Projected Cities
‘Projected Cities: Cinema and Urban Space’ by Stephen Barber; Reaktion Books, 2002. 208pp Review by Austin Williams | 26 June 2003 This is the latest in the ‘Locations’ series of books examining the relationship between cinema and broader cultural themes or national context. This book specifically addresses the way cities have been portrayed. As with many Reaktion books, the theme suffers from a cultural...
Where’s my Space Age?
‘Where’s my Space Age?’ by Sean Topham; Prestel, 2003, pp160 Review by Austin Williams | 31 July 2003 This fascinating book, written by Seam Topham (who’s recent book ‘Blow Up’ was reviewed in the Architects’ Journal), asks ‘whatever happened to the space age?’ Constructed in three parts, with a two-page conclusion at the end, the book examines the historical moment of space...
Therapy for Gaia
Austin Williams | 22 May 2003 For those who believe in the concept of Gaia – the planet as a living organism – the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) report reads like a sick note. Whereas some environmentalists have diagnosed the planet as terminally ill, the EEA takes a more modern approach and simply suggests that it is in need of therapy. Forests are “damaged”; the soil is “degraded”; fish...
The Smoke clears
Austin Williams | 19 December 2002 In a recent Greater London Authority (GLA) publication, Ken Livingstone remembers the London fog of 1952. ‘Its main impact’, he says, ‘was that we didn’t have to go to school for a few days’ (1). For an event that reputedly killed thousands of London residents, this might not seem the most empathetic response of the Mayor of London, but smogs were often treated as no...
Cities for a Small Country
‘Cities for a Small Country: The Future of Cities’ by Anne Power and Richard Rogers; Faber and Faber, 2000. 314pp Review by Austin Williams | 11 January 2001 In his introduction Will Hutton kicks off the argument that more socially balanced neighbourhoods ‘have to be constructed and designed’. There then follows 300 pages of morally charged argument about how to do it and why. ‘Social mix’ figures...
Splintering Urbanism
‘Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition’ by Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin; Routledge, 2001. 512pp Review by Austin Williams | 20 December 2001 This important book develops the authors’ 1996 analysis of contested flows in ‘Telecommunications and the City: Electronic spaces, Urban Places’. In that book, the authors’ views were left to the...
Gimme Shelter
Austin Williams | 2 June 2003 Several years ago, Martin Valatin, representing the (non-Orwellian) organization Architects for Peace and Social Responsibility, wrote glowingly about the Mathare squatter settlement in Kenya – a place where 400,000 human beings were forced to live in an abandoned quarry. “In spite of the crime, drugs and unsanitary congestion there’s a spatial richness in places like Mathare,” he...
Listen in
Next meeting
Publications
NEW TITLE
