Rationality Without Reason: Architecture and Calculation in Germany After 1968

A critical examination of the rational turn in postwar West German architecturePostwar West German architecture experienced a "rational turn" characterized by a dramatic push toward ideals of optimization, economy, and accuracy based in calculation.Analyzing how architects reckoned with the political and cultural legacy of fascism and were driven by the desire to quantify and manage unpredictability in the human environment, Rationality Without Reason shows how they translated their design and production methods into numbers through protodigital technology and computational processes. Daniela Fabricius examines architectural practices within the wider context of the shifting intellectual and cultural landscape as rationalism devolved between the student movements of 1968 and the reign of postmodernism in the 1980s.Showing how rationalism's limitations and contradictions became increasingly apparent, she demonstrates how the intensity of these approaches ultimately led to a form of rati