Output details

The Humanities in Architectural Design: A Contemporary and Historical Perspective

This research output consists of two related publications: a book which I co-edited (The Humanities in Architectural Design: A Contemporary and Historical Perspective) and a Prologue (‘Cultivating Architecture’) in an edited volume entitled The Cultural Role of Architecture: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives. Both books are intended to be read as companion volumes, as highlighted in the Preface to Cultivating Architecture. The first publication is based on selected papers from an international conference I organised at Lincoln University, which examined current thinking about the contributions of the humanities to architectural ideas, from both a contemporary and historical perspective. The editors of the volume provide a detailed Introduction to the philosophical and historical backgrounds of architectural humanities, variously supporting or challenging the idea of architecture as a humanistic discipline. Additional secondary introductions have also been included in the volume, at the beginning of each section; I wrote the Introduction to Part Three (Measures of Awareness). The second publication is based on a keynote paper I presented at an international conference at Lincoln University, which examined the role that architecture plays in the understanding of culture. Extending discussions from the earlier Humanities in Architectural Design, the Prologue attempts to establish the idea of architecture as ‘cultural work’, or more specifically as an agent of cultural renewal that draws upon a deep humanistic tradition. The study refers to classical literary sources and etymological meanings of cultura and aedificatio, in order to demonstrate that the ‘cultivation’ of architecture, as an intellectual and creative pursuit, enriches and sustains culture in general. The Prologue attempts to set the context of the historical relationships between architecture and culture and how this can provide a critical point of reference for challenging contemporary debates.