enable thematic as well as historically and culturally contextual understanding of the topic, highlighting important connections and changes across time.
Table of Contents
In Praise of the Remote, M. Mindrup
Part One: Practice and Pedagogy
Introduction
Toward a Political Ecology of Architecture, J. Ockman
Origins of Remote and Global Architectural Practices, P. Emmons
On the Remoteness of CAD’s Gesture, J. Crow
Extreme Interiority, N. Cridge
Learning from Distance, L. Landrum
Epistolary Architecture, Despland-Lichtert & Sullivan Shea
‘Professionalism’ and Care in a Pandemic Year, N. Stead
Fresh Eyes, M. Mindrup & J. LaCoe
Part Two: Critique and Performativity
Introduction
Seven Studies for ‘A Holding’, J. Rendell
Critical Proximities, C. Smith
The Making of Informated Space, I. Sotiriou
An Emotional Critique of Remote Practices, P. Ursprung
Drawing IN, B. Mitchell
A Digital Table to Eat Together, G. Aquije Zegarra
The Making of Blind Spot, Film Place Collective
Amidst: Afterimage, Affect, Architecture, L. Chee
Conclusion
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