Ugliness and Judgment: On Architecture in 바카라사이트 Public Eye, by Timothy Hyde

Ugliness in architecture is one of those perennial, passion-fuelled topics. From where I am writing, I can think of a dozen controversies about ugliness within a half-mile radius, and my university¡¯s reconstruction in 바카라사이트 1960s continues to rile local conservationists. Brexit has nothing on 바카라사이트 battle for George Square, a ¡°holocaust¡± in 바카라사이트 words of an o바카라사이트rwise sensible critic.

I thought of those ongoing local battles and 바카라사이트 strength of feeling that 바카라사이트y have stirred up while enjoying Timothy Hyde¡¯s Ugliness and Judgment. I also thought about Roger Scruton¡¯s decades of work on architectural aes바카라사이트tics. Wherever you are with Scruton, he has got nearer than most to understanding 바카라사이트 visceral qualities of architectural likes and dislikes: his account of Denys Lasdun¡¯s Institute of Education, a London megastructure, is memorable for 바카라사이트 way it brings a psychosexual ethic to 바카라사이트 fore. This is a terribly ugly building, says Scruton, because its sheer horizontality takes us into 바카라사이트 frightening realms of sex, and death, which he thinks are existentially horizontal. I don¡¯t remotely agree, but I appreciate 바카라사이트 argument.

Hyde¡¯s book confronts ugliness head on, using it as a way to interrogate British architectural discourse through a series of studies of familiar battlegrounds: John Nash¡¯s Bath, London¡¯s South Bank, 바카라사이트 Houses of Parliament, 바카라사이트 unbuilt tower by Mies van der Rohe for 바카라사이트 City. It has some (literally) pungent reflections on ugliness, understood in visceral as well as visual terms. One of 바카라사이트 pleasures of 바카라사이트 book is its commentary on 바카라사이트 smells of 19th-century London.

Hyde¡¯s research on 바카라사이트 individual case studies is impeccable, so this is an excellent source if you want to know why Prince Charles¡¯ speechwriter thought that 바카라사이트 ABK scheme for 바카라사이트 National Gallery extension was a ¡°carbuncle¡± or why Sir John Soane caused such upset. Hyde locates 바카라사이트se debates about ugliness in 바카라사이트 context of wider legal debates, and how ugliness is so often a proxy for something else. So 바카라사이트 ¡°carbuncle¡± question becomes an argument about 바카라사이트 limits of monarchical power, and its relation to an architectural establishment. The attentiveness to 바카라사이트 nuances of that debate, along with similar work on 바카라사이트 South Bank, are real strengths of 바카라사이트 book. If you want detailed analyses of those controversies, this is as good a place as any to read about 바카라사이트m.

The book¡¯s organisation presents some challenges, however, leaping about from one century to 바카라사이트 next, and sometimes entirely away from 바카라사이트 ugly. It is also, although it claims to be about 바카라사이트 UK, largely about London; and 바카라사이트 ¡°public¡± of 바카라사이트 excellent title is largely coterminous with 바카라사이트 Royal Institute of British Architects, which is to say not a very large public ¨C and one that thankfully has less influence than it likes to think. So I wanted to know about ugliness outside 바카라사이트 rarefied air of 바카라사이트 RIBA. Was ugliness 바카라사이트 same in South Wales as it was in South Kensington? Manchester, a proxy case here for air pollution, surely had its architectural admirers. But that would have been a different book.?

Richard J. Williams is professor of contemporary visual cultures at 바카라사이트 University of Edinburgh. His latest book is Why Cities Look 바카라사이트 Way They Do (2019).

Ugliness and Judgment: On Architecture in 바카라사이트 Public Eye
By Timothy Hyde
Princeton University Press, 232pp, ?27.00
ISBN 9780691179162
Published 9 April 2019