“Architecture has never been more challenged than it is today,” contends Richard Francis-Jones, LFRAIA, Hon. FAIA, RIBA, in his new book Truth and Lies in Architecture (ORO Editions).  Francis-Jones presents provocative essays that journey into the vexed circumstance of contemporary architectural practice.  The nature of the great cultural, social, political, environmental, and consumerist challenges facing the contemporary architect are explored, interpreted, and questioned, while Francis-Jones draws connections from architecture theory, philosophy, science, literature, and cinema to reconnect us to our lost humanity.

“As architects are facing the challenges of environmental sustainability along with class, gender, and racial inequality, architecture itself has never been so marginalised and diminished,” writes Francis-Jones, design director of fjmtstudio.  “The practice of architecture has been progressively desiccated, undermined, and commodified through the instrumental processes of the contemporary development industry and professional practice, together with the simplistic reductionism of media technology and market consumption demand.” 

The author probes how the true nature of architecture could have been so undermined.  This collection of short essays is a series of explorations and excavations into this complex and contradictory territory in an attempt to uncover the depth and nature of the diminishment of contemporary architecture and the tracks that lead us here. 

In his foreword, Kenneth Frampton proclaims: “These essays written by a leading Australian architect represent a level of comprehensive critical awareness rarely found within the architectural profession and one would be hard pressed to find another comparable figure in contemporary architectural practice.  The entire argumentation is impressive, challenging, intellectually at the highest level and beautifully written.”

Truth and Lies in Architecture ORO Editions; Spring 2022; 156 pages; 8.66 in x 5.9 in/22 cm x 15 cm; ISBN: 978-1-954081-65-9; $29.95

Richard Francis-Jones, LFRAIA, Hon. AIA, RIBA, is a highly awarded practicing Australian architect.  He is a graduate of Columbia University, New York, and the University of Sydney, and has taught in many schools of architecture.  He is a life fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.  He is design director of fjmtstudio.