Fear & Space: The View of Young Architects in the Netherlands

Be afraid... be very afraid! A natural disaster could strike at any time, right now someone is being kidnapped, and your morning cereal isn't as healthy as you think. Western society is being terrorized by fear. Every form of risk is ever-present, contagious, and needs to be accounted for or immediately eradicated. This safety and security obsession is leaving behind ever-more-visible traces, especially in public space--speed bumps, smoke-free zones, surveillance cameras. This second book in the Group Portraits series again gathers four groups of young and talented designers around a central theme and, in four chapters, explores the various aspects of fear and prevention while considering their impact on contemporary urban space. Text, photography, research and design alternate in a thought-provoking sequence and enlighten the role that architecture plays, or could potentially play, in the culture of fear.