Another mysterious book cover released

Another title-less book cover has been released by a major publisher. Here's a clue - an extract from the book synopsis:

Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. ...

Prince vs. Lord

Breaking News! It's a royal scuffle. Prince Charles (Heavyweight) in one corner and Lord Richard Rogers in the other. It seems that the prince has come out swinging hard. Kaput! and it's a K.O. for Lord Rogers.

The award-winning architect had revealed to a London paper that he had been sacked from the project last Friday. The glass-and-steel development was to include 548 flats, a boutique hotel, 2 restaurants and a sports centre. Lord Rogers said: "We had hoped that Prince Charles had retreated from his position on modern architecture but he single-handedly destroyed this project."

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has meanwhile responded to Qatari Diar's decision to withdraw its current planning application to develop the Chelsea Barracks site. Speaking today, RIBA President Sunand Prasad said: "I am all for HRH The Prince of Wales setting out his principles as regards sustainability and an architecture that connects with nature, but for him to intervene in individual schemes going through the planning process is quite wrong. However I do not see this as defeat for modern architecture; more a case of prince speaking unto prince."

Although I'm not a Rogers fan - yes, I like his book Cities for a Small Country but that's besides the point - I am seriously disturbed by the fact that a democractic planning process can be subverted by the monarchy even in a country like England. The issue has escalated into a public spate between the so-called modernists and their traditional counterparts and will likely cause divisions within the RIBA members. Yet the public has never been so supportive of Prince Charles (Camilla says: Your time has come, Charlie!). Yes, architects reading this blog, people are actually sick and tired of our glass boxes and slick steel structures. They are clamouring for the past - a romantic past which they feel has been slowly eroded by the evil hand of modern architects.

What does this mean for us architects? Are we so out of touch with what the people want? Do we necessary have the better opinion because we are professionals? Maybe I'm insecure but that's a question which haunts me constantly. Is taste automatically conferred on us because we have spent 5-6 years drawing bricks and tiles? Look at Clinghouse, designed by a non-architect, and you know what? it's actually so much more interesting than the typical modern house.

I've not seen the counterproposal but I have a feeling it's going to look like Poundbury in Dorset. The picturesque old buildings of London are its treasures but to go back to the age of cottages and mixing classical facades is like printing fake notes. It may inflate your wealth temporarily but in the long run, your currency faces the inevitable devaluation.

What book is this?

This is the new cover for an old classic. Can you guess the name of this book? The author is Irish.

The Corridor of Broken Mirrors

Lily stood in the corridor of broken mirrors, waiting. He had promised to meet her there at midnight, after his wife had fallen asleep. She looked at her watch: 12.32am. He was late.

Footsteps. She turned, in anticipation. But it wasn't him. Lily froze her smile as the heavy-set man squeezed past her, his reflections sliding past like a Humpback whale. She turned away, heard him fumbling for his electronic key; a soft reassuring beep and he was swallowed up by Room 309. One room eliminated and twenty-one to go.

12.59am and still no sign of him. Maybe his wife is an insomniac, Lily thought. She regretted not asking his room number. Why did she pretend that they could still relive the past? And which version of the past was she chasing? She felt small and cheated, a whore waiting for a room. The women were staring back at her with accusing eyes now. Multiple copies of Lily, laughing, smirking, and chastising her as she wilted and made her way back to the streets.

Rem Koolhaas is coming to Singapore

Breaking News! Architect Rem Koolhaas will be lecturing in Singapore on Friday! Did you know Mr Koolhaas was a journalist for Haagse Post before he became an architect? To be sure, the literary blood runs in the family as Mr Koolhaas's father was both a novelist and screenwriter.

Koolhaas studied scriptwriting in Amsterdam, co-writing The White Slave, a 1969 Dutch film noir, and an unproduced script for American soft-porn king Russ Meyer before moving onto greater things such as the Pritzker Prize (the architecture equivalent of the Nobel Prize) and professorship at Harvard.

We know he still loves to write. In another lecture, he has lamented that too few architects write these days. (Hey, Mr Koolhaas, look at me waving to you from this blog!) If you're interested in architecture/ politics/ anthropology/ writing/ market research, this lecture is a MUST.

*Image courtesy of BDOnline

Date: Friday 19 June 2009

Time: 5.45pm - 7.00pm

Venue: Auditorium Level 3, Blk B, Faculty of Law, NUS Bukit Timah Campus

469G Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259772

Email lkyspppl@nus.edu.sg to register your interest.

The Writing of Tod Williams Billie Tsien

If I could, I would start an Architectural Booker Prize and award it to Tod Williams and Billie Tsien of TWBTA, New York. More than their work, I love their writing and lectures. Sure, we all read Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi and Daniel Libeskind, (which self-respecting architect would admit that he has never finished S,M,L, XL?) but the real poet among them is the TWBT partnership. As twin writers, their simple words capture the imagination without being overly grandiose and egotistical. Listen to their philosophy:

We see architecture as an act of profound optimism.

Its foundation lies in believing that it is possible to make places on earth that can give a sense of grace to life - and believing that that matters. It is what we have to give and it is what we leave behind.

This is one of my favourite books on architectural writing - a compilation of their 1998 Charles & Ray Eames lecture. It's not a widely available book though thanks to the internet, you can now buy it on Amazon.com (bizarrely titled as Mecanoo: Map 6).

I myself, stumbled upon it when in an independent bookshop in Michigan about 8 years ago. After I told the bookshop assistant about my interview with TWBTA the day before, he pulled out the book and told me I had to read it. I didn't get the job but I found a good book!

Architects Need Fiction Because

1. It helps them believe that they can triumph against all odds. (Howard Roark in The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand)
2. It gives them new ideas for urban planning. (Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino)
3. They like to be reminded of planning height limits. (A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby)
4. Their clients think they're magicians. (Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling)
5. They need to know that there is someone else who is more depressed. (Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel)
6. They battle with deadlines. (The Hours by Michael Cunningham)
7. They work really late. (Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie)
8. Their computers crash when they work really late. (Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe)
9. And their bosses expect them to retrieve all the lost data by the morning. (Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)
10. Someone ought to give them some hope. (The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway)