Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of PracticeA young architect's search for new architectural values in a time of economic crisis. I paused at the stoop and thought this could be the basis of a good book. The story of a young man who went deep into the bowels of the academy in order to understand architecture and found it had been on his doorstep all along. This had an air of hokeyness about it, but it had been a tough couple of days and I was feeling sentimental about the warm confines of the studio which had unceremoniously discharged me upon the world.—from Down Detour Road What does it say about the value of architecture that as the world faces economic and ecological crises, unprecedented numbers of architects are out of work? This is the question that confronted architect Eric Cesal as he finished graduate school at the onset of the worst financial meltdown in a generation. Down Detour Road is his journey: one that begins off-course, and ends in a hopeful new vision of architecture. Like many architects of his generation, Cesal confronts a cold reality. Architects may assure each other of their own importance, but society has come to view architecture as a luxury it can do without. For Cesal, this recognition becomes an occasion to rethink architecture and its value from the very core. He argues that the times demand a new architecture, an empowered architecture that is useful and relevant. New architectural values emerge as our cultural values shift: from high risks to safe bets, from strong portfolios to strong communities, and from clean lines to clean energy.This is not a book about how to run a firm or a profession; it doesn't predict the future of architectural form or aesthetics. It is a personal story—and in many ways a generational one: a story that follows its author on a winding detour across the country, around the profession, and into a new architectural reality. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
Chapter 2 The Aimless Architect | 7 |
Chapter 3 The Case for Empowerment | 27 |
Chapter 4 Where We Get Power Kings Not Sorcerers | 43 |
Chapter 5 Camping in the Front Yard | 55 |
Chapter 6 The Financial Architect or A Brief Economic History of Architecture | 59 |
Chapter 7 Great Architecture Is Like Pulling Teeth | 79 |
Chapter 8 The Value Architect | 83 |
Chapter 15 The Basis of All Things | 153 |
Chapter 16 The Knowing Architect | 157 |
Chapter 17 Youre an Architect Arent You? | 171 |
Chapter 18 The Named Architect | 173 |
Chapter 19 How to Become a Famous Architect | 185 |
Chapter 20 The Citizen Architect | 189 |
Chapter 21 How to Make a Golf Course Green | 197 |
Chapter 22 The Green Architect | 199 |
Chapter 9 Horse Apples and Cow Pies | 97 |
Chapter 10 The Risk Architect | 101 |
Chapter 11 Im an Architect | 115 |
Chapter 12 The Paid Architect | 119 |
Chapter 13 The Best Idea in History | 133 |
Chapter 14 The Idea Architect | 135 |
Chapter 23 The Difference between Hookers and Architects | 207 |
Chapter 24 The Sober Architect or A Doctor a Lawyer and an Architect Walk into a Bar | 209 |
Finding Love at a Hardware Store | 213 |
Notes | 223 |
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice The MIT Press |
| Author | Eric J. Cesal |
| Publisher | MIT Press, 2010 |
| ISBN | 0262289059, 9780262289054 |
| Length | 240 pages |
| Subjects | › Architecture / Criticism Architecture / Professional Practice |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |