Hi Ann,
The first thing that comes to mind when you put architecture and power
together is Mitterand's grand projects in Paris! I don't know of a
particular reference but I am sure there is a lot written on this.
You may also like to look at a book by Lisa Findley which discusses the
relationship between power, space and architecture, particularly through 4
case studies (Findley, L. (2005) Building Change: Architecture, Politics
and Cultural Agency, Routledge: London and New York)
From a more participatory perspective, it may be relevant to see Blundell
Jones, P., Petrescu, D. and Till, J. eds (2005) Architecture and
Participation, Spon Press - the first part is about the 'politics of
participation'.
Best,
Katerina
> Hello All,
>
> I’m looking for references on the topic of how artifacts (buildings,
> products) mediate power. It seems that across both buildings and products
> there are perhaps three strands in the literature. The first strand
> concerns how those in power use artifacts to mediate power (for example
> the Winner, “Do artifacts have politics” debate, Dovey, and Leach). A
> second strand, perhaps emerging from the
> usability/accessibility/participatory side, concerns how objects or
> buildings “empower” or enable users. For products, this strand
> materializes in “usability” discourse (eg Donald Norman’s work) and in
> recent “behavior steering design” research that aims to increase energy
> and environmental efficiency in product use (for example Bhamra et. al.
> and Lockton et. al.).
>
> On the architecture side I’m less familiar with a literature on
> empowerment through architecture. Empowerment is in the margins of many
> discussions and projects, but I’d like to get a few references that deal
> with “power/empowerment” issues head-on with some connection to underlying
> theory. I imagine this strand of literature is tied to participatory
> design (eg design/build?), universal design (for disability, age) but may
> also be tied to operability (eg openable windows) and flexibility in
> building program and user adaptation (along the lines of Brand’s “How
> Buildings Learn”).
>
> Across both buildings and products I think there is a third strand in
> which users adapt (“hack” or “transgress” if you like) artifacts to
> protest existing power relations. Here Otto von Busch’s “self passages”
> (http://www.selfpassage.org/) comes to mind and I welcome references that
> look at this issue more explicitly and perhaps theoretically.
>
> I welcome other thoughts on references in any of the above areas. Here are
> a few longer cites for mentions above:
>
> Bhamra, T. A., D. Lilley, and T. Tang. 2008. Sustainable Use: Changing
> consumer behavior through product desgin. In Changing the Change. Turin,
> Italy: Umberto Allemandi & Co.
> Lockton, Dan, David Harrison, and Neville Stanton. 2008. Making the user
> more efficient: Design for sustainable behavior. International Journal of
> Sustainable Engineering preprint April 2008.
> Dovey, Kim. 1999. Framing Places: Mediating Power in Built Form. Edited by
> T. A. Markus and A. D. King, The Architext Series. London: Routledge.
> Winner, Langdon. 1980. Do Artefacts Have Politics? Daedalus 109:121-136.
> [also various rebuttals]
> Brand, Stewart. 1994. How Buildings Learn. New York: Viking.
> Norman, Donald. 2002. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic
> Books.
> Leach, Neil. 1999. "Architecture or Revolution" in Architecture and
> Revolution, edited by Neil Leach. London, Routledge.
>
> Regards,
> Ann
>
>
> Ann Thorpe
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> Dept of Design, Development, Environment & Materials
> Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, United Kingdom
>
> Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
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>
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------------------------------------------------------
Katerina Alexiou
RCUK Academic Research Fellow
Design Group, DDEM, MCT
The Open University
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://design.open.ac.uk/alexiou/index.htm
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