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This spring, Petra Brouwer will present her recent book 'Narrating the Globe: The Emergence of World Histories of Architecture' (co-edited with Martin Bressani and Christopher Drew Armstrong) at several occasions. Her anthology examines how notions of progress, beauty, and cultural superiority structured the genre of nineteenth-century world histories of architecture, and shaped the discipline as we know it today.

The nineteenth century saw the emergence of a new genre of architectural writing: the grand history of world architecture. This genre often expressed a deeply Eurocentric worldview, largely dismissing non-Western architecture through narratives of historical progress and stylistic beauty. The architectural history canon as it was invented in the nineteenth century, deeply influenced our modern view on the beauty of the built environment, and as such on the preservation and transformation of the historical and contemporary city.

The first presentation will be held at The Berlage Postmaster School for Architecture, Technical University Delft, Friday January 17 from 12:45 onwards. More events to be announced.