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Ornament: The Politics of Architecture and Subjectivity

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ISBN: 978-1-118-58824-6

May 2014

176 pages

Description

Over the last decade or so, the widespread adoption of digital techniques have greatly expanded the possibilities of applying ornament in design. As well as looking at the c topic of ornament, the book reflects on what is currently happening in the light of current theoretical and historical research. The author is a theorist and historian who also has a deep knowledge of the effects that digital culture has on architecture – his most recent book deals with this set of issues. A historical perspective is often necessary to understand the potential for change of the present. He asks whether we may be on the verge of a radical redefinition of the relation between architecture and politics based on the emergence of a new relation between subjectivity and ornament.

About the Author

Antoine Picon is the G Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology and Co-Director of Doctoral Programs at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). He is also Director of Research at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris. He has published numerous books and articles mostly dealing with the complementary histories of architecture, science and technology, among which are: French Architects and Engineers in the Age of Enlightenment (Cambridge University Press, 1992 and 2009), Claude Perrault (1613–1688) ou la curiosité d’un classique (Picard, 1988), L’Invention de l’Ingénieur Moderne, L’Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées 1747–1851 (Presses de l’Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, 1992), La Ville Territoire des Cyborgs (L’Imprimeur, 1998), Les Saint-Simoniens: Raison, Imaginaire, et Utopie (Belin, 2002), and Digital Culture in Architecture: An Introduction for the Design Professions (Birkhäuser, 2010).