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A Certain Kind of Life

(Paperback)


Publishing Details

Full Title:

A Certain Kind of Life

Contributors:

By (Author) Jimmy Carter
By (author) Abigail Chang
By (author) Francesco Marullo
By (author) Agata Siemionow

ISBN:

9781638400493

Publisher:

Actar Publishers

Imprint:

Actar Publishers

Publication Date:

9th September 2025

Country:

United States

Classifications

Readership:

General

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Other Subjects:

Urban communities
Individual architects and architectural firms

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Paperback

Number of Pages:

168

Dimensions:

Width 198mm, Height 198mm

Description

A Certain Kind of Life examines how we dwell and live together, delving into the relationships between architecture and asceticism, domesticity and estrangement, rules and transgressions, solitary rituals and collective forms within both historical and contemporary societies.

This book derives an approach to individual and collective living from monastic architecture. Alongside research and documentation of a large-scale pavilion and exhibition featured at the 2019 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the book builds on drawings, texts, and images from scholars and architects who contemplate questions surrounding solitude, retreat, and quietness. The narrative considers how architecture can distill our everyday social encounters into a building language through different mediums. The ideas of community present in the monastic architecture typology offer a lens to reflect on the solitary living that we recently collectively experienced.

From these various perspectives, A Certain Kind of Life examines how we have historically lived together, alone while continuing to share, adapt and build under unpredictable conditions that bind us globally.

With Contributions of Penelope Dean, Walter Benn Michaels, Mauricio Pezo & Sofia von Ellrichshausen, Robert Somol, Tuomas Toivonen, with photographs by Ibai Rigby.

Author Bio

Jimmy Carter is an architect and writer whose practice delves into the breadth of architectural dissemination. He is a founding member of Office MI--JI. He holds a Master of Arts in Design Criticism from the University of Illinois in Chicago and a Master of Architecture from The University of Melbourne. In 2017, he was awarded with the 2017 Schiff Foundation Critical Architectural Writing Fellowship by the Art Institute of Chicago, and has published work in journals such as Flat-Out and MAS Context, and his work has been exhibited in the Lisbon Triennale (2019). Abigail Chang is a designer and educator from Los Angeles. Her practice is interested in subtle encounters that are driven by material qualities and details, and responds to currents in contemporary culture. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including the 2019 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism and Volume Gallery. Her research is supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and UIC College of Architecture, Design and the Arts, where she is a Visiting Assistant Professor. Prior to starting her practice, she worked in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Basel and Tokyo at firms including Norman Kelley, SO-IL and Herzog & de Meuron. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies from UCLA with distinction, and a Masters in Architecture from Harvard GSD, where she was awarded the Takenaka Fellowship. Francesco Marullo is an architect and educator interested in the relationships between space, labor, and production. He holds a Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture from the Delft Institute of Technology and currently teaches at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He is a founding member of The City as a Project collective and part of the Journal of Architectural Education editorial board. His work has been exhibited in various international venues such as the Venice Architecture Biennale (2006, 2014, 2016), the Oslo Architecture Triennale (2016), the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2019), and the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (2020). Agata Siemionow is an architect and educator interested in political aspects of the architectural form and the city. She graduated from the Berlage Institute of Architecture in Rotterdam where she collaborated on the book and exhibition Brussels a Manifesto.Towards the Capital of Europe NAI Publishers. Her work has been exhibited at various international venues including Venice Architecture Biennale (2006) and Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2019). As an educator she has been teaching at UIC College of Architecture, Design and the Arts, as well as Illinois Institute of Technology as a Visiting Assistant Professor where she was an editor of Crown Hall Dean's Dialogues, published by Actar.

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