false 5074994 1 <i>"Less is more."</i><br /> —Mies van de Rohe<br /> <br /> <i>"Less is a bore."</i><br /> —Robert Venturi<br /> <br /> <i>"Mess is the law."</i><br /> —Jeremy Till<br /> <br /> Architecture depends—on what? On people, time, politics, ethics, mess: the real world. Architecture, Jeremy Till argues with conviction in this engaging, sometimes pugnacious book, cannot help itself; it is dependent for its very existence on things outside itself. Despite the claims of autonomy, purity, and control that architects like to make about their practice, architecture is buffeted by uncertainty and contingency. Circumstances invariably intervene to upset the architect's best-laid plans—at every stage in the process, from design through construction to occupancy. Architects, however, tend to deny this, fearing contingency and preferring to pursue perfection. With <i>Architecture Depends,</i> architect and critic Jeremy Till offers a proposal for rescuing architects from themselves: a way to bridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it to be. Mixing anecdote, design, social theory, and personal experience, Till's writing is always accessible, moving freely between high and low registers, much like his suggestions for architecture itself.<br /> <br /> The everyday world is a disordered mess, from which architecture has retreated—and this retreat, says Till, is deluded. Architecture must engage with the inescapable reality of the world; in that engagement is the potential for a reformulation of architectural practice. Contingency should be understood as an opportunity rather than a threat. Elvis Costello said that his songs have to work when played through the cheapest transistor radio; for Till, architecture has to work (socially, spatially) by coping with the flux and vagaries of everyday life. Architecture, he proposes, must move from a reliance on the impulsive imagination of the lone genius to a confidence in the collaborative ethical imagination, from clinging to notions of total control to an intentional acceptance of letting go. 5141703 31 3 2009 Architecture Depends total:2|5:1|4:1| 2 9 9 0 0 0 false false Tue Nov 03 19:28:07 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 19:28:07 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 03 17:50:01 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 17:50:01 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jul 28 21:38:55 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 17:52:08 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 17 15:00:09 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 15:00:09 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 07:23:35 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 07:23:52 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Mar 26 11:25:36 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 11:25:36 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Mar 18 10:00:58 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 10:00:58 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Mar 07 12:44:07 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 12:44:13 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jan 13 09:47:36 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 09:47:36 -0800 2009