Totems: Selected Essays on Architecture

By Irenee Scalbert

A collection of essays by London-based architect Ir n e Scalbert.

Totems brings together ten texts by architect, historian, and critic Ir n e Scalbert. Written between 2001 and 2025, they reflect nearly three decades of critical engagement with architecture and its cultural contexts. Ranging in length and register--from concise meditations to extended analytical essays--the collection captures the evolution of Scalbert's thinking as a critic, teacher, and participant in architectural discourse.

Organized thematically into sections on buildings, cities, and the environment, Totems traces a loosely autobiographical arc. Earlier pieces echo Scalbert's formative years in London during a period of architectural ferment are marked by the work of James Stirling and Norman Foster, influential figures from Europe such as Aldo Rossi, as well as his close association with a generation of contemporaries, including Peter St John (Caruso St John Architects), and Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald (6a architects). Later texts expand outward, both geographically and conceptually, as Scalbert brings a speculative and at times personal lens to questions of urbanism, nature, and meaning in contemporary architecture.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3038604623
• ISBN13: 9783038604624
• Release Date: May 2026
• Publisher: Park Publishing (WI)
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.8" x 8.9"