Owen Hatherley

Britain Made in Europe In the 1930s tens of thousands of central Europeans sought sanctuary from fascism in Britain While the rainy seemingly quaint island they discovered on arrival was a far cry from the dynamism of Weimar Berlin or Red Vienna it was safe and it became home Yet the emigres had not arrived alone they brought with them new and radical ideas and as they began to rebuild their lives and livelihoods they transformed the face of Britain forever Drawing on an immense cast of artists and intellectuals including celebrated figures like Erno Goldfinger forgotten luminaries like Ruth Glass and a host of larger than life visionaries and charlatans the historian Owen Hatherley argues that in the resulting clash between European modernism and British moderation our imaginations were fundamentally realigned and remade for the better In casting what Bertolt Brecht called in a new German word a Verfremdungseffekt an alienation effect on Britain the aliens made us all a little bit alien too Provocative entertaining and meticulously researched The Alienation Effect opens our eyes to the influence of the emigres all around us many of our most quintessentially British icons are the product of this culture clash and entreats us to remember

A walk through the remnants of a social democratic America, and an argument about its future.Walking the Streets/Walking the Projects is an insightful exploration of the remnants of a social democratic America and a thought-provoking argument about its future.The book traces the rise of a 1960s urban ideology that celebrated bottom-up, organic city development while criticising state-led planning that resulted in lifeless, sterile "projects." Using walking as a method, the author tests these ideas across New York City, with a brief interlude in Washington, DC, examining a wide array of urban developments.Key areas explored:- Cultural complexes in Manhattan- New Deal-era public housing in Brooklyn, Harlem, and Queens- Roosevelt Islands social experiment- Communist housing co-operatives in the Bronx- Union-led rebuilding of the Lower East Side- DCs Metro systemBy walking through these spaces, the book reveals that, despite their flaws, fragments of a more equal society were built in the past and continue to thrive today. Walking the Streets/Walking the Projects asks what lessons a new generation of American socialists might learn from these surviving social democratic enclaves as they envision a better future.

A lo largo del siglo XX, el comunismo tomó el poder en Europa del Este y rehizo la ciudad a su imagen y semejanza. Destruyendo la planificación urbana del pasado imperial, se propuso transformar la vida cotidiana; sus amplios bulevares, sus epicos rascacielos y sus vastas urbanizaciones fueron una declaracion enfatica de una idea no capitalista. Ahora, los regimenes que los construyeron estan muertos y desaparecidos, pero de Varsovia a Berlin, de Moscu a la Kiev post-revolucionaria, los edificios, su legado mas evidente, permanecen, poblados por personas cuyas vidas se dispersaron y pusieron en peligro con el colapso del comunismo y la introduccion del capitalismo.Paisajes del Comunismo es un viaje de descubrimiento historico que nos sumerge en el mundo perdido de la arquitectura socialista. Owen Hatherley, un joven critico urbano brillante e ingenioso, muestra como se ejercia el poder en estas sociedades rastreando los bruscos y repentinos zigzags del estilo arquitectonico oficial comunista: el rococo supersticioso y despotico del alto estalinismo, con sus monumentos conmemorativos patrioteros, sus palacios y sus castillos secretos para policias; la obsesion de Alemania Oriental por los paneles prefabricados de hormigon; y los sistemas de metro de Moscu y Praga, una espectacular reivindicacion del espacio publico que fue mas alla de lo que cualquier vanguardia se atrevio a hacer. Es una historia intima de la Europa comunista del siglo XX contada a traves de sus edificios; es tambien un libro sobre el poder y lo que el poder hace en las ciudades. Sobre todo, Paisajes del Comunismo es un revelador viaje de descubrimiento que nos sumerge en la voragine de la arquitectura socialista. A lo largo de sus viajes por el antiguo imperio sovietico, Hatherley se pregunta que es lo que puede recuperarse de las ruinas del comunismo, si es que hay algo que pueda servir de base a nuestras ideas contemporaneas sobre la vida urbana.

If we remember them at all, the Sheffield pop group Pulp are remembered for jolly class warfare ditty Common People, for the celebrity of their interestingly-named frontman, for the latter waving his arse at Michael Jackson at the Brit awards, for being part of a non-movement called Britpop, and for disappearing almost without trace shortly after. They made a few good tunes, they did some funny videos, and while they might be National Treasures, theyre nothing serious. Are they? This book argues that they should be taken seriously very seriously indeed. Attempting to wrest Pulp away from the grim jingoistic spectacle of Britpop and the revivals-of-a-revival circuit, this book charts the very strange things that occur in their records, taking us deep into a strange exotic land; a land of acrylics, adultery, architecture, analogue synthesisers and burning class anger. This is book about pop music, but it is mainly a book about sex, the city and class via the 1990s finest British pop group.

A defence of Modernism against its defenders.This book is a defence of Modernism against its defenders. In readings of modern design, film, pop and especially architecture, it attempts to reclaim a revolutionary modernism against its absorption into the heritage industry and the aesthetics of the luxury flat. Militant Modernism features new readings of some familiar names Bertolt Brecht, Le Corbusier, et al. but more on the lesser-known, quotidian modernists of the twentieth century. These chapters range from a study of British industrial and brutalist aesthetics to Russian Constructivism in architecture, the Sexpol of Wilhelm Reich in film and design, and the alienation effects of Brecht and Hanns Eisler on record and screen all arguing for a modernism of everyday life, immersed in questions of socialism, sexual politics, and technology.

Militant Modernism is a defence against Modernisms many detractors. It looks at design, film and architecture - especially architecture and pursues the notion of an evolved modernism that simply refuses to stop being necessary. Owen Hatherley gives us new ways to look at what we thought was familiar Bertolt Brecht, Le Corbusier, even Vladimir Mayakovsky. Through Hatherleys eyes we see all of the quotidian modernists of the 20th century - lesser lights, too perhaps understanding them for the first time. Whether we are looking at Britains brutalist aesthetics, Russian Constructivism, or the Sexpol of Wilhelm Reich, the message is clear. There is no alternative to Modernism.

The definitive illustrated guide to modern British architecture, from one of the most acclaimed critics at work todayModernism is now a century old, and its consequences are all around us, built into our everyday lived environments. Its place in Britains history is fiercely contested, and its role in our future is the subject of ongoing controversy - but modernist buildings have undoubtedly changed our cities, politics and identity forever.In Modern Buildings in Britain, Owen Hatherley applauds the ambition and explores the significance of this most divisive of architectures, travelling from Aberystwyth to Aberdeen, from St Ives to Shetland, in search of our most important and distinctive modern buildings. Drawing on hundreds of examples, we learn how the concrete of Brutalism embodies post-war civic principles, how corporate values were expressed in the glass façades of the International Style, and why Ecomodernist experimentation is often consigned to the geographic fringes. As Hatherley considers the social, political and cultural value of these structures - a number of which are threatened by demolition - two linked questions emerge: what happens to a building after it has been lived in, and what becomes of an idea when its time has passed?With more than six hundred pages of trenchantly opinionated, often witty analysis, and with three hundred photographs in duotone and colour, Modern Buildings in Britain is a landmark contribution to the history of British architecture.

A scathing, lively and timely look at the "European city", from one of our most provocative voices on culture and architecture today Owen JonesA searching, timely account of the condition of contemporary Europe, told through the landscapes of its citiesOver the past twenty years European cities have become the envy of the world: a Kraftwerk Utopia of historic centres, supermodernist concert halls, imaginative public spaces and futuristic egalitarian housing estates which, interconnected by high-speed trains traversing open borders, have a combination of order and pleasure which is exceptionally unusual elsewhere.In Trans-Europe Express, Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the European city across the entire continent, to see what exactly makes it so different to the Anglo-Saxon norm - the unplanned, car-centred, developer-oriented spaces common to the US, Ireland, UK and Australia. Attempting to define the European city, Hatherley finds a continent divided both within the EU and outside it. The latest heir to Ruskin.- Boyd Tonkin, Independent Hatherley is the most informed, opinionated and acerbic guide you could wish for.- Hugh Pearman, Sunday Times Can one talk yet of vintage Hatherley? Yes, one can. Here are all the properties that have made him one of the most distinctive writers in England - not just architectural writers, but writers full stop: acuity, contrariness, observational rigour, frankness and beautifully wrought prose. - Jonathan Meades

Should Britain form a new union with its old Dominions in Canada, Australia and New Zealand? Are they really our closest allies and relations? And is there any reason why they should want to unite again with us?Great Britain has just left one Union, after years of bitter argument and divisive posturing. But what if the islands future lies in another Union altogether, with some of its former colonial kith and kin across the seas? Why be in a Union with your immediate neighbours, when you could instead be in a trans-oceanic super-state with our old friends in Canada, Australia and New Zealand? Welcome to the strange world of the CANZUK Union, the name for a quixotic but apparently serious plan to reunify the white-majority Dominions of the British Empire under the flag of low taxes, strong borders and climate change denialism.Artificial Islands tests the idea that Britains natural allies and closest relations are in these three countries in North America and the Antipodes, through a good look at the histories, townscapes and spaces of several cities across the settler zones of the British Empire. These are some of the most purely artificial and modern landscapes in the world, British-designed cities that were built with extreme rapidity in forcibly seized territories on the other side of the world from Britain. Were these places really no more than just a reproduction of British Values planted in unlikely corners of the globe? How are people in Auckland, Melbourne, Montreal, Ottawa and Wellington re-imagining their own history, or their countries role in the British Empire and their complicity in its crimes? And do they have any interest in a union with us?

Nearly thirty years after the fall of the USSR, the word "Soviet" should be as meaningless by now as "Hapsburg" or "Hohenzollern". Strangely, though, it endures, as places both inside and outside the former Soviet Union define themselves for or against what happened when it existed. But does that experience mean anything today, or is it just an enormous cul-de-sac? This book tries to find out, through an itinerary that goes from the Baltic to Belarus, from Ukraine to the Urals, from the Caucasus to Central Asia, and in cities that range from nuclear new towns of the Fifties to gleaming new capitals of the 21st century.In this Eurasian post-Soviet space, we try to find the continuities with Communism - if there are any - and the remnants of revolutions both distant and recent. Instead of a wistful journey through ruins, this intends to be an engaged travelogue, a subjective, personal Marxist Humanist guidebook to somewhere that actually exists, but which is constantly haunted by what it didnt become, whether a real Communist utopia or a successful or fair capitalism.In the course of this transcontinental account of what used to be the Soviet Union and is now a patchwork of EU democracies, neoliberal dictatorships and Soviet nostalgic enclaves (often found in the same countries) we might just find the outlines of a way of building cities that is a powerful alternative, both in the past and present.

A polemical history of municipal socialism in London - and an argument for turning this capitalist capital red again.A polemical history of municipal socialism in London -- and an argument for turning this capitalist capital red again.London is conventionally seen as merely a combination of the financial centre in the City and the centre of governmental power in Westminster, a uniquely capitalist capital city. This book is about the third London - a social democratic twentieth-century metropolis, a pioneer in council housing, public enterprise, socialist design, radical local democracy and multiculturalism.This book charts the development of this municipal power base under leaders from Herbert Morrison to Ken Livingstone, and its destruction in 1986, leaving a gap which has been only very inadequately filled by the Greater London Authority under Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan. Opposing currently fashionable bullshit about an imaginary "metropolitan elite", this book makes a case for London pride on the left, and makes an argument for using that pride as a weapon against a government of suburban landlords that ruthlessly exploits Londoners.

An ebook on the threatened built environment of urban Ukraine, with all proceeds going to the CWUs Ukraine fund and Artists at Risk.This is a short, limited edition ebook, with all proceeds being divided between the Communication Workers Unions Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine, and Artists at Risks Ukraine appeal.Today, during Russias imperialist war on Ukraine, everyone is talking about this large, beautiful and multicultural country, but, when doing so, theyre often repeating some poorly understood cliches and myths.Ukrainian Postcards, written firmly from the political left, draws on the authors writings on the modern architecture of various Ukrainian cities, written between 2010 and 2020, to build up a picture of a country that could one day be a model of how to live with a difficult past and a multicultural present - but which has been consistently undermined by politicians who use it as a cashbox and, above all, a neighbour who uses it as punchbag.Above all, at a time when Ukraines architectural heritage is literally under threat shelled and bombed by the Russian air force, day-in-day-out it outlines just how valuable and special this countrys buildings are, and how much we stand to lose with their destruction.

In the craven world of architectural criticism Hatherley is that rarest of things: a brave, incisive, elegant and erudite writer, whose books dissect the contemporary built environment to reveal the political fantasies and social realities it embodies Will SelfDuring the course of the twentieth century, communism took power in Eastern Europe and remade the city in its own image. Ransacking the urban planning of the grand imperial past, it set out to transform everyday life, its sweeping boulevards, epic high-rise and vast housing estates an emphatic declaration of a non-capitalist idea. Now, the regimes that built them are dead and long gone, but from Warsaw to Berlin, Moscow to post-Revolution Kiev, the buildings, their most obvious legacy, remain, populated by people whose lives were scattered and jeopardized by the collapse of communism and the introduction of capitalism.Landscapes of Communism is an intimate history of twentieth-century communist Europe told through its buildings; it is, too, a book about power, and what power does in cities. In exploring what that power was, Hatherley shows how much we can understand from surfaces - especially states as obsessed with surface as the Soviets were. Walking through these landscapes today, Hatherley discovers how, in contrast to the common dismissal of monolithic Soviet architecture, these cities reflect with disconcerting transparency the development of an idea over the decades, with its sharp, sudden zigzags of official style: from modernism to classicism and back; to the superstitious despotic rococo of high Stalinism, with its jingoistic memorials, palaces and secret policemens castles; East Germanys obsession with prefabricated concrete panels; and the metro systems of Moscow and Prague, a spectacular vindication of public space that went further than any avant garde ever dared.But most of all, Landscapes of Communism is a revelatory journey of discovery, plunging us into the maelstrom of socialist architecture. As we submerge into the metros, walk the massive, multi-lane magistrale and pause at milk bars in the microrayons, who knows what we might find?

A lo largo del siglo XX, el comunismo tomó el poder en Europa del Este y rehizo la ciudad a su imagen y semejanza. Destruyendo la planificación urbana del pasado imperial, se propuso transformar la vida cotidiana; sus amplios bulevares, sus epicos rascacielos y sus vastas urbanizaciones fueron una declaracion enfatica de una idea no capitalista. Ahora, los regimenes que los construyeron estan muertos y desaparecidos, pero de Varsovia a Berlin, de Moscu a la Kiev post-revolucionaria, los edificios, su legado mas evidente, permanecen, poblados por personas cuyas vidas se dispersaron y pusieron en peligro con el colapso del comunismo y la introduccion del capitalismo. Paisajes del Comunismo es un viaje de descubrimiento historico que nos sumerge en el mundo perdido de la arquitectura socialista. Owen Hatherley, un joven critico urbano brillante e ingenioso, muestra como se ejercia el poder en estas sociedades rastreando los bruscos y repentinos zigzags del estilo arquitectonico oficial comunista: el rococo supersticioso y despotico del alto estalinismo, con sus monumentos conmemorativos patrioteros, sus palacios y sus castillos secretos para policias; la obsesion de Alemania Oriental por los paneles prefabricados de hormigon; y los sistemas de metro de Moscu y Praga, una espectacular reivindicacion del espacio publico que fue mas alla de lo que cualquier vanguardia se atrevio a hacer.

Dazzling ... The remarkable story of how British culture was transformed by émigré architects, filmmakers and writersGuardianBritain. Made in Europe.In the 1930s, tens of thousands of central Europeans sought sanctuary from fascism in Britain. While the rainy, seemingly quaint island they discovered on arrival was a far cry from the dynamism of Weimar Berlin or Red Vienna, it was safe, and it became home. Yet the emigres had not arrived alone: they brought with them new and radical ideas, and as they began to rebuild their lives and livelihoods, they transformed the face of Britain forever.Drawing on an immense cast of artists and intellectuals, including celebrated figures like Erno Goldfinger, forgotten luminaries like Ruth Glass, and a host of larger-than-life visionaries and charlatans, the historian Owen Hatherley argues that in the resulting clash between European modernism and British moderation, our imaginations were fundamentally realigned and remade for the better. In casting what Bertolt Brecht called, in a new German word, a Verfremdungseffekt, an alienation effect, on Britain, the aliens made us all a little bit alien too.Provocative, entertaining and meticulously researched, The Alienation Effect opens our eyes to the influence of the emigres all around us many of our most quintessentially British icons are the product of this culture clash and entreats us to remember and renew our proud national tradition of asylum.