Trans-Europe Express

Trans-Europe Express

Tours of a Lost Continent

Summary

'A scathing, lively and timely look at the "European city", from one of our most provocative voices on culture and architecture today' Owen Jones

A searching, timely account of the condition of contemporary Europe, told through the landscapes of its cities

Over the past twenty years European cities have become the envy of the world: a Kraftwerk Utopia of historic centres, supermodernist concert halls, imaginative public spaces and futuristic egalitarian housing estates which, interconnected by high-speed trains traversing open borders, have a combination of order and pleasure which is exceptionally unusual elsewhere.

In Trans-Europe Express, Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the European city across the entire continent, to see what exactly makes it so different to the Anglo-Saxon norm - the unplanned, car-centred, developer-oriented spaces common to the US, Ireland, UK and Australia. Attempting to define the European city, Hatherley finds a continent divided both within the EU and outside it.

'The latest heir to Ruskin.' - Boyd Tonkin, Independent

'Hatherley is the most informed, opinionated and acerbic guide you could wish for.' - Hugh Pearman, Sunday Times

'Can one talk yet of vintage Hatherley? Yes, one can. Here are all the properties that have made him one of the most distinctive writers in England - not just 'architectural writers', but writers full stop: acuity, contrariness, observational rigour, frankness and beautifully wrought prose.' - Jonathan Meades

Reviews

  • The latest heir to Ruskin.
    Boyd Tonkin, Independent

About the author

Owen Hatherley

Owen Hatherley writes for Architectural Review, the Guardian and the London Review of Books, among others. He is the author of several books, including Trans-Europe Express and Landscapes of Communism, and is the Culture Editor of Tribune.
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