Pier Vittorio Aureli

On Architecture and Asceticism

Less Is Enough

"What at first glance appears to be a book of architectural history is in fact a radical attack on theory, sweeping away the foundations of current thought in its wake. Aureli's work stands against the forces of an unlimited urbanization, proposing an idea of absolute architecture as a confrontation with the forces of global capital. A must read for those passionate about architecture and its future." Peter Eisenman.

The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture

"The Project of Autonomy radically rediscusses the concept of autonomy in politics and architecture by tracing a concise and polemical argument about its history in Italy in the 1960's and early 1970's. Architect and educator Pier Vittorio Aureli analyzes the position of the Operaism movement, formed by a group of intellectuals that produced a powerful and rigorous critique of capitalism and its intersections with two of the most radical architectural-urban theories of the day: Aldo Rossi's redefinition of the architecture of the city and Archizoom's No-stop City. Readers are introduced to major figures like Mario Tronti and Raniero Panzieri who have previously been little known in the English-speaking world, especially in an architectural context, and to the political motivations behind the theories of Rossi and Archizoom. The book draws on significant new source material, including recent interviews by the author and untranslated documents."--PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE.

Politics and Architecture Within and Against Capitalism

The Project of Autonomy

A landmark study of abstraction in architectural history, theory, and practice that challenges our assumptions about the meaning of abstract forms. In this theoretical study of abstraction in architecture—the first of its kind—Pier Vittorio Aureli argues for a reconsideration of abstraction, its meanings, and its sources. Although architects have typically interpreted abstraction in formal terms—the purposeful reduction of the complexities of design to its essentials—Aureli shows that abstraction instead arises from the material conditions of building production. In a lively study informed by Walter Benjamin, Karl Marx, Alfred Sohn-Rethel, and other social theorists, this book presents abstraction in architecture not as an aesthetic tendency but as a movement that arises from modern divisions of labor and consequent social asymmetries. These divisions were anticipated by the architecture of antiquity, which established a distinction between manual and intellectual labor, and placed the former in service to the latter. Further abstractions arose as geometry, used for measuring territories, became the intermediary between land and money and eventually produced the logic of the grid. In our own time, architectural abstraction serves the logic of capitalism and embraces the premise that all things can be exchanged—even experience itself is a commodity. To resist this turn, Aureli seeks a critique of architecture that begins not by scaling philosophical heights, but by standing at the ground level of material practice.

Architecture and Abstraction

Az Yeterlidir

The city is often depicted as a sort of self-organizing chaos. This collection of essays, edited by Pier Vittorio Aureli, makes the case for the opposite hypothesis: The city is always the result of political intention, often in the form of specific architectural projects. Cities are shaped not only by material forces, but also by cultural and didactic visions. This thesis is substantiated by eight thoroughly researched essays scrutinizing a fascinating line-up of urban conditions across more than two thousands years of history: from the political theology of the Islamic city to the political economy of Renaissance architecture; from the rise of public architecture in 17th-century France to the laissez-faire development of the contemporary Greek city; from the exemplary teachings of Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand to the collaborative work of Hannes Meyer; and from the plan of the Mesoamerican metropolis to that of the Fordist factory floor. In challenging the split between theory and practice, The City as a Project reveals the powerful ways in which the city arises from the constant interaction between ideas and spatial conditions.

The City as a Project

Jolanda Devalle

Theodora Giovanazzi

Marson Korbi

Manfredo Tafuri was one of the most important historians of architecture in the 20th century, and his work continues to influence the landscape of architectural history and theory. This anthology offers —for the first time —a curated selection of his essays and interviews covering the entirety of his career from 1964, the year in which Tafuri decided to focus exclusively on architectural history, to 1994, the year of his untimely death. Essays and interviews —most of which not previously available in English and translated for this anthology – demonstrate the unprecedented breadth of Tafuri’s interests, which include topics as diverse as the critique of architectural ideology and capitalist development, the contradictions of the Soviet avant garde, the urban strategies in Renaissance Italy, and the politics of Social democratic planning. With essays devoted to the work of the architects Giulio Romano, Andrea Palladio, Francesco Borromini, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Aldo Rossi and Carlo Scarpa. Complemented by a biographical essay by Tafuri’s wife, Letizia Rapisarda Accompanied by more than 700 images

Selected Essays and Interviews by Manfredo Tafuri 1964–1994

Order and Disorder

Maria Shéhérazade Giudici

"The idea of sacred space has not been considered a relevant topic in recent architecture, a neglect even more pronounced in terms of debates about the city.The texts and projects in this book aim to redress this oversight, and re-open a contemporary understanding of its relevance. The book itself is the result of a year-long investigation developed in the AA's Diploma Unit 14. It consists of design proposals that range from a mult-ifaith school in Strasbourg to the reconstruction of a festival hall in the city of Xian, China; from a Jesuit monastery in Detroit to a women's Islamic centre in Paris. The book is complemented by essays by Pier Vittorio Aureli, Maria Shéhérazade Giudici and Hamed Khosravi." -- Provided by publisher.

The Architecture of Sacred Space

Rituals and Walls

Presents a visual essay on Rome's roads, infrastructure, and landscape.

A Berlage Institue Project

Rome the Centre(s) Elsewhere

Berlage Instituut

"Brussels - a manifesto : towards the capital of Europe is based on the results of the second year advanced research studio 'Brussels Capital of Europe', organized at the Berlage Institute from September 2004 to July 2005, and coordinated by Pier Vittorio Aureli. Parallel to this publication, and in the framework of the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome (the official start of the European project), the exhibition and the international symposium 'A vision for Brussels: imagining the capital of Europe' will be held in the Center for Fine Arts in Brussels, from 16 March to 20 May 2007. The publication, exhibition and symposium are an initiative of the Berlage Institute and are conceived and executed together with NAi Publishers, the Information Centre for Architecture, Town Planning and Design (Brussels) and the Centre for Fine Arts (Bozar, Brussels)."--Publisher.

Towards the Capital of Europe

Brussels, a Manifesto

Richard Anderson

Ludwig Hilberseimer

In the 1920s, the urban theory of Ludwig Hilberseimer (1885-1967) redefined architecture's relationship to the city. His proposal for a high-rise city, where leisure, labor, and circulation would be vertically integrated, both frightened his contemporaries and offered a trenchant critique of the dynamics of the capitalist metropolis. Hilberseimer'sGroßstadtarchitektur is presented here for the first time in English translation. The propositions assembled here encourage us to reconsider mobility, concentration and the scale of architectural intervention in our own era of urban expansion. This is the second title in the GSAPP Sourcebooks series.

Metropolisarchitecture and Selected Essays

André Kempe

Fulfilling the contemporary demand for versatile, neutral design while still retaining a recognizable identity in their work, the German architecture firm Atelier Kempe Thill has since 2000 created buildings that recall the legacy of European architecture in a powerful, natural and innovative way. This publication gives an overview of their accomplishments of the past 12 years.

Pier Vittorio Aureli

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