BOOKS
Reflections on Architecture, Society and Politics – Social and Cultural Tectonics in the 21st Century.
Routledge Taylor&Francis, London.
ISBN 978-1-4724-5608-3
Based on a a genre developed by the author/editor (the interview-article), the essays in this book bring together the thoughts of leading theorists from the fields of architecture, urbanism and the social sciences. In each chapter Graham Cairns discusses the projects, theories and socio-politicla agendas of various figureheads in the field. Ranging from Chomsky’s examination of the US-Mexico border as “the architecture of oppression” to Robert Stern’s defence of projects for George W. Bush, these essays place politics at the heart of an understanding of contemporary architecture.
Visioning Technologies – the Architectures of Sight.
Routledge Taylor&Francis, London.
ISBN 978-1-4724-5496-6
This collection of texts from leading theorists examines how architecture has been, and is, reframed and restructured by the visual and theoretical frameworks introduced by different ‘technologies of sight’ – understood to include orthographic projection, perspective drawing, photography, film, computer visualization, parametricism and virtual realities. In an age in which modern technologies promise new digital futures, this book offers a historical overview of how architecture has been continually transformed and reconfigured by technologically induced shifts in human perception.
Design for a Complex World – challenges in practice and education.
Libri Publishing, London, 2014.
ISBN 978-1-907471-65-0.
Design for a Complex World – Challenges in Practice and Education is founded on the belief that the forces of globalisation that have affected design practice for decades have, in recent years, manifested themselves in design education as well. The book brings together authors, practitioners and educators from ten countries across six continents, Australia, East Germany, the UK, the US, Mexico, Hong Kong, Finland, Central India, Greece and South Africa.
The Architecture of the Screen: essays in cinematographic space.
Intellect Books, Bristol, 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-84150-711-8.
With the birth of film came the birth of a revolutionary visual language. This new, unique vocabulary—the cut, the fade, the dissolve, the pan, and a new idea of movement gave not only artists, but also architects, a completely new way to think about and describe the visual. This book examines the interrelations between the visual language of film and the onscreen perception of space and architectural design, revealing how film’s visual vocabulary influenced architecture in the twentieth century and continues to influence it today.
Reinventing Architecture and Interiors - a socio-political view on building adaptation.
Libri Publishing, London, 2013.
ISBN 978-1-907471-64-3.
The history of design has traditionally been a story of new ideas, new theories and, above all, new construction. However, today, the developed world is on the cusp of a new era. The financial crisis, the sustainability movement and the conservation agenda are all leading to ever more alterations of existing buildings - and ever fewer new build projects. This new condition will have major consequences for all those involved in the design of the built environment both now, and in the future. It forms the basis of the argumjents in Reinventing Architecture and Interiors – a book that challenges the standard view on the relationship between interiors and architecture.
Deciphering Art, Architecture and Advertising: selling to the sophisticated consumer.
Libri Publishing, London, 2010.
ISBN 978-1-907471-15-5.
Much has been written about the hidden messages and codes used by advertisers to persuade consumers to buy their products. In Deciphering Advertising, Art and Architecture, Graham Cairns looks at the increasingly sophisticated methods used – not just in advertising campaigns but in the use of art and architecture to sell products to an increasingly cynical and sophisticated public. Deciphering Advertising, Art and Architecture examines the recent history of the persuasion techniques employed by advertisers and architects and suggests that we have now entered a new age; an age in which the old techniques have been superseded by subtler and perhaps darker ones.
El arquitecto detrás de la cámara - una visión espacial del cine.
Abada Editores, Madrid, 2007.
ISBN 978-8496-258-90-7.
La aparición del cine supuso una verdadera revolución que modificó nuestra mirada. A partir de entonces, el cerebro iba a tener que filtrar una multiplicidad de estímulos fugaces que se presentaban al ojo en combinaciones anteriormente desconocidas. El arte desarrolló un nuevo lenguaje formal y el mundo empezó a representarse como un fenómeno en movimiento constante. En consecuencia, el espectador tuvo que aprender a procesar este novedoso fenómeno visual y el vocabulario icnográfico que traía consigo. El resultado de todo ello fue, entre otras cosas, un verdadero replanteamiento de la arquitectura que marcó las teorías vanguardistas de la época.
