Exquisite Corpse: Writing on Buildings (Haymarket) [Hardcover]

Michael Sorkin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0860913236 | ISBN-13: 978-0860913238 | Publication Date: June 1991

'Exquisite Corpse' was a game played by the surrealists in which someone drew on a piece of paper, folded it and passed it to the next person to draw on until, finally, the sheet was opened to reveal a calculated yet random composition. In this entertaining and provocative book, Michael Sorkin suggests that cities are similarly assembled by many players acting with varying autonomy in a complicit framework. An unfolding terrain of invention, the city is also a means of accommodating disparity, of contextualizing sometimes startling juxtapositions. Sorkin's aim is to widen the debate about the creation of buildings beyond the immediate issues of technology and design. He discusses the politics and culture of architecture with daring, often devastating, observations about the institutions and personalities who have dominated the profession over the past decade. Their preoccupation with the empty style of 'beach houses and Disneyland' has consistently trivialized the full constructive scope of contemporary architecture's possibilities. Sorkin's interventions range from the development scandals of New York where 'skyscrapers stand at the intersection between grid and greed', through the deconstructivist architectural culture of Los Angeles, to the work and ideas of architects, developers and critics such as Alvar Aalto, Norman Foster, Paul Goldberger, Michael Graves, Coop Himmelblau, Philip Johnson, Leon Krier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Rogers, Carlo Scarpa, James Stirling, Donald Trump, Tom Wolfe and Lebbeus Woods. Throughout Sorkin combines stinging polemic with a powerful call for a rebirth of architecture that is visionary and experimental - a recuperated 'dreamy science'

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sorkin, a practicing architect and Yale professor who for 10 years was the Village Voice 's architecture critic, is a formidable opponent of the banal, the ugly, the stupid and the vapidly posturing which, he argues, are all around us. In these 56 fearless, salubrious essays, reviews, diatribes and encomiums from the Voice , the Nation , Architectural Rec ord and elsewhere, he finds much contemporary architecture preoccupied with empty style and only dimly awakening from its "Reaganoid snooze." Philip Johnson is dismissed as a trendy tastemaker and condemned for his alleged pro-Nazi sympathies and anti-Semitism during the 1930s. He calls Donald Trump "arrogant apostle of the indefensible" and lambastes New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger as "embodiment of the aesthetics of yuppification." Sorkin's tastes run to Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright, urban visionary Lebbeus Woods and the Italian Carlo Scarpa. Sidetrips to Los Angeles and Las Vegas round out a punchy, provocative collection. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Sorkin is one of the most intelligent writers on architecture today. His leftist orientation, Jewish "schtick" style, and New York City locale insure him a small but devoted readership. Now his thoughtful and sometimes acerbic writings are available to a wider audience. In this group of essays, which are republished from The Village Voice and a few other journals, Sorkin addresses most of the important issues, figures, and events in the architectural culture of New York City from the last decade: Philip Johnson, Deconstruction, Donald Trump, Postmodernism, etc. Some of the book is sheer filler (amusing definitions of architectural terms), but most of the writing is impassioned and clever, fulfilling a prescription for architectural criticism that is sorely needed in this country.
- Peter Kaufman, Boston Coll.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 365 pages
• Publisher: Verso (June 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0860913236
• ISBN-13: 978-0860913238
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,509,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A varied collection of insightful criticism, January 25, 2003

By 

michael (los angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Exquisite Corpse: Writing on Buildings (Paperback)

Exquisite Corpse compiles Michael Sorkin's earlier works of criticism, mostly published during his time as architectural critic for The Village Voice (his latter writings were later compiled in "Some Assembly Required"). Sorkin's writing is entertaining and intelligent, and Sorkin's attacks on Philip Johnson, Donald Trump, and former New York Times Architectural Critic Paul Goldberger are particularly amusing. The book is an overall enjoyable read, if one is able to jump between the varied subject matter.

0 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Exquisite Corpse : Writing on Buildings, June 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Exquisite Corpse: Writing on Buildings (Haymarket) (Hardcover)

The Exquisite Corpse : Writing on Buildings by Michael Sorkin