'Inhabited Machines' and 'Modelling the Metropolis' : A Double Book Launch

Join us to launch Inhabited Machines and Modelling the Metropolis

Questions of political populism and nationalism played out in debates on the built environment in nineteenth-century Europe just as they do today. Both then and now, new technologies present new complexities for construction but also offer the potential to address current challenges in health, education, and dwelling. Likewise, the responsibilities of the architectural profession are questioned whether due to financial demands, criticisms of expertise, or the emergence of new forms of knowledge. Failure and risk, functionality and performance are the markers by which architecture is conceived, designed, and judged.

Two recent books, Inhabited Machines by Moritz Gleich (Birkhäuser, 2023) and Modelling the Metropolis by Matthew Wells (gta Verlag, 2023), look to these issues in the long nineteenth century. Through the study of architectural design and media, these two studies offer a new reading of the built environment and the socio-economic and cultural-political forces that shape it, both in the past and in the present.

Moritz Gleich is a media scholar with a doctorate in architectural history and directs the gta Verlag at ETH Zurich.

Matthew Wells is Lecturer in Architectural History at the University of Manchester. His research uses visual culture to examine society, institutions, and individuals in the built environment.

We are delighted to welcome Moritz and Matthew to the AA Bookshop to celebrate the launch of their new publications over refreshments.

Each book will be sold at a special price for the event.