Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice (MIT Press)

This tract cuts the knot of the confounding jumble all humanities and academic disciplines face, with the swift blade of an Emerson or de Tocqueville. With a tragicomic eye, Eric Cesal exposes the hubris that has led so much architectural education and practice into an impotent cul-de-sac, and succinctly presents a pragmatic and hopeful way out. Lucid, intelligent, and visionary, this small book is destined to become a guide for 21st century architects. And let me tell you: a real human being wrote this, he breathes warmly from every page. "This down-to-earth critique of the profession is important for the future of architecture ." -Charles Holland, RIBA JournalThis book is highly unusual for an architecture opus: it is well written, it is funny, and it is wise in so

Best book about the architecture profession, ever. Probably. I just finished reading Down Detour Road by Eric J. Cesal, literally moments ago. I can say, without trepidation, that this was the single best book I've ever read about the profession of architecture. I had no doubt that I would like it from the start.I came across the book completely by chance. I was wandering. Every Architect Should Read This Book Every architect should be required to read this book; when our industry recovers (and it will although not next year but by the mid-decade), things will be different - very different. This book examines why things must change if the profession of architecture is to survive. We can only do this by offering value . Search for direction jakkrabbitt Any architecture student preparing to graduate could benefit from this reading. I say could because it's only beneficial if you are currently engaged in discovering how you will practice architecture.The author does an excellent job of laying out the current terrain of the profession, and provides insight into t

He is now living in Port-au-Prince, managing and coordinating Architecture for Humanity's design and reconstruction initiatives in Haiti.. Louis. Cesal holds master's degrees in business administration, construction management, and architecture from Washington University in St. Eric J

Architects may assure each other of their own importance, but society has come to view architecture as a luxury it can do without. I paused at the stoop and thought this could be the basis of a good book. Like many architects of his generation, Cesal confronts a cold reality. This had an air of hokeyness about it, but it had been a tough couple of days and I was feeling sentimental about the warm confines of the studio which had unceremoniously discharged me upon the world. New architectural values emerge as our cultural values shift: from high risks to safe bets, from strong portfolios to strong communities, and from clean lines to clean energy.This is not a book about how to run a firm or a profession; it doesn't predict the future of architectural form or aesthetics. -- from Down Detour RoadWhat does it say about the value of architecture that as the world faces economic and ecological crises, unprecedented numbers of architects are out of work? This is the question that confronted architect Eric Cesal as he finished graduate school at the onset of the worst financial meltdown in a generation. For Cesal, this recognition becomes an occasion to rethink architecture and its value