The question of what architecture is answered in this book with one sentence: Architecture is space created for human activities. The basic need to find food and water places these activities within a larger spatial field. Humans have learned and found ways to adjust to the various contextual difficulties that they faced as they roamed the earth. Thus rather than adapting, humans have always tried to change the context to their activities. Humanity has looked at the context not merely as a limitation, but rather as a spatial situation filled with opportunities that allows, through intellectual interaction, to change these limitations. Thus humanity has created within the world their own contextual bubble that firmly stands against the larger context it is set in. The key notion of the book is that architecture is space carved out of and against the context and that this process is deterministic.

Autorentext
Martin van der Linden is a Dutch architect living in Japan for 10 years. He studied architecture in the Netherlands (Maastricht University), London (Southbank University) and Japan (Tokyo University). A recognised professional in the field, he has published numerous articles on architecture and design. His academic background includes lecturing positions at Tokyo's Waseda University and Tokyo University of Science.
His professional experience includes working for the renowned Japanese architect Hiroshi Hara on the Kyoto station and the Osaka Umeda Sky Tower. From 1995 to 1996, he worked for Cesar Pelli's Tokyo office at the Museum of Modern Art in Osaka. From 1996 to 1999, he was a design consultant to the architectural office of the Japanese Ministry of Education. Martin worked on the master planning of Japanese universities and other educational as well as governmental buildings. He established van der Architects in 2001.

Klappentext
The question of what architecture is answered in this book with one sentence: Architecture is space created for human activities. The basic need to find food and water places these activities within a larger spatial field. Humans have learned and found ways to adjust to the various contextual difficulties that they faced as they roamed the earth. Thus rather than adapting, humans have always tried to change the context to their activities. Humanity has looked at the context not merely as a limitation, but rather as a spatial situation filled with opportunities that allows, through intellectual interaction, to change these limitations. Thus humanity has created within the world their own contextual bubble that firmly stands against the larger context it is set in. The key notion of the book is that architecture is space carved out of and against the context and that this process is deterministic.

Zusammenfassung
The question of what architecture is answered in this book with one sentence: Architecture is space created for human activities. The basic need to find food and water places these activities within a larger spatial field. Humans have learned and found ways to adjust to the various contextual difficulties that they faced as they roamed the earth. Thus rather than adapting, humans have always tried to change the context to their activities. Humanity has looked at the context not merely as a limitation, but rather as a spatial situation filled with opportunities that allows, through intellectual interaction, to change these limitations. Thus humanity has created within the world their own contextual bubble that firmly stands against the larger context it is set in. The key notion of the book is that architecture is space carved out of and against the context and that this process is deterministic.

Inhalt
The world is already there 1.1 In the desert: phenomenology of body and space. Space given through lightning. Invisible complexity.

1.2 the jungle: from 2D of the desert into 3D. The limiting contextual parameters, Maslow's pyramid.

1.3 The human dream of creating our own world.

Space for human activity

2.1 Spaces of human excess, the history of using materials from outside of the context as a form of luxury. 2.2 Heidegger's hut, space taken from and build out of the immediate context

Is there a grand narrative?
3.1 The patterns in nature

3.2 Self implied rules (Greek, Egyptians, Le Corbusier's eyes that don't see) 3.3 Boullee's mental image of space

The Limit

4.1 Fire (extending context) 4.2 Fear (of the unknown, the space where imagination takes over)

4.3 Demarcations (boundaries) 4.4 Death (the ultimate limit of life, and how to overcome this limitation architecturally)

It all started with a fire
5.1 Setting the scene: Chicago 5.2 Character one: The Engineer

5.3 Character two: The Inventor

5.4 Character three: The Architect 5.5 Character four: The Father of Cool

Architectural world domination
6.1 Bauhaus - Teach them how to fish

6.2 Weissenhofsiedling - Practical experience 6.3 CIAM Congrès internationaux d'architecture modern Intellectual formulation of the idea of modern architecture 6.4 Exhibition at Museum of Modern Art, new York, A first taste of the American dream 6.5 Bye-bye Hitler, hello America!

Me, I build this world
7.1 Build anything, anywhere. Remove the context from the architectural equation
7.2 Out of the crowd, a lonely individual: Kafka & Co 7.3 The strange dialectical dance (example the movies of Jacques Tati)
Transitional space
8.1 Definition

8.2 Example: the deep transitional spaces of Seven, the human adaption machine of Woody Allen in Zelig 8.3 The nowhere is sending messages
Context welcome
9.1 Glass House Johnson
9.2 Privacy, openness
The House as a Container for the Unconscious
10.1 Japanese architecture, zenenkons, (The history of an architect in Japan, from hands to minds) 10.2 Shinohara, the anti-metabolist

10.3 Shinohara projects

10.4 Both-and Japaneseness

10.5 The house as a work of art, universe in itself 10.6 The world's most famous unknown architect: Influence of Shinohara on architecture

Conclusion: The future is not what it used to be**
**Architectural Scenarios

12.1 A re-introduction of the context back into architectural spaces, as a deliberately limiting element to appreciate geographical and/or climate conditions

12.2 The zero-time space. KHMER ROUGE, Superstudio, Archizoom, tracing transitional space to an extreme. 12.3 Is there a dialectic?