A sharp and lively text that covers issues in depth but not to the point that they become inaccessible to beginning students, An Introduction to Architectural Theory is the first narrative history of this period, charting the veritable revolution in architectural thinking that has taken place, as well as the implications of this intellectual upheaval. The first comprehensive and critical history of architectural theory over the last fifty years surveys the intellectual history of architecture since 1968, including criticisms of high modernism, the rise of postmodern and poststructural theory, critical regionalism and tectonics Offers a comprehensive overview of the significant changes that architectural thinking has undergone in the past fifteen years Includes an analysis of where architecture stands and where it will likely move in the coming years

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations viii Prelude: The 1960s 1 Technology and Ecology 3 Social Underpinnings of Modernism 6 1968 11 Part One: 1970s 15 1 Pars Destruens: 1968–1973 17 Venturi and Scott Brown 18 Rossi and Tafuri 23 The Milan Triennale 27 The IAUS and the New York Five 30 2 The Crisis of Meaning 37 Semiotics and Architecture 39 Five on Five 43 Gray and White 45 Variations on a Theme 48 3 Early Postmodernism 53 The Language of Postmodernism 54 Consummation in Venice 57 European Counterpoints 59 4 Modernism Abides 65 The Chicago High-Rise 65 German Engineering 70 British Renaissance 74 Post-Metabolism in Japan 79 The Special Case of Alexander 85 Part Two: 1980s 89 5 Postmodernism and Critical Regionalism 91 Postmodernism Further Defined 91 Postmodernism Opposed 94 Critical Regionalism and Phenomenology 97 Mérida and Venice 102 6 Traditionalism and New Urbanism 108 The Prince of Architecture 108 The Paternoster Controversy 111 Toward a New Urbanism 115 7 Gilded Age of Theory 123 Poststructural Theory 123 Poststructural Architecture 129 Eisenman and Tschumi 131 8 Deconstruction 141 Postmodernism Undefined 142 Gehry 146 The 68ers Come of Age 149 “… a devious architecture …” 154 Part Three: 1990s and Present 159 9 Wake of the Storm 161 Fragments of Fragments 161 From Derrida to Deleuze 164 Geometry and Autonomy 167 The End of the Figure: Manipulated Grounds 171 Form without Rhetoric 174 10 Pragmatism and Post-Criticality 177 OMA 177 The Orange Revolution 185 Post-Criticality 192 11 Minimalisms 194 Materiality and Effects 195 Neo-modernism 205 Phenomenological Architecture 210 12 Sustainability and Beyond 215 The Green Movement 217 McDonough and Yeang 218 Green Urbanism 223 Biophilic Design 226 Neuroaesthetics 229 Notes 231 Acknowledgments 265 Index 266