A unique guide to architecture, and a radical, personal and entertaining appraisal of eight of Britain's most controversial buildings
Barnabas Calder is a historian of architecture specialising in
British architecture since 1945. He is a Senior Lecturer at the
University of Liverpool where he researches the relationship
between architecture and energy throughout human history. His most
recent book, Architecture- From Prehistory to Climate Emergency,
was published in 2021.
Twitter and Instagram- @BarnabasCalder
#ArchitectureAndEnergy
Part history, part aesthetic autobiography, wholly engaging and
liable to convince those procrastinators sitting (uncomfortably) on
the concrete fence.
Barnabas Calder brings us tales of the unexpected and breathes life
into what some night call one of the unloveliest of building
materials … illuminating and spirited.
*Monocle*
This celebration of all things concrete will please both its
aficionados and those who find it hard to love ... Calder's
distinctive approach is a combination of scholarliness with
personal association ... An engaging and accessible guide for those
drawn towards these ex-monstrosities.
*Observer*
Calder provides the ideal eye-opening introduction for the curious
general reader. It deserves a large audience ... This is a
charmingly personal book, authoritatively knowledgeable and spikily
argumentative.
*Literary Review*
The best introduction to this most exciting and visceral period of
British architecture – a learned and passionate book.
A compelling and evocative read, one that is meticulously
researched, and filled with insight and passion. Through Barnabas
Calder’s personal narrative we gain a deep understanding and
appreciation of a tough subject.
A fascinating odyssey through Britain's Brutalist landscape. The
journey is sometimes breathtaking, but always insightful and
informed. By its end, we understand the complexity, skill, and
vision, as well as the politics, that created the buildings he
explores in such loving detail.
Barnabas Calder is a self-outed lover of concrete, a man who
doesn’t visit buildings but makes “pilgrimages”. He holds back on
neither his praise for the objects of his passion, nor his wrath
against those who threaten them. Buy this excellent book, read it
and go out and hug your nearest lofty edifice in concrete and
glass!
This engrossing book by a fellow self-confessed concrete lover is
both a witty travelogue and memoir and the clear-sighted history of
Brutalist buildings. Barnabas Calder relishes the craftsmanship,
the financial back stories, and the aims and ambitions of a diverse
generation of architects, whose works deserve our sympathy.
It’s not a history book … It’s chatty, anecdotal and thoroughly
entertaining … My advice? Read the book, load up your mobile with
some rock ‘n’ roll and Calder’s online photos, and go hug some
concrete.
*Times Higher Education*
Calder wants to make an argument about the greatness of Brutalism
as an architectural style. He writes beautifully.
*London Review of Books*
Eclectic and readable.
*Observer 'Architecture Books of the Year'*
Impressively well-written... Calder writes with the opinionated
self-assurance of the young Ruskin. Compelling reading...
thrilling... excellent.
*RIBA Journal*
This is a strongly-argued and at times refreshingly polemical book,
one guaranteed to change your opinion of an ambitious and
much-maligned architectural style that, like it or not, has had a
profound effect on our built environment.
*The National*
Calder’s book is the very antithesis of the recent glut of
coffee-table-style, #brutalism, which focus primarily on
appearance. By adopting a personal perspective, he humanises what
is often demonised as an alienating material.
*Blueprint Magazine*
An excellent – and highly readable – guide … If you’re interested
in Brutalism as architecture and construction practice, if you’re
interested in its meaning and its context, buy this book.
*Municipal Dreams*
He writes beautifully.
*London Review of Books*
In the historian Barnabas Calder’s marvellous Raw Concrete, he
tries to persuade us to love the architecture of the 1960s. Not
just wonderfully well-researched and beautifully well-written, it’s
also the story of a conversion, as Calder himself comes to value
buildings he, too, once disliked.
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