Paradigm Islands

A critical look at the making of Manhattan and Venice provides a background to addressing the dynamic redefinition and making of space today. The book concerns architecture and the city, built, imagined and narrated, but, importantly, considers architecture as an intellectual and spatial process rather than a product.

Teresa Stoppani is Reader in Architecture at the University of Greenwich, UK, where she directs the postgraduate Architecture History and Theory courses, and visiting lecturer in History and Theory Studies at the Architectural Association, London, UK.

Part 1: Paradigm Islands Part 2: Frames 1. Learning from Manhattan, Designing the Frivolous: Rem Koolhaas from 'Delirious' to 'Junkspace' 2. Building on Tension, Learning from Venice: Manfredo Tafuri's History Between renovatio and Continuity Part 3: Makings 3. Manhattan Grid: the City as a Script 4. Manhattan Surfacing: Central Park 5. From Grid to 'Grid Effect' 6. Venice Traces: Grids, Mats, Tentacles 7. Venice Impossible: Representations of the Dynamic Part 4: Readings 8. Manhattan: Performance, Artificial Chorality and Exhibitionism 9. Venice: Normative Chorality, Masks, Tenderness Part 5: Modern(s) 10. Le Corbusier and Manhattan 11. Le Corbusier and Venice Part 6: Contemporaries 12. The City as Event: Bernard Tschumi in Manhattan 13. Topology to Diagram: Peter Eisenman Between Venice and Manhattan 14. The City as Diagram. Gianugo Polesello's Venice Part 7: Representations Part 8: Islands