ABSTRACT
The book is concerned with the need for a renewed understanding of the site in the twenty-first century and the establishment of a critical position vis-à-vis the continued tendency to regard it as a fragment severed from its wider context. This tendency, fuelled by the demands of globalisation, effectively extends one of the most problematic aspects of the modernist treatment of the site as a given, isolatable entity, itself emanating from modernism's obsession with the idea of the ‘fragment’. The problem with this decoupling has been the denial of the effect of the encompassing forces that inevitably act on a site, as well as the failure to read the site's extended impact following design action. The result is the impoverished architectural, landscape and urban design actions, which emerge as a series of unconnected contiguities, unresolved in their relationship. The site's perceived isolation offers the architect the dubious opportunity to produce novel forms that vie with each other for attention.
