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ARCHITECTURE TODAY
By James Steele

Architecture Today is a book about outsides (by James Steele, Phaidon Press Ltd, London, 1997, £45). An enormous and lavishly illustrated tome of over 500 pages takes the reader at a quick gallop through today’s pluralist scene, from ‘European Rationalism’ to ‘Experimentation in Japan’ by way of ‘Post Modernism’, ‘The Classical Revival’, ‘The New Expressionists’ and much else. Relying as it does entirely on presenting images of exteriors, rather than anything more profound (there are no drawings and very few interiors), it is not surprising that the book ends with a celebration of ‘World Cities’ (Rio, Hong Kong, Singapore and the like) which, architecturally, tend to be collections of object buildings.

The publisher’s preference for huge (and often beautiful) coloured pictures at all costs helps Steele’s text little, for he does describe with perception and intelligence the planning and working of many of the buildings he shows. While one may disagree with Steele’s choice of pigeon holes, and the projects he slots into them, the book could clearly be very useful to students if it were more appropriately illustrated and brought out in a rather less formidable and expensive format.