The function of ornament
By: edited [and with an introduction] by Farshid Moussavi and Michael Kubo.
Contributors: Moussavi, Farshid.; Kubo, Michael.
Publisher: Actar
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Barcelona; Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
Language: eng
Number of pages: 189
ISBN-13: 9788496540507
Subjects: Decoration and ornament, Architectural; Architectural design; Architecture, Modern -- Details; Building -- Details; Curtain walls
Description: "Architecture needs mechanisms that allow it to become connected to culture. It achieves this by continually capturing the forces that shape society as material to work with. Architecture's materiality is therefore a composite one, made up of visible forces (structural, functional, physical) as well as invisible forces (cultural, political, temporal). Architecture progresses through new concepts that connect with these forces, manifesting itself in new aesthetic compositions and affects. Ornament is the by-product of this process, through which architectural material is organized to transmit unique affects." "This book is a graphic guide to ornaments in the twentieth century. It unveils the function of ornament as the agent for specific affects, dismantling the idea that ornament is applied to buildings as a discrete or non-essential entity. Each case operates through greater or lesser depth to exploit specific synergies between the exterior and the interior, constructing an internal order between ornament and material. These internal orders produce expressions that are contemporary, yet whose affects are resilient in time."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: "The drawings of in this book are entirely the work and interpretation of students at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design."--colophon.

Includes bibliographical references.