Joseph Rykwert – The Seduction of Place: The History and Future of Cities

The first publication, translated into Polish, by the author professor Joseph Rykwert, world famous art historian and architectural critic, Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. The Seduction of Place is one of the most important of his achievements, and provides a discourse on the history of the relationship between man and the city traced to our contemporary times.

For Rykwert, the phenomenon of the city is a fascinating, intellectual challenge. The concept of the city can be understood not only by its form and daily activities, but also the ideas and values that people associate with it. He views the city from the perspective of how it appears to the human mind and tries to read what the “soul of the city” has to say and also what it conceals. Above all, however, he regards the city as the outcome of human will and activity, conscious and unconscious, and not the result of impersonal efforts or the creativity of rational economic rules of development.

Polish version.