Towards a Critique of Architecture's Contemporaneity

Pursuing historical analogies between nineteenth-century theories and the current practices captivated by digital reproducibility, this book offers a critical take on architecture¿s contemporaneity through four essays: tectonics, materiality, cladding, and labor.

Fundamental to this proposition is the historicity of Gottfried Semper¿s theorization of architecture amidst the outpouring of new materials and construction techniques during the 1850s. Starting with Semper¿s differentiation between theatricalization and the tectonic of theatricality, this book examines thematic essential to architecture¿s self-representation. Even though the title of this book recalls the Semperian Four Elements of Architecture, its argument encapsulates a unique historico-theoretical project probing the tectonic of theatricality beyond Semper. The invisible tie between technique and labor is the cord running through the four subjects covered in this book. In exploring these subjects from the theore