Remembering Places: A Memoir

Joseph Rykwert CBE (1926–2024) was Paul Philippe Cret Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the foremost architectural historians and critics of his generation. He spent most of his working life in the UK and US. Rykwert was the author of many influential works on architecture, including The Idea of a Town (1963), On Adam’s House in Paradise (1972), The First Moderns (1980), The Dancing Column (1996) and The Seduction of Place (2000). All of his books have been translated into several languages.

"This is a story of quiet heroism by a remarkable man. It is one of personal and intellectual adventure, told with wit, charm, wisdom and the best kinds of gossip. It is a vivid portrait of a post-war world, in London, Paris, Rome and New York, in which philosophers and artists could cross paths with film stars and musicians. If there’s another book that brings together Ian Fleming, Susan Sontag, pre-war Warsaw and ancient Etruria in the way that Remembering Places does, I have yet to read it." Rowan Moore, Architecture Critic, The Observer"Joseph's readers are brushed by his vast erudition of Talmudic intensity, stung by his wit, sprayed and stamped with his font of gossip (essential to a great raconteur), and enriched by his connections to so many people in so many areas of inquiry. A phenomenalist, unique among the great architect/theorists of our time, Rykwert muses on how his early sensory concern with place, transformed into 'the passionate, carnal – even erotic' concern with the man made environment."Phyllis Lambert, Founding Director Emeritus, Canadian Centre for Architecture; Recipient of the Golden Lion for life achievement at the XIV Architectural Biennale, Venice"I loved Joseph Rykwert’s Remembering Places. It was so incredibly informative about the life of a wandering architectural student in the 1950s and writer, historian and teacher thereafter. So, it’s wonderful that he was able to add more thoughts and memories to the original – equally informative, all of it full of his personality and richly interesting."Charles Saumarez Smith, Former Professor of Architectural History, Royal Academy of Arts, UK"Remembering Places – the plain, self-effacing title of Rykwert’s memoirs belies the trajectory of a life that is anything but. The exceptional tale of an ‘ordinary twentieth century survivor’."Reinier de Graaf, Partner in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture

• Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the First Edition Part I First Ruin. Grandpapa. Poles and Jews. Warsaw. Goody-goody. Mesalliance. Grandmother. More contradictions. A change of circumstance. Politics. Anatol. The new home. A rift. A profession. Politics in pre-war Poland. Menace. School. Mornings. Lessons out-of-school. The Chrysalis. A Change of direction. Abbazia. Mortality. War. Kaunas. Saltsjøbaden, Amsterdam, Brighton. A very different school. My father’s decline and death. Architecture. Cambridge. London - the Architectural Association. Student Movement House. Girls. Architecture Again. In the world. Arup. On my own. Friends. The Warburg Institute. Italy. Paris. CIAM. Milan. Going South. Paris again - architects and artists. Ideas. Peace. Soho. The Idea of a Town. Borshch. Anatole. Hampstead. The Idea of a Town - again. Notes. Part II Graduation and practice. First Marriage. Royal College. Wips. Sebastian. Academia. Italy. ‘68. Finally - You. Religion. Your world. Wivenhoe. Cambridge. The Mantuan Show. Penn Design. Ivan, Mexico and South America. Manhattan and Venice. Postscript