Unexpected Affinities
The History of Type in Architectural Project from Laugier to Duchamp

While the concept of "type" has been present in architectural discourse since its formal introduction at the end of the eighteenth century, its role in the development of architectural projects has not been comprehensively analyzed. This book proposes a reassessment of architectural type throughout history and its impact on the development of architectural theory and practice. Beginning with Laugier's 1753 Essay on Architecture, Unexpected Affinities: The History of Type in the Architectural Project from Laugier to Duchamp traces type through nineteenth- and twentiethth-century architectural movements and thoeries, culminating in a discussion of the affinities between architectural type and Duchamp's concept of the readymade. Includes over sixty black and white images.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
PART 1: NINETEENTH CENTURY—ORIGINS, IMITATION, TYPE
Chapter 1. Towards an Inaugural Definition of Type
Chapter 2. Semper’s Knot
PART 2: TWENTIETH CENTURY—SHIFTING CONSIDERATIONS
Chapter 3. Modern Architecture’s Uncertain Consideration of Type
Chapter 4. Typology Reconsidered
PART 3: TYPE AND PROJECT—ALTERATION TACTICS
Chapter 5. Typological Alterations
Chapter 6. Affinities: Typological Displacement and Readymade
AFTERWORD
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Pablo Meninato holds a PhD from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. He has practiced architecture and urban design in Buenos Aires, Monterrey, and Philadelphia, where he is principal of PMArch. Meninato has lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Philadelphia University, Universidad de Monterrey, and the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires. He has written architectural criticism and essays for >assemble d3, Summa+, and Arqtexto, and the forthcoming "Spatial Seductions—The Everyday Interiorities of Marcel Duchamp, Eduard Kienholz, and Pepon Osorio," in The Interior Architecture Theory Reader, Taylor & Francis (March 2018).