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Bold ventures : thirteen tales of architectural tragedy / Charlotte Van den Broeck ; translated from the Dutch by David McKay.

by Broeck, Charlotte Van den, 1991-

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Other Press, 2022.

Architects -- Death.

Architecture -- Miscellanea.

Architects -- Suicidal behavior.

Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Failure (Psychology).

9781635423174 (hc.)

Waagstukken. English

viii, 292 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

Original Dutch title: Waagstukken.

Translated from the Dutch.

Municipal Swimming Pool (2005-2011), City Park, Turnhout : Architect unknown -- Church Of Saint Omer (1607-1676), Verchin : Jean Porc (D. 1611) -- Post Office/telegraph and telephone Building (1947-1953), Ostend : Gaston Eysselinck (1907-1953) 45 Iv. Vienna State Opera (1861-869), Vienna : Eduard Van Der Nüll (1812-1868) and August Sicard Von Sicardsburg (1813-1868) -- San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane (1634-1677), Rome : Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) -- National Library Of Malta (1786-1796), Valletta : Stefano Ittar (1724-1790) -- Villa Ebe (1922), Naples : Lamont Young (1851-1929) -- Rossauer Barracks (1864-1869), Vienna : Karl Pilhal (1822-1878) -- Fort George (1747-1769), Ardersier : William Skinner (1700-1780) -- Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum (1888-1901), Glasgow : John William Simpson (1858-1933) and Edmund John Milner Allen (1859-1912) -- Pine Valley Golf Course (1910-1918), Pine Valley -- George Arthur Crump (1871-1918) -- Crandall's Knickerbocker Theatre (1917-1922), Washington, DC : Reginald Wycliffe Geare (1889-1927) -- Kempf's Kinetic Sculpture Garden (Est. 1978), Colorado Springs : Starr Gideon Kempf (1917-1995).

"A prize-winning Belgian poet explores the nature of creative endeavor -- the godlike ambition, the crushing defeat of failure -- through the stories of thirteen tragic architects. In thirteen fascinating chapters, Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal to their architects -- architects who either killed themselves or are rumored to have done so. They range across time and space from a church with a twisted spire in seventeenth-century France to a theater that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC, and an eerily sinking swimming pool in the author's hometown. Drawing on a vast range of material, from Hegel and Darwin to art history, stories from her own life, and popular culture, Van den Broeck brings patterns into focus as she asks, What is that strange, life-or-death connection between a creation and its creator? Threaded through each story is the author's meditation on the question of suicide -- what Albert Camus called the "one truly serious philosophical problem" -- in relation to creativity and public disgrace. The result is a profoundly idiosyncratic book, breaking ground in literary nonfiction, as well as providing solace and consolation to anyone who has ever attempted a creative act"--Provided by publisher.

Creative nonfiction

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