Reviews
“Less than twenty pages of text is enough to deprive Deconstruction of the complex scientific arguments that offer its exponents scientific authority and social approval. It is astonishing that while architecture abandons the principles that made civilizations reach the highest building achievements, at the same time scientific knowledge that results from a drastically improved understanding of Nature rediscovers the quality of those traditional principles. Whereas the most celebrated architects abuse the latest technological gadgets in order to produce caricatures of science, mathematicians such as Nikos Salingaros and Christopher Alexander use science to reveal the ability of traditional architectural principles to innovate by creating humane urban environments. The clarity of vision that characterizes books such as Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction shows that such a future may not be so far away after all.”—N. Karydis, architect and author, London and Athens”Salingaros focuses on the question of why, even in societies that often embrace the silly and the stupid, the public still mostly prefers traditional architechture.”—David Brussat, The Providence Journal”In his forward to this book, James Stevens Curl writes: ‘This book
should be required reading in every institution concerned with the
teaching of architecture, planning, and all other aspects of the built
environment’. I will extend that recommendation to every institution of
higher learning concerned with effective education in all subject
matters, because this book is also about the world we live in. Though
it is focused on the practice of Deconstructivist architecture, in fact
this book is also, by inference and extension, a description of the end
of urbanism when living, work, social life, and a sense of community
connected to a place were displaced by national corporations, the
separation of work from residence, the growth of suburban sprawl
enabled by the car, shopping centers, and grid-locked roads. [It] is
the clearest description of the state of architecture and the
destructiveness of the Decon movement. We ourselves, and our
understanding of basic human needs for peace and comfort, have been
stolen by a non-culture.”—Konrad Perlman, Planner, Washington, DC”Deconstruction is an architectural style that in recent years has
gained ever-increasing influence among architects and educators, as
well as decision and policy makers and developers of prestige projects.
… Characterized by lack of human-scale details, jagged and
convoluted figures, disjointed masses and planes, glittering glass and
polished metal surfaces, these buildings stem primarily from a branch
of philosophy whose main representative was the late French philosopher
Jacques Derrida. Step by step, the reader is taken through Derrida’s
description of deconstruction as a virus intended to attack and destroy
structures, a definition and purpose shared by his architect disciples.”—Isaac A. Meir, Architect, Planner, and Archaeologist, Midreshet
Ben-Gurion, Israel”Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction should ruffle
lots of feathers in the building and design world. But I suspect it’ll
also fascinate many who aren’t generally architecture and urbanism fanatics… This is a stunning and deep book, as
interesting for its analyses of psychology and politics as it is for
its discussions of architecture. It’s guaranteed to get the brain
buzzing; what a treat too that it’s a real reading pleasure, written in
a voice that’s both urbane and forceful.”—Michael Blowhard, Author and Filmmaker”Undoubtedly, this manuscript is a voice of logic and reason against
anti-architecture norms, and the destructive attitudes of their
followers. I would add my voice to other reviewers of this manuscript:
that it must be a mandatory reading in schools of architecture
worldwide.”—Ashraf Salama, Architect and Educator, Doha, Qatar
