Description
Book SynopsisThe Rent of Form: Architecture and Labor in the Digital Age was first published in a different form in the original Portuguese as Arquitetura na era digital-financeira: desenho, canteiro e renda da forma (Saao Paolo, Brazil: Editora 34 Ltdsa., 2012).
Trade Review"In this story, all is extraction, and the construction site is like a mine for the primary accumulation of symbolic capital. Form becomes function not in any useful way, but as a locus of value, forcing signifier and signified together through the raw power of the command: measure this and make this, in this way."—Reinhold Martin, from the Foreword
"This timely translation of Pedro Fiori Arantes’s book into English explores the political and aesthetic dilemmas of contemporary architecture practice and theory from an opportune viewpoint. Firstly, it speaks from the South of the globalized world by entering and leaving conventional Western discourses. Secondly, it stems out of a little-known yet commanding line of historical-materialist criticism of architecture shaped up in Brazil since the 1970s, especially at the University of São Paulo. The Rent of Form sheds light onto obscured aspects of architectural production as well as onto the challenges that continue to tie it to unequal economic and social practices."—Zeuler Lima, Washington University in St. Louis
Table of ContentsIntroduction · Stars of Exception
Chapter 1 · The Forms of Rent
Chapter 2 · Programmed Design
Chapter 3 · One to One: Full Scale Construction Site
Conclusion -The New Frontier
Distribution of Medals
The End of the Era of Excesses?
The Green Wave
Annexe
Architecture in Review
Bibliographic References
