Reference and Contemporaneity in Architecture. Techniques for Designing the Present Needs

Carsten Ruhl and Dietrich Erben (EDS.)

Starting from the fundamental premise that references are essential for all cultural techniques, the contributors to this volume elaborate architecture’s ambivalent tension between reference and contemporaneity, its central role in both architectural production and discourse. The issues surrounding contemporaneity do not pertain to a condition, but to an agenda – one where references are selected according to interests and adapted to present needs. This perspective enriches existing conceptions of references as tools of design economy, imitation, and historicization by tying them more explicitly to contemporary agendas than has been done before.

With contributions by Sarah Borree, Matteo Cassani Simonetti, Markus Dauss, Dietrich Erben, Davor Ereš, Ole W. Fischer, Frederike Lausch, Daniela Ortiz dos Santos, Salvatore Pisani, Achim Reese, Carsten Ruhl, Szymon Ruszczewski and Hande Tunç.

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