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Trans-Europe Express: Tours of a Lost Continent
Over the past twenty years European cities have become the envy of the world: a Kraftwerk Utopia of historic centres, supermodernist concert halls, imaginative public spaces and futuristic egalitarian housing estates which, interconnected by high-speed trains traversing open borders, have a combination of order and pleasure which is exceptionally unusual elsewhere.
In Trans-Europe Express, Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the European city across the entire continent, to see what exactly makes it so different to the Anglo-Saxon norm - the unplanned, car-centred, developer-oriented spaces common to the US, Ireland, UK and Australia. Attempting to define the European city, Hatherley finds a continent divided both within the EU and outside it.
In Trans-Europe Express, Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the European city across the entire continent, to see what exactly makes it so different to the Anglo-Saxon norm - the unplanned, car-centred, developer-oriented spaces common to the US, Ireland, UK and Australia. Attempting to define the European city, Hatherley finds a continent divided both within the EU and outside it.
428 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2018
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June 29, 2025
I really cannot provide a rigorous review of this book. I mean, when author Hatherley writes something like,
So: Not what I expected. The blurb is misleading in the extreme, leading me to believe a culture-vulture journalist traveled around a bunch of European cities to track the rise of right-wing extremism. I had rather expected this extremism to take the form of shaven heads, spitting on Ghanian nurses and setting fire to kabob shops. For Hatherley, though, right-wing extremism looks like a rash of decorative buboes, a facade engorged with crests, crusts and figures. When you get inside, the overload of gilded statues and blue tiles is crushing.
This is a book about architecture.
Personally, I enjoy spending time listening to experts, almost regardless of the topic. So I had a blast with this book, even though (or possibly because) 80% of it went right over my head. The author is a Brit who is socialist or Labour or liberal Democrat (the distinctions are lost on this ignorant American, I'm afraid) and this colors his worldview appropriately. What this means is that a lot of the edifices discussed aren't the oh-wow-look-at-me buildings downtown, but focused on the block after block of four- and five-story buildings that line European city streets and where people actually live and work. It's a long book, and while he occasionally strays for three or four paragraphs to provide some historical context, it really is all architecture, all the time. As a result, even the slow kids in the back of the class can probably distinguish Modernist from Brutalist from Post-Modernist from De Stijl apartment blocks after reading this.
As he notes in the preface, many European cities are the envy of the world, and this book dwells at length in at least twenty-five of them. And not in the 'Starchitecture' cities that you might expect, like Barcelona, but instead in less-known places like Porto, Portugal; and not in horrific Soviet factory cities, but instead in those Eastern Block cities that have achieved some grace, like Lviv. Mentally wandering around these cities with a construction-obsessed details man was fun. His descriptions of Liege, Dublin and Munich made me want to go see those cities again with fresh eyes, and Lodz, Porto and Split made me want to pay them a first visit.
With the death of Karl Lagerfeld, a man named Green Gartside is now the most pretentious human being on earth, and I got a good chuckle finding him mentioned here. (We have a history, Green and I.) The book is filled with little nuggets like this. To wrap this up:
It's a book about architecture. A fun book about architecture.
The shiny showpiece is further on, where a regeneration trinity of Santiago Calatrava, Martha Schwarz and Daniel Libeskind have created something much like the things they have created everywhere else. With its tall sticks of light, Martha Schwarz's square is the most original. Libeskind continues a decline into self-parody. Here he designed two office blocks flanking a theater. The offices are basic curtain walls given completely arbitrary slicing and dicing for no reason other than to remind you It's Danny......I don't really feel qualified to comment. Is the author a genius? Is he full of prunes? I have no idea.
So: Not what I expected. The blurb is misleading in the extreme, leading me to believe a culture-vulture journalist traveled around a bunch of European cities to track the rise of right-wing extremism. I had rather expected this extremism to take the form of shaven heads, spitting on Ghanian nurses and setting fire to kabob shops. For Hatherley, though, right-wing extremism looks like a rash of decorative buboes, a facade engorged with crests, crusts and figures. When you get inside, the overload of gilded statues and blue tiles is crushing.
This is a book about architecture.
Personally, I enjoy spending time listening to experts, almost regardless of the topic. So I had a blast with this book, even though (or possibly because) 80% of it went right over my head. The author is a Brit who is socialist or Labour or liberal Democrat (the distinctions are lost on this ignorant American, I'm afraid) and this colors his worldview appropriately. What this means is that a lot of the edifices discussed aren't the oh-wow-look-at-me buildings downtown, but focused on the block after block of four- and five-story buildings that line European city streets and where people actually live and work. It's a long book, and while he occasionally strays for three or four paragraphs to provide some historical context, it really is all architecture, all the time. As a result, even the slow kids in the back of the class can probably distinguish Modernist from Brutalist from Post-Modernist from De Stijl apartment blocks after reading this.
As he notes in the preface, many European cities are the envy of the world, and this book dwells at length in at least twenty-five of them. And not in the 'Starchitecture' cities that you might expect, like Barcelona, but instead in less-known places like Porto, Portugal; and not in horrific Soviet factory cities, but instead in those Eastern Block cities that have achieved some grace, like Lviv. Mentally wandering around these cities with a construction-obsessed details man was fun. His descriptions of Liege, Dublin and Munich made me want to go see those cities again with fresh eyes, and Lodz, Porto and Split made me want to pay them a first visit.
With the death of Karl Lagerfeld, a man named Green Gartside is now the most pretentious human being on earth, and I got a good chuckle finding him mentioned here. (We have a history, Green and I.) The book is filled with little nuggets like this. To wrap this up:
It's a book about architecture. A fun book about architecture.
August 7, 2018
Although I really like Owen Hatherley’s acidic travelogues, I wouldn’t have chosen to read this one at present had it not been due back at the library. Hatherley’s loose theme is Brexit and this week’s news has been a febrile festival of Brexit fuckery. (Reading the Brexit white paper proved to be an utter waste of time, as the government abandoned it some 3 days after publication.) Frankly I could have done with an escapist novel. Nonetheless, there is undoubtedly something relaxing about exploring (relatively) distant cities from the comfort of my sofa. Hatherley doesn’t really try to explain why Britain is hurtling into the Brexit abyss, so much as bid a mournful farewell to the rest of Europe’s more humane, pleasant urban planning. This elegantly designed volume collects his thoughts on cities from all corners of Europe: Cyprus, Portugal, Norway, and Estonia, among others. The central thesis is quite loose; essentially, that British cities are crap and could be so much better if we were willing to learn from the rest of Europe. An entirely legitimate point, thoroughly argued and illustrated with pleasing black and white photos.
Of the many cities explored during this tour, I was particularly struck by Nicosia and Split. I’d never heard of the former Cypriot city, which has a militarised border running through it. As Hatherley comments, ‘Only in Nicosia can you cross the EU border within one city.’ Perhaps it suggests a future for the unfortunate towns on the Northern Irish border. Nicosia has been divided thus since 1974, though, so has had plenty of time to settle down. Split is the second largest city in Croatia, which I admit to not having heard of it either. (My geographical knowledge is really poor in general; I couldn’t locate most British cities on a map.) Hatherley describes it rather beguilingly as still visibly centred on a Roman palace:
As if I could resist that last sentence. Split was subsequently divided into three segments by Soviet planners in the 1960s, the third of which consists of a striking Modernist urban extension approved of by Jane Jacobs herself.
Hatherley is adept at bringing out the similarities and contrasts between European cities and linking them to history, culture, economics, and politics. The one British city in the set is Hull, of all places, which he is surprisingly gentle with. Although he rightly castigates the Travelodge and Premier Inn - budget hotels somehow manage to be both generic and eyesores in practically every English city where they’re developed from scratch. Cambridge has several disgracefully ugly Travelodges, all refused planning permission then allowed on appeal as I recall. They're no picnic to stay in, either. Hotels aside, the most penetrating commentary on Britain is to be found in the chapter on Bergen, Norway. I strongly suspect it was written more recently than most of the others:
Norway, meanwhile, nationalised their oil and placed the profits in a sovereign wealth fund that has been used slowly and carefully to make the country ‘fabulously wealthy and comfortable’, with unusually equal income distribution. In Britain, the oil money is long gone and we're left with inequality and austerity. Hatherley’s polemic tone is fully justified:
If you are looking for a book to distract you from your anger about Brexit, this is definitely not it. I’m not sure it developed my thinking on Brexit particularly, although it significantly improved my knowledge of cities in the EU. 'Trans-Europe Express' reads as a rather bitter goodbye to civilisation, as British politics descends further into incompetent, reactionary, xenophobic farce. Hatherley’s books are based on the idea that walking around a city’s built environment can tell you a great deal about its politics and culture. It certainly seems emblematic that the former Millennium Dome is turning into an outlet mall. The ugliness that he found in A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain and A New Kind of Bleak: Journeys through Urban Britain is implicitly contrasted with the beauty and thoughtfulness shown so many times in the rest of Europe. While familiarity can breed contempt, that isn’t sufficient explanation. Architecture and spatial planning are highly political; London’s glass knives stabbing the skyline are perhaps the most literal manifestation of gross inequality you could find. Overall, an illuminating and disquieting read.
Of the many cities explored during this tour, I was particularly struck by Nicosia and Split. I’d never heard of the former Cypriot city, which has a militarised border running through it. As Hatherley comments, ‘Only in Nicosia can you cross the EU border within one city.’ Perhaps it suggests a future for the unfortunate towns on the Northern Irish border. Nicosia has been divided thus since 1974, though, so has had plenty of time to settle down. Split is the second largest city in Croatia, which I admit to not having heard of it either. (My geographical knowledge is really poor in general; I couldn’t locate most British cities on a map.) Hatherley describes it rather beguilingly as still visibly centred on a Roman palace:
When Salona was besieged during the barbarian invasions that ended the Western Roman Empire, its inhabitants sheltered in the abandoned palace, and over the centuries bent it to their needs. Hundreds of tenements were built in the spaces of, and with materials plundered from, the grand corridors and boudoirs, and the elaborate basements became a rudimentary sanitation system. The result has a certain historical justice, as a complex intended for the comfort (and worship) of an absolute emperor became the shelter for thousands of refugees. The possible fate for a post-apocalyptic One Hyde Park, perhaps.
As if I could resist that last sentence. Split was subsequently divided into three segments by Soviet planners in the 1960s, the third of which consists of a striking Modernist urban extension approved of by Jane Jacobs herself.
Hatherley is adept at bringing out the similarities and contrasts between European cities and linking them to history, culture, economics, and politics. The one British city in the set is Hull, of all places, which he is surprisingly gentle with. Although he rightly castigates the Travelodge and Premier Inn - budget hotels somehow manage to be both generic and eyesores in practically every English city where they’re developed from scratch. Cambridge has several disgracefully ugly Travelodges, all refused planning permission then allowed on appeal as I recall. They're no picnic to stay in, either. Hotels aside, the most penetrating commentary on Britain is to be found in the chapter on Bergen, Norway. I strongly suspect it was written more recently than most of the others:
Evidently, it isn’t only the North Sea that Britain shares with Norway, but a certain hypocrisy - a country that has become the richest on earth through selling oil encourages you to drive electric. If only our hypocrisy had such concrete results.
[...]
One of the many foundation stories of neoliberalism in Britain hinges on what the 1974-9 Labour government decided to do with the oil discovered in the North Sea at the start of that decade, an unexpected license to print money which the UK shared, geographically and practically, with Norway. The relevant minister at the time, Tony Benn, suggested that the British state take ownership of the oil, and put the proceeds in a fund which could be used to fund social projects. [...] The eventual tax receipts from the oil flowed abundantly into the Treasury nonetheless, and were by the subsequent Conservative government to subsidise the mass unemployment created by a deliberate policy of class conflict and deindustrialisation.
Norway, meanwhile, nationalised their oil and placed the profits in a sovereign wealth fund that has been used slowly and carefully to make the country ‘fabulously wealthy and comfortable’, with unusually equal income distribution. In Britain, the oil money is long gone and we're left with inequality and austerity. Hatherley’s polemic tone is fully justified:
The comparison with Norway is nothing short of an indictment, not only of Thatcherism, but of the terror of new ideas in the British Labour movement. Norway also stayed out of the European Union, due to a shared aversion to it on the part of an influential farming lobby and of the radical left and its dislike of a ‘capitalist club’, with two referenda going against joining. [...] Norway is in Schengen, and keeping the migrants out was never part of the reason why it stayed out of the European Union.
If you are looking for a book to distract you from your anger about Brexit, this is definitely not it. I’m not sure it developed my thinking on Brexit particularly, although it significantly improved my knowledge of cities in the EU. 'Trans-Europe Express' reads as a rather bitter goodbye to civilisation, as British politics descends further into incompetent, reactionary, xenophobic farce. Hatherley’s books are based on the idea that walking around a city’s built environment can tell you a great deal about its politics and culture. It certainly seems emblematic that the former Millennium Dome is turning into an outlet mall. The ugliness that he found in A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain and A New Kind of Bleak: Journeys through Urban Britain is implicitly contrasted with the beauty and thoughtfulness shown so many times in the rest of Europe. While familiarity can breed contempt, that isn’t sufficient explanation. Architecture and spatial planning are highly political; London’s glass knives stabbing the skyline are perhaps the most literal manifestation of gross inequality you could find. Overall, an illuminating and disquieting read.
May 8, 2020
A book for travellers in a time when nobody can travel, I bought this book at first for the parts about Brussels and the wonderful Le Havre, but was soon hooked when Hatherley talks about so many European cities and their architecture. I love how he writes about modern buildings and cityscapes, often derisive, but also so often full of love and even admiration, and after every chapter I felt like taking the car and going to the city involved. I would like to travel with his eyes and his mind... He made me look in a different way already, and admire Braem's wonderful Sint-Maartendal in Leuven. I never thought there would be a day when I was going to like it, but as said I am looking with other eyes after I read this wonderful book.
September 11, 2025
V good chapter here on Dublin and it's clownish financial services district by the docklands. Rare enough to read all this considered apart from yimbyism and boosterism. (Or indeed a certain type of academicism, a big book I once read on Irish architecture talked a lot about how buildings can be processes or words, which is as may be but doesn't say much to the key movers being property developers). There's a wee anecdote about Devs role in the rising that is either new to me, has been left obscure or is a joke
all-time (Half disclaimed) hatchet job on Paris that deserves quote in full:
'What is so frustrating about the French capital is the incessant praise it has received both from conservatives- who can be expected to love a city where you can walk for miles without seeing a single piece of twentieth-century architecture, and where both modernity and multiculturalism are strictly kept to reservations-and from political radicals, for whom the revolutionary history of the French capital, the tedious litany of 1789, 1848, 1871, 1968, means that they can enjoy the most perfectly elegant bourgeois streets by kidding themselves that what they're really enjoying is the fact that a gang of marauding artisans and prostitutes once hauled the red flag up from the roof of what is now a luxury antiques emporium. The quality of life compared with London may be enviable, but not much else.
When I first visited Paris, I found this disconnect deeply weird, having read about the place for many years beforehand, Walking along the eighteenth-century lanes of the Marais, I could only be puzzled as to why what to my eyes looked like one of the more boring corners of St James's or Belgravia was considered to be of such world-historical importance and intrinsic interest. The monolithic streets of Haussmann's Paris, meanwhile, reminded me most of the Stalinist boulevards of Moscow, or at best the tenemented streets of Glasgow, neither of which are anywhere near as celebrated; neither
considered remotely romantic. In fact I found it all rather disturbing, all these white boulevards full of solely white people, with their trees filed down to a neat point along militaristically measured counter-insurgency free-fire zones, with a feared multicultural suburbia forming a doughnut around them. Even the tube appeared to be segregated according to class and race: the RER for the proles living in the 10-million-strong Paris conurbation, the Metro for the 2 million inhabitants of 'Paris''
all-time (Half disclaimed) hatchet job on Paris that deserves quote in full:
'What is so frustrating about the French capital is the incessant praise it has received both from conservatives- who can be expected to love a city where you can walk for miles without seeing a single piece of twentieth-century architecture, and where both modernity and multiculturalism are strictly kept to reservations-and from political radicals, for whom the revolutionary history of the French capital, the tedious litany of 1789, 1848, 1871, 1968, means that they can enjoy the most perfectly elegant bourgeois streets by kidding themselves that what they're really enjoying is the fact that a gang of marauding artisans and prostitutes once hauled the red flag up from the roof of what is now a luxury antiques emporium. The quality of life compared with London may be enviable, but not much else.
When I first visited Paris, I found this disconnect deeply weird, having read about the place for many years beforehand, Walking along the eighteenth-century lanes of the Marais, I could only be puzzled as to why what to my eyes looked like one of the more boring corners of St James's or Belgravia was considered to be of such world-historical importance and intrinsic interest. The monolithic streets of Haussmann's Paris, meanwhile, reminded me most of the Stalinist boulevards of Moscow, or at best the tenemented streets of Glasgow, neither of which are anywhere near as celebrated; neither
considered remotely romantic. In fact I found it all rather disturbing, all these white boulevards full of solely white people, with their trees filed down to a neat point along militaristically measured counter-insurgency free-fire zones, with a feared multicultural suburbia forming a doughnut around them. Even the tube appeared to be segregated according to class and race: the RER for the proles living in the 10-million-strong Paris conurbation, the Metro for the 2 million inhabitants of 'Paris''
March 13, 2022
This is half architecture history half travelogue. Reading it requires a laptop nearby, to visit the described neighborhoods with Google Street View.
For me the most enjoyable part was Balkans, especially Sofia and Thessaloniki. The author had good reflections from those two.
I also enjoyed that this was a complete tour; starting in the UK, and ending there, hence the title of the book.
Hatherley's writing is sentimental, and you can never guess if he'd praise a place or not. (I am very curious what his impressions would be at Istanbul's ex-sham new welfare housing sites).
There is a obvious political stance of the book, tough there is nothing much new about the ideas. (Leopold2's atrocities, Norwegians using electric cars despite their country an oil exporter etc).
The author had predictions about today's war between Ukraine and Russia, and it's interesting to read how they become real.
Hatherley also talks about some opinions about Brexit; I liked reading about those, however they were quite limited in the overall context.
For me the most enjoyable part was Balkans, especially Sofia and Thessaloniki. The author had good reflections from those two.
I also enjoyed that this was a complete tour; starting in the UK, and ending there, hence the title of the book.
Hatherley's writing is sentimental, and you can never guess if he'd praise a place or not. (I am very curious what his impressions would be at Istanbul's ex-sham new welfare housing sites).
There is a obvious political stance of the book, tough there is nothing much new about the ideas. (Leopold2's atrocities, Norwegians using electric cars despite their country an oil exporter etc).
The author had predictions about today's war between Ukraine and Russia, and it's interesting to read how they become real.
Hatherley also talks about some opinions about Brexit; I liked reading about those, however they were quite limited in the overall context.
July 27, 2020
I realised I was enjoying this when, a chapter or so in, I had a sudden urge to visit Le Havre - somewhere I'd never given a second thought to, prior to reading Hatherley's appraisal of Auguste Perret's city centre. Why has no-one told me about this before...?
It's a question I kept asking myself. I learnt lots, I'm itching to return to places that Hatherley has now convinced me I had misunderstood altogether (Split, Sofia, I'm looking at you) and I strongly identified with the comparisons to British towns, whose city leaders operate in a national framework that lets the market dictate the level of ambition and practically mandates city leaders to settle for for less. Owen is suitably scathing.
This book is far more than a tour of 'crap towns' - it's a brilliant mix of architecture, travel and politics. A sample:
"That's the dual promise the European Union made to places like Narva [a border own in Estonia] - we can make your cities better, and we can make it easier for you to get out of them. One part of that promise was made to Britain too, and we decided we preferred our towns crap, the other part of the deal led to a hysterical reaction, whose consequences we now face. Here, they must regard our decision with the purest bafflement."
Hatherley gets well off the beaten track - Russia's 208th largest city, a border town in Estonia, and the perennially under-rated city of Kingston upon Hull, all feature. It's great lockdown reading - it'll make your feet itch, but it's as near as you're going to get to a European grand tour at present. And you'll have plenty of places on your to-visit list for 2021 and beyond. Le Havre, Lodz, Lviv and Podgorica are all now on mine.
It's a question I kept asking myself. I learnt lots, I'm itching to return to places that Hatherley has now convinced me I had misunderstood altogether (Split, Sofia, I'm looking at you) and I strongly identified with the comparisons to British towns, whose city leaders operate in a national framework that lets the market dictate the level of ambition and practically mandates city leaders to settle for for less. Owen is suitably scathing.
This book is far more than a tour of 'crap towns' - it's a brilliant mix of architecture, travel and politics. A sample:
"That's the dual promise the European Union made to places like Narva [a border own in Estonia] - we can make your cities better, and we can make it easier for you to get out of them. One part of that promise was made to Britain too, and we decided we preferred our towns crap, the other part of the deal led to a hysterical reaction, whose consequences we now face. Here, they must regard our decision with the purest bafflement."
Hatherley gets well off the beaten track - Russia's 208th largest city, a border town in Estonia, and the perennially under-rated city of Kingston upon Hull, all feature. It's great lockdown reading - it'll make your feet itch, but it's as near as you're going to get to a European grand tour at present. And you'll have plenty of places on your to-visit list for 2021 and beyond. Le Havre, Lodz, Lviv and Podgorica are all now on mine.
January 20, 2019
Really enjoyed this. Missed my train stop twice.
June 5, 2020
Made me hate living in England... in a good way.
Read
January 17, 2021Bara mjög skemmtileg bók. Owen er líka frábær höfundur sem nær anda Post-Brexit Bretlands vel. Langar núna bara að skella mér í sumarfrí í Hull eða eitthvað?...
March 7, 2024
Muy técnico
August 24, 2019
“Enjoying the buildings of Augustus, Henry VIII, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Leopold II and Lord Palmerston does not make you a defender of slavery, a Stalinist, a fascist or imperialist. However, if you extract these elements from these buildings and treat them purely as form, you lose a huge amount of what makes them interesting, and what motivated their designers.”
Hatherley is always good value and this latest offering is no exception. Starting off in the rather inauspicious location of Ocean Village in his native Southampton he begins a journey around European architecture and town planning, casting a critical and sceptical eye on some of the lesser known and lesser seen corners of Europe with some really satisfying results.
“Brussels has streets named for, and monuments to, one of the greatest mass murderers in history, and appears entirely uninterested in that fact.”
He puts his series of journey into what he calls “six quasi-geographical headings”. Most of these are based on the bodies of water the cities face- the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Baltic, North Sea and then there is Central Europe and the Balkan Peninsula. Places like Porto, Nicosia, Bologna, Aarhus, Lodz, Liege, Le Havre and Hull, these are names which rarely rate and mention in any travel/architectural guides, and this is one of the main attractions of this book. In many ways it’s about dark horses and hidden gems.
Hatherley illustrates why the word regeneration can be such a dirty one, he has no love for Canary Dwarf the name given to Dublin’s pitiful groundscrapers, he also describes the IFSC there as “gobsmacking in its crass, reconstituted stone and green glass bulk.” His take on some of Italy’s lesser known architecture and the history behind it was fascinating stuff like the Red Bologna movement, and the background around Arborea in Sardinia, which Mussolini built in the 1920s. Elsewhere he describes the “virulent Brutalism” of the Tower Blancas in Madrid, as well as the Mirador. His take on Paris’s architecture is possibly the most refreshing I have read as he strips away much of the BS that so many of the elite and other romantics love to lavish on the city at will.
This is another fascinating journey with Hatherley as we get to see so much architecture of Europe that we don’t always see, from an informed and entertaining perspective. It's superbly researched, and you always learn loads of fascinating bits n bobs and with his other books there are many references and books to follow up on afterwards.
December 30, 2019
It is an European journey across no touristic places ! Excellent
August 22, 2020
Hatherley treks full-circle around Europe, commencing with Southampton docks, dropping by at a McDonalds in Porto, copping an eyeful of Bologna and appreciating the Weihnachtsmarkt in Leipzig, before skitting via eastern Europe, with daytrip excursions to Russia, the Baltic and Scandinavia en-route, back to Hull. His stated objective is to get to the bottom of what makes great European architecture.
With the unblinking, discerning eye of a creative professional, Owen Hatherley encourages appreciation of the cityscapes herein described using clearly outlined criteria. The author writes about buildings with such rigorous exactitude and passion, the opulence of language at times becoming slightly awe-inspiring in itself. Hatherley draws on a seemingly limitless array of descriptive adjectives to explain the tone, texture and functionality of his subject matter, as well as the many photos providing excellent visual documentation to support his arguments. And more often than not his controversial choices for inclusion need considerable justification.
The theme here then, is why the buildings we live in are so socially entwined with our lives and how they attain a residual permanence almost like art. In describing buildings, Hatherley makes use of a set of cultural filters more traditionally associated with the field of arts. By applying them to architecture, he succeeds in explaining why it works - or occasionally fails - both aesthetically and logistically.
There are surprises everywhere to be found in this book: for example the Polish city of Lodz, which I had never even heard of, gets plenty of attention for its run-down grandeur. Meanwhile the entrenched Cold-War mentality and uncertain east-west relations bubbling beneath the surface of an outwardly charismatic Estonia are considered in an excellent chapter on Tallinn. There are plenty of best bits for sure, but anyone considering reading this should be aware they will need to do a lot of wading through near-academic-level texts in order to get anywhere. Having said that, it is worthwhile and after reading this book you will appreciate architecture with an entirely different sense of perspective.
With the unblinking, discerning eye of a creative professional, Owen Hatherley encourages appreciation of the cityscapes herein described using clearly outlined criteria. The author writes about buildings with such rigorous exactitude and passion, the opulence of language at times becoming slightly awe-inspiring in itself. Hatherley draws on a seemingly limitless array of descriptive adjectives to explain the tone, texture and functionality of his subject matter, as well as the many photos providing excellent visual documentation to support his arguments. And more often than not his controversial choices for inclusion need considerable justification.
The theme here then, is why the buildings we live in are so socially entwined with our lives and how they attain a residual permanence almost like art. In describing buildings, Hatherley makes use of a set of cultural filters more traditionally associated with the field of arts. By applying them to architecture, he succeeds in explaining why it works - or occasionally fails - both aesthetically and logistically.
There are surprises everywhere to be found in this book: for example the Polish city of Lodz, which I had never even heard of, gets plenty of attention for its run-down grandeur. Meanwhile the entrenched Cold-War mentality and uncertain east-west relations bubbling beneath the surface of an outwardly charismatic Estonia are considered in an excellent chapter on Tallinn. There are plenty of best bits for sure, but anyone considering reading this should be aware they will need to do a lot of wading through near-academic-level texts in order to get anywhere. Having said that, it is worthwhile and after reading this book you will appreciate architecture with an entirely different sense of perspective.
August 28, 2020
A personal account with a scholarly touch, critical and witty, it's a fun and well-researched way to dig deeper into urban planning and architecture of a wide range of European cities. A critical account of what 'Europe' and 'European' is is also featured, which was incredibly important to me and increased my respect for the author considerably.
However, there is a lot of namedropping and knowledge about architectural eras as well as specific planners/architects is needed to stay focused on the book. Also, it is very UK-focused, which is understandable, being a non-scholarly book of a UK author, but the same thing here; it is easy to loose track if you are not familiar with UK developments, cities, geography, etc.
All in all though, it was a good read, and I'm looking forward to reading more of the author and would definitely recommend this book!!
However, there is a lot of namedropping and knowledge about architectural eras as well as specific planners/architects is needed to stay focused on the book. Also, it is very UK-focused, which is understandable, being a non-scholarly book of a UK author, but the same thing here; it is easy to loose track if you are not familiar with UK developments, cities, geography, etc.
All in all though, it was a good read, and I'm looking forward to reading more of the author and would definitely recommend this book!!
April 13, 2020
An informative read which will render you with a different perspective of viewing cities. Although a bit unvaried in places, Owen Hatherley sizes up some prominent European cities and bring out what normally wouldn't meet the eye. Reading about cities that I've chanced to visit seemed much easier because I could cast my mind back to those moments,and reevaluate them with the new bits of information. With respect to the description of those I've never been to, it appeared to be a tad exhaustive, although very insightful. Definitely worth the while of those who want to alter their views on some gems of the European continent. Nice book.
June 15, 2022
I so much want to like, enjoy and praise Mr. Hathertley's book because there is so much that he believes in that I believe in and support but he simply fails to write compelling prose. In addition the photos in this book are pretty awful but Mr. Hatherley probably had no control over the production standards. I would never discourage anyone from reading this book - he says many good and interesting things, unfortunately he makes it all a bit of a chore - something one feels one should be reading rather then wanting to read. It is a great pity because behind the leaden prose is some awful good points aobut our cities, our culture and our future
July 21, 2021
I first started reading this book more than three years ago but I read the bulk of it in the last few days. Other books got in the way of this one and I read them first, but make no mistake, this is a great book and Owen Hatherley is some writer. His turn of phrase and political analysis are spot on and you couldn’t wish for anyone better to guide you through Europe’s cities - the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright unmentionable. I’ve got another Hatherley book on my shelf and having read this one I cannot wait to read it.
April 28, 2025
I read this with the expectation of it being densely historical but found myself intrigued by the mentions of architecture. It made me want to travel to the different regions of Europe mentioned whilst also allowing me to criticize such regions from the comfort of my own desk. I only rate this three stars because personally, this is not a book I am too interested in normally, and would not gravitate towards it if it hadn't been assigned in class.
January 5, 2025
Snoobilik, peenutseva keelega ja minu jaoks liiga vasakpoolne euroopa linnakultuuri ja -arhitekuuri analüüs. Suunatud briti lugejale, paljud viited ja vihjed jäävad keskmisele muust rahvusest lugejale arusaamatuks. Siiski sain palju teada linnade kohta, mida just üldiselt ei peeta Euroopat iseloomustavateks nagu Skopje, Viipuri ja Sofia.
February 25, 2021
I read this over a few months during trips to the laundromat, picked it out from my flatmate's bookshelf because I had recognized Hatherley's name from UK Left Twitter. This is a very fun romp through Europe and me having enjoyed it must mean it's good since I know nothing about architecture.
January 2, 2023
🤩 how good was this. Written during the Brexit limbo and one of the best books I have read on Europe since Geert Mak’s In Europe. We have a Government Department for Levelling Up in the UK - I hope the ministers and civil servants who work there read this - at least the last chapter! Superb!
July 23, 2023
What a fantastic discovery. In a sea of low grade non-fiction here is some original, exciting and original argument.Hatherley addresses the question of ´what is a European City?´ He weaves an acute sense of history, a great eye and withering put-downs to this wonderful tour of European cityscapes.
March 24, 2021
i’ve always hated southampton and now i know why
really lovely to read; travelling vicariously through owen via critical politics and architecture
really lovely to read; travelling vicariously through owen via critical politics and architecture
March 9, 2025
It must be so good to have this fellow's job
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