Plastics now : on architecture's relationship to a continuously emerging material / Billie Faircloth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Faircloth, Billie, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plastics in building.

Architecture.

Physical Description:

xv, 392 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

Summary:

"Plastics Now addresses one primary question: why do we build with plastics the way that we do? For decades, plastics have been described over and over again as "the future," yet we still do not know precisely what to do with them. Billie Faircloth argues that this inertia is due to plastics' indecipherability, which has prevented them from becoming fully known. The author tracks the process by which plastics became defined as a class of building materials. Drawing on original data from industry press, original timelines, hundreds of historical and contemporary images, advertisements dating to the 1940s, and technical data, this unconventional book explores the emergence of plastics as a building material and presents new findings. Plastics Now takes a provocative approach that calls on architects to participate in the redefinition of plastics for our time. This is essential reading for professional architects and architecture students to engage with our shared history with the plastics industry."--Cover.

Contents:

Prologue : How should we use plastics? ; The emergence of plastics in architecture

Introduction : Wrestling with the emergence of plastics : Methods ; Some evidence ; Plastics inertia ; Plastics in architecture, a slightly unorthodox bibliography ; Plastics are (a/the/in our) future ; Plastics are not substitute materials ; Plastics are difficult to decipher ; Plastics now ; Dr. Bjorksten to Mr. Abramovitz on what an architect wants from plastics

Defining plastics : Definitions ; "Plastics: a report by a committee convened by the British Plastics Federation" ; Plastics terminology organized from monomer to end of useful life ; Raw materials, extraction, and processing ; Manufacturing ; Use and maintenance ; End of life ; "Research in the plastics industry" / H.M. Richardson

Describing plastics : The formation of societies, federations, and associations ; Descriptions ; Mr. Philip H. Dewey to Dr. Dietz, on working to describe plastics numerically ; Mr. Walter A. Taylor to Mr. Berkson, on working to assure plastics performance ; The BRI Plastics Study Group ; Talking out-loud about the potential use of plastics in building ; Mr. Boyer to Mr. Vernon Read, on attributes of future plastics ; Codes and standards for plastics ; 1958-2008: the emergence of acronyms for plastics ; Characterizing how plastics burn ; R.T. Busko to Mr. Giller, on working plastics into the building code ; Leo Goldstein to Mr. Yuill, on tests for toxicity ; Characterizing the structural use of plastics ; Mr. David Rubenstein to Mr. Rarig, on the structural use of plastics ; Plastics worked and described ; Mr. T.L. Birrell to Professor Z.S. Makowski, on how to get plastics into the building industry

Plastics in building : Plastics. In. Buildings ; Publications titled or nearly titled "Plastics in buildings" ; Plastics, a new dimension in building ; Plastics literacy one number at a time ; Plastics: one word ; E.S. Coleman to Dr. Dietz, on the future of plastics in building ; A collection of plastics attributes organized per use and environmental flow ; A collection of building materials made from plastics described numerically ; Searching manufacturing regimes for customization potential ; Emerging polymers described from the chemist's bench ; Smart polymers ; High-performance polymers ; Biopolymers ; Biocomposites

All plastics, 1928-1973 : "All-plastics," prototypes, 1928-199973, indexed to a list of potential plastics for architecture ; All. Plastics. ; Miss Grayboff to Mr. Crouch and Dr. Pierson, on working out an all-plastics construction logic ; All-plastics, the first challenge ; All-plastics, the second challenge ; All-plastics, systemization ; All-plastics, research ; All-plastics, a phrase and conceptual position in circulation ; "All-plastics" houses, 1928-1972

Why we use plastics the way that we do : Plastics found, architectural prototypes, 2000-2013 ; Plastics now ; Plastics in 1973 ; Appendix B. Important notice regarding the flammability of cellular plastics used in building construction, and low-density cellular plastics used in furniture ; Plastics paradox ; Oil shock, 1972 and 1979 ; Architecture and plastics, a summation of events ; Prototyping with plastics, 2000-2013

Professing plastics : Modern alchemy ; Plastic / Roland Barthes ; Essays in response to "plastic" ; The plastic Proteus / Philip Ball ; Everywhere, plastics / John E. Fernández ; Im-plastic / Michelle Addington ; The power of plasticity / William W. Braham ; Bringing shape-changing plastic to life / Tat Tong ; Plastic materials: dream or nightmare? / Yvonne Shashoua ; A collective approach to building for the future / Anne Wallin

SPONGEcity: adaptive materiality / Liat Margolis ; Polymer awe / Ivan Amoto ; Stretching the limits: plastics / Werner Lang ; Don't measure, just cut (plastic will fix your mistakes) / Marc Swackhamer ; Plastics beyond Barthes / Michael Stacey ; The plasticity of metaseams / Tom Wiscombe ; Plastic ambivalence / Blaine Brownell ; Plastics rheologies: from the molecular to the territorial / Kiel Moe ; Plastic: fantastic! / Cristobal Correa ; On plastics and architecture: our present and our future / Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake ; Gemini / Neri Oxman ; Toward plasticity / David Erdman and Clover Lee ; Plastics cited (in response to Mr. Barthes)

Epilogue : Plastics and our agency.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 374-386) and index.

ISBN:

9781138804500

1138804509

9781138804517

1138804517

OCLC:

884961897