Choosing Architecture

Professor Christophe van Gerrewey, head of the ACHT lab, has recently launched Choosing Architecture: Criticism, History and Theory since the 19^th century, a collection and commentary of 52 works by multiple authors that trace important discussions about architecture held over the past two centuries. The book is divided into four main parts: housing, society, history, and art.

Choosing Architecture, published by the EPFL Press, is available both in English and French.

An interview with Christoph van Gerrewey by Sandrine Perroud can be found on the EPFL website.

From the back cover:

“For centuries, architecture has been one of the most publicly discussed subjects, by architects and users or inhabitants, but also by critics, theoreticians, historians, and writers. This book offers an overview of these discussions in the Western world, by means of four thematic trajectories, focused on housing, society, history, and art. Each of these four chronological paths starts in the 19^th century, transverses the 20^th century, and ends as closely as possible to the contemporary moment.

The stepping stones are historical documents – text, books, essays, and articles – that are analyzed, interpreted, criticized, and compared. The aim of this book is to show that architecture remains a vital subject matter for anyone interested in our contemporary world and its recent history. Reading, inquiring, and thinking are essential for making substantiated choices, with architecture as a starting point. The writings discussed in this book, both canonical and virtually unknown, are condensed into little pearls of knowledge, attached unto a string, and put together to form a kind of necklace – a talisman that can help us understand and face the present condition.”