The Making of Beaubourg.

This book is a thoroughly entertaining read. Of how many architecture books can one say that?

Written for the layman as much as for the architect, the book is mercifully fre from technical jargon and aesthetic theory. The process of building comes over as a fraught, nerve-wracking, exciting but essentially common-sense activity. I found this an attractive standpoint, but as this is the story of one of the mos inventive and daring buildings ever built I also found it unduly modest.

Architects will notice the complete absence of sketches, details, plans and models. We get only a verbal picture of the process of design and construction of this extraordinary building. But as few non-architects in this country have well developed visual sense it may make it an easier book for the layman. The great joy is that this is no piece of promotion; the process is there, warts an all: the competition assessors' worries, the squabbles over fees, the French desire to use French products, even the marital problems of the architects. Thi gives it all a realism lacking in most architecture books.

There is a wonderful scene at the Elysee Palace where President Pompidou and th French establishment meet the prize-winners in their faded denims and sweat shirts. It is this mixture of an establishment that wanted the best and talente but unknown designers that makes the book so fascinating.

The lesson of the book for laymen is that the process of design and constructio is not some esoteric activity, but is largely comprehensible. The lesson for architects is that to design this well you have first of all to be both brilliant and lucky, and then you have to be prepared for years of hard graft, never for a moment letting go of the things that matter.

JOHN WINTER