Context: Architecture and the Genius of Place

The contemporary definition of context in architectural theory and practice has been a focus for debate since the 1980s. Aldo Rossi, Ken Frampton, Colin Rowe, Peter Eisenman and more recent texts address, from different positions, the formal agenda. However, Context will aim to look beyond this aspect to the fundamentals that give a new social and cultural perspective to this very important point of departure for designers. Itwill turn the urban statisticians telescopic focus on global trends inside out to develop an understanding of the cultural and physical conditions that allow us to speak of such archetypes as the Parisian Café, the London High Street, the Baltic City Square or the Mumbai Market. The six chapters evolve from the fundamentals of the ground beneath our feet - Pavements and Threshold chapter (1); to the importance of orientation - Horizon chapter (2); the sequential understanding of urban space - Kinetics chapter (3); the dialogue of parts within a whole - Simultaneity chapter (4); Landscape and The City - Artifice chapter (5) and the uses of the formal and informal - Memory chapter (6).