Looking Around. A Journey
Through Architecture. Witold
Rybezynski, Harper Collins.
$24.95 °

' John Moore
BOOK REVIEW

HE DUDE with the
difficult name is at it
‘8 again, with another
collection of essays that turn
our perceptions of architec-
ture (and architecture criti-
cism) refreshlingly end for
end, forcing us to rethink
“ our relationship with the
public and private spaces in
which we live. a
", Who but Rybezynski would de-
fend the shopping mall as the:
dominant architectural model of
»the late 20th century, point out‘its
influence on art galleries and |

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Tal

museums, and do this so convince:
ingly that you'd almost be willing
to back down on your stand in
favor of capital punishment for the

. producers of muzak? :

You only have to skim a few
sentences of the politicized
obscurantist jargon that passes for
prose in most architectural jour.
nals to understand why this McGill
professor's writing has been uni-.

_ versally acclaimed for a decade.

It's not just Rybczynski’s

‘polymathic ability to connect

common sense, clarity and
recreate the historical and cultural
context of architecture that makes
his books a delight to read.

The secret of his phenomenal
success (how many famous ar-
chitects, Arthur Erickson excepted,
can you name, let alone architec-
tural critics?) is that he not only -
writes perceptively about the

public and corporate monuments “ «

which usualiy spring to mind
when you hear the word ‘‘ar-

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architecture’s

chitecture,”’ but about the homely
domestic building as well.

As in his previous books, Home
and The Most Beautiful House in
the World, Rybezynski dares to

_ take non-monumental, practical

architecture seriously and to
heretically judge big public “‘Ar-
chitecture’’ by the same standards
of utility and beauty. ;
The man loves to skate on thin
ica; capital-A Architects will hate
his persistent “What is this build-
ing for?” which calls into question
the recent but treasured notion

‘If you'd like to spend less on

that architects are artists like
sculptors who create buildings like
statues, exempt! from function.

Pseudo-intellects who wouldn't
be caught dead sipping cappuc-
cino in a mall will be appalled by
his defence of the reincarnation of
the “pedestrian village’ and his
rationalization of the suburbs in
which most of them grew up.

Like most really good books,
Looking Around is going to fly in
the face of both popular wisdom
and the powers-that-be.

Rybezynski is as impatient with

not so distant residential long

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grandiose, self-referential architec-
tural gestures as he is with
unimaginative utilitarianism. -

A critic in the highest sense of
the word, Rybezysnski consistently’.
puts common sense before theory, ,
practicality before principle, pur-
pose before politics. Pe

It is an ancient architectural”
principle that the qualities of a.
building should be ‘commodity, ..
firmness and delight.’ One might .
say the same of a good book,» “

Looking Around has them all...

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