Archinect - News

Geoff Manaugh's "A Burglar's Guide to the City" headed to TV

2016-10-04T19:31:00-04:00

CBS has given a put pilot commitment to "A Burglar's Guide to the City," a television series based off the book by BLDGBLOG founder Geoff Manaugh, who interviewed former bank robbers like Joe Loya to explore the role of architecture in crime, and the corresponding shifts in privacy in both the physical and virtual realms. An article by Deadline describes the thrust of the series thusly:

"Written by Grellong, A Burglar’s Guide to the City centers on a team of modern-day Robin Hoods, led by a brilliant architect with a troubled past. They use their unique skills to gain access to any stronghold in order to steal from rich criminals and give to those who have been wronged by a corrupt system."

Listen to our conversation with Geoff about the book, recorded earlier this year:

For more on the intersection between architecture and Hollywood:

Casing the joint: Geoff Manaugh discusses his latest book, "A Burglar's Guide to the City" on One-to-One #26

2016-06-06T14:19:00-04:00

Writer and BLDGBLOG founder Geoff Manaugh's latest book, A Burglar's Guide to the City, isn't just a set of case studies on bank vaults and getaway routes—it's a dialectic for public and private space. It’s definitely the first book I’ve come across classified jointly under “architecture” and “true crime”, and it's full of fascinating insights into how burglars exploit architecture to pull off the perfect crime, as well as the extent architects go to prevent that from happening.

Geoff spoke with me about the research behind the book, and how a personal experience with burglary changed his ideas about privacy in architecture. For more podcasting with Geoff, check out our conversation about autonomous vehicles on Archinect Sessions #43.

Listen to One-to-One #26 with Geoff Manaugh:

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The architecture of burglary is increasingly virtual

2016-03-31T18:29:00-04:00

Buildings and burglars are intertwined in the mind of Mr. Manaugh, whose nonfiction book arrives Tuesday from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Fascinated by bandits who smash through walls, crawl up air ducts and tunnel through floors, the author wanted to explore their singular approach to architecture as a force to be abused, outsmarted and escaped.

In an era of cybercrime, do burglars miss the architectural beauty of the traditional brick and mortar break-in? Well, yeah, according to author Geoff Manaugh. In an era where break-ins are more about clearing digital walls and hacking into people's identities than using diamond-tipped drills to penetrate hidden vaults, the bad old-fashioned vocation of physical burglary is the latest casualty of digital disruption. Ironically, many of the contemporary light-fingered must now worry about carpal-tunnel syndrome.

For more on the intersection of crime and architecture:

Examining the spatial crime of burglary

2015-08-12T19:50:00-04:00

Burglary is a spatial crime: its very definition requires architecture...Indeed, burglary's architectural interest comes not from its ubiquity, but from its unexpected, often surprisingly subtle misuse of the built environment. Burglars approach buildings differently, often seeking modes of entry other than doors and approaching buildings—whole cites—as if they're puzzles waiting to be solved or beaten.