Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century

Product Description
“Soules’s excellent book makes sense of the capitalist forces we all feel but cannot always name. Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin arms architects and the general public with an essential understanding of how capitalism makes property. Required reading for those who think tomorrow can be different from today.”— Jack Self, coeditor of Real Estates: Life Without Debt

In Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin, Matthew Soules issues an indictment of how finance capitalism dramatically alters not only architectural forms but also the very nature of our cities and societies. We rarely consider architecture to be an important factor in contemporary economic and political debates, yet sparsely occupied ultra-thin “pencil towers” develop in our cities, functioning as speculative wealth storage for the superrich, and cavernous “iceberg” homes extend architectural assets many stories below street level. Meanwhile, communities around the globe are blighted by zombie and ghost urbanism, marked by unoccupied neighborhoods and abandoned housing developments.

Learn how the use of architecture as an investment tool has accelerated in recent years, heightening inequality and contributing to worldwide financial instability:

• See how investment imperatives shape what and how we build, changing the very structure of our communities
• Delve into high-profile projects, like the luxury apartments of architect Rafael Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue
• Understand the convergence of technology, finance, and spirituality, which together are configuring the financialized walls within which we eat, sleep, and work

Includes dozens of photos and drawings of architectural phenomena that have changed the way we live. Essential reading for anyone interested in architecture, design, economics, and understanding the way our world is formed.
Review
“It is hard to figure out what is most dazzling about Matthew Soules’s Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: the dissection of the complex but very material nature of finance capital; the adroit linking of real estate calculations to the physical shape of housing; the exposure of how, in architecture, base (the money equations) and superstructure (architectural aspiration) are dialectically intertwined; the weaving of cultural and economic theory with concrete facts; or the simultaneous breadth and depth of examples. I think, ultimately, it’s his reminder that-like the goldfish asking, ‘What water?’-architecture’s inability to comprehend its submersion in finance capital dooms both our urban life and our architectural reputation.”
– Peggy Deamer, editor of Architecture and Capitalism: 1845 to the Present,

“Soules’s excellent book makes sense of the capitalist forces we all feel but cannot always name. Agency requires awareness; Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin arms architects and the general public with an essential understanding of how capitalism makes property. Required reading for those who think tomorrow can be different from today.”
– Jack Self, co-editor of Real Estates: Life Without Debt,

“Soules deftly weaves together social, political, economic, and cultural theory with a variety of concrete physical examples to explore the role that architecture serves in sustaining finance capitalism. The result is a compelling and well-articulated indictment of architecture’s role not just in relation to finance capitalism but its role as finance capitalism….Icebergs, Zombies and the Ultra Thin is ultimately a very worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in better understanding the physical ways in which capitalism shapes our cities in the 21st century.”
– Spacing (Canada),

“In this utterly original book, Matthew Soules addresses the phenomenon of ‘the financialization of everything’ that has been described in recent years by scholars such as Saskia Sassen, and depicts its profoundly disturbing effects on the world of architecture.”
– George Baird, Emeritus Pro