{"product_id":"bleak-houses-isbn-9780262528856","title":"Bleak Houses","description":"\u003cb\u003eWhy some architects fail to realize their ideal buildings, and what architecture critics can learn from novelists.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe usual history of architecture is a grand narrative of soaring monuments and heroic makers. But it is also a false narrative in many ways, rarely acknowledging the personal failures and disappointments of architects. In \u003ci\u003eBleak Houses\u003c\/i\u003e, Timothy Brittain-Catlin investigates the underside of architecture, the stories of losers and unfulfillment often ignored by an architectural criticism that values novelty, fame, and virility over fallibility and rejection. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs architectural criticism promotes increasingly narrow values, dismissing certain styles wholesale and subjecting buildings to a Victorian litmus test of “real” versus “fake,” Brittain-Catlin explains the effect this superficial criticality has had not only on architectural discourse but on the quality of buildings. The fact that most buildings receive no critical scrutiny at all has resulted in vast stretches of ugly modern housing and a pervasive public illiteracy about architecture.\u003c\/p\u003e...there are few books I can think of that describe the emotional engagement with architecture with such acuity. And despite the subject, \u003ci\u003eBleak Houses\u003c\/i\u003e is anything but a bleak read.—\u003cb\u003eRichard Williams\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Times Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e...this is one of the most intriguing, original and gently provocative books on the meaning of architecture for some while.\u003c\/p\u003e—\u003ci\u003eArchitecture Review\u003c\/i\u003e—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e...It's a book that all who not only write on architecture but who also have a genuine interest in the welfare of the historic built environment ought to read.\u003c\/p\u003e—\u003cb\u003eAlex Bremner\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Victorian\u003c\/i\u003e—Timothy Brittain-Catlin is a Reader at Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent. His writing has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe World of Interiors\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eArchitectural Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and many other publications.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304833077477,"sku":"NP9780262528856","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262528856.jpg?v=1767722758","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/bleak-houses-isbn-9780262528856","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}