OASE 114: Optimism interrogates architecture's default orientation toward the future — examining how optimism functions not as sentiment but as a structural condition shaping design decisions, urban proposals, and disciplinary self-image.
About This Book
Architecture has always sold itself as a discipline capable of making things better. But what does it mean to proceed optimistically when the evidence — climate catastrophe, entrenched inequality, geopolitical fracture — is so consistently hostile? This issue of OASE refuses to treat optimism as a given and instead traces its presence as an active force within architectural and urban design practice. Where does it enter the process? When does reality force it out? The editors pursue these questions across projects and arguments, probing how boldly optimistic choices manifest in built work and how persistent that disposition remains when confronted with a fickle, resistant world.
Key Features
- 128 pages of critical essays, architectural analysis, and project examinations structured around optimism as a design strategy
- Edited by Stefan Devoldere, David Peleman, and Jantje Engels
- Designed by Karel Martens and Aagje Martens
- Published by Nai010, ISBN: 9789462087804
What You'll Discover
- How optimism operates as a genuine strategic position within architectural practice rather than a passive emotional backdrop
- The points in the design and construction process where optimistic assumptions are most exposed — and most vulnerable
- The relationship between disciplinary self-confidence and architecture's claim to lead society through crisis
- How boldly optimistic choices materialise in specific projects, and what happens to them under the pressure of built reality
About the Author
Stefan Devoldere, David Peleman, and Jantje Engels are the editors of this volume. OASE is a peer-reviewed architectural journal with a sustained critical tradition; its editorial teams draw from European academic and practice contexts. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 128
- Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9789462087804
- Publisher: Nai010
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and urban designers interested in the philosophical underpinnings of practice, academics working on architecture's social and political dimensions, and readers drawn to critical discourse on how disciplinary optimism shapes the built environment.