Four walls and a roof
Subtitle: the complex nature of a simple profession
By: Reinier de Graaf
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 513
ISBN-13: 9780674976108
Subjects: Architectural practice; Architecture
Description: Architecture, we like to believe, is an elevated art form that shapes the world as it pleases. Four Walls and a Roof challenges this notion, presenting a candid account of what it is really like to work as an architect, buffeted by external forces that make a mockery of any pretense to visionary authority. Reinier de Graaf draws on his own tragicomic experiences in the field to reveal the world of contemporary architecture in vivid snapshots. He takes us from suburban New York to the rubble of northern Iraq, from the corridors of wealth in London, Moscow, and Dubai to garbage-strewn wastelands that represent the demolished hopes of postwar social housing. We meet oligarchs determined to translate ambitions into concrete and steel, developers for whom architecture is mere investment, and the layers of politicians, bureaucrats, consultants, and mysterious hangers-on who lie between any architectural idea and the chance of its execution. He introduces us to histories of modern architecture that determine--at least as much as individual inspiration--what architects design. And he questions the hubris of those who believe they are the solution to the overwhelming problems of booming megacities. Perhaps the most important myth de Graaf debunks is success itself. To achieve anything, architects must serve the powers they strive to critique, finding themselves in a perpetual conflict of interest. Together, he shows, architects, developers, politicians, and consultants form an improvised world of conflict and compromise that none alone can control.--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: I. Authority: I will learn you architecture!; title: More specifically, everything; title: Let me finish!; title: Four walls and a roof; title: II. Default by design: Bloody fools! The story of Pimlico School, 1970-2010; title: Architektur ohne eigenschaften; title: Neufert: The exceptional pursuit of the norm; title: Reference without a source: The appeal of Atlanta Airport; title: The inevitable box; title: III. Found causes: Spaceship earth; title: Mies en scene; title: Intruders: How smart technology infiltrates architecture; title: "Public" space; title: From CIAM to cyberspace: Architecture and the community; title: With the masses: The architecture of participation; title: IV. Trial and error: Ex nihilo nihil fit: Part one; title: London; title: How is Denmark?; title: Ex nihilo nihil fit: Part two; title: Facing the facts; title: Naukograd; title: A Spanish tender; title: On hold; title: V. Powers that be: After the end of history; title: The other truth; title: Socialist in content, realist in form; title: The descendant: A conversation with Xenia Adjoubei, Nikita Khrushchev's great-granddaughter; title: Undesirable work styles; title: A benevolent dictator with taste; title: Royal approval; title: His architect; title: A property developer for president; title: VI. Megalopoli(tic)s: A Faustian bargain; title: Amanha; title: Smart cities of the future; title: The sum of all -isms; title: Dear Mr. Barber; title: At your service: Ten steps to becoming a successful urban consultant; title: Rankings; title: VII. Progress: Coup de grace: Pruitt-Igoe revisited; title: The century that never happened; title: In memoriam: a photo essay; title: The captive globe; title: Remains of a brave new world.