Product Description

Drawing on the ideas of philosophers and cultural theorists such as Walter Benjamin and Jean Baudrillard, this text develops a critique of the consequences of the growing preoccupation with images and image-making in contemporary architectural culture. Neil Leach argues that the problem with this preoccupation is that it can induce a sort of numbness, as the saturation of images floods the senses and obscures deeper concerns. As a result architects can become anaesthetized from the social and political realities of everyday life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #466472 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 113 pages

Customer Reviews

Very polemical
Leach's book is a dense read, heavily relying on Jean Baudrillard and Guy Debord and their critique of contemporary capitalist society.

There are also references to Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin.

There are interesting ideas, but the book is rather short, so that ideas are not too developped.

The author is intentionally polemical in his approach and extreme in his argumentation. It might be thought-provoking for some and loathable for others.

1. Saturation of the image, 1;
2. The architect as fascist, 17;
3. The Aesthetics of Intoxication, 33;
4. The Architecture of the catwalk, 55;
5. Seduction, the last resort, 71;
Notes, 89;
Index, 99