Property by Rowan Moore review: the myth of home ownership
An architecture critic (and landlord with places in London, France and Sussex) makes a surprising argument about housing
Property begins with a puzzling image. Amid the skyscrapers and minarets of Istanbul an expanse has been excavated. Within this space a lone building stands on a mound several times taller than the machinery that is clearing the land around it. It resembles a dreamlike image from Tarkovsky or Magritte — although it’s actually a “nail house” or holdout. The owners refuse to budge for developers. Many equally surreal examples can be found — US townhouses surrounded by skyscrapers; a motorway diverting around a Chinese home; a farm within a Japanese airport.
The photograph anticipates the themes of sovereignty and dominance explored in Rowan Moore’s latest book, which skilfully threads his argument from Baku in Azerbaijan to Gurugram in northern India to Las Vegas
