The cast is truly formidable, and often we fail to be properly introduced: who is Michael Graves? Gordon Bunshaft? What was the Abercrombie Plan for London? Sudjic’s familiarity with his subject is so great he often forgets about his willing but less-informed reader. ‘SOM’ was mysteriously invoked half-a-dozen times before a stray reference led me to decode it as the somewhat better-known firm of Skidmore Owings and Merrill; the London Assembly building is discussed for a page before Norman Foster’s name is mentioned; Rem Koolhaas’s building project in Beijing is compared to the ‘Three Gorges Dam’ — in what way, I still can’t say. At the same time, Sudjic doubts our general knowledge to such an extent he feels the need to remind us that ‘in the mosque, the representation of the human form is unacceptable’.
However, he is at his considerable best telling us why good architecture is good: his dozen pages on Enric Miralles’s Scottish parliament building makes every penny overspent on that much-maligned construction seem like a shrewd and sensible investment. Sudjic knows that architecture is not just a backdrop to our lives. It matters, and he is able to tell us why, clearly and vividly. His skill at descriptions is especially fortunate, given his publisher’s woefully foolish decision to include no pictures, or even architects’ drawings.
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article.