Design Professionals And The Built Environment: An Introduction. - Review - book review

Architectural Review, The, April, 2001 by Timothy Brittain-Catlin

Edited by Paul Knox and Peter Ozolins.

Chichester. John Wiley. 2000. [pound]24.95

This is a very useful compilation of texts addressing every conceivable aspect of the architect's responsibility in society, from global issues to local politics, from handling information technology to understanding basic concepts of perception, from identifying security risks deriving from building layout to grasping the significance of art in public places - and quite a bit more. The essays, largely by American academics, are in most cases concise and clear; among the best are a piece by Sanjoy Mazumdar on people's use of space, Birgit Cold's contribution on aesthetics, and an overview on design and planning by Donald P. Grant. Oddly, the editors' own contribution on architectural history is sometime trite in comparison to most of the rest (their Le Gorbusier is a 'totalitarian egomaniac'); that aside, the only serious disappointment is a silly and hysterical attack on Modernist planning by someone called Rattner, who seems to be a neo-Classicist. There's a bit of hectoring here and there, but by and large the book will be of great value to students. Every chapter has a bibliography and reading list and there are conclusions and case studies.

This is the second American book that I've seen recently that addresses architects' public responsibilities. It's time a British editor put together something similar, because many issues of planning and public or semi-public housing are quite different in Britain, and this book, for example, is occasionally compromised by trying to address too many different political, economic or statutory systems at once.