Quality Out of Control: Standards for Measuring Architecture

Formerly grounded in values of craftsmanship, in the skilled making of products, ''quality'' is now associated with the management of administrative or technical processes. Its appreciation, once based in the exercise of individual judgement and taste, is now often founded on supposedly objective systems of evaluation.

Practitioners of design are under pressure to quantify ''quality'', but it is questionable whether it is possible or even desirable to do so. This book considers this important issue, looking at how quality is:

• defined
• appreciated
• evaluated
• managed
• produced.

With contributions from eminent architects and architectural critics, this book is for architects, academics, students and anyone interested in what architectural quality is, and how it may be achieved.