Time, History and Architecture: Essays on Critical Historiography

Time, History and Architecture presents a series of essays on critical historiography, each addressing a different topic, to elucidate the importance of two influential figures on architectural history – Walter Benjamin and Gottfried Semper. Divided into three thematic parts, time, autonomy and periodization, author Gevork Hartoonian investigates the construction of architectural history, the problem of autonomy in criticism and the historiographic narrative. Mapping the scope of criticism informing the contemporaneity of architecture, the book explores the Benjaminian concept of now-time and theorises that timeis the agent of critical historiography. An engaging thematic dialogue for academics and upper level graduate students interested in architectural theory, it aims to deconstruct the certainties of historicism and raises new questions and interpretations from established critical languages.