‘Totems: Selected Essays on Architecture’ by Irénée Scalbert, Reviewed

‘Totems: Selected Essays on Architecture’ by Irénée Scalbert, Reviewed

Totems comprises ten texts and lectures on twentieth-century European architecture written and delivered over the past 25 years  ‘Modernists loved the slenderness of the airplane wing, but Neutelings Riedijk prefer [sic] the nonchalant swing of the elephant trunk,’ writes Irénée Scalbert in the title essay to this collection. He’s referring to a Dutch architecture practice’s unbuilt 1999 competition entry for the design of a concert hall in Brug…