Urban Toys

London: Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2006. Pictorial boards, 391 pages, colour illustrations; 22 cm. Firm binding, clean inside copy. "We can't tell where the game begins-- its toys--and where the drama ends--the metropolitical tragedy. Therein lies the paradox of urban art, the paradoxical aesthetic between the panic and the circus games. Mockery, childishness or neo-terrorism, no work of architecture lends itself to laughter, contrary to sculpture it can frighten, seriously disturb, or sometimes even raise a smile, but joy is never part of the edifice. Just what will become of our cities, these concentrations of real estate inertia?"-- jacket. CONTENTS: Opening letter, by Paul Virilio; Lexigram 1001 Urban toys; Can cities dream?; Beirut downtown: Pre-war & post war, the Net Bridge; London: Mile End, Millennium Park. Notting Hill Gate. Serpentine Gallery/London & Irish Museum of Modern art/Dublin (hypothetical project); Nara: The three magic flowers of Litchu. Todaiji Temple; Tokyo: Nakameguro urban works; Prague: The meeting of Kafka and Kandinsky. Manes Bridge; Melbourne: The travellers. Sandridge Bridge; Credits; The closing letter, by Robert Saliba; Flowers: The dream.. 1st. Hardcover. Fine. 8vo. Collectible.