Competition: we've teamed up with Zaha Hadid Architects to offer our readers the chance to win one of five copies of The Autopoiesis of Architecture by Patrik Schumacher, a partner at the firm.

The first of two volumes, the 478 page book contains only 18 illustrations and offers a unified theory of architecture, suggesting a framework for the discipline's next phase of development.

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Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

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Here are some more details from publishers Wiley:

The Autopoiesis of Architecture; Vol 1 A New Framework for Architecture
By Patrik Schumacher

In recent years, architectural theory has remained tentative and even sceptical. A bold new two-volume treatise by Patrik Schumacher, one of the leading international architects and architectural thinkers of our time is set to change all that. The first volume of The Autopoiesis of Architecture provides a wholly new approach and framework for thinking about architecture.

The impact of this is far reaching. Architecture is presented as having its own unique logic, asserting architecture’s role as a discipline and its place in contemporary society. On  Tuesday 7th December at the Architectural Association in London, Patrik Schumacher will launch the publication of The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume 1: A New Framework for Architecture with a lecture outlining his new unified theoretical system for architecture.

He will describe how this wider structure accommodates further theories, such as that of architecture’s social function, a theory of the avant-garde, aesthetic theory and media and process theory. Most significantly, architecture is conceived for the first time as a system of communication comprising artifacts, knowledges and practices.

What is Autopoiesis?

The ‘Autopoiesis’ of the title refers to self-production: the term having first been introduced in biology during the 1970s to describe the essential characteristic of life as a circular organization that reproduces all its specific components out of its own life-process. Once transposed into the theory of social systems, autopoiesis came to be understood as a system of communication capable of producing all its specific communication structures within their own internal process. It is this autopoietic system of communication that is applied by Schumacher to an architectural context.

About the author

Patrik Schumacher is partner at Zaha Hadid Architects and founding director of the influential AADRL (Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory). He studied philosophy and architecture in Bonn, London and Stuttgart, and completed his PhD at the Institute for Cultural Science in Klagenfurt. His contribution to architectural theory is evident in his published writings collected at www.patrikschumacher.com

Paperback: 478 pages
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; Volume 1 edition (3 Dec 2010)
Language English
Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 17.2 x 3.2 cm

Publication details

The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume I: A New Framework for Architecture,
ISBN 9780470772980, Paperback Original £29.99 , is published by John Wiley & Sons in December 2010.

The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume II: A New Agenda, ISBN 9780470666166, paperback original £29.99, is published by John Wiley & Sons, autumn 2011.

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Congratulations to our winners! Delia Jerca from Romania, Daniela Ulloa Villarreal in Mexico, Hannah Sassoon in Israel, Alisha Maloney from Canada and Malik Dedovic from Australia.