Architecture as Fiction

Good fiction often evokes architecture and the city. The most memorable novels are anchored by a sense of place, whether it is Rebus in Edinburgh or The Great Gatsby in New York.

Architects prove intriguing and forceful fictional protagonists: most notably the insatiably ambitious Howard Roark in Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead and the fanatical modernist Otto Silenus in Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall.

This session of RIBA Book Club will explore the meeting point between fiction and architecture. It features RIBAJ Editor Hugh Pearman in conversation with novelists Shiromi Pinto and Will Wiles, who both seek inspiration from architecture and architectural culture.

Shiromi Pinto’s latest book Plastic Emotions is inspired by the life of Sri Lankan modernist architect Minnette de Silva and her affair with Le Corbusier.

Will Wiles is an architecture and design writer, and a RIBAJ columnist. He is the author of three acclaimed novels, Care of Wooden Floors, The Way Inn and Plume, that all draw on acute architectural and wry personal observation.