Occupying Architecture

Between the Architect and the User

Occupying Architecture focuses on the importance of the user of architecture. It emphasises the cross-currents between design, theory and use, and the need for a wider cross-cultural approach to architecture. Beginning with the architect, the book proceeds to explore models for architectural practice that actively engage the issue of use, and concludes with examination of the user. The authors draw on illustrations and examples from London, Las Vegas, Barcelona and Bruges to discuss how and why architecture ignores the user. The apparant contradictions between the 'producer' and the 'product' of architecture are highlighted before the activities of the architect and the actions of the user are explored.
This book illustrates that architecture is not just a building: it is the relation between an object and its occupant.