Interpreting Environments: Tradition, Deconstruction, Hermeneutics

by Robert Mugerauer

Overview

In this pioneering book, Robert Mugerauer seeks to make deconstruction and hermeneutics accessible to people in the environmental disciplines, including architecture, planning, urban studies, environmental studies, and cultural geography.

Mugerauer demonstrates each methodology through a case study. The first study uses the traditional approach to recover the meaning of Jung's and Wittgenstein's houses by analyzing their historical, intentional contexts. The second case study utilizes deconstruction to explore Egyptian, French neoclassical, and postmodern attempts to use pyramids to constitute a sense of lasting presence. And the third case study employs hermeneutics to reveal how the American understanding of the natural landscape has evolved from religious to secular to ecological since the nineteenth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292754980
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Robert Mugerauer is Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Traditional Approaches: Wittgenstein's and Jung's Lives, Work, and Houses
  • Facing Uncertain Meanings and Traditions
  • Wittgenstein's Restlessness
  • Jung's Quest for Wholeness
  • Alternatives for Contemporary Existence
• 2. Deconstruction: Pyramid as Posture and Strategy
  • Deconstructing Pyramids
  • Egyptian Pyramids
  • French Neoclassic Pyramids
  • Postmodern Pyramids
• 3. Hermeneutic Retrieval: American Nature as Paradise
  • America Religiously Understood
  • A Natural Paradise Already Given
  • Paradise Promised: Wilderness to Be Converted
  • Secular Echoes in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Attitudes
  • The Hidden and Disclosure
• Postscript
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Anne Vernez Moudon

This book will come in handy to learn about, develop, compare, and apply the different methods and philosophies. It is a pleasure to read, and an inspiration for the interpreter who too often has doubts about the powers of his or her trade! ...One would have a hard time finding anyone better prepared than Robert Mugerauer to address the topic of this book.
— Anne Vernez Moudon, University of Washington