Most houses are the product of multiple layers of norms and expectations built up over time, whether through methods, materials, and technologies or social, cultural, economic, and political pressures. Yet at various moments houses have been built that break with the past and do something different–houses that stand outside of these expectations and instead are conceived to embody whole new theories or agendas. We call these ‘manifesto houses.'
Owen Hopkins surveys this compelling thread in the history of architecture. Across twenty-one such manifesto houses, he explores the visions for architecture conjured by Andrea Palladio, Eileen Gray, Frank Lloyd Wright, Harry Seidler, Lina Bo Bardi, Anupama Kundoo, and Sou Fujimoto, among others. Identifying seven characteristics of the Manifesto House, he explores the ideas and ambitions embodied in each house, the contexts that shaped them, and their impact and influence on the future of architecture.
Owen Hopkins is an architectural writer, historian, and curator, living in London. His most recent book is The Manifesto House: Buildings That Changed the Future of Architecture (Yale University Press). He is the author of The Brutalists (Phaidon, 2023), Postmodern Architecture: Less Is A Bore (Phaidon, 2020), Postmodern London Map (Blue Crow Media, 2022), Reading Architecture (Lawrence King Publishing, 2023), and The Museum (Francis Lincoln, 2021). Hopkins was co-curator of the British Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.
A book signing follows the presentation.
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