Only when history is decarbonised and decolonised will we understand how architecture should advance. For the time being, the art and science of building design are additionally hobbled by ‘systemic’ gender bias and ‘western-centric’ chauvinism.
If the dreary fugue of DEI rhetoric and the baffling clichés of archispeak make you want to scream, this book may not be for you. But get beyond the annoying tone – which combines dire waffle with apocalyptic prophecy – and Owen Hopkins has an important subject. The ‘Manifesto House’, he tells us, is evidence of a ‘deep and all-encompassing vision’ enjoyed by its designers. And these visions project themselves into the future, the place we are all going to live.
In three sections he painstakingly describes 21 remarkable houses, some familiar, others less so. There is Palladio’s Villa Rotonda, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and the concrete’n’glass construction that a young Richard Rogers designed for his parents in Wimbledon. There is the inclusion of the newly fashionable mid-century Lina Bo Bardi’s Casa de Vidro in Sao Paolo, plus a house in Senegal to refresh the woke agenda.
There is no Edwin Lutyens. And if someone had asked me to write this book, I might have included the extraordinary house in Vienna which Wittgenstein made for his sister – a manifesto if ever there was one. In conclusion, Hopkins treats us to an account of Krista Kim’s ludicrous Non Fungible Token project which recently sold for $512,000.
‘Manifesto’ crept into English from Italian and originally denoted the protestations of religious sects. Since Karl Marx’s announcement of communism in 1848, the word has suggested confrontation, not engagement.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in