…will be along shortly
Reyner Banham: A Set of Actual Tracks
Reyner Banham: A Set of Actual Tracks, edited by Ludovico Centis and published by AA Publications.
This book brings a contemporary critical lens to the work of one of the most prescient architectural and design critics of the 20th century, including thirteen of the acerbic historian’s essays and chapters accompanied by contemporary responses, drawing out reflections on what the critics work means today.
A biography of Reyner Banham, Reyner Banham Revisited, by Richard J. Williams, Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures at the University of Edinburgh, has just been published by Reaktion Books
Hardcover: 296 pages
Publisher: Reaktion Books (17 May 2021)
Language: English
9781789144178
Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 14.4 x 28 cm
Reyner Banham (1922–88) was a prolific, iconoclastic critic of modern architecture, cities and mass culture in Britain and the US, and his provocative writings are inescapable in these areas. His 1971 book on Los Angeles was ground-breaking in what it told Californians about their own metropolis, and architects about what cities might be if freed from tradition. Banham’s obsession with technology, and his talent for thinking the unthinkable, makes his work vitally important today, more than thirty years after his death. This book explores the full breadth of his career and his legacy, dealing not only with the major books, but a wide range of his journalism and media outputs, as well as the singular character of Banham himself.
Review by Oliver Arditi: My grandfather’s hats