Why We Build: Power and Desire in Architecture

In an era of brash, expensive, provocative new buildings, a prominent critic argues that emotions--hope, power, sex, our changing relationship to the idea of home--are the most powerful force behind architecture, yesterday and (especially) today. We are living in one of the most dramatic periods in modern architectural history: a time when cityscapes are being redrawn on a yearly basis, architects are testing the very idea of what a building is, and whole cities are being invented overnight, both here in the United States and in exotic locations around the world. In this bold and wide-ranging new work, Rowan Moore--former director of the Architecture Foundation, now a leading architecture critic--explores the reasons behind these changes in our built environment, and how they in turn are changing the way we live in the world. Taking as his starting point dramatic examples such as the High Line in New York City and the outrageous island experiment of Dubai, Moore then reaches far and wide: back in time to explore the Covent Garden brothels of eighteenth-century London and the fetishistic minimalism of Adolf Loos; across the world to assess a software magnate's grandiose mansion in Atlanta and Daniel Libeskind's failed design for the World Trade Center site; and finally to the deeply naturalistic work of Lina Bo Bardi, whom he celebrates as the most underrated architect of the modern era. Provocative and personal, iconoclastic and transforming, Why We Build is that rarest of things: a book about architecture that is also, on every page, a book about people--those chosen few who design buildings, and the rest of us, who use them every day.

Review :
"[A] lively, wide-ranging and thought-provoking new book . . . . Devastatingly funny if deeply disturbing. . . . No other newspaper architecture critic [is] as sharp an assessor of the built environment as Moore."--"New York Review of Books" "A vivid account. . . Stimulat[es] the reader."--"Wall Street Journal" "Rowan Moore. . . can build: He is trained in the craft himself. He also knows how to write descriptively and deliciously. . . An engaging, joyous read. . . Moore's writing is lithe and sensual. . . His delight in the subject is everywhere and infectious."--"Cleveland Plain Dealer" "[A] lively account. . . Moore's deftly chosen and analyzed examples range from Alberti's Tempio Malatestiano and Jamaa el Fna "square" in Marrakesh to Manhattan's High Line. This is a highly engaging. . . vision of architecture's emotive and pragmatic powers."--"Publishers Weekly" "Studious and serious, with meaningful insights on where we are going in the future. . . . In today's world of flip journalism, Rowan Moore is refreshing."--Frank Gehry "A fascinating work of love, intellectual curiosity and endurance...Suggest[s] the possibility of a more grown-up and subtle way of thinking about our architecture.--"Literary Review" "Intelligent and cultured... Astringent and subtle."--"The Independent" "Supremely ambitious...[Moore] writes with economy, clarity and wit. The prospect of 400 pages in his presence is not an unhappy one."--"Building Design" "Thoughtful and elegantly written, Why We Build will appeal to anyone with an interest in architecture, and the egos, power struggles and human relationships behind the creation of our surroundings."--"The Spectator" "With unfailingly fresh insight. Moore decrypts the ideological narratives of buildings with the same fluency he brings to bear on materials, forms and spaces: today's architectural criticism rarely seems so humane or intelligent."--"Sunday Telegraph"