13 November 2013
Pigeons have a special relationship with architecture. They observe it from close up and live in its secret crannies. On their journeys, they may dine in magical places like the spires of the Sagrada Família, bathe in the cascades of Fallingwater, the house built over a waterfall by Frank Lloyd Wright, or decide to stop off at the Taj Mahal to admire its breathtaking surroundings. We can see this in Architecture According to Pigeons, a fanciful introduction to the history of the architecture of all time, documented through forty legendary buildings and personally described by the “pigeon elder” Speck Lee Tailfeather (aka the children’s writer Stella Gurney). The selection takes in the great classics (from the Pyramids to the Colosseum) as well as contemporary gems like Tadao Ando’s Church of Light in Osaka or Le Corbusier’s Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut, at Ronchamp. The illustrations, entrusted to the Japanese artist Natsko Seki (her CV includes works for Louis Vuitton, Hermès and the BBC), are a homage to modernist graphics. A masterpiece for children from the age of seven up. Published by Phaidon.
