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Indefensible Space: The Architecture of the National Insecurity State

By Michael Sorkin

Published by Routledge , October 2007
ISBN-10: 0415953685

Indefensible Space explores is the increasing envelopment of public space and life by an architecture of security/paranoia. From the most literal level, barriers in front of buildings, to more abstract levels, enhanced surveillance of public spaces.

Against the Wall: Israel's Barrier to Peace

By Michael Sorkin (editor), Suad Amiry, Ariella Azoulay, Terry Boullata, Mike Davis, Sari Hanafi, Stephanie Koury, Dean MacCannell, Ruchama Marton, Adi Ophir, Rebecca Solnit, Anita Vitullo, and Eyal Weizmann

Published by New Press , November 2005
ISBN: 1565849647

From the Publisher: Called a "security fence" by the Israeli government and the "apartheid wall" by Palestinians, the barrier currently under construction in the West Bank has been the subject of intense controversy since the first olive tree was uprooted in its path. In violation of a ruling by the International Court of Justice and a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly, the structure juts deep inside Palestinian territory, altering not only the geographical landscape, but the political one as well.
This groundbreaking book includes a collection of outstanding original pieces, along with photographs and maps, that offer a frank critique of the wall from a range of perspectives—legal, historical, architectural, and philosophical. Renowned writer and architect Michael Sorkin has assembled commentary from various international experts, including both Israeli and Palestinian voices. Together they reinforce a view widely held around the world (though not by the government of the United States): Israel's wall can act only as a barrier to future peace.

Analyzing Ambasz

By Michael Sorkin (editor), Jerrilynn Dodds, Peter Hall, Catherine Ingraham, Dean MacCannell, Felicity D. Scott, Lauren Sedofsky, Anthony Vidler, James Wines and Lebbeus Woods

Published by Monacelli Press, June 2004
ISBN: 1580931359

From the Publisher: In this penetrating collection of essays, prominent scholars and architects take up the challenge and set about rigorously "analyzing Ambasz." Anthropologist Dean MacCannell, for example, reconsiders the presence of myth in Ambasz’s work by drawing on the research of Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes in order to understand Ambasz’s mythmaking as something more than merely producing work that has a mystical, spiritual feel. Peter Hall takes another tack, exploring Ambasz’s innovative industrial designs—chairs that mimic the form of the spine or objects that do not reveal themselves as lights or pens until used. The volume concludes with Sorkin’s interview with Ambasz and Emilio, the two sides to the designer’s personality, one visionary and the other pragmatic. Photographs accompany this lively debate, which fills a gap in our understanding of Ambasz’s work


	Starting from Zero - Meditations on Reconstructing New York (Paperback)
	Published by Roultledge, April 2003 ISBN: 0415947375
	From the Publisher: The reconstruction of the World Trade Center's ruins will undoubtedly be one of the most expensive planning and construction efforts in history, and certainly the most publicized event of its kind. And what emerges will have an enormous impact on all New Yorkers. But in assessing the result, the paths that were not considered are just as important as the ones that were. Starting from Zero offers a stirring indictment of the process that did happen - business and politics as usual, mostly - as well as a robust vision of what could have emerged from the Trade Center's destruction if a more democratic planning vision had been pursued.

	The Next Jerusalem - Sharing the Divided City (Paperback)
	Published by Monacelli Press, December 2003 ISBN: 1580931006
	Book Description: In this new collection, Israelim Palestinian, and American architects and urbanists consider the physical future of Jerusalem and offer specific propposals for making the city functional, beautiful, and physically generous to its inhabitants' needs. The essays focus on issues of ecology, preservation, neighborhood development, and open space, rather than on politics per se. While the authors take a variety of approaches, all agree on the necessity of sharing the city amicably. Contributors include Lebbeus Woods, M. Christine Boyer, Samira Haj, Achva Stein, Moshe Safdie, Thom Mayne, Mack Scogin, and Jafar Tukan.

	After the World Trade Center - Rethinking New York City (Hardcover) Edited with Sharon Zukin
	Published by Routledge, April 2002 ISBN: 0415934796
	From the Publisher: The September 11 attacks transformed all of New York City, not just the historic financial district of Lower Manhattan. In After the World Trade Center, the eminent social critics Michael Sorkin and Sharon Zukin call on eighteen of New York's best urbanists to consider the attack and its aftermath in the broadest context. These essays provide a panoramic social portrait of the city at a new crossroads, one that both reflects New York's pre-eminent role as a financial and cultural capital and reveals the fault lines under the last few years of rapid growth. The essays point to a manifesto for a democratically planned New York, where all the city's communities-from Tribeca to Chinatown and Jackson Heights-count.

	Pamphlet Architecture 22: Other Plans: University of Chicago Studies, 1998-2000 (Paperback)
	Published by Princeton Architectural Press, October 2001 ISBN: 1568983093
	From the Publisher: Architect, writer, teacher-and agent provocateur-Michael Sorkin was commissioned by the University of Chicago in 1998 to produce an "alternative" master plan for its architectural revitalization. His studio had barely begun before they were dropped from the process. In the capacity of concerned alumnus, however, Sorkin and his group soldiered on and, in Pamphlet Architecture 22, present their background studies and proposed schemes, shown here in models and colorful drawings.

	Some Assembly Required (Paperback)
	Published by University of Minnesota Press, November 2001 ISBN: 0816634831
	From the Publisher: Michael Sorkin is widely hailed as one of the best architecture critics writing today. Iconoclastic and often controversial, he is a witty, entertaining, yet ultimately serious writer. In this new collection, Sorkin reviews the state of contemporary architecture and surveys the dramatic changes in the urban environment of the past decade. From New York to New Delhi, from Shanghai to Cairo, Sorkin offers a sweeping assessment of the impact of globalization, environmental degradation, electronic media, rapid growth, and the legacies of modernist planning. Whether laying out, manifesto-like, eleven necessary tasks for urban design, providing a fresh take on the Disneyfication of Times Square, grappling with sprawl, or blasting the nostalgic prescriptions of "new urbanist" communities (which he dubs "Reaganville"), Sorkin makes a compelling argument for an architecture and urbanism firmly grounded in both artistic expression and social purpose.Sorkin makes a compelling argument for an architecture and urbanism firmly grounded in both artistic expression and social purpose.

	Giving Ground - The Politics of Propinquity (Paperback) Edited with Joan Copjec
	Published by Verso, January 1999 ISBN: 1859841341
	From the Publisher: The third volume in the S series is prompted by two phenomena whose paradoxical convergence is currently altering our experience and conception of urban relations and, indeed, the very planning of cities. On the one hand, economic, technological, and cultural forces of globalization push toward conditions of homogenization and deterritorialization, while on the other, a surging politics of identity barricades various groups behind particularist claims, and ignites violent persecutions. The covert relation between these phenomena, whereby territory/ground is both disavowed or abstracted and jealously reclaimed, is the focus of the essays in this volume.

	Michael Sorkin Studio: Work in Progress Series (Paperback)
	Published by Monacelli Press, Incorporated ISBN: 1885254253
	From the Publisher: This monograph documents over a decade's worth of projects from this important New York-based firm. Although urban areas are most frequently the subject of the Studio's iconoclastic rejuvenation, an attention to nature and natural form is nonetheless ubiquitous. From the biomorphic Governor's Island proposal to the unabashed representationalism of the Beached Houses, from the luminescent tubers of the Miira installation to the neurological networks of the Neurasia project, the Studio combats the sprawl of automobile-centric urbanism with a decidedly organic vocabulary. In the able hands of the Michael Sorkin Studio, progressive strategies of urban intervention and biological reinjection - as Tokyo's Godzilla and the East New York projects testify - are given innovative architectural form.

	Local Code - The Constitution of a City at 42 Degrees North Latitude (Paperback)
	Published by Princeton Architectural Press, January 1996 ISBN: 1878271792


	Exquisite Corpse - Writing on Buildings (Paperback)
	Published by Verso, September 1994 ISBN: 0860916871


	Variations on a Theme Park: Scenes from the New American City (Paberback)
	Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, December 1991 ISBN: 0374523142


	Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates - Buildings and Projects, 1967-1992 (Hardcover) Edited with Mildred F. Schmertz
	Published by Rizzoli International Publications, May 1992 ISBN: 0847814807
	From the Publisher: This monograph spans Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer's entire history, including their restorations of distinguished older buildings and their designs for distinctive new structures. Detailed descriptions and numerous illustrations accompany the built work, significant unrealized projects, and commissions now in progress. A catalogue of work and a bibliography complete this volume.