Architecture and Participation
Bringing together leading international practitioners and theorists in the field, ranging from the 1960s pioneers of participation to some of the major contemporary figures in the field, Architecture and Participation opens up the social and political aspects of our built environment, and the way that the eventual users may shape it. Divided into three sections, looking at the politics, histories and practices of participation, the book gives both a broad theoretical background and more direct examples of participation in practice. Respectively the book explores participation's broader context, outlining key themes and including work from some seminal European figures and shows examples of how leading practitioners have put their ideas into action.
Illustrated throughout, the authors present to students, practitioners and policy makers an exploration of how a participative approach may lead to new spatial conditions, as well as to new types of architectural practices, and investigates the way that the user has been included in the design process.
Peter Blundell Jones is Professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield and a frequent contributor to The Architectural Review. Doina Petrescu is lecturer in architecture at the University of Sheffield and member of Atelier d'Architecture Autogérée in Paris. She has written, lectured and practiced individually and collectively on issues of gender, technology, (geo)politics and poetics of space. Jeremy Till is Professor of Architecture and Head of the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield. He is also a Director of Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, an award winning practice. With degrees in both philosophy and architecture, his writings interrogate the relationship of theory to practice.