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Generative processes for revitalizing historic towns or heritage districts by Besim Hakim This article advocates the adoption and use of dynamic generative processes for town and neighborhood development vs the use of static 'master plans' that produce fabricated built environments. Instead, those that are the product of generative processes...

Traditional Building Forms & Techniques Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria by Cordelia Osasona Literature abounds, worldwide, on the indigenous building practices of many cultures; this is particularly true of such cultures as have caught the eye of the western world. However, when compared with what is available...

Architectural Squares by Mario Gallarati The study of Italian Renaissance architectural squares and of the larger scale successive baroque interventions on them not only offers a new vision of the more or less renowned realisations on the theme of the forum-square, but has also permitted us to contrast the answers given in different situations...

Poetic Architecture by Konstantinos Zabetis Making is the Classical-original meaning of the term "poetry" (poesis), the poet is the maker + inventor + designer + planner + constructor, and poetic (poetica) is the construction of the beauty and the beauty of construction. Poetic buildings are all based on a set of basic principles and design tools...

The Ideology of Architecture by Peter Kellow It has become official RIBA policy to have architecture schools 'either declare their ideological position or accept a wide range of architectural approaches'. The idea that the dominant architectural movement of the pres, that of Modernism, has a distinct ideology and that by promoting this architecture...

Architectonic Interregnum by Richard Olusegun Babalola Is politics more important than architecture? And is it true that the best city, the Utopia, exists only in speech? Until recently, the answers to these questions were elusive to me. These answers are what this story is about.   But before we move any further, our understanding of the meaning of politics and the polity or...

How Can We Build Again in Beautiful Places? by Steve Mouzon The question is often asked when confronting the great places "What do we do about the fact that one simply cannot build anything in this landscape anymore?"   Once, good buildings could be pulled down and everyone had confidence that better buildings would be built in their places. Unfortunately, those expectations changed...

The Loss of Identity in Mediterranean Architecture by Alessandra Scarano Through history, real needs and different cultures have determined architectural and territorial spatial structures.   Symbols, the calligraphy of architecture and landscape, emphasise these differences. Like language, they become the essence...

A Holistic Approach to Architecture by Nili Portugali There is no doubt, that the great art (and architecture) creations throughout history evolved in societies that drew their strength from their cultural and spiritual traditions and from the places they belonged to. These sources, which are the factor that separates cultures and peoples, link people and places together in harmony...

Proportion and Traditional Architecture by Joachim Langhein Twentieth century architecture sought above all to be "scientific", but it managed only to achieve the status of a pseudo-science. Guiding ideas like "Form follows function" or "Less is more" found broad acceptance with architects, those who teach architecture, and building owners.   But contrary to the belief and pride...

An Architecture for Our Time by Charles Siegel Post-modernist architects congratulate themselves on how cutting-edge and avant-garde their buildings are, but in reality, they are not responding to the needs of our time in the way that the early modernists responded to the needs of the last century. Modernist architects of the early and mid-twentieth century were...

The Celebration Controversies by Andrés Duany Celebration is perhaps the most prominent and certainly the most controversial of the second-generation New Urbanist communities. Along with Harbor Town, Kentlands, Haile Plantation, Southern Village, Newpoint and Laguna West, Celebration followed Seaside by approximately eight years...

Dreams of Houses by Roger Emmerson Modernist architects own an intellectual baggage of asceticism. It tends to lead them to abstraction where physical objects are to be valued solely for their use or aesthetics and where other meanings, which might be attributed to those objects, are eschewed...

Notes Toward an Updated Critical Theory of Modernism by Michael Mehaffy It is impossible to imagine the historical development of the modernist movement in architecture apart from the radical transformation of society effected by the science and technology of the early twentieth century.  As an architecture...

Intimate Anonymity: Breaking the code of the Urban Genome by Hillel Schocken Technology became the new religion of the 20th century. Modern city planning was strongly influenced by technological utopias. Electric power plants were designed as temples. Russian Constructivists added radio aerials...

José de Hermosilla y Sandoval and the origin of the Spanish Academy by Victor Deupi If authenticity in architecture is to have any importance in the future fabric of our cities, then architects will have to reintegrate themselves with the world of ideas and artefacts in a way not too dissimilar from that of José de Hermosilla in the mid 18th century...

Twentieth Century Architecture as a Cult by Nikos A. Salingaros I have found, to my surprise, that architects are not interested in laws of architecture. They prefer to design buildings on the basis of artistic fashion and ephemeral philosophical concerns. The same reaction greeted the efforts of my distinguished colleagues, Christopher Alexander and Léon Krier...

Cities and Architects by Lucien Steil The traditional city is the sublime, complex and popular materialization of civility and conviviality.   It is the perfect synthesis between territory, culture and human communities. It is a stable and stimulating "Patria" for individuals and families, for locals and foreigners, for residents and hosts...

Hidden Modernism in the World of Audit by Robert Adam Welcome to the World of Audit. In this world, every judgement that affects anyone - and what judgements don't - must be backed up with expert advice: the audit. This is a world where fairness, equality and discrimination are defined by experts, sometimes singly but more usually - for greater safety - in groups...

We publish essays written by those involved with INTBAU, to give them a chance to have their say on any issue which involves traditional design and planning.