About this project

UPDATE: 22 MARCH

Many thanks to everyone who has pledge so far! At $4500, together with our funding from Pratt Institute, we will be able to guarantee a print run of 3000 full color copies. But don't stop donating then: anything above $4500 will help us reach our goal of 4000 copies and also help fund the issue release event, which we expect will be even bigger than last year's. 

In the meantime, we have finished layout and editing of well over half of the pieces for the issue, and it's looking fantastic. Some big names have been added to the contributor list, and we're more excited than ever about Not Nature!

WHO WE ARE

Tarp: Architecture Manual is an annual publication of the Graduate Architecture and Urban Design program at Pratt Institute. The journal started in 2003 as a bi-yearly pamphlet distributed to the program’s students. However, since 2009 tarp has been working to create a journal that not only has internationally-renowned contributors publishing original pieces but which is also widely distributed to professionals and academics worldwide. Each year a topic is chosen which critically addresses the discipline of architecture. The publication serves as a platform for engaging various voices that are current to the debate.

WHAT WE'RE UP TO

“Not Nature,” tarp’s upcoming issue, is interested in exploring historical and contemporary architectural positions in regard to natural systems- aesthetic, synthetic, philosophical, autonomous, not autonomous, investigative, social and political. The question is to explore whether architecture can build form without a clear process-based model to replicate. Furthermore, what implications are entailed by eliminating the boundaries between human, nature, and architecture. The issue includes major contributors from philosophy and the history of science such as Graham Harman, Timothy Morton, and Peter Galison, writing alongside architectural theorists and practitioners such as Antoine Picon, Catherine Ingraham, Ed Eigen, David Gissen, David Ruy, and many others. 

WHAT WE'VE DONE

The first step in tarp’s recent expansion was the 2010 issue, “Coding Parameters.” The seventy page journal included scholars, practitioners and students re-evaluating the role of digital media in contemporary practice. The newly-expanded journal was launched at our release party at the Superfront Gallery in Brooklyn. http://issuu.com/tarp/docs/pr_tarp_inside-final

We followed this by turning to the city in tarp 2011, “Insidious Urbanism.” In this expanded issue we examined the architectural project as an incisive tool to change the social practices and perception of existing urban fabrics. This issue was expanded into 110 full-color pages including an extensive catalog of recent projects. The launch party at Metropolitan Exchange in downtown Brooklyn attracted hundreds of guests and the issue was further promoted at a special event of the Van Alen Institute. http://issuu.com/tarp/docs/tarp_insidious_urbanism_web

WHERE YOUR MONEY IS GOING

Your donations will go to printing, distribution, and publicity costs. We are aiming to publish and distribute 4000 full color copies of Not Nature throughout the New York area, as well as to architecture schools and institutions across the country and around the world. We will also be hosting our third annual Tarp Release Party at a local venue. In the past, this has been hosted at Brooklyn's Superfront Gallery in 2010 and the Metropolitan Exchange Building in 2011. We expect to outdo ourselves again this year, with an even greater attendance and a more exciting atmosphere! We hope to see you there!

Please help us make this the most successful tarp publication yet!

Thank you!