NEW BOOK:

ALL OVER THE MAP: WRITING ON BUILDINGS AND CITIES

BY MICHAEL SORKIN


PUBLISHED: 5 SEPTEMBER 2011

-----------------------------------

ALL OVER THE MAP is an urgent response to the radical changes in contemporary architecture and the built environment witnessed in the twenty-first century. Characteristically polemic, incisive and energetic, these essays explore pressing questions of architectural and urban design, and critical issues of public space and participation. From New York to New Orleans, the Amazon to Jerusalem, award-winning architect Michael Sorkin brings a critical eye to bear on a sweeping range of subjects.

Approaching the 10th anniversary of 9/11, ALL OVER THE MAP gives us a first-hand account of one of the most devastating events in American history while forcing us to re-imagine our relationship to the city and its spaces. In the age of terrorism, but also of corporatism, environmental degradation and social alienation, Sorkin simply asks, “what can architects do?” ALL OVER THE MAP ventures answers to some of the most pressing dilemmas of the twenty-first century.

A vivid and heart-felt account of the last decade in America, ALL OVER THE MAP narrates the changes and challenges of architecture, with wide-ranging interpretations of global culture and politics.  Shaped in large part by a series of American disasters – from George W. Bush’s presidency and the 9/11 attacks, to Hurricane Katrina and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – this book is also the adventure of imagining happy, just, and sustainable futures for our cities.

ALL OVER THE MAP is a cry for architectural revolution, when values such as openness, diversity and locality will be at the centre of all building and planning. ALL OVER THE MAP helps us to imagine a “world where everyone has the right to architecture.”

Aware of the homogenizing effects of global capital, Sorkin calls for artistic invention as an ever more crucial hedge against the depredations of planetary sameness. Architecture – he reminds us – can never be a purely private event; it should instead embody the elasticity of public space and its ability to stimulate, accommodate, or suppress diverse forms of individual and collective expression.

-----------------------------------
PRAISE FOR MICHAEL SORKIN

“A thorn in the flesh of America’s more complacent architects—especially the postmodernists—Sorkin proves that it’s possible to write with wit, passion and insight about architecture.” – THE GUARDIAN

“Michael Sorkin is the Lenny Bruce of American architecture: satirist, moralist, agent provocateur....His courageous, outrageous and often hilarious insights into the architectural culture of our times are expressed with antic brilliance and deep conviction.” – HOUSE AND GARDEN

 “Michael Sorkin’s brand of writing...is to thoughtful criticism what the Ayatollah Khomeini is to religious tolerance...” – PAUL GOLDBERGER


PRAISE FOR EXQUISITE CORPSE
“[Michael Sorkin] is brave, principled, highly informed, and fiercely funny. Read him and laugh; read him and weep; but read him, to see why the ’80s were so bad for American building” – ROBERT HUGHES
“To read Sorkin is to discover a genuine love of urbanism’s best offerings and a humanistically rooted disdain for the greedy and opportunistic types who view the city as a deregulated zone for plundering. ” – CHICAGO TRIBUNE
-----------------------------------

MICHAEL SORKIN is an award-winning architect and Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at the City College of New York. His books include THE NEXT JERUSALEM, AFTER THE WORLD TRADE CENTER, TWENTY MINUTES IN MANHATTAN and ALL OVER THE MAP.

-----------------------------------

ISBN: 978 1 84467 323 0 / £20.00 / / $34.95 / Hardback / 320 pages

-----------------------------------

For more information about ALL OVER THE MAP: WRITING ON BUILDINGS AND CITIES
or to buy the book visit:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/450-all-over-the-map
-----------------------------------

Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com

Become a fan of Verso on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verso-Books/205847279448577

And get updates on Twitter -  @VersoBooks
http://twitter.com/VersoBooks