Sustaining Architecture in the Anti–Machine Age

In this age of ever-increasing environmental awareness, the issue of sustainability is set to become the dominant factor in architectural design. At a time when, like most professions, architectural practice is increasingly governed by legal guidelines and requirements, competing policy demands require architects to aim for economic, social and environmental sustainability whilst also trying to effect social progress. Sustaining Architecture in the Anti-Machine Age asks whether these two ambitions can be reconciled.

Featuring contributions from architects, journalists, academics and legal consultants, the book takes a balanced look at the subject, giving the full range of sometimes opposing views. Examining all the key issues, it considers why the industrial development of town and country is considered unsustainable rather than socially imperative, and whether the aim of raising the level, standard and performance of arhcitectural production conflicts with the promotion of sustainability.

Over the last decade the profession and practice of architecture has changed rapidly. Sir Michael Latham's 'Constructing the team' and Sir John Egan's 'Rethinking Construction' attempted to turn the building industry from labour-intensive trade contracting the capital intensity of manufacturing. Paul Hyett, the current president of the Royal Institue of british architects, has a mandate to establish an environmental duty of care. Sustaining Architecture in the Anti-Machine Age considers what these initiatives mean for architects.