Șerban Țigănaș

Dean; Professor PhD. Arch., Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.

Richard Francis-Jones: Truth and Lies in Architecture

Book Review by Șerban Țigănaș: Novato CA: ORO Editions, 2022. ISBN 9781954081659

I found this book last year in the large living room of a terrace house in Bedford Square, in London. It was, of course, the AA bookshop, at number 36. The cover reminded me of a sience fiction movie, but the title attracted me. Truth in architecture is a modern subject. Lie does not look exactly the opposite of truth. Then I noticed that Kenneth Frampton wrote the foreword. The endorsement of this master of the modernist theory, now in his nineties, worked like a whisper: “take it!” And I quote from KF: “The nature of great cultural, social, political, environmental and consumerist challenges are explored, interpreted and questioned, while drawing connectors from architecture theory, philosophy, science, literature and film sources in an attempt to negotiate the territory between the truth and lies in architecture.”

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