Many architecture lovers are waiting for this publication! This month, the Architecture Institute Foundation and the National Institute of Architecture and Urbanism will publish the Polish edition of the bestselling book by Reinier de Graaf, a partner at OMA, "Four Walls and a Roof. The complex nature of a simple profession." The premiere will be accompanied by a meeting with the author.
"Four Walls and a Roof" is a gripping account, based on the author's tragicomic experiences, of the contemporary realities of the architectural profession, the lost ideals of architecture, the false pretensions of its creators and the profession's total dependence on the global market game. De Graaf, in his notes infused with bitter humor, draws a picture of the world in the first decades of the 21st century. He lets you get a sneak peek at the corridors of power in Moscow, Dubai and London, looks for the dying vestiges of social housing programs in St. Louis and the suburbs of New York, juxtaposes delusions about the smart city with the grim realities of the megacities of the global South. He exposes the helplessness of architects condemned to a conflict of interest - servicing forces that should be resisted. Russian oligarchs and Emirati sheikhs, greedy developers and cynical consultants, politicians and architects littering the web of dependency are building together a world where you never know who is pulling the strings.
© Architecture Institute Foundation, National Institute of Architecture and Urbanism
You can read a review by Grzegorz Piątek, author of the Polish translation of the book, in the February issue of A&B.
The book's premiere and a meeting with Reinier de Graaf will take place on December 12 between 5:00 and 7:00 pm in the cinema hall of the Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw. The book will be discussed by: Dorota Leśniak-Rychlak, Bolesław Stelmach and Łukasz Wojciechowski.
For more information, visit the website of the Architecture Institute Foundation and the National Institute of Architecture and Urbanism.
