Why We Build: Power and Desire in Architecture - Hardcover

Moore, Rowan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062277537 ISBN 13: 9780062277534

Publisher: Harper Design Intl, 2013

Synopsis

Why We Build In an era of brash, expensive, provocative new buildings, a prominent critic argues that emotions--such as hope, power, sex, and our changing relationship to the idea of home--are the most powerful force behind architecture, yesterday and (especially) today.We are living in the most dramatic period in architectural history in more than half a century: a time when cityscapes are being redrawn on a Full description

About this title

Review:

"A vivid account. . . Stimulat[es] the reader."--"Wall Street Journal"

[A] lively account. . . Moore s deftly chosen and analyzed examples range from Alberti s Tempio Malatestiano and Jamaa el Fna square in Marrakesh to Manhattan s High Line. This is a highly engaging. . . vision of architecture s emotive and pragmatic powers. --"Publishers Weekly""

Thoughtful and elegantly written, Why We Build will appeal to anyone with an interest in architecture, and the egos, power struggles and human relationships behind the creation of our surroundings. --"The Spectator""

Intelligent and cultured... Astringent and subtle. --"The Independent""

With unfailingly fresh insight. Moore decrypts the ideological narratives of buildings with the same fluency he brings to bear on materials, forms and spaces: today s architectural criticism rarely seems so humane or intelligent. --"Sunday Telegraph""

A fascinating work of love, intellectual curiosity and endurance Suggest[s] the possibility of a more grown-up and subtle way of thinking about our architecture.--"Literary Review""

Supremely ambitious [Moore] writes with economy, clarity and wit. The prospect of 400 pages in his presence is not an unhappy one. --"Building Design""

Studious and serious, with meaningful insights on where we are going in the future. . . . In today s world of flip journalism, Rowan Moore is refreshing. --Frank Gehry"

A vivid account. . . Stimulat[es] the reader. --"Wall Street Journal""

Rowan Moore. . . can build: He is trained in the craft himself. He also knows how to write descriptively and deliciously. . . An engaging, joyous read. . . Moore s writing is lithe and sensual. . . His delight in the subject is everywhere and infectious. --"Cleveland Plain Dealer""

From the Back Cover:

In an era of brash, expensive, provocative new buildings, a prominent critic argues that emotions—hope, power, sex, our changing relationship to the idea of home—are the most powerful force behind architecture, yesterday and (especially) today.

We are living in one of the most dramatic periods in modern architectural history: a time when cityscapes are being redrawn on a yearly basis, architects are testing the very idea of what a building is, and whole cities are being invented overnight, both here in the United States and in exotic locations around the world.

In this bold and wide-ranging new work, Rowan Moore—former director of the Architecture Foundation, now a leading architecture critic—explores the reasons behind these changes in our built environment, and how they in turn are changing the way we live in the world. Taking as his starting point dramatic examples such as the High Line in New York City and the outrageous island experiment of Dubai, Moore then reaches far and wide: back in time to explore the Covent Garden brothels of eighteenth-century London and the fetishistic minimalism of Adolf Loos; across the world to assess a software magnate's grandiose mansion in Atlanta and Daniel Libeskind's failed design for the World Trade Center site; and finally to the deeply naturalistic work of Lina Bo Bardi, whom he celebrates as the most underrated architect of the modern era.

Provocative and personal, iconoclastic and transforming, Why We Build is that rarest of things: a book about architecture that is also, on every page, a book about people—those chosen few who design buildings, and the rest of us, who use them every day.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Design Intl
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062277537
• ISBN 13: 9780062277534
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 392