Building Materials: Material Theory and the Architectural Specification

Description

At a time of unprecedented levels of change in the production of building materials and their deployment in construction, better theoretical and historical tools are needed to understand these new developments and how they are altering the practices and concepts of architecture. Building Materials offers a radical rethink of how materials, as they are constituted in architectural practice, are themselves constructed and, in turn, uncovers a vast and neglected resource of architectural writing about materials as they are mobilized in architecture. The book is unique in conceiving architectural specification as a starting point for architectural theory, arguing that how materials are prescribed – through a range of practices from the literal processes of procurement and manufacture to epistemological, contractual, social and economic frameworks – radically alters their potential in architecture. Drawing on the work of French philosopher Gilbert Simondon, as well as rare archival materials of specifications, the book reveals why materials do not pre-exist their shaping or use in the world, but come into being through the processes that constitute them. The book addresses three distinct methods of specification each through the lens of a different material – ‘naming’ through timber, ‘process-based’ through concrete, and ‘performance specification through’ glass – in turn revealing how the process of architectural specification (or ‘Preliminary Operations’ as Simondon puts it) allows for development of specific relationships between material and function. Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements 1 Introduction Simondon and the Specification Building Materials: An ontogenetic approach ‘Veritable Relations’: Building materials as systems On the Transductive Method 2 Specifying Building Materials From Object to Process: 18th and 19th century specifications and the shift to division by trade From ‘Means’ to ‘Ends’: 20th and 21st century specifi cations and the variety of forms of clause 3 Naming Materials From Species to Brand Names: Changing practices of naming timber Effects of Changes in Naming: The emergence of proprietary specification Naming and Table 2/3: Materials as varieties of matter 4 Process The Process-based Clause ‘Nothing but a Transit’: Hylomorphism and the forgetting of process Dynamic Operations in Process-based Description ‘Rendered Plastic by Preparation’: Preliminary operations 5 Performance Performance Specification ‘Grounded in Such Usefulness’: Material as equipment ‘For a Given Service’: ‘New glass performances’ 6 Systems of Material Informed Materials Simondon’s ‘Complete System’ ‘That Constitutive Seam’ 7 Going into the Mould Preliminary Operations The Technical Object Inventive Relations Notes Bibliography Index