Pier Vittorio Aureli, an architect and educator, teaches at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and the Technical University of Delft. He is the author of The Project of Autonomy and other books.

"Challenging the discursive boundaries and interpretive habits of countless late modern and contemporary architectural histories and theories, and with penetrating analysis directed at a compelling band of co-conspirators from Palladio to Ungers, who share with Aureli a deep suspicion of modern urbanization, this book is a forensic tour de force. A generational call for retrieving the concept of the city -- as well as the reality of its histories -- as the basis for thinking architecture's possibilities anew." Brett Steele , Director, Architectural Association School of Architecture "What at first glance appears to be a book of architectural history is in fact a radical attack on theory, sweeping away the foundations of current thought in its wake. Aureli's work stands against the forces of an unlimited urbanization, proposing an idea of absolute architecture as a confrontation with the forces of global capital. A must read for those passionate about architecture and its future." Peter Eisenman

Pier Vittorio Aureli, an architect and educator, teaches at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and the Technical University of Delft. He is the author of The Project of Autonomy and other books.

"Challenging the discursive boundaries and interpretive habits of countless late modern and contemporary architectural histories and theories, and with penetrating analysis directed at a compelling band of co-conspirators from Palladio to Ungers, who share with Aureli a deep suspicion of modern urbanization, this book is a forensic tour de force. A generational call for retrieving the concept of the city -- as well as the reality of its histories -- as the basis for thinking architecture's possibilities anew." Brett Steele , Director, Architectural Association School of Architecture "What at first glance appears to be a book of architectural history is in fact a radical attack on theory, sweeping away the foundations of current thought in its wake. Aureli's work stands against the forces of an unlimited urbanization, proposing an idea of absolute architecture as a confrontation with the forces of global capital. A must read for those passionate about architecture and its future." Peter Eisenman