Community and Privacy: Toward a New Architecture of Humanism

by Serge Chermayeff, Christopher W. Alexander

Community and Privacy Toward a New Architecture of H [Paperback]

Genres: Architecture, Urbanism, Cities, Nonfiction

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Serge Ivan Chermayeff, born Sergei Ivanovich Issakovich (Russian: Сергей Ива́нович Иссако́вич), was a Russian-born British architect, industrial designer, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects.

Reviews

[Mark]

published 50 years ago this is a seminal text addressing a number of fundamental themes which informed the thinking behind much late modern planning and architecture particularly as it relates to the human condition. christopher alexander earned a rather undeserved reputation for being 'alternative' in his thinking at a time when a range of new wave and socially conscious theories were gradually being discredited and marginalised in favour of the glamour of the kerb appeal type theorising of venturi and scott-brown et al. alexander's and chermayeff's thinking represented in this book is well articulated drawing attention to the humane aspects of urban and architectural form making and their ergonomic and sensory implications. the references to the advent of modern technology particularly communications technology and the rhetorical heroic corb style of some of the pronouncements and imperatives are curious and entertaining.

however it is perhaps more than anything fascinating to see the extent to which writing and reflection on architecture has moved from a point in time where the themes featured in this book - which were part of a universal discourse - have been largely and summarily cast aside in favour of an almost fetishistic obsession with gratuitous form making. this book despite its age is definitely worth a visit and an excellent primer for anyone involved or interested in the social dimension of architecture and design and how it might be more effectively engaged

[Sam Torres]

These guys would have hated iphones so much

[Benjamin]

fifty year old book on community and privacy (lol) from an architectural point of view. The real joy is the first half of the book in which the writers discuss humanism and new human ecologies in urban and suburban spaces.