Chris Abel

"I have always enjoyed the writings of Chris Abel. They are full of surprising insights and provocative connections between such diverse issues as history, technology and ecology"

Norman Foster, Founder, Foster + Partners

"Chris Abel is a nomad in the intellectual as well as the geographical sense. The result is always unconventional and challenging, and sometimes impressively prescient"

Colin Davies, The Architectural Review

"Abel does the work of a horde of architectural critics writing all at the same time from all over the globe’

Ken Yeang, Hamzah & Yeang

"For anyone interested in actually understanding the radical responses of architecture to the changing times, Abel offers a powerful perspective built over many years of reflection that is more relevant than ever"

Anthony Burke, University of Technology Sydney

"‘Having been taught by Chris I can testify to his passion and knowledge. VAST is amongst the very best in advanced tall building studios internationally"

Antony Wood, Executive Director, CTBUH

"This exhibition and book come at a crucial moment in the development of our cities…not because such approaches are the ultimate expression of the Modernist project or of a particular aesthetic, but because they can help to solve the problem of the growth of our cities"

Norman Foster, Founder, Foster + Partners

"It really makes me look at nearly everything I do with a critical eye; everything from the products I consume, to my design choices. It has added an entirely new dimension to the way I analyse architecture and lifestyles"

Student Andrews, on a climate change seminar, UNL

Critical Theory

My contention is that different forms of architecture are properly evaluated in the same manner in which we would evaluate any language game with its own aims and internal logic. The three types of valid criticism of language games we have identified, therefore, also apply to the criticism of works of architecture. First, we can criticize a building according to those criteria of evaluation established internally to the form of architecture adopted. Secondly, we can criticize the approach itself by applying external rules and criteria drawn from various other sources. Or thirdly, we can adopt the method of criticism by analogy, applying the specific rules and criteria belonging to another, equally distinctive form...When we compare one building with another, we compare distinct languages, each with its own rules and internal logic, each offering a quite different interpretation of reality. We do not just compare building with building, but ideas with ideas, and values with values.

From: 'The language analogy in architectural theory and criticism: some remarks in the light of Wittgenstein's linguistic relativism'. Architectural Association Quarterly, December 1979, pp. 44-45.