THEORIZING A NEW AGENDA FOR ARCHITECTURE:  ANTHOLOGY BRINGS TOGETHER
KEY CONTEMPORARY IDEAS

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 21 -- What are the chief ideas and
theories that have preoccupied contemporary architects?
	A newly published book by a University of Virginia architect
is the first anthology to collect the most significant writings on
architectural theory of the last thirty years, a diverse revisionist
period known by the catch-all term "postmodern."
	"Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of
Architectural Theory 1965 1995," edited by U.Va. assistant professor
of architecture Kate Nesbitt and just published by Princeton
Architectural Press, presents 51 key essays, manifestos and polemics
that have appeared in journals and books around the world.  Brought
together from widely scattered sources, the writings serve as a
first-hand introduction to the important themes of this contentious
time. 
	The collection begins with an excerpt from Robert Venturi's
"Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture," the now classic book
originally published in 1966 that radically changed attitudes about
modern architecture by critiquing then current technological
utopias, expressionist fantasies and formulaic repetitions of the
canonical works of the Modern Movement.  This critique "opened a
Pandora's box" of possibilities, including looking at the past and
at vernacular architecture, to enrich design, says Nesbitt.
	During the last 30 years, architecture and cultural
modernity have been through a period of total reexamination, points
out Nesbitt.  Architects have drawn new theoretical paradigms from
other disciplines, including philosophy, literature and
psychoanalysis, and architectural theory has become truly
interdisciplinary, she says.
	"It has been a dynamic period," she says, in which
architecture has confronted a "crisis of meaning."  In the process,
the postmodern era (which Nesbitt stresses includes much more than
the architectural style called postmodernism) has produced widely
divergent and radical viewpoints on the tradition of architecture
and its relationship to society and the city. 
	In addition to an introductory essay by Nesbitt offering an
overview of postmodern discourse, the anthology includes writings by
Alan Colquhoun, philosopher Jacques Derrida, Peter Eisenman, Kenneth
Frampton, Michael Graves, Demetri Porphyrios, Bernard Tschumi and
U.Va. architecture dean William McDonough, among others.  Each essay
is also introduced by Nesbitt and put in the context of the larger
discourse.
	The paradigms Nesbitt uses to organize the chapters include
postmodernism, semiotics and structuralism, poststructuralism and
deconstruction, historicism, political and ethical agendas, feminism
and critical regionalism.  An emerging critical position,
environmental ethics, is represented by recent polemics by U.Va.'s
McDonough. 
	 Nesbitt says she hopes her book will not only lead to a
wider understanding and evaluation of the contemporary period in
architecture but will also be useful to anyone interested in
postmodern culture and theory.
	Nesbitt, a U.Va. alumna who received her master of
architecture degree from Yale, has studied at the Institute for
Architecture and Urban Studies in New York and at Copenhagen
University.  A practicing architect and a member of the U.Va.
faculty since 1991, she teaches architectural theory and design.
	She will chair the 1996 Association of Collegiate Schools of
Architecture European conference May 25-29 in Copenhagen, where
architects and architectural educators from around the world will
exchange ideas on the subject of tectonics. More generally,
reconsideration of the role of architecture in a changing global
economy and in a new millennium will be discussed.
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May 20, 1996
	Review copies of "Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture"
are available from Princeton Architectural Press at 1-800-722-6657.
To arrange interviews with Kate Nesbitt please contact Bob
Brickhouse at U.Va. News Services at (804) 924-6856.  Television
reporters should contact our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.