ADHOCISM: The Case for Improvisation

Expanded and Updated Edition, MIT Press, here's the triumphant return of a book that gave us permission to throw out the rulebook, in activities ranging from play to architecture to revolution. As a design principle, adhocism starts with everyday improvisations: a bottle as a candleholder, a dictionary as a doorstop, a tractor seat on wheels as a dining room chair, a footstool of female stockinged legs. Think Le Drugstore on King's Road or Archimboldo. When this book first appeared in 1972, it was part of the spirit that would define a new architecture and design era - a new way of thinking ready to move beyond the purist doctrines and formal models of modernism. Turned-off citizens of the 1970s immediately adopted the book as a DIY guide. The word "adhocism" entered the vocabulary, the concept of adhocism became part of the designer's toolkit, and Adhocism became a cult classic. Now available again, with new texts by Jencks and Silver reflecting on the past 40 years of adhocism and new illustrations demonstrating adhocism's continuing relevance. But it is also an undeveloped force within the way we approach almost every activity, from play to architecture to city planning to political revolution, the Pluriverse, The authors are brilliant at describing the mix of mechanisms, materials and metaphors which can help communities and cultures keep their stories alive and relevant. Engagingly written, filled with hundreds of pictures and examples from areas as diverse as auto mechanics and biology. 256 page paperback.