Concrete Reveries

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAY 26, 2008

In this stunning treatise on the transnational global city, philosopher and cultural critic Kingwell (Better Living) meditates on how the architecture of the modern city must cater efficiently yet aesthetically to a combination of basic human requirements "the cemetery within the city doubling as a park; the prison or madhouse as public architecture; the toilet within the house; the dump or recycling center within the city limits" and how the city in turn is an extension and embodiment of human consciousness. More than 75 photos punctuate essays that meander around the poetry of porches, doorways, spiral staircases ("a line circling") and the political implications of "generic, airport-style designs." The book is not a travelogue; New York and Shanghai are merely stops along an intellectual walk, which also takes up geometry, boundaries, thresholds and other elements of urban design that are metaphors for the mind and body. "No room is just a space; it is always a place we are either entering, occupying, or exiting," writes Kingwell in this book that is at once mesmerizing, indulgent, romantic, complex and perceptive.