A Place for All People: Life, Architecture and the Fair Society

by Richard Rogers, Richard Brown

Overview

Richard Rogers is a pre-eminent architect of his generation, whose approach to buildings is infused with his enthusiasm for modernism, love of life and strong sense of social justice. From the Pompidou Centre in Paris to the Lloyds Building in the City of London, and from airports, to cancer care centres to low-cost homes, his buildings blend private use, public space and civic value.

Based on his 2013 Royal Academy exhibition, A Place for All People is a mosaic of life, projects and ideas for a better society. Ranging backwards and forwards over a long and creative life, and integrating relationships, projects, stories, collaborations and polemics, with case studies, drawings and photographs A Place for All People is a dazzling and inspiring book as original as its author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782116936
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	09/07/2017
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Richard Rogers was born in Florence in 1933. He was educated in the UK and then at the Yale School of Architecture, where he met Norman Foster. Alongside his partners, he has been responsible for some of the most radical designs of the twentieth century, including the Pompidou Centre, the Millennium Dome, the Bordeaux Law Courts, Leadenhall Tower and Lloyd's of London. He chaired the Urban Task Force, which pioneered the return to urban living in the UK, was chief architectural advisor to the Mayor of London, and has also advised the mayors of Barcelona and Paris. He is married to Ruth Rogers, chef and owner of the River Café in London. He was knighted in 1991 by Queen Elizabeth II, and made a life peer in 1996. He has been awarded the Légion d'Honneur, the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal, and the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour.

Editorial Reviews

01/22/2018
British architect Rogers, who is known for his exoskeleton designs, offers thoughts on his life and craft with the same admirable transparency that characterizes his buildings. Rogers takes readers behind the scenes of his storied career, from early residential and industrial projects to his large-scale corporate and civic commissions. Combining elements of memoir and monograph, he mixes details from cantilever engineering for the Pompidou Center with personal anecdotes, as when he met the prime minister of France while wearing a denim suit. The story of his collaboration with Renzo Piano on the winning entry in the Pompidou Center competition brings to mind two college students scrambling during finals week: the architects cut and pasted drawings in a late-night post office in Leicester Square, and then smudged the postmark to comply with the competition’s deadline. Rogers is relatable throughout, still raffish despite his title (he was knighted in 1991). For an architect whose works are consistently avant-garde, Rogers’s book is surprisingly down to earth. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

An essential book for anyone interested in our human future

ANTONY GORMLEY

Richard is one of the most profound architects of modern times and this book provides an insight into the man and the legend he has become - a must read

SIR DAVID ADJAYE

This book is part memoir, part architectural chronology but above all it is Richard. A thinker, a generous colleague, a loving family man, a politician, a loyal friend, a man of culture, an architect. Richard's ideas and methodology are generously shared, teaching us how to think beyond architecture and written in language that is refreshingly public

AMANDA LEVETE

In his profession, so in this book: Richard Rogers has brilliantly marked out a generous space where architecture and social justice meet. The master builder is rich in humane ideas and has an infectious delight in cities and their possibilities

IAN MCEWAN

Rogers's wonderful new book is part memoir, part manifesto, a vision for how our cities could be more creative, beautiful and sustainable

Sunday Times Rohan Silva

Richard Rogers brings ideas and a fascinating personal story to life with as much flair, passion, brilliance and originality as he has brought buildings to life for over half a century. A simply wonderful read

STEPHEN FRY

The leading architect of his generation . . . a beautifully designed memoir which mixes personal history with polemics and projects for a better society

Irish Independent

[Rogers has designed] astonishing, engrossing, enlivening, original buildings by which the late-20th century will always be remembered

Independent

The man who taught us to love colour

Observer

A towering genius

Telegraph

[Richard Rogers'] career embraces some of the most fascinating and experimental architecture of the post-war era

GQ