Arthropods

New York: Praeger, 1972. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). Octavo; 167 pp: illustrations; 31 cm Very Good(+), slight rubbing to edges of wraps; pages clean. Paperback. ISBN: 9780902620773

Jim Burns, an American architectural editor and designer active from the 1950s through the 1970s, moved from his post at Progressive Architecture to the participatory design practice of Lawrence Halprin & Associates, where he helped pioneer user-involved environmental planning. His 1972 book Arthropods: New Design Futures (Praeger, New York) stands as a vivid document of avant-garde architectural thought at the turn of that decade, surveying some thirty experimental groups—including Archizoom, Superstudio, Haus-Rucker-Co, and Ant Farm—whose work dissolved the boundaries between art, architecture, performance, and community process. Burns’s metaphor of “arthropods,” denoting organisms with articulated, adaptive bodies, conveys his vision of design as a living, modular, and participatory system rather than a fixed monument. Richly illustrated and conceptually ambitious, the book occupies a key place in the genealogy of participatory and ecological design, bridging modernist theory with the open-ended, collaborative experimentation that reshaped environmental and social design practice in the early 1970s. | **Somewhat heavy or large item. Additional shipping fees may be needed for expedited, priority, or international orders. Please inquire**