Akademisk avhandling--Gothenburg. / "Förkortningar" (bibliography): p. [v]-viii.

Inaug.-diss.-Leipzig. / Vita.

Programm--Königliche Studienanstalt, Bemberg. / Lettered: Vitruvius I.

Vitruvius dedicated his, the only work on architecture to have survived from classical antiquity, to Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, and claimed repeatedly that he was "writing the body of architecture (corpus architecturae)." A detailed examination of meaning of this claim, read in the specific imperial context that brought De architectura to light in ca. 25 B.C., is the principal focus of this study, which has been undertaken less as an effort to come to positive terms with the relevance (or irrelevance) of Vitruvius' normative prescriptions for Roman building practice than in the attempt to try to understand what he was trying to say about architecture and why. / The exegesis is developed in four parts. The first deals with the corporeal identity of the book itself: a ten-scroll "angelic" messenger, whose written form proves to be as significant an index of its meaning as its content. The second part assesses Vitruvius' presentation of his treatise to Augustus in the preface to Book 2 of his treatise as the emperor's Herculean body: at once the agent and proof of Roman conquest and, like Hercules, the philanthropic purveyor of the benefits of civilisation to conquered peoples. The third unravels what Vitruvius meant when he said that buildings, temples especially, were to be put together in the same way that nature puts together the bodies of beautiful men. The fourth part concludes that the beautiful body, in question is the body of the king: that of the emperor himself, whose body---corpus imperii---was, at that historical juncture, imagined as congruent with the body of the Roman world. For Vitruvius, through architecture---as architecture---this kingly body was to be the chief agent of the empire's enduring coherence. / That the project of Roman world dominion so consistently shaped this first self-conscious attempt to give a comprehensive account of architecture raises troubling questions about the discipline itself. It is in raising such questions that Vitruvius' De architectura acquires more than antiquarian interest.

No description available.

De architectura libri decim, the oldest extant treatise on Architecture in the Greco-Latin tradition, has historically constituted the archetype of architectural discourse, if its specific content would now seem largely irrelevant. And yet to the extent that we still distinguish theoretical activity and practice, we remain de-limited by the essential terms of the Vitruvian text, and the rational order which they prescribe, an order of the logos. But within the prescription itself we find the traces of a diversity and richness largely repressed, traces of an other logos, another understanding of the traditional world of artifice--including the artifice of writing--that undermines the structure and space of the logos which Vitruvius has attempted to erect, and which we still inhabit. If Architecture is The Ten Books ..., it is also a writing, a multiple, palimpsestic writing in which the play of artifice will leave its trace in the stratification of the inscription.

No description available.

Thesis--Tuebingen.

This thesis proposes that the concept 'permanence' is relevant at the beginning of the twenty first century. It examines why the term, while perhaps pertinent in addressing the disposability of architecture in Western society, seems anachronistic. The study reviews the seeming inaccessibility of the term in its contested and plural interpretations, and reviews problems in its definition and relevance. <br /><br /> A close examination of definitions, interpretations and contemporary approaches is provided in order to create a conceptual framework that reveals complex implications of the term. Four strategies for understanding the concept are offered: 'realms versus modes', definitions, a distillation of four positions relating to permanence, and an inquiry into contemporary issues relating to the concept. 'Absolute' and 'relative' realms illuminate a scope for permanence, and 'static' and 'dynamic' modes are discussed. A series of definitions are reviewed that reveal nuance in implications. An analysis of four essays on permanence is included, one from the beginning of the twentieth century and three from the end. This section reveals a series of conflicts relating to the way contemporary Western society uses and understands the term. <br /><br /> Permanence within architecture is widely associated with the Vitruvian definition of <em>firmitas</em>: mass and solidity crafted to endure eternally. Vitruvius' employment of 'permanence' is used as a grounding definition and a fundamental reference for the term's evolution into contemporary usage. In observing the endurance of the original Vitruvian term today, a disconnect becomes evident: absolutism in a society defined by relativity. This thesis argues for the critical significance of the term at a pivotal point in history in addressing the problem of disposable architecture on both a cultural and ecological level. Final open-ended questions are raised that consider staggering construction and demolition waste statistics, implying that permanence could play a significant role in effective responses to a global environmental crisis.

This thesis proposes that the concept 'permanence' is relevant at the beginning of the twenty first century. It examines why the term, while perhaps pertinent in addressing the disposability of architecture in Western society, seems anachronistic. The study reviews the seeming inaccessibility of the term in its contested and plural interpretations, and reviews problems in its definition and relevance. <br /><br /> A close examination of definitions, interpretations and contemporary approaches is provided in order to create a conceptual framework that reveals complex implications of the term. Four strategies for understanding the concept are offered: 'realms versus modes', definitions, a distillation of four positions relating to permanence, and an inquiry into contemporary issues relating to the concept. 'Absolute' and 'relative' realms illuminate a scope for permanence, and 'static' and 'dynamic' modes are discussed. A series of definitions are reviewed that reveal nuance in implications. An analysis of four essays on permanence is included, one from the beginning of the twentieth century and three from the end. This section reveals a series of conflicts relating to the way contemporary Western society uses and understands the term. <br /><br /> Permanence within architecture is widely associated with the Vitruvian definition of <em>firmitas</em>: mass and solidity crafted to endure eternally. Vitruvius' employment of 'permanence' is used as a grounding definition and a fundamental reference for the term's evolution into contemporary usage. In observing the endurance of the original Vitruvian term today, a disconnect becomes evident: absolutism in a society defined by relativity. This thesis argues for the critical significance of the term at a pivotal point in history in addressing the problem of disposable architecture on both a cultural and ecological level. Final open-ended questions are raised that consider staggering construction and demolition waste statistics, implying that permanence could play a significant role in effective responses to a global environmental crisis.