Why we build

Architecture, good and bad, is driven by emotion. In this talk, Rowan Moore will talk about the topic of his new book: Why We Build in which he shows how buildings are shaped by human emotions and desires such as hope, power, money, sex, and the idea of home and how buildings then shape our experiences.

He will explore the making of buildings from conception to inhabitation, and reveal the paradoxical power of architecture: it looks fixed and solid, but is always changing, in response to the lives around it. Refusing to bow to fashion or reputation, Moore will give a provocative and iconoclastic view of what makes architecture, why it matters, and why we find it fascinating. After his talk, you will never look at a building in the same way again.

Rowan Moore is an architecture critic. He trained as an architect at Cambridge, but later turned to journalism. He has been editor of the architecture journal Blueprint, and has written for the Evening Standard and The Guardian.

Rowan Moore will also be participating in the debate The wonder of home? Which places have it and what can architecture contribute? which follows his talk. Tickets to this joint event are available via the link below.

Admission: By free ticket only (jointly with the debate The wonder of home?), available from yorkfestivalofideas.com/tickets.