Totems: Selected Essays on Architecture
Totems: Selected Essays on Architecture
22 April 2026
Time
6.30–8pm
Location
AA Lecture Hall, 36 Bedford Square
Totems: Selected Essays on Architecture brings together ten texts by architect, historian and critic Irénée Scalbert. Written between 2001 and 2025, they reflect nearly three decades of critical engagement with architecture and its cultural contexts. Ranging in length and register – from concise meditations to extended analytical essays – the collection captures the evolution of Scalbert’s thinking as a critic, teacher and participant in architectural discourse.
Organised thematically into sections on buildings, cities and the environment, Totems traces a loosely autobiographical arc. Earlier pieces echo Scalbert’s formative years in London during a period of architectural ferment are marked by the work of James Stirling and Norman Foster, influential figures from Europe such as Aldo Rossi, as well as his close association with a generation of contemporaries including Caruso St John Architects and 6a architects. Later texts expand outward, both geographically and conceptually, as Scalbert brings a speculative and at times personal lens to questions of urbanism, nature and meaning in contemporary architecture.
We are delighted to launch Totems: Selected Essays on Architecture. Irénée Scalbert will briefly introduce the book, with questions moderated by Matthew Blunderfield. The evening will include drinks and a visual presentation.
Launch Price £20 (RRP £25)
Biographies
Irénée Scalbert is an architectural critic and historian based in London. He is the author of A Right to Difference: The Architecture of Jean Renaudie (2004), Never Modern (2013), A Real Living Contact with the Things Themselves (2018) and Totems (2026). From 1989 to 2006, he taught at the AA where he was a member of the editorial board of AA Files for many years. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Politecnico in Milan, Paris-Malaquais, the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, TU Wien, the University of Limerick in Ireland and a Visiting Design Critic at Harvard University (GSD). He resumed teaching at the AA in 2019.
Matthew Blunderfield is an architectural editor and cultural producer with a background in architectural practice. His work focuses on how contemporary architecture is discussed, documented and understood in public, through conversation, research and public programmes. He is the creator and host of Scaffold, the Architecture Foundation's flagship podcast, and leads a postgraduate architecture studio at the Royal College of Art (RCA).
Accessibility
Ramp access to the AA Bookshop at 32 Bedford Square is available on request.