ABSTRACT

The relationship between politics and the public relations industry is controversial and, at times, polemic. However, one component of this relationship that has yet to be investigated is the role of architecture. Arguing for a fundamental reconfiguration of our understanding of ‘political architecture’, this book suggests it is not only a question of constructed buildings, but equally a case of mediated imagery.  

Considered through examples of architecture as a backdrop for photo shoots by politicians in the democracies of the United States and the United Kingdom, this book suggests these images give us both a better understanding of recent developments in the Western political economy and the architectural and urban developments of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

Using case studies of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, this book represents a ground-breaking triangular analysis that will be essential reading for scholars in architecture, politics, media and communication studies.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

section I|2 pages

The United States

chapter 1|20 pages

From Lincoln to Obama

The recent history of architecture as political imagery in the United States

chapter 2|26 pages

Visualising sub-prime

The premeditation and financial collapse of the housing market

chapter 3|24 pages

Trump Tower

The neoliberal overflow of political architecture

section II|2 pages

The United Kingdom

chapter |11 pages

The agency of the image