Contemporary Techniques in Architecture

Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous and important, but points off for theoryspeak
Review: What I really appreciate about Rahim's volume is the nuts-and-bolts (or NURBS-and-splines) seriousness with which it approaches the real-world challenges of digital architecture. This means that it gives as much attention to the optimal design of some frankly squamous-lookin' load-bearing and stress-distributing structures as it does to the (largely post-Deleuzian) theory underlying this work.

Up until now, most of the reference materials commonly available on the topic have contented themselves with providing pretty pictures of next-generation architectural blobjects - all skin and no interior - so I'm grateful that someone is finally wrestling with (some of) the practicalities. (And if you just have to talk High Theory, there's no better guide than the brilliant, insightful, and reasonably accessible Manuel deLanda.)

I just wish Rahim could have done it without resorting to (or permitting the other authors in this volume to indulge in) the usual jargon-choked theoryspeak. I mean, come on: "dynamic structuration of mobile relations"? This material is sufficiently important that there shouldn't be any need to pump it up with jargon to make it impressive.

Worth buying, worth working with, but not for the faint of heart. (And damn, are some of these things pretty.)