Sub-Urbanism and the Art of Memory by Sébastien Marot mounts a direct challenge to programme's dominance in architectural design, redirecting attention to site as a layered, memory-bearing entity that shapes the project from below rather than above.
About This Book
Marot's argument is precise and pointed: the design project has been captured by programme, and its liberation requires a turn toward site — not site as neutral datum, but site read in depth, through the active lens of memory. To build this case, he draws on four distinct reference points: Frances Yates' scholarship on the art of memory, Freud's analogy between urban history and the workings of the psyche, Robert Smithson's account of returning to his suburban birthplace, and Georges Descombes' design for a Geneva suburban park. The result is a sub-urbanist manifesto that repositions landscape memory and site specificity as generative forces in architectural thinking. This AA Documents re-edition makes a key text newly accessible.
Key Features
- 127 pages of critical theory drawing on architecture, psychoanalysis, and landscape memory
- Case studies including Georges Descombes' Geneva suburban park and Robert Smithson's account of his suburban birthplace
- Originally edited by Pamela Johnston; translated from the French by Brian Holmes
- Published by AA Publications, ISBN: 9781999627782
What You'll Discover
- Why Marot positions site — not programme — as the primary organising principle of the design project
- How Frances Yates' concept of the art of memory is recruited as an architectural thinking tool for reading place in depth
- Freud's analogy between the layered past of a city and the mechanisms of memory, applied to questions of urban and suburban form
- How Georges Descombes' small park in Geneva becomes a demonstration of memory-led design rooted in personal and collective site history
About the Author
Sébastien Marot is the author of this sub-urbanist manifesto, originally written in French in 1999 and subsequently translated by Brian Holmes. The text was first published by AA Publications in 2003 under the editorship of Pamela Johnston.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 127
- Dimensions: 13.5 x 21 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781999627782
- Publisher: AA Publications
- Publication Date: 2003
Perfect For: Architects, landscape architects, and theorists working through the relationship between site, memory, and the design process — and anyone rethinking what programme should and should not control.