From Publishers Weekly
Everything is political, especially architecture, Sudjic demonstrates in this provocative consideration of the world's most notable architectural triumphs and the masters who commissioned them. From Stalin to Mitterrand to Saddam Hussein, argues Sudjic, "architecture is used by political leaders to seduce, to impress and to intimidate." The evidence is all around us, he says, even in the attack on New York City's Twin Towers, which he views as "a literal acceptance of the iconic power of architecture." Zipping through pre-Partition Pakistan, Nazi Germany, modern-day New York and back, Sudjic shows how buildings are employed to demonstrate a state's power, to build a nation's cultural identity and to assure leaders that their legacies are both admirable and memorable. As for the architects who design such iconic structures—from Hitler's confidant Albert Speer to ground zero's "therapist" Daniel Libeskind—Sudjic reveals that they often have motivations that are startlingly distinct from those who hire them. Sudjic's research is thorough, and his prose lively and sharp. But his accounts can be meandering and chaotic, jumping in one instance from Malaysia's Petronas Towers to the background of a September 11 suicide bomber. Architecture connoisseurs will appreciate the gossipy histories and the original lines of thought, but readers less familiar with the subject may feel dizzied by Sudjik's erudite collages.
(Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Sudjic, the architectural critic for London's
Observer matches an electrifying writing style with an invaluable international perspective and a shrewd understanding of the politics of architecture to create a unique and revelatory history of modern architectural excess, the bitter fruits of what he calls "the edifice complex." Tyrants are especially prone to this syndrome, including Saddam Hussein, who was inspired by Hitler and his architect, Albert Speer, and Stalin, who also built self-aggrandizing monstrosities based on a "pathological obsession with size, symmetry, and a blatantly literal iconography." Sudjic switches to less-brutal forms of architectural follies, such as Nelson Rockefeller's deplorable Albany Mall, and takes architects to task for other monumental projects in which "form no longer follows function--it follows image." Sudjic writes with particular vigor about the unparalleled building boom in Beijing. And in his lively critiques of trendsetting architects Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Yung Ho Chang, Rem Koolhaas, and Daniel Libeskind and the controversy over the World Trade Center site, Sudjic astutely parses both the psychological and political dimensions of architecture, a timely subject given the sure-to-be heated debate over how to rebuild the hurricane-ravaged Gulf states.
Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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