Why We Build - Hardcover

Moore, Rowan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062277537 ISBN 13: 9780062277534

Publisher: HarperDes, 2013

Synopsis

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 yearly basis, architects are testing the very idea of what a building is, and whole cities are being invented overnight in exotic locales or here in the United States.

Now, in a bold and wide-ranging new work, Rowan Moore—former director of the Architecture Foundation, now the architecture critic for The Observer—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.

About this title

About the Author

Rowan Moore is the architecture critic for The Observer (London); he previously held the same post for The Evening Standard. From 2002 to 2008 he was the director of the Architecture Foundation. In 2013, he was named Critic of the Year by the Society of Editors (UK). A trained architect himself, he lives in London.

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.

Reviews

Architecture resides at the intersection of wealth, power, and art. No wonder then, that it can result in hubris. In this account of why architects and, to some extent, their clients build what they do, architecture critic Moore never shies from skewering those whose designs were left wanting. He praises favorite designs, such as Zaha Hadid’s London Architecture Foundation (Moore was director of the foundation) and Lina Bo Bardi’s inspired Museu de Arte de São Paulo, and accompanying photographs help drive home his points. Moore provides a world junket of architecture, from Dubai’s palm-shaped islands and massive towers to Paris’ Pompidou Centre, London’s exclusive One Hyde Park, Barcelona’s Casa Mila, and New York City’s World Trade Center. Only Chicago gets short shrift, unless you consider the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe in Plano, Illinois, part of Chicago. One chapter covers why architects are frequently hypersexual. Perhaps, as Moore later claims, “Architecture was the lubricant for the penetration of the skyline.” It’s brash, and opinion at times overtakes the book’s premise. But what could be more appropriate? --Laurie Borman

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperDes
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062277537
• ISBN 13: 9780062277534
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 392