In recent international literature addressing the history of twentieth-century archi-tectural theory, the year 1968 is often seen as a decisive moment, giving rise to a “new” architectural theory. From that moment onwards, less emphasis was placed on the aesthetics of architecture, and more on its critical potential. Increasingly, and also from that moment onwards, architectural theory beca…
Insects and closely related arthropods are the dominant and most diverse forms of terrestrial and aquatic (non-marine) animal life on the planet. Other than marine systems, insects occupy every conceivable environment and habitat on the Earth. Crustaceans and Annelids (worms) are the dominant and most diverse groups of animals in marine systems. T…
In last year’s introduction to the Factfile I looked forward to the prospect of emerging from the Covid pandemic. How desperately mistaken that prediction has proved to be. Once again, for prisoners and their families, the pains of imprisonment have been terribly amplified by the restrictions imposed to prevent infection. Prisons have relaxed more slowly, and tightened up more quickly, than t…
This open access book brings together a collection of cutting-edge insights into how action can and is already being taken against climate change at multiple levels of our societies, amidst growing calls for transformative and inclusive climate action. In an era of increasing recognition regarding climate and ecological breakdown, this book offers hope, inspiration and analyses for multi-level …
In hisremarkable study of the Upper Palaeolithic parietal art of Western Europe, The Mind in the Cave, David Lewis-Williams suggests that some imagery present in caves such as Chauvet and Lascaux was inspired by ex-periences of altered states of consciousness.1 Emergence from such altered states can be accompanied by the appearance of afterimages, mental pic-tures that hang suspended in the fie…
Europe has a long history of urbanisation, with the first cities dating back some 8,000 years. While the formal means of decision-making (if any) used to shape the form of these settlements are lost in the mists of time, it is highly likely that from the earliest times some form of control was enacted on where and how people could build. Inadvertent controls would certainly have di…
In Betty Smith’s description of the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), also known as the “ghetto palm,” the tree is contrasted with the memory of a school poem that evoked the “forest primeval” with its “murmuring pines and hemlocks.” For Smith, writing in the early 1940s, the presence of this tree was a marker, or even harbinger, of neighbourhood decline. The tree of heaven se…