Materials and Meaning in Architecture: Essays on the Bodily Experience of Buildings

Interweaving architecture, philosophy and cultural history, Materials and Meaning in Architecture develops a rich and multi-dimensional exploration of materials and materiality, in an age when architectural practice seems otherwise preoccupied with image and visual representation. Arguing that architecture is primarily experienced by the whole body, rather than chiefly with the eyes, this broad-ranging study shows how the most engaging built works are as tactile as they are sensuous, communicating directly with the bodily senses, especially touch. It explores the theme of ‘material imagination’ and the power of establishing ‘place identity’ in an architect’s work, to consider the enduring expressive possibilities of material use in architecture. The book’s chapters can be dipped into, each individual chapter providing close readings of built works by selected modern masters (Scarpa, Zumthor, Williams and Tsien), insights into key texts and theories (Ruskin, Loos, Bachelard), or short cultural histories of materials (wood, brick, concrete, steel, and glass). And yet, taken together, the chapters build to a powerful book-length argument about how meaning accrues to materials through time, and about the need to reinsert the bodily experience of materiality into architectural design. It is thus also, in part, a manifesto: arguing for architecture to act as a bulwark against the tide of an increasingly depersonalised built environment. With insights for a wide range of readers, ranging from students through to researchers and professional designers, Materials and Meaning in Architecture will cause theorists to rethink their assumptions and designers to see new potential for their projects.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Reading Material 1. Material as Reality Preserve: History, Theory, Design 2. John Ruskin (1819-1900): Stones of Architecture 3. Loos (1870-1933): Not the Material but What is Done With It PART I: Stones, Architecture, Land and Interiors 4. Time Silted Up: Scarpa at the Gipsoteca Canoviano (1955-1957) & Museo di Castelvecchio (1957-75) 5. Pool and Cave: Zumthor’s Thermal Baths at Vals (1996) 6. Terminal Jewel: Williams & Tsien’s Folk Art Museum (2001) 7. Tectonic Shifts: Miralles’ Arts & Crafts Ecstasy at the Scottish Parliament (2004) PART II: The Long View of Materials in Play 8. Human Touch: The Enduring Warmth of Wood 9. Fire and Wind: The Appeal of Baking Bricks 10. Wild at Heart: Concrete as Liquid Stone? 11. Imaging Rationality: The Resolute Modernity of Steel 12. Transparency: A Darker Shade of Glass 13. Forms of a Conclusion Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Nathaniel Coleman is a reader in History and Theory of Architecture at Newcastle University, UK. He previously taught in the US, and practiced architecture in New York City and Rome. He is the author of Lefebvre for Architects (2015), Utopias and Architecture (2005), and editor of Imagining and Making the World: Reconsidering Architecture and Utopia (2011).

Review :
We have always felt that interpretation of architecture is best left to others and perhaps best done posthumously! Nathaniel Coleman’s writing is both deeply thoughtful but more importantly to us – deeply sensitive. As it describes our intentions for the Folk Art Museum it makes us better understand ourselves and the work itself. His writing has opened us up and has made us change our minds – and perhaps that is the most powerful act a writer can achieve. An outstanding work that I would recommend to my students, colleagues, and practicing architects. Materials and Meaning in Architecture reminds readers of the extensive scope of the discipline and its intimate relation with everyday life.