Design
Building 'Imaginary Cities'
An upcoming book shows that the architecture of fantasy isn't so far from reality.
Writer Darran Anderson stumbled upon the idea for the book he's writing the way many of us find great ideas: through drunken conversation. It was a few years back, when he was living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Over drinks one day, Anderson started talking to a Finnish architect about their mutual love for architect Antoni Gaudi and the city of Barcelona.
"It suddenly occurred to me, in a city [Phnom Penh] that had been completely emptied within living memory, seen utopias and dystopias, and where the [Tonle Sap] river runs backwards ... the cities we live in are every bit as fascinating as the cities we imagine," Anderson explains in an email.