Ever since Corbu set out his ideas of an architecture and it was mistranslated as a new architecture, folk have been proposing that we move TOWARDS (!) all sorts of new things.
Top of my list of items I would consider writing a ground breaking treatise on would be:
“MO-Spline: Towards a New Moustache Driven Geometry; The Role of the Handlebar Moustache in Contemporary Shapemaking.”
or
“Towards a New Salary”
However I will leave the scholarly pursuits to others, and defer to the wealth of towarding that has already gone down. After some exhaustive research, I have put together an incomplete list of texts detailing conditions that have been deemed worthwhile to move towards.
Bear in mind that many of the entries below are out of print and are described by Amazon as being of ‘unknown binding’ and as such we do not appear to be in danger of colliding with any of them in the near future.
Lets start with the big guns, not the least of which is Mr Aalto:
Alvar Aalto: Towards a Human Modernism
Towards a symbolic architecture : the thematic house. By Charles Jencks
“Jencks’s Thematic House in London, a reworking of an 1840s townhouse, fulfills his view that modern architecture can embody personal symbolism. The entrance room, called the Cosmic Oval, is meant to suggest the Big Bang. On its walls, huge, fiery figures of Thomas Jefferson, Hannah Arendt and Pythagoras debate and ponder.”
Architectures of Time: Toward a Theory of the Event in Modernist Culture. By Sanford Kwinter.
Finding Form : Towards an Architecture of the Minimal. By Frei Otto.
Toward a Scientific Architecture. By Yona Friedman and Cynthia Lang
The Architecture of Good Intentions: Towards a Possible Retrospect. Colin Rowe.
Notes on Conceptual Architecture: Towards a Definition. By Peter Eisenman.
Toward a New Regionalism: Environmental Architecture in the Pacific Northwest
Architecture and Identity: Towards a Global Eco-Culture.
Lord knows, we are in need of a new museum - the old one is so full of lame non-tyranosaurus fossils and sarcophagi that there is nowhere to park the Prius.
Towards a New Kind of Living : The Werkbund Housing Estate Breslau 1929
Uncontrollable Beauty: Toward a New Aesthetics (Aesthetics Today)
Das Offene Haus: Fur Eine Neue Architektur /Open House: Towards a New Architecture
I have been calling for a new Toronto for years. It is a tired, stale city. However, since the publication of Utopia: Towards a New Toronto in October of 2005, things have really begun to turn around - albeit slowly.
Community and privacy;: Toward a new architecture of humanism
Le Corbusier, the Noble Savage: Toward an Archaeology of Modernism
City form and natural process: Towards a new urban vernacular
Changing Architectural Education; Towards a New Professionalism
This is totally needed. The current landscape old. And there’s too much water.
Japan Towards Totalscape: Contemporary Japanese Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape.
As many of us - I estimate the number to be well into double figures - currently live in cities, this essay feels somewhat redundant.
Sustainable Architecture: Towards a Diverse Built Environment
Living in the Landscape: Toward an Aesthetics of Environment
American Houses Today: The New Native House: Towards an Integral Architecture (New Southern Houses)
“Each of the 11 houses profiled is a treasure trove of references to old moments and modern visions. The soul of these buildings rises up from the southern landscape and moves forward to meet today’s demands for clean, efficient architecture. Each project invites an exploration of the handmade richness of an old barn intertwined within the steel and glass of a modern building.”
Towards Cosmopolis: Planning for Multicultural Cities . By Leonie Sandercock.
Towards Universality: Le Corbusier, Mies and De Stijl
Towards a Non-Oppressive Environment: An Essay (1972) It appears we are still towarding it.
Towards a Social Architecture : The Role of School Building in Post-War England
Towards post-modernism: Design since 1851. (1987) In need of a sequel.
Towards an Australian architecture. Do you mean corrugated iron and woolsheds?
Towards an Australian garden. Trust me, there are already gardens here.
In Search of Elegance: Towards an Architecture of Satisfaction
Behavioral architecture: Toward an accountable design process.
Towards a humane architecture.
Light-Tech: Towards a Light Architecture = Ausblick Auf Eine Leichte Architektur
The 1960s in Britain : Towards an Architectural Mainstream
Towards a History of Construction (Between Mechanics and Architecture). Why not just write the history?
Design Intervention: Toward a More Humane Architecture
Bruce Goff: Toward Absolute Architecture
Towards an experimental envirotecture
Mega-Cities in the Tropics: Towards an Architectural Agenda for the Future
Reflections on span and space: Towards a theory of criticism of architectural structures (Con-text)
Towards tomorrow’s architecture: The triple approach . That’s right. The Triple Approach.
And finally, not strictly architecture related, however it is the only work to rival Vers une Architecture in its prescient towardness:
April 6th, 2006 at 8:39 am
Oooh, you missed your chance earlier: Notes TOWARDS the denial of perspective…
April 6th, 2006 at 11:16 am
What about
Eisenman’s “Notes on Conceptual architecture, towards a definition”
April 6th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Geoff - yeah, I had to do a quick check on myself before I put it up…
Urt - cheers. noted and list updated.
April 6th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Don’t forget the classic: “Towards a Nuclear Kwinter”
And its sequel: “Towards a New Medium: The Medium as Massage”
April 6th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
I recently did a theory-heavy thesis at Sci-arc on the misinterpration (by students of architecture) of the popular-concensus manifesto of a post-manifesto pedagogy. (you’re supposed to laugh at that.) I called it “Toward Architecture” in a sort of ironic-possibly-trite-but-critical way. I’d be interested in doing a time-comparison of these works vs. “Against” works. We always have to situate ourselves in some sort of rebellion- “Towards” is just an updated way of saying it more politely and not sounding alarmist. Thank you for this delightful list. I wish I’d had compiled it for my final presentation.
April 6th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
I recently did a theory-heavy thesis at Sci-arc on the misinterpration (by students of architecture) of the popular-concensus manifesto of a post-manifesto pedagogy. (you’re supposed to laugh at that.) I called it “Toward Architecture” in a sort of ironic-possibly-trite-but-critical way, defining “Toward” as a adjective which represents a style of architectural theory. I’d be interested in doing a time-comparison of these works vs. “Against” works. We always have to situate ourselves in some sort of rebellion- “Towards” is just an updated way of saying it more politely and not sounding alarmist. Thank you for this delightful list. I wish I’d have compiled it for my final presentation.
April 6th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Sorry about the repeat. I’m not a usual comment-post-er. Also, Sylvia Lavin wrote an article in Log a few years ago called “Toward a Newer New Architecture.”