“Those who think that present-day architecture is ‘numbed by an ugly and shoddily constructed built environment’ are encouraged to read Thomas R. Fisher’s In the Scheme of Things from the University of Minnesota Press. Twelve essays chart vital concerns in ecology, politics, and technology and reassess the way architects need to think of themselves, concluding that instead of demoralised, cubicle-based ... Read moreplan-mazufacturers, they should reinvent themselves as stewards and visionaries of the public realm. Often provocative, this book is full of ideas that, if implemented, might vastly improve the way we live now, judging from the author’s previous essays.”  —The Art Newspaper “The forms of architectural practice and the education of architects are all too rarely scrutinized. This book seeks to address the oversight. Modest, carefully written, and refreshingly jargon-free, it connects those issues and considers them primarily in the context of North America to present a claim that architecture is in a state of crisis.” —Azure Show Less