Values and Surfaces

In a plea for more speculative, experimental, and performative historiography, Philip Ursprung draws upon historical and contemporary cases to show how architecture, art, and economics are intertwined. By using the multilayered terms value and surface, he offers alternatives to measurable categories such as price and space. Is it legitimate to interpret Herman Melvilles Moby Dick and Londons Crystal Palace as two manifestations of industrial grandeur, their monumentality and incomprehensibility as exemplary symbols of early industrial capitalism? How should Adolf Looss essay Ornament and Crime be interpreted alongside economic pressure on the architectural profession? To what extent is the Bologna reform of European higher education reflected in the design of Lacaton & Vassals Nantes School of Architecture? The answers shed new light on buildings and works of art, encouraging a revision of customary views on history.