A GUIDE TO THE NEW RUINS OF GREAT BRITAIN PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Owen Hatherley | 408 pages | 01 Jul 2011 | Verso Books | 9781844677009 | English | London, United Kingdom A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain PDF Book Considerable overlap and repetition exists between the two works. Hatherley is a caustic critic of the "Blairboxes" constructed over the past decade, like the "moronically named iQuarter" in Sheffield. A walk through the architecture of various UK cities, venturing into the economics and politics behind their current states. Other Editions 6. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Good luck, UK! He is particularly good on Greenwich, where he has lived for some years. He rarely feels the building of the last twenty years, whether it be 'heritage renewal' or shopping mall has done much to beautify the country. Nottingham The Banality of Aspiration. Issue section:. By the early 80s, it had an arthouse cinema, club nights run by the soon-to-be-famous Factory Records, and even a "Hulme look" of intense youths in baggy secondhand suits. Yet, writes Hatherley, "all the things bemoaned as deleterious to family life. The Scotsman. Refresh and try again. And I still have no idea what kind of architecture Hatherley likes. More Details On the way, he eviscerates the Blairite strategy of urban regeneration which used "the instruments of social democracy against its social content" leading to countless Private Finance Initiative schemes and some very poor architecture. With a panoramic view of a traffic jam! Yet this Baedecker's for the 21st century was one of my favourite reads this year. Launch Research Feed. A darkly humorous architectural guide to the decrepit new Britain that neoliberalism built. I found the chapters on Manchester and Liverpool most interesting because I have lived through and watched the developments he describes. Owen Hatherley is more interested in buildings that barely lasted long enough to auto destruct. It almost feels like Hatherley is picking Britain Apart building by building as he names and shames the crap people behind our Crap Towns. Nor does he write about some of the grim modern places — airports, call centres — that might have provided his critique of New Labour with some of its best evidence. Gleeson A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain Writer Details if other :. Indeed, Hatherley has found at least four buildings recently erected in Hull, London and Glasgow, which even include some variant of "icon" in their name. Hatherley grew up there, and quickly disarms anyone who suspects he is some sort of slumming middle-class aesthete, naively idealising council estates, by telling us that as a teenager he lived on one himself. Index of Places. Lists with This Book. Maybe because there aren't enough Tesco metros in a yard radius? This is an important book that is entirely worthy of the arguments it sets out to provoke. Southampton Terminus City. Has the author never asked a Manc where the best views in the city are cos the answer is usually "From the Beetham Tower, cos then you can't see the tower itself". Neil Gray, L. In every major city in the world there is a housing crisis. Self also alleges similarities between Hatherley's argument regarding "pseudomodernism" and that of the architect Rem Koolhaas , whose work Hatherley criticises. On the way, he eviscerates the Blairite strategy of urban regeneration which used "the instruments of social democracy against its social content" leading to countless Private Finance Initiative schemes and some very poor architecture. Sometimes the descriptions it gives aren't detailed enough without photos to give you a good feel for the buildings talked about, which is a bit frustrating. May 07, Donna rated it it was amazing. His concluding comments on Liverpool's not entirely disastrous deal with the devil are fair where deserved and harsh where necessary, and overall more evenly-balanced than you - or he - might have expected. Get A Copy. Yet as he noses around his dozen chosen cities in England, Wales and Scotland he has little interest here in non-urban Britain , Hatherley's tone grows progressively more disillusioned. From Greenwich to Glasgow, Milton Keynes to Manchester, Hatherley maps the derelict Britain of the s: from riverside apartment complexes, art galleries and amorphous interactive "centers," to shopping malls, call centers and factories turned into expensive lofts. And it's very funny too. Also at one point there's a reference to "lumpen" as an almost insult which rubbed me the wrong way. Enlarge cover. One of Hatherley's strengths is finding the good in buildings you might expect him to detest, and admitting the bad in those you might think he'd glorify. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Jan 17, James Mack rated it really liked it. Jul 31, Timothy Urban rated it really liked it. Whatever your pet-hate, Hatherley will probably have some enjoyably cruel words for it. I doubt it. In doing so, he provides a mordant commentary on the urban environment in which we live, work and consume. View all 10 comments. That's not to say that I hadn't enjoyed it before or that I didn't enjoy it this time. He is intensely nostalgic for the time when British working-class housing was ambitious, even overbearing in design, rather than, as now, modest and seemingly ashamed of itself — when it is built at all. Search form. Built around, beside, and in some cases on top of these worn buildings are the even larger edifices of the New Labour era. By contrast, the urban legacy of Blair and Brown is the property developers' inane glitz, which is the architectural equivalent of Celebrity Come Dine With Me, and the unfulfilled promise of regeneration through the "creative industries". He starts in Southampton, that scattered, little-written-about city on the south coast. Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency. I was also slightly hampered by unfamiliarity with most of the cities discussed, but those that I've been to for any real period of time Wakefield, Leeds, Cardiff and Greenwich's Millennium Village were nailed so completely that I can't really doubt the accuracy of the rest of Hatherley's sketches! British architecture and urbanism , modern architecture , brutalist architecture. And I really should visit Liverpool and Milton Keynes. I was a planner and a regeneration consultant until recently and I'm afraid I went along with the 'design and build' thing which has resulted in the eerie feeling that you get going around the country and visit I don't agree with everything that Owen Hatherley says, eg his liking for Jonathan Meades and architectural brutalism, but if you care about the urban environment and feel that what is happening is wrong then this is the book for you. You know the saying: There's no time like the present The language of large parts of this book is so pretentious as to be unintelligible. Launch Research Feed. Verso Books 18 November It's a very interesting if dispiriting subject. In A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain , Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the wreckage—the buildings that epitomized an age of greed and aspiration. Hatherley, who is a prolific architecture blogger , has a nice line in put-downs and sarcasm. Kitchin, C. A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain Reviews I realised as I started reading this that I'd read it before. I found the chapters on Manchester and Liverpool most interesting because I have lived through and watched the developments he describes. He is particularly good on Greenwich, where he has lived for some years. Nor does he write about some of the grim modern places — airports, call centres — that might have provided his critique of New Labour with some of its best evidence. Hatherley, who is a prolific architecture blogger , has a nice line in put-downs and sarcasm. I wasn't sure of the intended audience for the book, although I gather it grew out of articles originally appearing in an architectural publication and it is quite a stretch for the general public even when you have some familiarity with the city in that chapter. Essentially, this was the approach to planning under New Labour How did this happen and what can we do about it? Sep 08, Neil Fulwood rated it it was amazing. Retrieved 18 April Greenwich Estuarine Enclaves. It's in the manner of Defoe, but rather more overtly political. You can criticise this view as too romantic. On the way, he eviscerates the Blairite strategy of urban regeneration which used "the instruments of social democracy against its social content" leading to countless Private Finance Initiative schemes and some very poor architecture. I was a planner and a regeneration consultant until recently and I'm afraid I went along with the 'design and build' thing which has resulted in the eerie feeling that you get going around the country and visiting cities that you could be anywhere. Sometimes, in the age-old way of English polemicists, he doesn't let the facts get in the way of a good denunciation. Mixing the material with sea water aided and abetted this phenomenon. It's well written and engaging, managing to make a repetitive format not feel repetitive to read. Hatherley's first book, Militant Modernism, was a fierce, funny and intelligent defence of modernism and this book is similarly eclectic, erudite and enjoyable. Skip to search form Skip to main content You are currently offline. Nevertheless, one of the enduring messages that I took from the book is that making judgements on architecture is hard - harder than setting up an Instagram account of looking approvingly at Brutalist structures.