The domain of my research is architectural theory. I use close reading/writing of texts and images to develop values for architecture based in the human understanding. My work draws heavily on the humanities – I regard architecture as a humanity, not a science or social science - because architecture is the discourse in which our collective values are most directly articulated. My work is speculative, and it is akin to research done in philosophy. It does not solve problems, it keeps them from being forgotten in our search for facts. It clears an empty space for creative thought and practice. A farmer clears the forest to plant a field of wheat.
I use the term architecture in the broadest way, to encompass all forms of occupation from the homestead to the city because all forms of occupation involve construction. I am most concerned with the architecture of the city, architecture framed by a city constructed of architecture - the environments we construct collectively in order to live well in them.
These texts document two programs of public lectures and dialogues by practitioners in the constr... more These texts document two programs of public lectures and dialogues by practitioners in the constructed environment. These programs were held in connection with the exhibition, The City is a Thinking Machine, and were the culmination of the research project. The City is a Thinking Machine was an exhibition of work from the Geddes archive plus contemporary work in architecture planning and the arts that – like Geddes – addresses the city as a social body with a material form. The intention of the program was to contextualise this material. As the material trace of what was essentially an extended oral event, they are what endures and hence what remains available for reworking and working through by others. This is the material condition for discourse as research.
Volume 4, which includes all the texts of the programme of talks accompanying the exhibition, is the fourth of 4 volumes.
Eight affiliates of the Geddes Institute for Urban Research at the University of Dundee contribut... more Eight affiliates of the Geddes Institute for Urban Research at the University of Dundee contributed projects to the exhibition. The projects were installed on the gallery walls, with the Geddes archive material in the vitrines in the centre of the space. Moving counter-clockwise beginning in the southwest corner. Paul Guzzardo’s video installation records a civil suit that unpacks the relation between power, intellectual property, and digital practice in the city of St. Louis. Cameron McEwan’s montage drawings look at the city and society as analogues. John Dummett’s montage of text and images looks at the figure of the public in political discourse. Jelena Stankovics plan studies of Banja Luka map the personal and collective memories embedded in the city fabric. The art practice of Tracy MacKenna and Edwin Janssen produced lapel buttons to orient public activists within the city. Deborah Peel with the TayPlan Strategic Planning Authority and the Dundee City Council Planning Department documented the history of Tay Valley regional planning from Geddes’ time to the present waterfront plan. Fergus Purdie Architects produced a citizens’ civic survey of Perth, comprising 9 A0 screen prints. Graeme Hutton and Charles Rattray produced plan studies for the commercial and residential development of the Dundee waterfront. Using different means and media, these projects treat the city as a social form and use it to think through questions of inhabitation and social life. Reproduced in front of each contribution is the A3 exhibition panel that introduced each project.
Volume 3, which reproduces the contributions of affiliates of the Geddes Institute in dialogue with the material drawn from the Geddes Archives, is the third of 4 volumes.
Geddes’ collected texts and images are located in the archives of the Universities of Dundee, Edi... more Geddes’ collected texts and images are located in the archives of the Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh, and Strathclyde, without whose support, including the support of Caroline Brown (Dundee), Grant Buttars (Edinburgh), and Victoria Peters (Strathclyde) and their staff, it would not have been possible to exhibit the centrepiece of this project. These include: a selection from Geddes’ extensive collection of city, regional, and national plans; his lecture notes and diagrams, including versions of his gridded thinking machines and valley sections; his principle publications, including a first edition Cities in Evolution, the Dunfermline Report and the Cities Exhibitions Catalogues; finally, a number of correspondences, memorabilia, and a draft of Cities in Evolution.
Volume 2, which includes reproductions of all the exhibited material drawn from the Geddes Archives, is the second of 4 volumes.
The City is a Thinking Machine is a research project bringing together in an exhibition, Geddes’ ... more The City is a Thinking Machine is a research project bringing together in an exhibition, Geddes’ collection of city plans with his thinking and lecture notes. The exhibition also includes projects by eight practices affiliated with the Geddes Institute at the University of Dundee. Affiliates include members of the academic and professional communities from Scotland and abroad, and include artists, architects, and the Local and Strategic Planning Authorities. Our aim is to demonstrate the continuing significance of the thought on cities and society by polymathic Scottish planner and botanist Patrick Geddes. The city plans were drawn from Geddes’ touring Cities Exhibition, most of which have not been brought to the public view since the Outlook Tower closed in 1949. The lecture notes include his ‘thinking machine’ diagrams, drawn on folded paper, which trace the linked evolution of civic society and the places they build to live well in them. Most of the diagrams have not, to our knowledge, been exhibited or published before, nor have they been seen together with the plans. The project marks the centenary of the publication of Geddes’ Cities in Evolution (1915).
Volume 1, which includes reproductions of the explanatory exhibition panels and interpretative essays by Lorens Holm, is the first of 4 volumes.
The City is a Thinking Machine is a research project bringing together in an exhibition, Geddes’ ... more The City is a Thinking Machine is a research project bringing together in an exhibition, Geddes’ collection of city plans with his thinking and lecture notes. The exhibition also includes projects by eight practices affiliated with the Geddes Institute at the University of Dundee. Affiliates include members of the academic and professional communities from Scotland and abroad, and include artists, architects, and the Local and Strategic Planning Authorities. Our aim is to demonstrate the continuing significance of the thought on cities and society by polymathic Scottish planner and botanist Patrick Geddes. The city plans were drawn from Geddes’ touring Cities Exhibition, most of which have not been brought to the public view since the Outlook Tower closed in 1949. The lecture notes include his ‘thinking machine’ diagrams, drawn on folded paper, which trace the linked evolution of civic society and the places they build to live well in them. Most of the diagrams have not, to our knowledge, been exhibited or published before, nor have they been seen together with the plans. The project marks the centenary of the publication of Geddes’ Cities in Evolution (1915).
Volume 1, which includes reproductions of the explanatory exhibition panels and interpretative essays by Lorens Holm, is the first of 4 volumes.
There are a number of recent texts that draw on psychoanalytic theory as an interpretative approa... more There are a number of recent texts that draw on psychoanalytic theory as an interpretative approach for understanding architecture, or that use the formal and social logics of architecture for understanding the psyche. But there remains work to be done in bringing what largely amounts to a series of independent voices, into a discourse that is greater than the sum of its parts, in the way that, say, the architect Peter Eisenman was able to do with the architecture of deconstruction or that the historian Manfredo Tafuri was able to do with the Marxist critique of architecture. The discourse of the present volume focuses specifically for the first time on the subject of the unconscious in relation to the design, perception, and understanding of architecture. It brings together an international group of contributors, who provide informed and varied points of view on the role of the unconscious in architectural design and theory and, in doing so, expand architectural theory to unexplored areas, enriching architecture in relation to the humanities. The book explores how architecture engages dreams, desires, imagination, memory, and emotions, how architecture can appeal to a broader scope of human experience and identity. Beginning by examining the historical development of the engagement of the unconscious in architectural discourse, and the current and historical, theoretical and practical, intersections of architecture and psychoanalysis, the volume also analyses the city and the urban condition. Edited with Lorens Holm, with essays by Andrew Ballantyne, Kati Blom, Hugh Campbell, Emma Cheatle, Gordana Korolija Fontana-Giusti, John Hendrix, Lorens Holm, Stephen Kite, Christina Malathouni, Timothy D. Martin, Francesco Proto, Jane Rendell, Nikos Sideris, and Alla G. Vronskaya.
Geddes Institute Task Force on cities and their regions. Show full item record. Title: Geddes Ins... more Geddes Institute Task Force on cities and their regions. Show full item record. Title: Geddes Institute Task Force on cities and their regions. Author: Holm, Lorens; Martinez-Perez, Alona. Publisher: Geddes Institute for Urban Research. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10588/2451. ...
Page 1. R esearch T eam Lorens Holm Cameron McEwan Krisztina Mészöly Kaissa Tait G edd es I nstit... more Page 1. R esearch T eam Lorens Holm Cameron McEwan Krisztina Mészöly Kaissa Tait G edd es I nstitute for U rban R esearch T ask F orceon C ities & their R egions Part A: T e x t ... 35 location plan of village site 41 VH 37 & VH 38 St Madoes/Glencarse (Cameron McEwan) 42 ...
These texts document two programs of public lectures and dialogues by practitioners in the constr... more These texts document two programs of public lectures and dialogues by practitioners in the constructed environment. These programs were held in connection with the exhibition, The City is a Thinking Machine, and were the culmination of the research project. The City is a Thinking Machine was an exhibition of work from the Geddes archive plus contemporary work in architecture planning and the arts that – like Geddes – addresses the city as a social body with a material form. The intention of the program was to contextualise this material. As the material trace of what was essentially an extended oral event, they are what endures and hence what remains available for reworking and working through by others. This is the material condition for discourse as research.
Volume 4, which includes all the texts of the programme of talks accompanying the exhibition, is the fourth of 4 volumes.
Eight affiliates of the Geddes Institute for Urban Research at the University of Dundee contribut... more Eight affiliates of the Geddes Institute for Urban Research at the University of Dundee contributed projects to the exhibition. The projects were installed on the gallery walls, with the Geddes archive material in the vitrines in the centre of the space. Moving counter-clockwise beginning in the southwest corner. Paul Guzzardo’s video installation records a civil suit that unpacks the relation between power, intellectual property, and digital practice in the city of St. Louis. Cameron McEwan’s montage drawings look at the city and society as analogues. John Dummett’s montage of text and images looks at the figure of the public in political discourse. Jelena Stankovics plan studies of Banja Luka map the personal and collective memories embedded in the city fabric. The art practice of Tracy MacKenna and Edwin Janssen produced lapel buttons to orient public activists within the city. Deborah Peel with the TayPlan Strategic Planning Authority and the Dundee City Council Planning Department documented the history of Tay Valley regional planning from Geddes’ time to the present waterfront plan. Fergus Purdie Architects produced a citizens’ civic survey of Perth, comprising 9 A0 screen prints. Graeme Hutton and Charles Rattray produced plan studies for the commercial and residential development of the Dundee waterfront. Using different means and media, these projects treat the city as a social form and use it to think through questions of inhabitation and social life. Reproduced in front of each contribution is the A3 exhibition panel that introduced each project.
Volume 3, which reproduces the contributions of affiliates of the Geddes Institute in dialogue with the material drawn from the Geddes Archives, is the third of 4 volumes.
Geddes’ collected texts and images are located in the archives of the Universities of Dundee, Edi... more Geddes’ collected texts and images are located in the archives of the Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh, and Strathclyde, without whose support, including the support of Caroline Brown (Dundee), Grant Buttars (Edinburgh), and Victoria Peters (Strathclyde) and their staff, it would not have been possible to exhibit the centrepiece of this project. These include: a selection from Geddes’ extensive collection of city, regional, and national plans; his lecture notes and diagrams, including versions of his gridded thinking machines and valley sections; his principle publications, including a first edition Cities in Evolution, the Dunfermline Report and the Cities Exhibitions Catalogues; finally, a number of correspondences, memorabilia, and a draft of Cities in Evolution.
Volume 2, which includes reproductions of all the exhibited material drawn from the Geddes Archives, is the second of 4 volumes.
The City is a Thinking Machine is a research project bringing together in an exhibition, Geddes’ ... more The City is a Thinking Machine is a research project bringing together in an exhibition, Geddes’ collection of city plans with his thinking and lecture notes. The exhibition also includes projects by eight practices affiliated with the Geddes Institute at the University of Dundee. Affiliates include members of the academic and professional communities from Scotland and abroad, and include artists, architects, and the Local and Strategic Planning Authorities. Our aim is to demonstrate the continuing significance of the thought on cities and society by polymathic Scottish planner and botanist Patrick Geddes. The city plans were drawn from Geddes’ touring Cities Exhibition, most of which have not been brought to the public view since the Outlook Tower closed in 1949. The lecture notes include his ‘thinking machine’ diagrams, drawn on folded paper, which trace the linked evolution of civic society and the places they build to live well in them. Most of the diagrams have not, to our knowledge, been exhibited or published before, nor have they been seen together with the plans. The project marks the centenary of the publication of Geddes’ Cities in Evolution (1915).
Volume 1, which includes reproductions of the explanatory exhibition panels and interpretative essays by Lorens Holm, is the first of 4 volumes.
The City is a Thinking Machine is a research project bringing together in an exhibition, Geddes’ ... more The City is a Thinking Machine is a research project bringing together in an exhibition, Geddes’ collection of city plans with his thinking and lecture notes. The exhibition also includes projects by eight practices affiliated with the Geddes Institute at the University of Dundee. Affiliates include members of the academic and professional communities from Scotland and abroad, and include artists, architects, and the Local and Strategic Planning Authorities. Our aim is to demonstrate the continuing significance of the thought on cities and society by polymathic Scottish planner and botanist Patrick Geddes. The city plans were drawn from Geddes’ touring Cities Exhibition, most of which have not been brought to the public view since the Outlook Tower closed in 1949. The lecture notes include his ‘thinking machine’ diagrams, drawn on folded paper, which trace the linked evolution of civic society and the places they build to live well in them. Most of the diagrams have not, to our knowledge, been exhibited or published before, nor have they been seen together with the plans. The project marks the centenary of the publication of Geddes’ Cities in Evolution (1915).
Volume 1, which includes reproductions of the explanatory exhibition panels and interpretative essays by Lorens Holm, is the first of 4 volumes.
There are a number of recent texts that draw on psychoanalytic theory as an interpretative approa... more There are a number of recent texts that draw on psychoanalytic theory as an interpretative approach for understanding architecture, or that use the formal and social logics of architecture for understanding the psyche. But there remains work to be done in bringing what largely amounts to a series of independent voices, into a discourse that is greater than the sum of its parts, in the way that, say, the architect Peter Eisenman was able to do with the architecture of deconstruction or that the historian Manfredo Tafuri was able to do with the Marxist critique of architecture. The discourse of the present volume focuses specifically for the first time on the subject of the unconscious in relation to the design, perception, and understanding of architecture. It brings together an international group of contributors, who provide informed and varied points of view on the role of the unconscious in architectural design and theory and, in doing so, expand architectural theory to unexplored areas, enriching architecture in relation to the humanities. The book explores how architecture engages dreams, desires, imagination, memory, and emotions, how architecture can appeal to a broader scope of human experience and identity. Beginning by examining the historical development of the engagement of the unconscious in architectural discourse, and the current and historical, theoretical and practical, intersections of architecture and psychoanalysis, the volume also analyses the city and the urban condition. Edited with Lorens Holm, with essays by Andrew Ballantyne, Kati Blom, Hugh Campbell, Emma Cheatle, Gordana Korolija Fontana-Giusti, John Hendrix, Lorens Holm, Stephen Kite, Christina Malathouni, Timothy D. Martin, Francesco Proto, Jane Rendell, Nikos Sideris, and Alla G. Vronskaya.
Geddes Institute Task Force on cities and their regions. Show full item record. Title: Geddes Ins... more Geddes Institute Task Force on cities and their regions. Show full item record. Title: Geddes Institute Task Force on cities and their regions. Author: Holm, Lorens; Martinez-Perez, Alona. Publisher: Geddes Institute for Urban Research. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10588/2451. ...
Page 1. R esearch T eam Lorens Holm Cameron McEwan Krisztina Mészöly Kaissa Tait G edd es I nstit... more Page 1. R esearch T eam Lorens Holm Cameron McEwan Krisztina Mészöly Kaissa Tait G edd es I nstitute for U rban R esearch T ask F orceon C ities & their R egions Part A: T e x t ... 35 location plan of village site 41 VH 37 & VH 38 St Madoes/Glencarse (Cameron McEwan) 42 ...
Page 1. R esearch T eam Lorens Holm Cameron McEwan Krisztina Mészöly Kaissa Tait G edd es I nstit... more Page 1. R esearch T eam Lorens Holm Cameron McEwan Krisztina Mészöly Kaissa Tait G edd es I nstitute for U rban R esearch T ask F orceon C ities & their R egions Part A: T e x t ... 35 location plan of village site 41 VH 37 & VH 38 St Madoes/Glencarse (Cameron McEwan) 42 ...
What would an architect submitting a paper to a special issue of Critical Quarterly called Medici... more What would an architect submitting a paper to a special issue of Critical Quarterly called Medicine, Ritual, and the Contemporary Deathbed write about? Answer: The Ritual. This paper explores the relation between architecture and death. It is a response to John Tercier’s The Contemporary Deathbed: The Ultimate Rush, which is about the reception in popular culture of death and medical practice. It will examine the psychoanalytic concept of the death drive. Rather than produce the master narrative of death and architecture, it consists of architectural vignettes of death, including the zombie, the Vitruvian man, the Steadicam man of TV-ve´rite´, the Parthenon, the empty house. This paper is not a survey, but a montage. The standard for montage is not truth, but intelligibility. The vignettes were chosen because they could be joined up to make a picture of the death drive.
To my mind, the project of multi-specificity is fundamentally an ethical project. It makes an exp... more To my mind, the project of multi-specificity is fundamentally an ethical project. It makes an expansive and expanding gesture towards inclusion, and ethics is about how we keep each other in mind. This is easy to do if the other is foreigner to you. You just have to get over a few prejudices. Not so easy if the other is a cow.
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Books by Lorens Holm
Volume 4, which includes all the texts of the programme of talks accompanying the exhibition, is the fourth of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Volume 3, which reproduces the contributions of affiliates of the Geddes Institute in dialogue with the material drawn from the Geddes Archives, is the third of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Volume 2, which includes reproductions of all the exhibited material drawn from the Geddes Archives, is the second of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Volume 1, which includes reproductions of the explanatory exhibition panels and interpretative essays by Lorens Holm, is the first of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Volume 1, which includes reproductions of the explanatory exhibition panels and interpretative essays by Lorens Holm, is the first of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Papers by Lorens Holm
Volume 4, which includes all the texts of the programme of talks accompanying the exhibition, is the fourth of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Volume 3, which reproduces the contributions of affiliates of the Geddes Institute in dialogue with the material drawn from the Geddes Archives, is the third of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Volume 2, which includes reproductions of all the exhibited material drawn from the Geddes Archives, is the second of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Volume 1, which includes reproductions of the explanatory exhibition panels and interpretative essays by Lorens Holm, is the first of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.
Volume 1, which includes reproductions of the explanatory exhibition panels and interpretative essays by Lorens Holm, is the first of 4 volumes.
ISBN 978-0-9562949-4-4 for all four volumes.