bowellism

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From bowel +‎ -ism, from the resemblance of exposed ducts to bowels.

Noun

bowellism (uncountable)

  1. (dated, architecture) high tech architecture; a style of architecture that places pipes, ducts and other mechanical utilities outside the building to maximise interior space.
    • 1970, Peter Cook, Experimental Architecture:
      Bowellism, is the strangest of the three (fig 15). It never, in fact, reached the stage of a built building, at least not in its ultimate style.
    • 1971, Architectural Association (Great Britain), AAQ. Architectural Association Quarterly:
      Over and above the continuous discussion concerning architectural education the contents of the magazines reflect the changing preoccupations of students from the establishment of the Modern Movement in the thirties through post-war reconstruction, bowellism and expendable architecture to today's Left-wing activism.
    • 2016 November 11, Bob Sheil, Frédéric Migayrou, Luke Pearson, Laura Allen, Drawing Futures: Speculations in Contemporary Drawing for Art and Architecture, UCL Press, →ISBN, page 109:
      The list begins with mechanical delight and bowellism/new brutalist sensibilities. This category includes Norman Foster's Lloyds of London building, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers's Centre Pompidou, Craig Kauffman's Sensual Mechanicals []

Derived terms

  • bowellist