Overview

'Instead of tuning the consumer to the machine we can now tune the machine to the consumer' This edited collection of essays, now in its second edition, brings together the author's key writings on the cultural, technological and theoretical developments reshaping Modern architecture into a responsive and diverse movement for the twenty-first century. Chris Abel approaches his subject from a wide range of knowledge, including cybernetics, philosophy, new human science and development planning, as well as his experience as a teacher and critic on four continents. The result is a unique global perspective on the changing nature of Modern architecture at the turn of the millennium. Including two new chapters, this revised and expanded second edition offers radical insights into such topics as: the impact of information technology on customized architecture production; the relations between tradition and innovation; prospects for a global eco-culture, and the local and global forces shaping the architecture and cities of Asia. Chris Abel is an architectural writer and educator, based in Malta. He has taught at major universities in the UK, North and South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and is a contributor to numerous international journals and other publications. He currently holds visiting appointments at the University of Malta and the University of the Phillippines.

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Reviews

'I have always enjoyed the writings of Chris Abel. They are full of surprising insights and provocative connections spanning such diverse issues as history, technology and ecology.' Sir Norman Foster 'Chris Abel is probably the only Western architectural critic relentlessly keeping up to date and writing incisively about the development of contemporary architecture and ideas in Asia Pacific. His authority is sustained by personal commitment and regular visits to the region.' Ken Yeang 'Chris Abel is a nomad in the intellectual as well as in the geographical sense... The result is always unconventional and challenging, and sometimes impressively prescient.' The Architectural Review 'Abel writes in a brisk, no-nonsense manner and steers clear of glib acceptance of received wisdom...Where he really scores is with his discussions of regional architecture in far-flung parts of the world, pointing out the need to understand overseas cultures in their own terms.' Times Literary Supplement 'An excellent review of the relationship between science and technology on the one hand, and human sciences on the other, as they relate to architecture in an increasingly global setting.' Steve King, Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, Australia

'I have always enjoyed the writings of Chris Abel. They are full of surprising insights and provocative connections spanning such diverse issues as history, technology and ecology.' Sir Norman Foster 'Chris Abel is probably the only Western architectural critic relentlessly keeping up to date and writing incisively about the development of contemporary architecture and ideas in Asia Pacific. His authority is sustained by personal commitment and regular visits to the region.' Ken Yeang 'Chris Abel is a nomad in the intellectual as well as in the geographical sense... The result is always unconventional and challenging, and sometimes impressively prescient.' The Architectural Review 'Abel writes in a brisk, no-nonsense manner and steers clear of glib acceptance of received wisdom...Where he really scores is with his discussions of regional architecture in far-flung parts of the world, pointing out the need to understand overseas cultures in their own terms.' Times Literary Supplement 'An excellent review of the relationship between science and technology on the one hand, and human sciences on the other, as they relate to architecture in an increasingly global setting.' Steve King, Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, Australia

'I have always enjoyed the writings of Chris Abel. They are full of surprising insights and provocative connections spanning such diverse issues as history, technology and ecology.' Sir Norman Foster 'Chris Abel is probably the only Western architectural critic relentlessly keeping up to date and writing incisively about the development of contemporary architecture and ideas in Asia Pacific. His authority is sustained by personal commitment and regular visits to the region.' Ken Yeang 'Chris Abel is a nomad in the intellectual as well as in the geographical sense... The result is always unconventional and challenging, and sometimes impressively prescient.' The Architectural Review 'Abel writes in a brisk, no-nonsense manner and steers clear of glib acceptance of received wisdom...Where he really scores is with his discussions of regional architecture in far-flung parts of the world, pointing out the need to understand overseas cultures in their own terms.' Times Literary Supplement 'An excellent review of the relationship between science and technology on the one hand, and human sciences on the other, as they relate to architecture in an increasingly global setting.' Steve King, Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, Australia

Author Information

BIOGRAPHY 2004. Chris Abel is an English born architectural theorist, critic and educator, based in Sydney. After graduating from the Architectural Association in 1968 he worked with the Greater London Council. He joined the teaching staff at Portsmouth Polytechnic School of Architecture three years later. His research and writing career began during the same period and in 1969 Architectural Design began publishing a series of his articles on the future impact of information technology and cybernetics on architectural production. In 1973-74, during a period as Visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he devised and wrote ARCHITRAINER, an interactive computer game simulating architect-client dialogues. In spring 1978 he went on a British Council sponsored lecture tour to South America, encouraging him to further broaden his knowledge and critical range. In the following decade he taught at major universities in Canada (1978), the USA (1979-81), Malaysia (1981-82), Saudi Arabia (1982-85), Singapore (1985-86) and Turkey (1988-89). The outcome was a series of new teaching programmes and articles in The Architectural Review and other journals propagating a modern regionalism based upon both local and global sources. In 1989 he returned to the UK to consolidate his experiences and after a short period at the University of Dundee joined the University of Nottingham School of Architecture in 1991. There he established a series of interdisciplinary theory courses and design studios aimed at developing a new model of design education in keeping with advanced collaborative practice. In 1996 these were embodied into a radically new, computer based design studio called the Bio-Tech Architecture Workshop. In 1997 he left Nottingham to live and write in Malta, where he has maintained a home since 1983. He has continued to travel widely and has been sponsored on conferences and lecture tours in the Far East by both the Commonwealth Association of Ar

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