Ruined Skylines: Aesthetics, Politics and London's Towering Cityscape

Gunter Gassner is Lecturer in Urban Design at the School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, Wales, and an architect. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of critical theory and spatial practices. He specialises in questions about relationships between aesthetics and politics, history and power, and urban visions and visualisations.

List of figures Acknowledgments The new London skyline Conservative representations A tall-building boom Conservatism Ruination Outline of the book Visual and political representativeness The notion of the skyline Form, power, finance, function Political skylines Agency Composition Western views Compositional wholeness Townscape Image Wholeness Sequence Skyline profiles and sky gaps Linear sequence Occupying the line Optical space Aesthetic and speculative value Reframing building height Aestheticising and beautifying The skyline as a monad Open totality History Enshrinement as heritage History as a process Inward history Historical progress The orderly city Meaning Linear and painterly Religion as capitalism Allegories and symbols Baroque folding Resistance Political images Ruination Conservatism A tall-building boom Index