A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books

The World in a Selfie: An Inquiry into the Tourist Age by Marco d'Eramo Verso , March 2021 Hardcover | 6-1/4 x 9-1/2 inches | 288 pages | no illustrations | English | ISBN: 9781788731072 | $29.95 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION : We’ve all been tourists at some point in our lives. How is it we look so condescendingly at people taking selfies in front of the Tower of Pisa? Is there really much to distinguish the package holiday from hipster city-breaks to Berlin or Brooklyn? Why do we engage our free time in an activity we profess to despise? The World in a Selfie dissects a global cultural phenomenon. For Marco D’Eramo, tourism is not just the most important industry of the century, generating huge waves of people and capital, calling forth a dedicated infrastructure, and upsetting and repurposing the architecture and topography of our cities. It also encapsulates the problem of modernity: the search for authenticity in a world of ersatz pleasures. D’Eramo retraces the grand tours...

Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space by Keller Easterling, published by  Verso Books , 2014. Hardcover, 252 pages. ( Amazon ) Recently, the Center for Architecture hosted two book talks organized by the AIANY Oculus Committee that I attended: one on Keller Easterling's Extrastatecraft , and on on Justin McGuirk's Radical Cities . Though both have subjects quite separate from each other, they share some traits, including their publisher, Verso, known for intellectual, left-wing titles. And while Easterling's and McGuirk's book have these qualities in common, they are both surprisingly readable, regardless of their complex and ambitious topics. Here I discuss Easterling's book, and in a future post I'll discuss McGuirk's book. On March 16, Easterling spoke at the Center about her book, which follows Enduring Innocence (MIT Press, 2005) and Organization Space (MIT Press, 2001). Generally, all three books explore how physical (building...

All Over the Map: Writing on Building and Cities by Michael Sorkin, published by  Verso Books , 2011. Hardcover, 320 pages. ( Amazon ) In 1991 Verso released Exquisite Corpse , a collection of essays by Michael Sorkin , who was architecture critic at the New York City alternative weekly Village Voice from 1978-1988. That collection consisted mainly of Sorkin's Voice pieces, and it introduced his biting critiques -- from Philip Johnson and Disneyfication to any part of the architectural status quo -- to a larger audience. If anything, the book established Sorkin as a strong voice for the city, democracy, and architectural freedom. The book's name is taken from the Surrealist game that results in a random composition created by numerous hands, what Sorkin likens to city-building. This fact became more apparent to me when I attended the Urban Design program at City College under Sorkin, where our studio created an exquisite corpse of a city in model form, somethi...