Vertigo Strange New World of the Contemporary City

Dissecting the new architectural landscape of the industrialized world, this collection of essays explores 10 recently completed projects which exemplify the forces that are shaping contemporary cities. It responds to a particular moment when architects are being compelled to answer the challenges of new media, globalization, post-industrial culture and the unprecedented scale and speed of modern development. These challenges have made the great concerns of the 20th-century architecture - the Modern Movement, Postmodernism and High-Tech - seem irrelevant. In contrast to the bland future-gazing that the eve of the new millennium has tended to inspire, this book sets out to evoke tangible urban experiences.Introduction - the contemporary city, Rowan Moore; Lake Las Vegas, Nevada, Paul Davies; Gifu Housing, Osaka, Japan, Akira Suzuki; the Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz and the Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany, Brian Hatton; The Tate Gallery of Modern Art, London, UK, Raymund Ryan; Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong, Martin Pawley; Yokohama Ferry Terminal, Japan, Irenee Scalbert; Ontario Mills, Los Angeles, USA, Aaron Betsky; The Mori Tower, Shanghai, China, Aaron Tan; The Millennium Dome, London, UK, Deyan Sudjic; Park Duisberg-Nord, Germany, Stefan Leppert.