This book highlights some of the historical sources of ecological approaches that are currently reshaping the architectural field, especially in the work of architects such as Aldo van Eyck, Alison and Peter Smithson, James Stirling and others. This volume follows the paradigmatic shift in thinking about the built environment as something inherently contextual and relational. By demonstrating the continuities, disruptions and transformations at stake, Habitat deepens the ongoing conversation, while suggesting directions for future research.
Based on selections from the archival resources of the national collection of Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, and with additional materials from international archives, the book presents a lavish documentation of design proposals and research projects that map key positions since the 1950s, when the idea of "habitat" was first investigated to reconceptualize architecture and its larger purpose, especially in the circles of the CIAM and Team 10.