Architecture or Revolution

An urgent and passionate call for architecture to awaken from its current dogmatic slumber, Nadir Lahiji's Architecture or Revolution is also a stunning attempt to re-read Marx as our contemporary. Against the defeatist consolations of so-called 'post-critical' theory and neoliberal fantasies of capitalist progression, this remarkable book shows how we need Marx's critical and emancipatory perspective more than ever. The lesson is that a critical theory of architecture will be Marxian, or it will not be at all. - David Cunningham, Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture, University of Westminster In his latest book, Architecture or Revolution, architectural philosopher Nadir Lahiji argues cogently and fiercely for what he calls the right to shelter. Shelter is more than a roof over one's head, more than what Le Corbusier described as a primal instinct. It's a human right inherently linked to a political philosophy-to a fundamental commitment to equality. Starting from a rereading of Marx and the French Revolution, Lahiji calls for architecture to move beyond capitalist complaisance and nihilism and take a revolutionary stance, one that conjoins aesthetics and ethics with a critique of political economy. A fervent cry from the contemporary barricades. - Joan Ockman, Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History, Yale University With Architecture or Revolution, Nadir Lahiji provides the most thorough attempt to conceive an emancipatory theory of building that anyone has yet tried. His book doesn't just propose a Marxist theory of architecture but engages architecture as itself a form of Marxist practice. The insights are stunning, and the ramifications are far-reaching. - Todd McGowan, University of Vermont In Lahiji's Architecture or Revolution, le Corbusier's pronouncement, Architecture or Revolution is, perhaps for the first time, analyzed seriously. Examined in the context of the French Revolution and the revolutions projected by Corb's philosophic contemporaries, revolution is shown to be the logical option that Corb so incorrectly dismisses. Lahiji makes the argument that, starting with Corb, architects, especially in the academy, have eradicated both the idea of a true revolution and the critical framework we need to articulate its necessity. - Peggy Deamer, Yale School of Architecture, emerita