Framing Places Mediating Power in Built Form

Framing Places is an account of the nexus between place and power, investigating how the built forms of architecture and urban design act as mediators of social practices of power. Explored through a range of theories and case studies, this examination shows how lives are 'framed' within the clusters of rooms, buildings, streets and cities. These silent framings of everyday life also mediate practices of coercion, seduction and authorization as architects and urban designers engage with the articulation of dreams; imagining and constructing a 'better' future in someone's interest. This second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to include a look at the recent Grollo Tower development in Melbourne and a critique on Euralille, a new quarter development in Northern France. The book draws from a broad range of methodology including: analysis of spatial structure discourse analysis phenomenology. These approaches are woven together through a series of narratives on specific cities - Berlin, Beijing and Bangkok -and global building types including the corporate tower, shopping mall, domestic house and enclave.

Introduction Part 1: Frames of Theorization 1. Power 2. Program 3. Text 4. Place Part 2: Centres of Power 5. Take Your Breath Away: Berlin 6. Hidden Power: Beijing 7. Paths to Democracy: Bangkok Part 3: Global Types 8. Tall Storeys: The Corporate Tower 9. Inverted City: The Shopping Mall 10. Domestic Desires: House and Enclave Part 4: Localities 11. A Sign for the Twenty-FirstCentury: Euralille 12. Rust and Irony: Rottnest Island 13. Afterword: Liberty and Complicity

Kim Dovey is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Melbourne. He has published and broadcast widely on issues of place and ideology including the book Fluid City (Routledge 2005).