Bøger af Lawrence Chua

Outlines an alternative genealogy of both utopia and modernism in a part of the world that has often been overlooked by researchers of both. The book examines representations of utopia that developed in Bangkok - as expressed in built forms as well as architectural drawings, building manuals, novels, poetry, and ecclesiastical murals.

Called "striking" by The New York Times Book Review, Gold by the Inch is the story of a young New Yorker of Asian descent who has returned to the country of his birth following a disastrous relationship and his father's death. In a Bangkok drunk on the nation's financial miracle - and high on an assortment of other things - the narrator meets Thong, a young, beautiful male hustler who works at a nightclub. As his romantic obsession with Thong grows, the narrator tries to convince himself that it transcends its commercial nature, but he is quickly forced into a hard look at the connections between desire and exploitation, personal and national identity. Lawrence Chua vividly combines Southeast Asia's troubled history with evocations of its modern face - its polyglot culture, its colonial past, the cool futurism of its skyscrapers and its sex industry. Written in hard-bitten, dazzling prose, Gold by the Inch is a stunning debut.

Describes the macro-architecture and how it constructs our landscape and ways of living and interacts with the various urban spaces.