Architecture Beyond Criticism: Expert Judgment and Performance Evaluation

For the first time, this book demonstrates that the two paradigms of architectural criticism and performance evaluation can not only co-exist but complement each other in the assessment of built works.

As architecture takes more principled stances worldwide, from environmental sustainability to social, cultural, and economic activism, this book examines the roles of perceived and measured quality in architecture. By exploring in tandem both subjective traditional architectural criticism and environmental design and performance evaluation and its objective evaluation criteria, the book argues that both methodologies and outcomes can achieve a comprehensive assessment of quality in architecture.

Curated by a global editorial team, the book includes:

• Contributions from international architects and critics based in the UK, USA, Brazil, France, Qatar, Egypt, New Zealand, China, Japan and Germany
• Global case studies which illustrate both perspectives addressed by the book and comparative analyses of the findings
• A six part organization which includes introductions and conclusions from the editors, to help guide the reader and further illuminate the contributions.

By presenting a systematic approach to assessing building performance, design professionals will learn how to improve building design and performance with major stakeholders in mind, especially end users/occupants.

Editors Wolfgang F. E. Preiser, Aaron T. Davis, Ashraf M. Salama and Andrea Hardy represent an aggregate of cutting-edge architectural practice, consulting, research and lecturing on a global basis. They have a collective publication record of 25 books with major publishing houses from around the world. Senior editor Wolfgang F. E. Preiser has chaired national committees in the US, among others, for the National Academy of Sciences; Aaron T. Davis is an architect and building enclosure specialist and serves on the editorial board for the International Journal of Architectural History and Criticism; Ashraf M. Salama is editor of two international professional journals; and Andrea Hardy is an Architect-in-Training exploring the concepts of developing the public realm in growing desert cities.