The Architecture of Failure (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781780990224)

Against those who considerarchitecture to be a wholly optimistic activity, this book shows how the history of modern architecture is inextricably tied to ideas of failure and ruin. By means of an original reading of the earliest origins of modernism, the Architecture of Failure exposes the ways in which failure has been suppressed, ignored and denied in the way we design our cities. It examines the 19th century fantasy architecture of the iron and glass exhibition palaces, strange, unprecedented, dream-like structures, almost all now lost, existing only as melancholy archive fragments; it traces the cultural legacy of these buildings through the heroics of the early 20th century, post-war radicals and recent developments, discussing related themes in art, literature, politics and philosophy. Critiquing the capitalist symbolism of the self-styled contemporary avant-garde, the book outlines a new history of contemporary architecture, and attempts to recover a radical approach to understanding what we build. Douglas Murphy blogs at http: //www.youyouidiot.blogspot.com/,

Author: Douglas Murphy
ISBN-10: 1780990227
ISBN-13: 9781780990224
Publisher: Zer0 Books
Language: English
Published: 02/24/2012
Pages: 167
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.40d