Architectural Conspiracy
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Architectural Conspiracy
a novel by Bobby Fogel
Price range: $7.99 through $20.99
Architectural Conspiracy is a bold architectural novel set on the Lebanese coast, where two rival visions compete to shape a new twenty-first-century metropolis. Oscar Niemeyer represents Modernism, while Rem Koolhaas champions Postmodernism, with the narrator caught at the center of their ideological battle. Blending design, politics, architectural history, and fiction, the story follows the project from concept to final judgment. A continuous hand-drawn sketch along each page visually translates the evolving city and the ideas behind it.
Description
About Architectural Conspiracy.
The Lebanese government has commissioned the impossible: a Metropolis for the twenty-first century, built on a stretch of coastline between the mountains and the Mediterranean. Two proposals will be submitted. Only one will win.
Oscar Niemeyer arrives to defend Modernism. Rem Koolhaas arrives to defend Postmodernism. Caught between them is the narrator — Koolhaas's project leader — responsible for turning a duel between two architectural philosophies into an actual, buildable city.
Told through site visits, all-nighters, office politics, and a running commentary on a century of architectural theory, Architectural Conspiracy follows the design from empty coastline to final submission, where a jury of real architectural history — the legendary New York Five — is convened to judge Modernism against Postmodernism once and for all.
It is a novel built the way its subject is built: in plans, elevations, and a running argument about what a city owes the people who have to live in it. True to its subject, the book carries its own architectural device: a hand-drawn sketch runs along the foot of every page, translating the text above it into the language the narrator trusts most.