Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice

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Eric J. Cesal

The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2010, English

Nonfiction, Architecture

5.4 x 8 inches, paperback, 240 pages, 10 black-and-white illustrations

ISBN: 9780262014618

Suggested Retail Price: $21.95

From the Publisher. As the world redesigns and rebuilds in the face of economic and ecological crises, unprecedented numbers of architects are out of work. What does this say about the value of architecture? That is the question that confronted architect Eric Cesal as he finished graduate school at the onset of the worst financial meltdown in a generation. Down Detour Road is his journey: one that begins off-course, and ends in a hopeful new vision of architecture.

Like many architects of his generation, Cesal confronts a cold reality. Architects may assure each other of their own importance, but society has come to view architecture as a luxury it can do without. For Cesal, this recognition becomes an occasion to rethink architecture and its value from the very core. He argues that the times demand a new architecture, an empowered architecture that is useful and relevant. New architectural values emerge as our cultural values shift: from high risks to safe bets, from strong portfolios to strong communities, and from clean lines to clean energy.

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