{"product_id":"never-modern","title":"Never Modern","description":"\u003cp\u003eIrénée Scalbert on the work of 6a architects: an architecture built not on style, signature or theory, but on metis, bricolage and craft.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout this book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6a architects have built a reputation on work that refuses to announce itself. In Never Modern, the London critic Irénée Scalbert sets out what that refusal actually consists of — not modesty, but a deliberate turn away from style, signature, theory and even concept. In their place he proposes metis, the ancient Greek form of practical cunning: an intelligence made of resourcefulness, timing, improvisation and accumulated craft. The argument moves through situation, intervention, making, comedy, bricolage, chance and anthropology, mirrored throughout by a visual essay of archive photographs, artworks, film stills and the practice's own projects. Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald's buildings — Raven Row, the South London Gallery, the fashion galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum — emerge as works of bricolage, assembled from what is to hand and drawing on history and the everyday to make something new. The book is designed to the proportions of a postwar French paperback novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eKey features\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e64 black-and-white illustrations forming a visual essay that runs alongside the text\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWritten by Irénée Scalbert, with contributions from Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCovers Raven Row, the South London Gallery and the V\u0026amp;A fashion galleries\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShort-listed for the CICA Bruno Zevi Book Award, 2014\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat you'll discover\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhat metis means as an architectural method, and why Scalbert prefers it to style, theory or concept\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow bricolage operates as a working practice rather than as a critical label applied after the fact\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe role narrative, appropriation and craft play in 6a's approach to historically sensitive sites\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy comedy and chance belong in a serious account of contemporary architectural practice\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the author\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIrénée Scalbert is a French-born architecture critic and historian based in London. He taught at the Architectural Association from 1989 to 2006, was visiting design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2006, 2007 and 2011, and teaches at the School of Architecture at the University of Limerick. He has sat on the editorial board of AA Files since 1998. 6a architects was founded in London in 2001 by Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eSpecifications\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDimensions: 14 × 21 cm\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePages: 176\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLanguage: English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eISBN: 9783906027241\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublisher: Park Books\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublication date: 2013\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003ePerfect for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArchitects and students drawn to practice-led thinking over theory, readers following contemporary British architecture, and anyone interested in craft, reuse and the intelligence of working with what is already there.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Park Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48901150638305,"sku":"9783906027241","price":44.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1116\/0464\/files\/9783906027241_300dpi.jpg?v=1786435701","url":"https:\/\/bookshopbyuro.com\/products\/never-modern","provider":"Bookshop by Uro","version":"1.0","type":"link"}