Up on the roof.

ROOFTOP ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING ON AN ELEVATED SURFACE

By Ed Melet and Eric Vreedenburgh. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers. 2005. [euro]35

Many of our best loved cities now rely heavily on tourism and shopping to sustain their historic cores. What were once dynamic, evolving centres for living, working and socialising have been designated conservation areas, where infrastructure, land cost and space considerations have encouraged residential and business functions to occupy out-of-town suburbs and city fringes. What are left are urban museums; beautiful collections of old buildings to look at and shop in. Recent changes in planning legislation have gone some way to encourage mixed-use urban diversity, but at the same time remain largely conservative in stylistic terms.

Rooftop Architecture takes as its premise the notion that 'the addition of a new layer can breathe new life into the contemporary city', and that 'the roof would be an excellent basis for this'. The vision is of an architecturally exciting rooftop landscape, where architects address technical issues of building on the roof with experimental construction methods, and where the resultant increase in density means more residents and thus more need for supporting businesses and services to relocate back to city centres. Stylistically, the book encourages diversity, with examples by Coop Himmelb(l)au and Erick van Egeraat among many others. Reading it is indeed akin to a trip across the rooftops of some radical cityscape.

Rooftop Architecture is certainly enjoyable, with an interesting introductory essay, and numerous inspirational examples of built and unbuilt work. Less certain, however, is who it is aimed at. Is it intended as a wake-up call to planning authorities or as inspiration to architects? In fact, it is both, but at the same time it is a manifesto and office brochure for Archipel Ontwerpers, the architectural firm of co-author Vreedenburgh, whose work is regularly referred to in the third person. Even if Rooftop Architecture raises as many questions as it answers--not least of which is why such an example of pastiche was chosen for the cover--it should be applauded for attempting to creatively engage with real questions about the future of the city.