Architecture for Warfare traces how some of the world's largest architecture firms have become war corporations — designing Olympic parks and world-famous buildings while simultaneously constructing military bases, maintaining weaponry, and facilitating armed conflict.
About This Book
The ethical contradictions at the heart of contemporary architectural practice have rarely been examined with this degree of specificity. Ed Wall's research — supported by the Graham Foundation — exposes a particular class of multidisciplinary firm that employs architects alongside former military personnel, contracts that span from invasion to reconstruction, and a professional culture that continues to claim humanitarian purpose. Combining personal narrative with detailed research, the book maps the disturbing overlap between design, planning, and armed conflict, asking what it means for the discipline when the same practice that shapes civic space also trains soldiers and rebuilds governments after war.
Key Features
- 96 pages of personal narrative, firsthand accounts, and research-based analysis on architecture's entanglement with military operations
- Author: Ed Wall
- Research supported by the Graham Foundation
- Published by JOVIS, 2023
What You'll Discover
- How major architecture firms have structured themselves as war corporations, operating across military construction, weapons maintenance, and personnel training
- The internal tensions and contradictions within architecture-led firms that position themselves as forces for positive change while profiting from armed conflict
- The full contractual arc from invasion to reconstruction — how the same firms have been engaged to facilitate military attacks, rebuild war-damaged infrastructure, and establish new governments
- The ethical consequences for architectural practice when design expertise becomes instrumentalised within military and geopolitical operations
About the Author
Ed Wall is the author of Architecture for Warfare, research for which was supported by the Graham Foundation. The book draws on firsthand accounts and sustained investigation into the relationships between architectural practice and armed conflict.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 96
- Dimensions: 18 x 11 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783986122812
- Publisher: JOVIS
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects, urban designers, and students of architectural theory concerned with the ethics of practice, the politics of design commissions, and the relationship between built environments and geopolitical conflict.