Winner of the 2015 RIBA Presidents Award for Outstanding University Located Research This book is the long awaited sequel to "Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes: Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities". "Second Nature Urban Agriculture" updates and extends the authors concept for introducing productive urban landscapes; including urban agriculture; into cities as essential elements of sustainable urban infrastructure. It reviews recent research and projects on the subject and presents concrete actions aimed at making urban agriculture happen. As pioneering thinkers in this area; the authors bring a unique overview to contemporary developments and have the experience to judge opportunities and challenges facing those who wish to create more equitable; resilient; desirable and beautiful cities.
#3320959 in eBooks 2014-07-25 2014-07-25File Name: B00M5OID6M
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. No Surprises Here: Vidlers "Histories of the Immediate Present" and the Reconciliation of History and ModernismBy Chloe88The goal of Anthony Vidlers book Histories of the Immediate Present: Inventing Architectural Modernism is to demonstrate that our understanding of modern architecture has been constructed by historians. In particular; Vidler demonstrates that our perception of what constitutes modern architecture is a product of the scholar by means of the creation of their respective "master narrative" or genealogy that serves to prioritize specific characteristics of modernist architecture. Within Histories of the Immediate Present; Vidler organizes his analysis regarding the construction of architectural modernism by focusing on Emil Kaufmann; Colin Rowe; Reyner Banham; and Manfredo Tafuri. Each section examines the manner in which the individual architectural historians scoured the past to find precedence that proved the master narrative they wished to construct or their individual take on architectural modernism to demonstrate the indeed modernism did not reject history; but rather embraced it. Additionally; Vidler seems to emphasize the relationship between the constructed versions of architectural modernism and the practice of architecture suggesting that architects; even those stringent modernists; are themselves engaged and part of a historical discourse. In doing so; Vidler debunks the myth of architectural modernism; as both an intellectual concept and architectural practice; as an anti-historical movement. Moreover; he implies that the post-modernist "return" to historicism is; in the end; no return at all. Rather; it is part of the same continual engagement with historical precedence that was forged by modernists. While; the notion that history is a function and construction of scholarly discourse is not entirely new; it is interesting to see a systematic deconstruction of the process of "inventing" history through several case studies.9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. a concise manifesto in architectural theoryBy Elie HaddadThis may come down as Vidlers best critical work on Modern Architecture and the historicization of the Modern Movement. Through a critical discussion of the parcours of these four major historians [Kaufmann; Rowe; Banham and Tafuri]; and by default theoreticians of modern architecture; Vidler effectively focuses on the faultlines of the current architectural crisis; arguing; like Habermas before him; for a renewed engagement with the architectural project of Modernity; based on these critical readings that reaffirm the role of history. The conclusion may appear to some as a bit too optimistic; suggesting for instance that the work of Corbusier and Koolhaas come under the same umbrella; but this does not take away from the importance of this book as one of the few significant recent theoretical publications.
