Dirty theory follows the dirt of material and conceptual relations from the midst of complex milieus. It messes with mixed disciplines, showing up in ethnography, in geography, in philosophy, and discovering a suitable habitat in architecture, design and the creative arts. Dirty theory disrupts a comfortable status quo, includ- ing our everyday modes of inhabitation and our habits of thinking. This small book argues that we must work with the dirt to develop an ethics of care and mainte- nance...
Koolhaas pronounced urbanism dead in 1995. Since then, urban design has struggled to come to terms with this and other losses including environmental stability, af- fordable housing, design control, and urban amenity. This book explores urban design paradigms transitioning through a misappropriation of Kübler-Ross' «five stages of grief» – from pro-sprawl 'denial', NIMBY 'anger', revisionistNewUrban'bargaining','depressed'starchitects, through to an...
This book offers a vision of the London Underground written in the form of a ficto-historical narrative, which combines history and fiction in the creation of a set of theoretical propositions for London's subterranean transportation network. Its amateur-scholar protagonist takes the reader on a labyrinthine journey into the world of research, with sources personified and their works appropriated and subverted. The book offers a model for practising writing and research in the context of...
Diagrams: Tropes, Tools and Abstract Machines examines the pervasive roles of diagrams as analytical, generative, narrative and critical devices manifest in design practices by architects and non-architects that draw on thick cultural milieus and that operate at personal, architectural and urban scales. What are potentials of diagrams beyond representation, as situated cultural practices, corporeal engagement and choreographic script, as instruments of speculation and invention, as manifestation...
