In 1955, Britain’s most prestigious architectural magazine, The Architectural Review, published a special issue featuring a single essay by Ian Nairn, a famously opinionated (and untrained) architectural critic. Based on observations made on a journey Nairn took across the UK in a Morris Minor, Outrage is a searing critique of urban sprawl, or ‘Subtopia’. In this manifesto, Nairn warns that ‘if what is called development is allowed to multiply at the present rate’, Britain’s natural – and urban – landscapes will lose their individuality and spirit. A call-to-arms against the ‘greying out’ of our towns and countryside before it’s too late, Outrage is widely considered to be Nairn’s masterpiece.
Tentang Penulis
Described by the Guardian as ‘one of the country’s finest pop-culture historians’, Travis Elborough is the author of many books, including Wish You Were Here: England on Sea, The Long-Player Goodbye, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles and Atlas of Vanishing Places, winner of the Stanford Illustrated Book of the Year in 2020.