Book Conversation | Exactitude: On Precision and Play in Contemporary Architecture
Pari Riahi, Associate Professor, UMass Architecture, and one of her two collaborators, Laure Katsaros (Amherst College), discuss a new edited volume: Exactitude: On Precision and Play in Contemporary Architecture, with two of the Contributors, Ada Tolla and Teresa Stoppani, and two distinguished scholars, Paul Emmons (Virginia Tech) and Mohsen Mostafavi (Harvard University) in a session moderated by Mary Dougherty. UMAss Amherst Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts, Barbara Krauthamer, will offer welcoming remarks.
This Book Conversation reflects on the state of architecture today as a first of a trio of symposia and their edited volumes, with Exactitude: On Precision and Play in Contemporary Architecture (UMass Press, 2022). In this virtual program, Pari Riahi and Laure Katsaros (editors), Ada Tolla and Teresa Stoppani (contributors), together with Paul Emmons and Mohsen Mostafavi (respondents) will elaborate on the theme with brief presentations, discussions and responses to the public's questions.
Inspired by Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millennium, the three symposia are autonomous yet interrelated. With “Exactitude,” we examined the ever-increasing demand for precision in architecture at a time when the parameters of the profession are shifting. With “Multiplicity,” we situate architecture within a broader framework, examining how it interacts with complex climatic, economic, and demographic crises at the scale of the city, the territory, and the globe. With “Quickness,” we will address the rates and cycles of architectural production, from early conception to realization, scrutinizing the speed and duration of translating ideas into artifacts through digital and material means.
Precision is necessary in the field of architecture, and new technologies have increased demands for accuracy, particularly when the smallest errors can have outsized consequences. However, the importance of precision, or exactitude, has not received the consideration it merits. While themes of sustainability, performance, and formal innovation have been at the forefront of architectural scholarship for the past twenty years, the book explores the theoretical and practical demands exactitude makes on architecture as a field.
Edited by Pari Riahi, Laure Katsaros, and Michael T. Davis, the eleven essays collected in this book, investigate the possibilities and shortcomings of exactitude and delve into current debates about the state of contemporary architecture as both a technological craft and artistic creation. Featuring new work by leading theorists, historians, editors, architects, and scholars, this volume brings theory and practice into insightful and productive conversations. In addition to the editors, contributors include Mark Wigley, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Eric Höweler, Christopher Benfey, Sunil Bald, Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano with Thomas de Monchaux, Alicia Imperiale, Francesca Hughes, Teresa Stoppani, and Cynthia Davidson.
This event is sponsored by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts Amherst. To register please visit the event page below and register on the left side, under Zoom Invitation. The event is free and open to all.
