Gerald Adler - Scale : Imagination, Perception and Practice in Architecture

Scale is a word which underlies much of architectural and urban design practice, its history and theory, and its technology. Its connotations have traditionally been linked with the humanities, in the sense of relating to human societies and to human form. To build in scale is an aspiration that is usually taken for granted by most of those involved in architectural production, as well as by members of the public; yet in a world where value systems of all kinds are being questioned, the term has come under renewed scrutiny. The older, more particular, meanings in the humanities, pertaining to classical Western culture, are where the sense of scale often resides in cultural production.

Scale may be traced back, ultimately, to the discovery of musical harmonies, and in the arithmetic proportional relationship of the building to its parts. One might question the continued relevance of this understanding of scale in the global world of today. What, in other words, is culturally specific about scale? And what does scale mean in a world where an intuitive, visual understanding is often undermined or superseded by other senses, or by hyper-reality? Structured thematically in three parts, this book addresses various issues of scale. The book includes an introduction which sets the scene in terms of current architectural discourse and also contains a visual essay in each section. It is of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and practitioners in architecture and architectural theory as well as to students in a range of other disciplines including art history and theory, geography, anthropology and landscape architecture.

Gerald Adler runs the BA (Hons) Architecture programme at the Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent, UK, where he is Deputy Head of School.

Timothy Brittain-Catlin is Senior Lecturer at the Kent School of Architecture.

Gordana Fontana-Giusti is an architect specialising in architectural theory who has been involved in establishing postgraduate studies and research at the Kent School of Architecture.

The editors are members of CREAte, the Centre for Research in European Architecture at the Kent School of Architecture.

CRITIQUES: Critical Studies in Architectural Humanities

A project of the Architectural Humanities Research Association

Series Editor: Jonathan Hale (University of Nottingham)

Editorial Board:

Sarah Chaplin

Mark Dorrian (Newcastle University)

Murray Fraser (University College London)

Hilde Heynen (Catholic University of Leuven)

Andrew Leach (Griffith University)

Thomas Mical (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Jane Rendell (University College London)

Adam Sharr (Newcastle University)

Igea Troiani (Oxford Brookes University)

This original series of edited books contains selected papers from the AHRA Annual International Conferences. Each year the event has its own thematic focus while sharing an interest in new and emerging critical research in the areas of architectural history, theory, culture, design and urbanism.

1 Critical Architecture

Edited by: Jane Rendell, Jonathan Hill, Murray Fraser and Mark Dorrian

2 From Models to Drawings: Imagination and Representation in Architecture

Edited by: Marco Frascari, Jonathan Hale and Bradley Starkey

3 The Politics of Making

Edited by: Mark Swenarton, Igea Troiani and Helena Webster

4 Curating Architecture and the City

Edited by: Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara

5 Agency: Working with Uncertain Architectures

Edited by: Florrian Kossak, Doina Petrescu, Tatjana Schneider, Renata Tyszczuk and Stephen Walker

6 Architecture and Field/Work

Edited by: Suzanne Ewing, Jrmie Michael McGowan, Chris Speed and Victoria Clare Bernie

7 Scale: Imagination, Perception and Practice in Architecture

Edited by: Gerald Adler, Timothy Brittain-Catlin and Gordana Fontana-Giusti

AHRA provides an inclusive and comprehensive support network for humanities researchers in architecture across the UK and beyond. It promotes, supports, develops and disseminates high-quality research in all areas of architectural humanities.

www.ahra-architecture.org.uk

Imagination, Perception and
Practice in Architecture

Edited by Gerald Adler,
Timothy Brittain-Catlin and
Gordana Fontana-Giusti

First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2012 selection and editorial material, Gerald Adler, Timothy Brittain-Catlin and Gordana Fontana-Giusti: individual chapters, the contributors

The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Every effort has been made to contact and acknowledge copyright owners. If any material has been included without permission, the publishers offer their apologies. The publishers would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to their attention so that corrections may be published at later printing.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Scale: imagination, perception, and practice in architecture/edited by Gerald Adler, Timothy Brittain-Catlin, and Gordana Fontana-Giusti.

p. cm. (Critiques : critical studies in architectural humanities)

Selected papers from the AHRA Annual International Conferences.

A project of the Architectural Humanities Research Association.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. Adler, Gerald, 1955 II. Brittain-Catlin, Timothy. III. Fontana-Giusti, Gordana.

IV. Architectural Humanities Research Association. V. Title: Imagination, perception, and practice in architecture.

NA2760.S32 2012

720dc23

2011019716

ISBN: 978-0-415-68711-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-68712-6 (pbk)

Typeset in Univers by

Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon

Excursus 1

The role of small-scale images by Wenceslaus Hollar

Mildendo and Masdar

Examining the knots counting the bricks

The worm's eye as a measure of man