Why We Build - Hardcover

Moore, Rowan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0330535579 ISBN 13: 9780330535571

Publisher: Picador, 2012

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.

Just published in the UK, Why We Build is already being hailed as a vibrant new classic:

"Moore's writing is lively and engaging, his language straightforward, his case studies unpredictable and instructive. . . . Moore certainly knows how to make these sacred monsters come alive on the page."
-The Evening Standard (London)

"Mischievous . . . [Moore] has a lot to offer those who like verbal flexibility and thought-provoking aphorisms. . . . Elegant and witty, with a sometimes eighteenth-century sensuality, this is a hard-hitting book with great panache." -The Daily Telegraph

"Elegantly written. . . . What Moore explores with insight and wit [is] the DESIRE to build. The emotions carrying it. The drive for beauty, monumentality, display, a kind of immortality." -The New Humanist

"[A] fresh analytic approach [that is] engaging, outrageous, wise, very probably true and rather important ." -Country Life

Readers will never look at architecture the same way again.

About this title

About the Author

Rowan Moore is the architecture critic for the Observer and previously for the Evening Standard. He is also a trained architect, and between 2002 and 2008 was the Director of the Architecture Foundation.

Review

'Lively and engaging ... Anyone with an interest in architecture will find good things here' Evening Standard 'A subtle, often eccentric but always entertaining guide ... A fascinating work of love, intellectual curiosity and endurance' Literary Review 'Dazzling ... there's plenty to discover.' Sunday Times 'A refreshingly humane and lucid book from one of our most intelligent architecture critics' Daily Telegraph 'A paean to the way we inhabit, which explains why good architecture changes constantly' Financial Times 'Architecture critic for the Observer, Rowan Moore, has written a fantastic book which is well worth reading for anyone interested in architecture.' Sir Paul Smith 'Thoughtful and elegantly written, Why We Build will appeal to anyone with an interest in architecture ... It benefits from a clear style and years of architectural criticism ... the argument is forceful, but not prescriptive, the satisfying result of prolonged and sensitive observation of both buildings and human nature.' Spectator 'Moore has a lot to offer those who like verbal flexibility and thought-provoking aphorisms. There is also a sense of mischief ... if famous architects were a coconut shy, Moore would go home with the giant teddy ... Elegant and witty, with a sometimes 18th-century sensuality, this is a hard-hitting book with great panache.' Sunday Telegraph 'Moore writes with economy, clarity and wit' Will Wiles, Building Design 'Vivid and witty ... it's a book about what happens when other non-architectural matter -- capital, sex, family life, the caprices of function -- barges into a discipline that sometimes likes to think of itself as pure' Guardian 'Intelligent and cultured ... packed with passionately held ideas about the epiphanies, farces and humanity in architecture' Independent 'Moore has conjured a rare feat in producing a work that will be appreciated by professionals and punters alike.' Observer

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330535579
• ISBN 13: 9780330535571
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Well-illustrated
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416