This book offers the first comprehensive overview of alternative approaches to architectural practice. At a time when many commentators are noting that alternative and richer approaches to architectural practice are required if the profession is to flourish, this book provides multiple examples from across the globe of how this has been achieved and how it might be achieved in the future. Particularly pertinent in the current economic climate, this book offers the reader new approaches to architectural practice in a changing world. It makes essential reading for any architect, aspiring or practising.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. The Motivations of Spatial Agency 3. The Sites of Spatial Agency 4. The Operations of Spatial Agency 5. Other Ways of Doing Architecture

About the Author

Tatjana Schneider (Lecturer, University of Sheffield) and Jeremy Till (Dean, University of Westminster and author of the award winning book Architecture Depends) collaborated before on their book Flexible Housing (which won the 2007 RIBA President's Award for Research). This time they are joined by Nishat Awan (Researcher).

Reviews

"Spatial Agency is a timely and uplifting treatise on the successful ways that architects have addressed some of society's most vexing global problems. With compelling analysis, richly illustrated by inspiring examples of transformative spatial solutions, the authors argue persuasively that the consequences of architecture are as important as the objects of architecture. This accessibly written book is a must read for anyone seeking an ethical understanding of the role of spatial production in the human struggle to create a democratic and sustainable existence." Leslie Kanes Weisman, Emerita Professor of Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and author of Discrimination by Design: A Feminist Critique of the Man-Made Environment (University of Illinois Press) "Spatial Agency's lively entry into the discourse around spatial practice, subjectivity and alterity, inspired by the introduction of Henri Lefebvre and feminist theory into architecture in the mid 1990s, asserts the importance of the concept of agency for understanding architecture's counter-culture over the past 30 years. This succinct and stylish handbook provides the reader with an essential resource for grasping the extraordinarily diverse range of ethical architectural practice. Here is a truly global map of inspiring 'spatial agents' who collectively define architecture -- against the grain." Jane Rendell, Vice Dean of Research at the Bartlett, UCL, and author of Art and Architecture (2006), Site-Writing (2010) and co-editor of Critical Architecture (2007)