Architecture Depends

"Less is more."--Mies van de Rohe"Less is abore."--Robert Venturi"Mess is the law."--Jeremy TillArchitecturedepends--on what? On people, time, politics, ethics, mess: the real world.Architecture, Jeremy Till argues with conviction in this engaging, sometimespugnacious book, is dependent on things outside itself. Despite the claims ofarchitects to autonomy, purity, and control, architecture is buffeted by uncertaintyand contingency. Circumstances invariably intervene to upset the architect'sbest-laid plans--at every stage in the process, from design through construction tooccupancy. Architects, however, tend to deny this, fearing contingency andpreferring to pursue perfection. With Architecture Depends, architect and criticJeremy Till offers a proposal for rescuing architects from themselves: a way tobridge the gap between what architecture actually is and what architects want it tobe. Mixing anecdote, design, social theory, and raw opinion, Till's writing isalways accessible, moving freely between high and low registers, much like hissuggestions for architecture itself. The everyday world is a disordered mess, fromwhich architecture has retreated--and this retreat, says Till, is deluded.Architecture must engage with the inescapable reality of the world; in thatengagement is the potential for a reformulation of architectural practice.Contingency should be understood as an opportunity rather than a threat. ElvisCostello said that his songs have to work when played through the cheapesttransistor radio; for Till, architecture has to work (socially, spatially) by copingwith the flux and vagaries of everyday life. Architecture, he proposes, must movefrom a reliance on the impulsive imagination of the lone genius to a confidence inthe collaborative ethical imagination, from clinging to notions of total control toan intentional acceptance of letting go.