Four walls and a roof : the complex nature of a simple profession / Reinier de Graaf.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

de Graaf, Reinier, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architectural practice.

Architecture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (529 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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.-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

I. Authority

1. I Will Learn You Architecture!

2. More Specifically, Everything!

3. Let Me Finish!

4. Four Walls and a Roof

II. Default by Design

5. Bloody Fools! The Story of Pimlico School, 1970–2010

6. Architektur ohne Eigenschaften

7. Neufert: The Exceptional Pursuit of the Norm

8. Reference without a Source: The Appeal of Atlanta Airport

9. The Inevitable Box

III. Found Causes

10. Spaceship Earth

11. Mies en Scène

12. Intruders: How Smart Technology Infiltrates Architecture

13. “Public” Space

14. From CIAM to Cyberspace: Architecture and the Community

15. With the Masses: The Architecture of Participation

IV. Trial and Error

16. Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit: Part One

17. London

18. How Is Denmark?

19. Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit: Part Two

20. Facing the Facts

21. Naukograd

22. A Spanish Tender

23. On Hold

V. Powers That Be

24. After the End of History

25. The Other Truth

26. Socialist in Content, Realist in Form

27. The Descendant: A Conversation with Xenia Adjoubei, Nikita Khrushchev’s Great-Granddaughter

28. Undesirable Work Styles

29. A Benevolent Dictator with Taste

30. Royal Approval

31. His Architect

32. A Property Developer for President

VI. Megalopoli(tic)s

33. A Faustian Bargain

34. Amanhã

35. Smart Cities of the Future

36. The Sum of All Isms

37. Dear Mr. Barber

38. At Your Service: Ten Steps to Becoming a Successful Urban Consultant

39. Rankings

VII. Progress

40. Coup de Grâce: Pruitt-Igoe Revisited

41. The Century That Never Happened

42. In Memoriam

43. The Captive Globe

44. Remains of a Brave New World

Notes

Acknowledgments

Chapters Previously Published

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Aug 2018)

ISBN:

9780674982765

0674982762

9780674982758

0674982754

OCLC:

1054879488