Valuing Architecture
Heritage and the Economics of Culture
- Explores different perspectives on the value of architecture
- Looks at inherent cultural and historical value and how to link to economic value
- Sparks the discussion on heritage with new content
Editors: Ashley Paine, Susan Holden, John Macarthur
Contributors: Daniel M. Abramson, Tom Brigden, Alex Brown, Amy Clarke, Wouter Davidts, Bart Decroos, Susan Holden, Jordan Kauffman, Hamish Lonergan, John Macarthur, Joanna Merwood-Salisbury, Ashley Paine, Anton Pereira, Andrea Phillips, Lara Schrijver, Ari Seligmann, Kirsty Volz, Rosemary Willink
Design: Sam de Groot
Series: vis-à-vis
2020, Valiz with the University of Queensland, the Australian Research Council, Ghent University | paperback | 288 pp. | 23,4 x 16,5 cm (h x w) | ISBN 978-94-92095-93-0 | € 25,00
Case studies:
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Kanal–Centre Pompidou, Brussels
Robin Hood Gardens, Peter & Alison Smithson, London
Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, US
MoMA and American Folk Art Museum, New York
Metabolist architecture
Brutalist architecture
And many others
Architecture has always been found in a space between its economic and cultural values. As distinct from the intrinsic values attributed to the visual and performing arts, literature and music, architecture's values are often seen to be compromised by, or contingent upon, forces outside of the discipline—on property prices, real estate markets and the vicissitudes of local and global economies. Such intersections of cultural and economic values are especially conspicuous in architectural heritage where conflicts between values are most publicly and passionately contested.
Valuing Architecture is not concerned with arguments for or against the cultural value of architecture and heritage per se but, rather, with the different sites and occasions where such values are bestowed, exchanged and come into conflict. It brings together a collection of essays that tackle concrete cases, both historical and contemporary, to explore how the values of architecture intersect, and what is at stake for architecture in the economics of culture.