The Age of Spectacle

<p><b>'A great storyteller . . . you would be hard pushed to find a more knowledgeable or entertaining [guide]' <i>Icon</i></b><br><br><b>'Such an interesting book . . . I cannot recommend it enough.' Lauren Laverne<br><br><br>In Dubai a luxury apartment block is built in the shape of a giant iPod. In China President Xi Jinping denounces the trend of constructing &#145;bizarre&#146; new buildings in wacky shapes and colours. In Cincinnati celebrity architect Zaha Hadid is paid millions to design a single &#145;iconic&#146; structure &#150; with the hope of single-handedly transforming the region&#146;s ailing fortunes. These incidents are all part of the same story: the rise of the age of spectacle.</b><br><br>Over the last fifty years there has been a revolution in how our cities operate. In <i>The Age of Spectacle</i> Tom Dyckhoff tells the story of how architecture became obsessed with the flashy the monumental and the ostentatious &#150; and how we all have to live with the consequences. Exploring cityscapes from New York to Beijing and from Bilbao to Portsmouth Dyckhoff shows that we are not just witnessing a new kind of building: we are living through a fundamental transformation in how our urban spaces work. The corporate explosion of the last few decades has fundamentally shifted the relationship between architects politicians and cities&#146; inhabitants fostering innovative new kinds of engineering and design but also facilitating ill-conceived vanity projects and commercial power-grabs.<br><br>Timely passionate and bursting with new ideas <i>The Age of Spectacle</i> is both an examination of how twenty-first century cities work and a manifesto for a radically new kind of urbanism. Our cities Dyckhoff shows can thrive in the age of spectacle &#150; but only if they engage us not just with dazzling structures but by responding to the needs of the people who inhabit them.<br><br><b>'Engaging . . . The &#147;iconic&#148; building is the most obvious architectural phenomenon of our age yet somehow no one has quite done what Tom Dyckhoff does with <i>The Age of Spectacle</i> which is to tell its story clearly and plainly.' Rowan Moore <i>Observer</i></b><br><br><b>'First class. Finally a book that nails the iconic movement &#150; Tom Dyckhoff&#146;s <i>The Age of Spectacle</i> is the book that I wish I had written.' Simon Jenkins</b><br><br><b>'Unusually accessible [and] well argued.' <i>Evening Standard</i></b></p>