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Building sites : architecture, labour, and production studies / edited by Matt Davies, Will Thomson, Katie Lloyd Thomas, and João Marcos de Almeida Lopes.

Fine Arts Library NA2750 .B84 2026
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Format:
Book
Contributor:
Davies, Matt, 1960- editor.
Thomson, Will (Anthropologist), editor.
Lloyd Thomas, Katie, editor.
Lopes, João Marcos (Architect), editor.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Architectural design--Philosophy.
Architectural design.
Work--Philosophy.
Work.
Building sites.
building sites.
Genre:
Illustrated works.
Physical Description:
xiii, 361 pages : illustrations, facsimiles ; 26 cm
polychrome
illustration
Place of Publication:
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2026.
Summary:
"Building Sites addresses the urgent need to advance the critical understanding of relations between architectural design and the labour of building. Whilst recognising that in many parts of the world building takes place through self-organised processes and traditional skills, the book questions a central and problematic omission in architectural discourse, education and practice - the production of buildings, and the erasure of construction labour entailed by that omission. Through its engagement with the ground-breaking work of the architect and theorist Sérgio Ferro, who developed a history of architecture 'seen from the building site', the book sets out a programme for a new field of Production Studies for architecture and other disciplines. First, the field requires careful research into the production of the built environment - at the construction site, in the factory, in the design office and beyond. This volume explores historical and contemporary cases from Brazil, the UK, Yugoslavia, Germany, India, Mexico and the USA. Second, the book asks why the disciplinary silencing of production prevails. In Ferro's view the tendency of architectural discourse to ignore issues of labour and processes of construction is no mere oversight but rather a structural necessity for maintaining the profession's capacity to act 'on' and 'over' the building site, a necessity arising organically from the development of capitalism. Turning also to Morris, Harvey, Chakrabarty and Malm, the collection provides the first sustained English-language engagement with Ferro's theories and critiques. Chapters on radical pedagogies, unions and political alliances and alternative forms of building take the third step - to respond to contemporary crises Production Studies must mobilise its understanding to seek alternatives and work towards change"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
The building site and the city / Pedro Arantes and Mariana Fix
Life-worlds/Death-worlds in the temple building industry of western India / Megha Chand Inglis
Fire-regimes of Grenfell / Liam Ross.
List of Contributors
Introduction: Setting an Agenda Introduction: Building a Field of Production Studies / Matt Davies, Will Thomson, Katie Lloyd Thomas and João Marcos de Almeida Lopes
Translation as Production / Silke Kapp
Challenging Design Ideology: Reframing Architectural Production and the Design
Labour Relation / Will Thomson
Paths to Production Studies: Ferro and His Interlocutors
The Building Site and the City: Radical Criticism and Emancipation in Sérgio Ferro and David Harvey / Pedro Fiori Arantes and Mariana Fix
Sérgio Ferro, William Morris and a New Field: Architecture, Cultural Studies, and Production Studies / Nick Beech
Towards Emancipatory Practices
Unionization as a Political Issue: The Debate in the Architects' Union of São Paulo (1972-1981) / Ana Paula Koury
A Work Encampment Project (1981), by Rodrigo Brotero Lefèvre / Ana C. Buim
Masters of Detachment: Lingering on the Self-management Building Site / Tijana Stevanović
The Industrial Workers of the World in the American Building Industry, 1905-1937 / Alexander Wood
From the Building Site
Absent Voices, Absent Lives: Articulating Building Workers in Architectural Production / Christine Wall
Timber Houses and Favela Carpenters in the Brazilian Nordeste: An Architectural History of Production / José Tavares Correia de Lira
The Construction of Alienated Labour and the Alienation of Construction Labour: Mexico, 16th Century / José Thiesen
Life-Worlds / Death-Worlds in the Temple Building Industry of Western India / Megha Chand Inglis
Labour, Material, Technology New Sites of Labour: Women and Building Products in the Interwar Period in the UK / Katie Lloyd Thomas
A Feminist Reading of the Construction Site: Learning with Women Builders in Mata dos Crioulos / Mariana Moura
The Material as a Source for the History of Architecture / Raíssa Pereira Cintra de Oliveira
Production and Pedagogies Construction Technology for Building Autonomy / João Marcos de Almeida Lopes
Weaving Sérgio Ferro's Web: Production Pedagogies in São Paulo (1963-1972) / João Bittar Fiammenghi
The Useful Student: Perpetuating 'Separated Design' in Handbooks for Architecture Students / Miriam Delaney
From Artist-Architect to Salaried Architect: The Examination of Professional Practice in West Berlin, 1967-1977 / Tilo Amhoff
Politics and the Political Economy of Production
Fire Regimes of Grenfell: On Construction and Combustion / Liam Ross
Remembering Production: Favela Museums, Building, and the Production of Space / Matt Davies and Renata Summa
Considering Art's 'Building Site' for Production Studies: The Case of Art Fabrication / Danielle Child
Afterword / Peggy Deamer
Index
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Other Format:
Online version Building sites
ebook version :
ISBN:
9781032788845
9781032791524
1032791527
1032788844
OCLC:
1528649284
Publisher Number:
90104680010

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