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Author: Phaidon Editors (Phaidon Press, 2017)<\/strong><\/p>\n The global perspective provided by this portable book makes it the ideal companion for all travelers who love architecture. It includes work from countries as culturally, geographically, climatically and economically diverse as Argentina, Senegal, Denmark, the Philippines, Israel, Egypt, Lithuania and the USA. The building types represented range from super-scale towers to tiny places of worship, high-tech cultural centres to regional rest stops.<\/em><\/p>\n Much in the spirit of Phaidon Press\u2019 2004 released Atlas of 21st<\/sup> Century Modern Architecture<\/em>, Destination Architecture: The Essential Guide to 1000 Contemporary Buildings<\/em><\/a> is a wonder to behold, and a year-end gift of 2017 to ponder along with the current events going on in the world. Unlike the Atlas<\/em>, which had an astonishing 800 pages of 4600 illustrations, this tiny compendium fits into the palm of your hand, a cleverly designed handbook that doesn\u2019t require a piece of luggage to tote it around in.<\/p>\n And as noted in a recent review of the same book in Architectural Record<\/em>, it is evident that our transference from an analog to a digital paradigm\u2014at least for architectural academia\u2014is starting to leave some of our millennials behind. Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architects<\/a>, who has lectured and given guest critiques up and down the West Coast, including UBC SALA, recently noted how current students’ familiarity with architectural history is waning. Whether or not our wiki-world is to blame, Destination Architecture<\/em> is an attempt to provide for what is falling between the cracks in our profession\u2019s selectively edited erudition, a call to arms to provide a primer of global architecture, represented here by 1000 buildings built in the last few decades (though for the most part they fall on this side of the 21st<\/sup> century).<\/p>\n In order to fit 1000 buildings in less than 600 pages, the editors have devised a formula whereby each building has been reduced to a single landscape colour photo, accompanied by a small write up, with four buildings featured over two pages. In this way the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts, as each representative building begins to provide a geographical narrative for the 70 countries represented in the book\u2014each conveying its own unique take on critical regionalism. Even the international starchitects, who show up all too frequently, begin to lose their own individuality when framed in such a massive context, refreshing to say the least.<\/p>\n As a further aid to navigating the book, maps of each of the 70 countries are provided in simple black-and-white graphics. The editors could\u2019ve opted to use colour instead of monochrome tabs to represent each region in the book, a missed opportunity which could\u2019ve enlivened the pages, perhaps reconsidered at the last minute as being too much of a distraction from the featured buildings. Despite this oversight, the book has a tight and concise format to rival the imagery of any computer monitor or smart phone screen, which may very well be at the heart of this ambitious handbook\u2019s raison d\u2019etre.<\/p>\n The book is also a testament to the globalized nature of the business of architecture, which clearly has enabled the modern architect the ability to practice in all corners of the planet. Work by Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Herzog & DeMeuron, OMA and the late Zaha Hadid are all featured in regions far from their home offices, much as the extensive representation of built work in the USA is host to both local and international architects (much of which we\u2019ve seen in the pages of Architecture Record<\/em> over the past decade). Overall, the editors have accomplished a formidable feat, given the herculean task to represent a world of architecture. Those of us choosing to have this book in their library are richer for it, given that it provides for such a staggering amount of architecture, easily and nimbly, at one\u2019s fingertips.<\/p>\n If there is one criticism, however, it is that Canadian architecture has been woefully under-represented. With only 18 buildings out of 1000 selected to represent our fair nation (with four on Fogo Island in Newfoundland), this represents 1.8% of the book\u2019s content. I know several architects, myself included, who might take offense to the idea that their livelihood has made such a small impact on the world stage. Despite this, the buildings selected manage to represent at least two of Canada\u2019s freshest and most talented firms – 5468796 Architecture<\/a> and FABG<\/a> \u2013 along with older more established firms like KPMB<\/a> and Lemay<\/a>. However, the book should\u2019ve also included more of the young, amazing talent from Montreal and Vancouver, with the absence of work by both McKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects<\/a> and the Patkau Architects<\/a>\u2014who represent the literal bookends to our nation\u2014being a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n But to point fingers at the editors of this book is perhaps as laughable as the nation\u2019s under-representation itself\u2014there is a bigger conversation here, one hinted at by an article in this week\u2019s Globe and Mail entitled \u2018Canadian Architecture needs the support of a national policy\u2019<\/a>. Written by Toon Dreessen of Ottawa-based Dreessen Cardinal Architects, he hits the nail squarely on the head that federal government support by both recent Conservative and Liberal governments has recently slumped to all-time lows when it comes to architecture. This was also recently noted in June by the editor of Canadian Architect over the poor showing of any building program for the nation\u2019s sesquicentennial, and certainly when compared to the architecture policies of both the US and Europe.<\/p>\n With First Nation\u2019s architecture<\/a> set to represent Canada at the next Venice Biennale, along with the presence of a formidable Canada House<\/a> at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, now would be the most salient moment to strike a Canada Public Work\u2019s commission to create a Destination Architecture<\/em> equivalent for Canada, with perhaps the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. At the very least, there needs to be a conversation about the glaring fact that out of the 18 buildings representing our country, over half of them have been designed by non-Canadian architecture firms.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n For more information on Destination Architecture, visit the Phaidon Press website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n **<\/p>\n\n