Zoomscape: Architecture in Motion and Media Review

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(More customer reviews)Zoomscape is a terrific read. Unlike most architecture books the writing is very accessible. Not too theoretical but engaged with important ideas nonetheless.
The book captures the way we move through the world. Its unique perspective on perception changed the way I look at architecture. Schwarzer helped me see in a way I hadn't seen before by making connections between so many things. The book weaves cultural and popular and historical elements into a coherent flowing story. I loved the way Zoomscape includes observations from literature, film, and cultural theory. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand architecture better and see how it is part of our daily lives. And since the book covers movement so much I felt as if I had gone on a journey myself.

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Although a few among us are intrepid architectural tourists, visiting buildings and landscapes our cameras at the ready, most of us experience architecture through the windshield of a moving vehicle, the architectural experience reduced to a blurry and momentary drive-by. And the rest of our architectural "tourism" is through the images of cameras, movies, and television programs -- that is, through the lens of another's eye. Architectural hisotrian Mitchell Schwarzer calls this new mediated architectural experience the "zoomscape." In this thought-provoking book, he argues that the perception of architecture has been fundamentally altered by the technologies of transportation and the camera -- we now look at buildings, neighborhoods, cities, and even entire continents as we ride in trains, cars, and planes, and/or as we view photographs, movies, and television. Zoomscape shows how we now perceive buildings and places at high speeds, across great distances, through edited and multiple reproductions. Nowadays, our views of the architectural landscape are modulated by the accelerator pedal and the remote control, by studio production techniques and airplane flight paths. Using examples from high art and popular culture -- from the novels of Don Delillo to the opening credits of The Sopranos -- Mitchell Schwarzer shows that the zoomscape has brought about unprecedented and often marvelous new ways of perceiving the built environment.

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