Time, History and Architecture: Essays on Critical Historiography (Routledge Research in Architectural History)

Time, History and Architecture presents a series of essays on critical historiography, each addressing a different topic, to elucidate the importance of two influential figures Walter Benjamin and Gottfried Semper for architectural history. In a work exploring themes such as time, autonomy and periodization, author Gevork Hartoonian unpacks the formation of architectural history; the problem of autonomy in criticism and the historiographic narrative. Considering the scope of criticism informing the contemporaneity of architecture, the book explores the concept of nonsimultaneity, and introduces retrospective criticism the agent of critical historiography. An engaging thematic dialogue for academics and upper-level graduate students interested in architectural history and theory, this book aims to deconstruct the certainties of historicism and to raise new questions and interpretations from established critical canons.

Arts & Photography

Hartoonian, Gevork

Architecture

Routledge

Ontology of Construction: On Nihilism of Technology and Theories of Modern Architecture

Ontology of Construction explores theories of construction in modern architecture, focusing on the relationship between nihilism of technology and architecture. The essays articulate the implications of technology in works by such architects as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies Van der Rohe. Hartoonian also examines Gottfried Semper's discourse on the tectonic and the relationship between architecture and other crafts. Emphasizing "fabrication" as a critical theme for contemporary architectural theory and practice, Ontology of Construction is a provocative contribution to the current debate in these areas.

Cambridge University Press

Ontology of Construction explores theories of construction in modern architecture, focusing on the relationship between nihilism of technology and architecture. The essays articulate the implications of technology in works by such architects as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies Van der Rohe. Hartoonian also examines Gottfried Semper's discourse on the tectonic and the relationship between architecture and other crafts. Emphasizing "fabrication" as a critical theme for contemporary architectural theory and practice, Ontology of Construction is a provocative contribution to the current debate in these areas.

The modern/postmodern debate has been fueled by the appearance of a new world order. And, in the aftermath of sociopolitical events such as the May 1968 student uprising in France, the antiwar movement in the United States, and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a new set of cultural thematics has emerged. Gevork Hartoonian explores how major postfunctionalist architecture has addressed themes in postmodern culture, and in so doing argues that it is an architecture that should be viewed as historical--the gestalt of social/cultural phenomena--and not merely the product of various stylistic choices. In presenting a critical position that favors the tectonic over the aesthetic in treating the development of postmodern architecture, Hartoonian undermines the dominant "isms" in architectural discourse. Modernity and its Other provides cogent review and analysis of the historicity of post-functionalism; the project of the historical avant-garde to overturn tradition--even that of modernity itself; the historical technological shift of culture toward commodity; and the historical deconstruction of modernist logocentrism. Hartoonian discusses post-functionalist architecture in the context of American postwar culture and its three tendencies: postmodernism, neo-rationalism, and deconstruction architecture. He reexamines the failure of the historical avant-garde and argues that the movement of technology from the technical into the cultural has opened new paths for discussion of postmodern architecture. Also included is a review of the thematics of the culture of building and an assessment of the relationship between architecture and the city. Hartoonian's study of the modern language of architecture is offered in the context of Mies van der Rohe's body of work, as well as that of LeCorbusier and the Dom-ino concept. Also examined is the alternative to postmodernism as exhibited by the work of Tadao Ando, Louis Kahn, and Kenneth Frampton. Throughout, Hartoonian employees a wide range of philosophers and critics from various disciplines in offering this well illustrated account of architectural thought from the nineteenth century to the present.

Modernity and Its Other: A Post-script to Contemporary Architecture (Volume 3) (Studies in Architecture and Culture)

Texas A&M University Press

Mies Contra Le Corbusier

New York : Routledge

Visibility Of Modernization In Architecture

Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2023

Pursuing historical analogies between nineteenth-century theories and the current practices captivated by digital reproducibility, this book offers a critical take on architecture's contemporaneity through four essays: tectonics, materiality, cladding, and labor.Fundamental to this proposition is the historicity of Gottfried Semper's theorization of architecture amidst the outpouring of new materials and construction techniques during the 1850s. Starting with Semper's differentiation between theatricalization and the tectonic of theatricality, this book examines thematic essential to architecture's self-representation. Even though the title of this book recalls the Semperian Four Elements of Architecture, its argument encapsulates a unique historico-theoretical project probing the tectonic of theatricality beyond Semper. The invisible tie between technique and labor is the cord running through the four subjects covered in this book. In exploring these subjects from the theoretical standpoint of Marxian dialectics, this book's contribution is focused on, but not limited to, the topicality of labor today when its relationship with capital has been further obscured by the prevailing digitalization of commodity exchange value, starting roughly in the 1990s. Each essay examines Semper's theorization of architecture in contradistinction to the ways in which technology's mediation has dominated architecture's representation.Burrowing through the invisible tie between technique and work, asymptomatic of architecture's predicament in global capitalism, Towards a Critique of Architecture's Contemporaneity advances the scope of architectural criticism beyond the exhausted formalism and architecture's turn to philosophy circa the 1980s and the present tendencies for presentism. It will therefore be of interest to researchers and students of architectural history and theory.

Towards a Critique of Architecture’s Contemporaneity

History & Criticism

In Mies Contra Le Corbusier, Gevork Hartoonian embarks on a captivating exploration of the architectural ideologies embodied in the works of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. Focusing on the non-synchronicity inherent in their approaches to the tectonics of the column and wall, Hartoonian conducts a comparative analysis of carefully selected diachronic projects from each architect. This insightful journey unravels the architects' ideological stances within the ongoing dialogue between modernity and tradition. Hartoonian sheds light on the inclination of Mies and Le Corbusier towards a frameless architecture, a characteristic prominently displayed in their late works. Drawing inspiration from Marxian philosophy, the author contends that significant technological developments play a crucial role in shaping subjectivities across the cultural spectrum, creating an uneven dissemination. The frame, in Hartoonian's lens, transcends the boundaries of a single building, becoming a lens through which to frame a nuanced understanding of the urban landscape and tectonics. Mies Contra Le Corbusier stands as a thought-provoking exploration that not only unveils the intricacies of architectural history but also offers profound insights into the cultural and technological forces shaping the built environment. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of architectural history and theory. Additionally, it offers a timely discussion of Mies and Le Corbusier's contributions to architecture's contemporaneity for the younger generation of architects.

Mies Contra Le Corbusier: The Frame Inevitable (Routledge Research in Architecture)

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

A Crisis of the Object

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Books by Hartoonian, Gevork

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hartoonian, Gevork. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Time, History and Architecture: Essays on Critical Historiography (Routledge Research in Architectural History)

Ontology of Construction: On Nihilism of Technology and Theories of Modern Architecture

Ontology of Construction: On Nihilism of Technology and Theories of Modern Architecture

Modernity and Its Other: A Post-script to Contemporary Architecture (Volume 3) (Studies in Architecture and Culture)

Mies Contra Le Corbusier

Visibility Of Modernization In Architecture

Towards a Critique of Architecture’s Contemporaneity

Mies Contra Le Corbusier: The Frame Inevitable (Routledge Research in Architecture)

A Crisis of the Object

A Crisis of the Object