Book Bites: Philosophy of Architecture by Illies & Ray
A useful toolkit of architectural philosophy, focusing on ethics and aesthetics and taking a neutral stance… acting as a series of clarifications and questions rather than ready-made answers.
Book Bites: “Voices from the Rust Belt” by Anne Trubek(ed)
The book poses some new questions for us as we now see that there are consequences to the hollowing out of American industries and cities.
Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell.
It’s a great book for telling us about Europe between the wars; but also because of what can it tell us about today, in particular homelessness?
The Fundamentals of Graphic Design
The ’socially responsible’ designer is a good example of an ideological imposition getting in the way of clarifying graphic design, and its mediating and transformative role in society.
Black & White issues
Dameon Garnett’s ‘Sticks and Stones’, whose run at the Tristan Bates Theatre was curtailed by the COVID-19 crisis, is an attempt to articulate the importance of free speech and the dangers of identity politics in our time.
The RIBA Plan of Work
… has been a useful guide in steering the profession to provide clear, accurate and timely advice. The new version is more driven by external political events, rather than the independent practical concerns of the profession.
Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt by Paul Crowther
The aesthetic experiences that we have as adults are a kind of echo of these formative infant experiences: an ongoing rediscovery of the world and its possibilities.
Book Bites: Salvatore Babones’ “The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism and the Tyranny of Experts”
Babones’ short and pithy book challenges the domination of expert elites in political discourse, but acknowledging the fact that democracies don’t always come up with the ‘right’ answers.
Tim Parks’ “Pen in Hand”
We should read: “with a sense of wonder and curiosity at the general and implacable human determination to fill endless space with dubious mental material when life is short and there are so many other things to be done”.
Book Bites: Paul Morland’s “The Human Tide”
Once the Malthusian link is broken and enough food and liberating technology is available, progress begins to feed through to the general population.
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