Studying the relation of architecture to society, this book explains the manner in which the discipline of architecture adjusted itself in order to satisfy new pressures by society. It offers an understanding of contemporary conditions and phenomena, from the ubiquity of landmark buildings to the celebrity status of architects.

Foreword Hilde Heynen Introduction 1. Drawing 2. Discipline 3. Methodological Considerations Part 1: Crisis and Withdrawal 4. The Void 5. Economic and Social Crisis 6. Modernism in Retreat 7. Radical Architecture 8. Alternatives to Modernism 9. Meaning 10. Historicism 11. Collage 12. Context 13. Freedom 14. Postmodernist Architecture 15. The Invisible Horizon Part 2: Autonomy and the Resuscitation of the Discipline 16. The Birth of Autonomy 17. Architectural Autonomy 18. The Commodity 19. The Artefact 20. Paper Architecture and Autonomy 21. The Neo-Avant-Garde 22. Autonomous Deconstruction 23. The Integration of Autonomy Part 3: The Real 24. The Revolution of Everyday Life 25. The Architecture of Everyday Life 26. The Rise of Monetarism 27. Towards the Architectural Real 28. Critique of Planning 29. The End of the Crisis 30. Koolhaas and Freedom 31. The SuperDutch Era 32. The Return of Anxiety Epilogue: From the Ideal to the Simulacra and Back