1st Edition

Capsules: Typology of Other Architecture

By Peter Šenk Copyright 2017
212 Pages 84 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

212 Pages 84 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

212 Pages 84 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book investigates the architectural, product design, and urban typology of the capsule which, beginning in the 1960s, broadened the concept of the basic building blocks of architecture to include a minimal living unit, called the "capsule." Here it is presented with regard to the continuity of the development of the Modern Movement, its revisionist criticism, pioneering examples, as... Read more

1. Frame(work). 2. Development:  Pioneers and Contemporaries.  Subsistence Minimum (Existenzminimum).  CIAM and the New Generation.  From Buckminster Fuller to Counterculture 1960.  British Techno-Utopia and Experiments for the Immediate Future.  Japanese Metabolism and the Philosophy of Change.  3. Catalog: Typology and Its Manifestation.  Autonomous Cells.  Connective Cells.  4. Medium: Typology and Image.  Envelope: Protection and Representation (Exterior).  Envelope: Comfort Equipment and Feedback Simulation (Interior).  Prefabricated Integrity (Structure, Function, Representation).  Temporariness (Time and Space).  Mobility (Movement).  5. Coda: In Pursuit of Other Architecture.  Select Bibliography.  Index.

Biography

Peter Šenk is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Spatial Planning at the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture at the University of Maribor, Slovenia. He is a researcher and writer in the field of architecture, urban planning, and visual culture, an architect (co-founder of Studio Stratum), and a curator (at the House of Architecture, Maribor).

"Rereading the history of 20th century architecture through the lens of the capsule, Peter Šenk reassesses a line of technotopianism in modernism. His ‘genealogy of the capsule‘, from functionalism over Buckminster Fuller, team X, metabolism, Archigram and the hippie scene, is a refreshing rediscovery of architectural dreams in the Space and Machine Age." - Lieven De Cauter, Author of a.o. The Capsular Civilization.

"A capsule in architecture. This "monad" of human inhabitation, driven by industrialization and rapid growth of population, was one of the most typical phenomenon of the last century. Now, the architects’ enthusiasm seems to be lulled. However, our planet is still growing. The issue is more related to philosophy than to design fashion. Peter Šenk's well-informed and well-thought-out book will provide the guideline for the next stage of monadist world still in the population explosion." - Hajime Yatsuka, Architect and Critic, Organizer of the "METABOLISM THE CITY OF THE FUTURE" Exhibition (2011 Tokyo, 2013 Taipei).