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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Katie Lloyd Thomas
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At a time of unprecedented levels of change in the production of building materials and their deployment in construction, better theoretical and historical tools are needed to understand these new developments and how they are altering the practices and concepts of architecture. Building Materials offers a radical rethink of how materials, as they are constituted in architectural practice, are themselves constructed and, in turn, uncovers a vast and neglected resource of architectural writing about materials as they are mobilized in architecture.The book is unique in conceiving architectural specification as a starting point for architectural theory, arguing that how materials are prescribed – through a range of practices from the literal processes of procurement and manufacture to epistemological, contractual, social and economic frameworks – radically alters their potential in architecture. Drawing on the work of French philosopher Gilbert Simondon, as well as rare archival materials of specifications, the book reveals why materials do not pre-exist their shaping or use in the world, but come into being through the processes that constitute them.The book addresses three distinct methods of specification each through the lens of a different material – ‘naming’ through timber, ‘process-based’ through concrete, and ‘performance specification through’ glass – in turn revealing how the process of architectural specification (or ‘Preliminary Operations’ as Simondon puts it) allows for development of specific relationships between material and function.
Author(s): Lloyd Thomas K
Publication type: Authored Book
Publication status: Published
Edition: 1
Year: 2021
Number of Volumes: 1
Number of Pages: 204
Print publication date: 13/12/2021
Online publication date: 13/12/2021
Acceptance date: 02/04/2018
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Place Published: London
URL: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350176256
DOI: 10.5040/9781350176256
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 9781350176225