Books
PLACING ARCHITECTURE , O'NEILL,PATTI WOODS,LEBBEUS , 2008
Placing Architecture is a Biography of a journey exploring landscapes in Germany, USA and Ireland, while developing an artistic Method of Architecture which ensures a sense of place and secures sustainable solutions. The results, Environmental Projects connecting us to our natural surroundings and carrying through the crucial message of Environmental Awareness. The colourful pages in this book invite you on a six-year journey of exploration, investigation and study. Described is a method of architecture employing a strong artistically and intuitively-lead approach that brings the art in architecture to the foreground. It concludes with the placing of architecture in natural landscapes around the world. It is questionable if the results can still be classified as architecture as opposed to landscape installations or art works, yet they are spaces and enclosures. Their functions depart from the conventional path, and bring back into focus a depth to life which is often out of reach. The buildings in this book evoke meditations on Change, Time and the Cycle of Life and Death.
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SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE , DESIGN PROPOSALS FROM ARCHITECTURAL PSYCHOLOGY , WALDEN, ROTRAUT, 2008
Architecture and its relationship to its users have a significant influence on life and activities within the built environment. This poses a particular challenge with regard to public buildings such as schools, which have to accommodate the needs of many different people in order to provide them with the best possible environment to support their performance. The give-and-take relationship between architecture and its users (students, teachers, parents, and the community at large) is emphasized from the point of view of architectural psychology and emerging considerations such as information technology.The 'schools for the future' vision is to create spaces that people are pleased to return to, time and again, and that allow options for future modification in line with changing user requirements.
Criteria for the assessment of schools are derived from a dual approach. The first is the call for a common language to be used by designers and educators, exemplified by a number of patterns that have been found to be salient in school design. Their common underlying premise is that learning environments should be learner-centered, appropriate to age and developmental stage, safe, comfortable, accessible, flexible, and equitable, in addition to being cost effective.The second approach presents instruments for the systematic assessment of school buildings according to facet theory, a tool that helps to structure the large number of possible influences and subjective indicators such as learning performance, expressions of well-being, and social behavior.
Based on descriptions of 23 innovative schools in eleven countries on five continents, a system is developed that enables judgment of school quality. It applies the criteria of functional, aesthetic, social-physical, ecological, organizational, and economical aspects to various parts of the overall school complex: Exterior, school building proper, entrance, classrooms, specialty rooms, interior and corridors, court-yards/open spaces and special areas. This book provides an essential resource for educators, architects, and policy makers involved in the planning and running of educational facilities.
EDUCATION AND CONTEXTUALISM, ARCHITECTS DESIGN PARTNERSHIP , FITZGERALD,ROGER, 2007
Education and Contextualism" focuses on Architects Design Partnership's work for schools, universities and colleges. The book begins by placing the founding of the practice against the cultural backdrop of Britain in the 1960s, with the death of Winston Churchill, the emergence of The Beatles, and the foundation of many 'redbrick' universities. The reader is then taken on a journey through ADP's development, taking in their major educational projects, which encompass a wide variety of purposes - auditoria; halls of residence and boarding houses; support and leisure services; education spaces for specialist subjects such as Art, Technology, Sport, Medicine; and Information Technology and E-learning. The book follows ADP's work both for new projects, such as the University of Birmingham and Oxford Science Park, and their extensions and additions to historic and listed buildings, such as the Palace of Westminster, Oxford Castle and Highgate School. In doing so, ADP's concern with building materials, budget, regeneration, landscaping, and environmental context is fully explored. "Education and Contextualism" reflects ADP's unique approach to architecture and is a worthy celebration of the practice's 40th anniversary.
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