How Buildings Learn
OCLC 29566065 | |
How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built is an illustrated book on the evolution of buildings and how buildings adapt to changing requirements over long periods. It was written by Stewart Brand and published by Viking Press in 1994. In 1997 it was turned into a 6-part TV series on the BBC.
Book
Brand asserts that the best buildings are made from low-cost, standard designs that people are familiar with, and easy to modify. In this way people can gradually change their buildings to meet their needs. One of his examples is Building 20 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brand states that a supply of simple, low-cost, easily modified buildings is key to innovation and economic growth. He implies that an expanding property-value market may actually slow innovation and produce a less human-centered community. Among other things, the book details the notion of Shearing layers.
Criticism of the architect Richard Rogers was removed from the UK edition but remains in the US edition.[1]
TV series
The book inspired a 6-part TV series by the BBC, produced by James Runcie,[2] executive producer Roly Keating,[3] which was screened in July 1997.[4]
In the BBC series, Brand is highly critical of the entire
Brand stresses the value an organic kind of building, based on four walls, which is easy to change and expand and grow as the ideal form of building. This embracing traditional box design as the optimal structure puts him in direct contrast to thinkers like Buckminster Fuller who proposed geodesic dome as a better solution for buildings.
See also
Notes
- ^ ""Behind the façade: Richard Rogers' autobiography is an exercise in self-congratulation", Prospect Magazine".
- ^ "James Runcie". www.jamesruncie.com.
- ^ "BBC - Press Office - Roly Keating named BBC TWO Controller". www.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "SohoEditors postproduction credits". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
External links
- Extract from the book on Stewart Brand's website
- Detailed notes by Phil Gyford
- How Buildings Learn at Open Library
- How Buildings Learn uploaded to YouTube by Stewart Brand