Search results for ""Author Reinier De Graaf""
Verso Books architect verb.
No longer does it suffice to judge a building solely by its appearance; it must be measured and certified. When architects talk about ‘Excellence’, ‘Sustainability’, ‘Well-being’, ‘Liveability’, ‘Placemaking’, ‘Creativity’, ‘Beauty’ and ‘Innovation’, what do they actually mean? And what does this jargon tell us about the future of our homes, cities and planet?‘With dry wit, humor, and honesty, sets out to debunk the myths of contemporary architecture.’ Jaxson Stone, Metropolis‘feels like a stealth mission - an effort to slip something explosive into the carry-on luggage of the TED Talks class.’ Will Wiles, Literary Review‘Reflects on the current state of his field, arguing that constraints on creative autonomy, overcommercialization and a poor understanding of good design have transformed 'spaces of sponta
£11.33
Harvard University Press Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession
A Financial Times Best Book of the YearA Guardian Best Architecture Book of the Year“Sharp, revealing, funny.”—The Guardian“An original and even occasionally hilarious book about losing ideals and finding them again… [De Graaf] deftly shows that architecture cannot be better or more pure than the flawed humans who make it.”—The EconomistArchitecture, we like to believe, is an elevated art form that shapes the world as it pleases. Four Walls and a Roof turns this fiction on its head, offering a candid account of what it’s really like to work as an architect. Drawing on his own tragicomic experiences in the field, Reinier de Graaf reveals the world of contemporary architecture in vivid snapshots: from the corridors of wealth in London, Moscow, and Dubai to the demolished hopes of postwar social housing in New York and St. Louis. We meet ambitious oligarchs, developers for whom architecture is nothing more than an investment, and layers of bureaucrats, consultants, and mysterious hangers-on who lie between any architect’s idea and the chance of its execution.“This is a book about power, money and influence, and architecture’s complete lack of any of them… Witty, insightful and funny, it is a (sometimes painful) dissection of a profession that thinks it is still in control.”—Financial Times“This is the most stimulating book on architecture and its practice that I have read for years.”—Architects’ Journal
£19.76
