Assembly by Design

How the United Nations headquarters became the architectural instrument and broadcast medium of global diplomacy For almost seven years after World War II, a small group of architects took on an exciting task: to imagine the spaces of global governance for a new political organization called the Uni...

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Main Author: Touloumi, Olga
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: University of Minnesota Press 2024
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Online Access:ONIX_20241111_9781452971537_3
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author Touloumi, Olga
author_browse Touloumi, Olga
author_facet Touloumi, Olga
author_sort Touloumi, Olga
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description How the United Nations headquarters became the architectural instrument and broadcast medium of global diplomacy For almost seven years after World War II, a small group of architects took on an exciting task: to imagine the spaces of global governance for a new political organization called the United Nations (UN). To create the iconic headquarters of the UN in New York City, these architects experimented with room layouts, media technologies, and design in tribunal courtrooms, assembly halls, and council chambers. The result was the creation of a new type of public space, the global interior. Assembly by Design shows how this space leveraged media to help the UN communicate with the world. With its media infrastructure, symbols, acoustic design, and architecture, the global interior defined political assembly both inside and outside the UN headquarters, serving as the architectural medium to organize multilateral encounters of international publics around the globe. Demonstrating how aesthetics have long held sway over political work, Olga Touloumi posits that the building framed diplomacy on the ground amid a changing political landscape that brought the United States to the forefront of international politics, destabilizing old and establishing new geopolitical alliances. Uncovering previously closed institutional and family archives, Assembly by Design offers new information about the political and aesthetic decisions that turned the UN headquarters into a communications organism. It looks back at a moment of hope, when politicians, architects, and diplomats—believing that assembly was a matter of design—worked together to deliver platforms for global democracy and governance.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1477612024-11-11T14:19:47Z Assembly by Design Touloumi, Olga Radio plays, scripts and performances thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATL Radio / podcasts::ATLD Radio plays, scripts and performances How the United Nations headquarters became the architectural instrument and broadcast medium of global diplomacy For almost seven years after World War II, a small group of architects took on an exciting task: to imagine the spaces of global governance for a new political organization called the United Nations (UN). To create the iconic headquarters of the UN in New York City, these architects experimented with room layouts, media technologies, and design in tribunal courtrooms, assembly halls, and council chambers. The result was the creation of a new type of public space, the global interior. Assembly by Design shows how this space leveraged media to help the UN communicate with the world. With its media infrastructure, symbols, acoustic design, and architecture, the global interior defined political assembly both inside and outside the UN headquarters, serving as the architectural medium to organize multilateral encounters of international publics around the globe. Demonstrating how aesthetics have long held sway over political work, Olga Touloumi posits that the building framed diplomacy on the ground amid a changing political landscape that brought the United States to the forefront of international politics, destabilizing old and establishing new geopolitical alliances. Uncovering previously closed institutional and family archives, Assembly by Design offers new information about the political and aesthetic decisions that turned the UN headquarters into a communications organism. It looks back at a moment of hope, when politicians, architects, and diplomats—believing that assembly was a matter of design—worked together to deliver platforms for global democracy and governance. 2024-11-11T14:19:45Z 2024-11-11T14:19:45Z 2024 book ONIX_20241111_9781452971537_3 9781452971537 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/147761 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://muse.jhu.edu/book/114879 University of Minnesota Press 3620704f-efb6-4f73-9ed8-dc20a9d550bc 9781452971537 312 open access
spellingShingle Radio plays, scripts and performances
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATL Radio / podcasts::ATLD Radio plays, scripts and performances
Touloumi, Olga
Assembly by Design
title Assembly by Design
title_full Assembly by Design
title_fullStr Assembly by Design
title_full_unstemmed Assembly by Design
title_short Assembly by Design
title_sort assembly by design
topic Radio plays, scripts and performances
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATL Radio / podcasts::ATLD Radio plays, scripts and performances
topic_facet Radio plays, scripts and performances
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATL Radio / podcasts::ATLD Radio plays, scripts and performances
url ONIX_20241111_9781452971537_3
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